In June, Brian Tarrence of New York and his wife, Maria, decided to head to the Caribbean to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. They chose Turks & Caicos as their destination and opted to stay in Grace Bay, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. From the outside, everything seemed to be going well. On June 25, the couple took a boat ride and went out to dinner. That night, Maria says she went to bed, but when she woke up, Brian was gone.
Maria hired a private investigator to look for her husband, and that investigator, Carl Defazio, found surveillance video of Brian leaving the property around 3:40 a.m. He was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt and had his phone and wallet with him. He appeared to be headed toward a small downtown area, and he hasn’t used any of his credit cards since his disappearance. Last week, Defazio told Fox News Digital that he’s trying to get records of Brian’s phone activity since arriving on the island, hoping it would lead to clues.
“They seemed to be having a normal couple days, and he ended up walking out of his condo, which is in a very safe place and in the middle of Grace Bay Road,” the investigator said. “And we have him on camera, and he walks into town, and then he basically disappears, and we haven’t heard from him since.”
However, Maria did tell Defazio that Brian was acting “a little bit different than he normally is” and that his speech was unusual. She chalked it up to dehydration.
Brian’s brother reportedly posted online that he thought Brian was drunk at the time.
As you can imagine, the area has limited resources when it comes to law enforcement. The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RT&CIPF) asked for the public’s help with finding Brian.
A spokesperson for the State Department told NBC that it was aware of the situation and that “The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad. We stand ready to provide consular assistance to U.S. citizens in need and their families.”
Related: State Department Warns About Travel to This Popular Destination
Over the weekend, police reported that “the body of a deceased male in a decomposed state” was found in a ditch in Grace Bay. Local police have offered their condolences to the family of the deceased, but they have not yet identified the body and have asked the public not to jump to conclusions and assume it’s Brian. About 24 hours later, the RT&CIPF announced that it was investigating the finding of the body as a suspected homicide.
Again, the body has not been identified yet, but the timing is awfully suspect. However, Defazio believes that if something criminal had happened to Brian, the person who did it would have tried using his cards to make purchases by now.
As of right now, the story remains quite a mystery, and the internet is ripe with conspiracy theories, ranging from Brian, who is the vice president of a software company, chose to disappear and the body found is unrelated to the body is his and maybe he went out in search of drugs or simply went for a walk and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s also the thought that maybe he was just out for a walk and got hit by a car. (Having been a passenger in a car in Turks & Caicos with a local driver on more than one occasion, I can buy that one. The roads are a battlefield.)
While Turks & Caicos has largely been considered a safe tourist destination, back in March, the State Department suggested that travelers should “exercise increased caution” while visiting. It’s also worth noting that earlier this year, a woman from Illinois was shot and killed while vacationing there. It’s believed she was not the intended target.
Whatever happened to Brian, we hope he turns up and is reunited with his wife and other loved ones.
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