A desperate search is underway for a New York couple who vacationed to the Caribbean, then vanished without a trace with no sign of them for almost two weeks now, NBC New York reported.
Now their family and friends are growing increasingly worried.
Orlando Moore and his girlfriend, Portia Ravenelle, were supposed to return home to Mount Vernon on March 27 after flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport four days earlier for a getaway to the Dominican Republic. Concerned relatives say there has been no sign of the missing couple.
“This is definitely not my brother,” Moore’s sister Lashay Turner told the station. “He’s not going to run off on a hiatus and don’t tell his family and his daughter. I’m scared, I don’t know what’s going on.”
Relatives said there have been no sightings of the couple and their car is still parked at the airport. Turner said she reached out to customs officials in the DR, who told her that Moore and Ravenelle never made it to their return flight.
“We also spoke to someone in U.S. Customs and they said my brother did not make his flight back here,” she said.
A photo posted to social media showed the couple enjoying a horseback ride on the beach during their trip. According to Turner, her brother and Ravenelle had rented a car to travel the island, but there’s been no sign of the vehicle.
Investigators confirmed the couple had checked out of the Grand Bahia Principe Cayacoa hotel in Samana, but what occurred next is still unknown. The pair’s family members said they don’t want to speculate what may have happened to the lovebirds, but said they are growing desperate for answers.
“When these things happen, you always think of the worst, but we are hoping for the best,” Edith Walters, Moore’s grandmother, told the outlet.
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