Missing Travelers Apparently Found
By MIKE SCHNEIDER, AP
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP), The three buddies came to Florida for a week of fun in the
sun. They rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle, stocked their timeshare with $200 in food and
drink and then vanished without a trace.
For months, their families back in Attleboro, Mass., wondered if the men were
still alive, and set up a Web site seeking information. Psychics who contacted the
families claimed the men had died in the Florida wilderness.
Now it turns out the three apparently misjudged a tricky turn at Celebration,
the planned community built by Disney about 20 miles from Orlando.
On Monday, nine months after the vacationers disappeared, divers found three
bodies and the men's vehicle in a pond. The mud-filled vehicle was upside-down in 16 feet
of water about 125 feet from the road. None of the men was wearing seatbelts.
A preliminary examination of the bodies showed no blunt trauma, broken bones or
any other indication of foul play, the medical examiner said Tuesday.
The medical examiner awaited dental records Tuesday from Massachusetts to
confirm whether the bodies were those of Scott Renquin, 35, Dan Nelson, 32, and Roger
DesVergnes, 31. ``We are partially relieved, but mostly sad,'' said Julie Renquin,
Renquin's sister-in-law. ``Now we are finally starting to mourn.''
In the past few months, almost a half-dozen cars have ended up in the pond.
Drivers who miss the stop sign at the end of World Drive, where the speed limit is 35 mph,
and fail to turn left on Celebration Boulevard can end up in the pond.
``We're treating it as a single-car crash,'' said Lt. Chuck Williams, spokesman
for the Florida Highway Patrol. ``There's no evidence that another car was involved and
there is no evidence there was foul play.''
Investigators decided to look for the missing men in the pond because of the
number of vehicles that have ended up there. The Celebration Co., the Disney
subsidiary that manages the town, has since built a wall at the intersection. It will
serve as an entrance marker and also prevent cars from going into the water. The
men's families became concerned when they did not return home from their vacation as
scheduled on Oct. 2.
The discovery of the bodies came after a long search by Orlando-area police and
an Internet and TV campaign to learn the men's fate.
In Attleboro, Roger DesVergnes' friends and family gathered at his parents'
house to recall a man who had been working with heavy equipment since he was 9, eventually
taking over his father's excavating business.
DesVergnes' father, also named Roger DesVergnes, said he was relieved finally to
know what happened.
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