Drew DeVoursney, 36, and Francesca Matus, 52, were found dead in Belize on Sunday. 
 
 A retired Marine from Georgia and his Canadian girlfriend were reportedly found dead by a search party in Belize, a week after the couple went missing. 
 
 Drew DeVoursney, 36, and Francesca Matus, 52, were last seen at a bar in the coastal town of Corozal on April 25 but the couple never made it home. Matus was slated to leave the Central American country on Friday but she failed to make her return flight to Toronto. 
 
 DeVoursney was expected back in Atlanta this week, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 
 
 Matus’ car was found in a sugarcane field about 10 miles from the bar, the Journal-Constitution reported on Sunday. 
 
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 “He’s been having a really good time down there, having a vacation,” Drew’s brother David DeVoursney told the Journal—Constitution. “He was looking forward to coming back to Georgia.” 
 
 The couple had been dating for at least two months before they vanished. 
 
 David DeVoursney declined to speak further when reached on the phone late Monday. 
 
 A family friend who set up a GoFundMe to help find DeVoursney said he enlisted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks served at least two tours in Iraq. 
 
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 “Drew is no longer with us. Someone had killed a United States Marine, my brother in arms, who survived Fallujah, Iraq and Afghanistan,” wrote Brandon Barfield, before quoting a variation of the Dylan Thomas poem “Do not go gentle into that good night.” 
 
 It’s unclear how the couple died and police have not stated whether foul play is suspected. 
 
 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| (CNN) The killing in Belize of a US Marine Corps veteran and his Canadian girlfriend has left their friends and families struggling with an awful question: How could this happen? 
 
 So far, there has been no answer. 
 
 American Drew DeVoursney, 36, and Canadian Francesca Matus, 52, had been dating for several months when they went missing on April 25. 
 
 The couple was last seen at a popular oceanfront hangout -- Scotty's Bar and Grill in picturesque Corozal -- just a few miles south of the Mexican border. Matus, a realtor from Toronto who spent winters in tropical Belize, was scheduled to fly home the following day. DeVoursney was to return to the US a few days later. 
 
 But when a friend arrived the next morning to take Matus to the airport, he found her house locked -- and neither she nor DeVoursney could be found. 
 
 Grim discovery ends search 
 
 Volunteers and police combed the area after the friend reported the couple missing, but it wasn't until April 30 that Matus' white SUV was found about five miles from the bar. A day later, on Monday, their bodies were discovered about seven miles from the vehicle, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation. 
 
 The couple had been strangled, their bodies dumped in a sugar cane field. The news was devastating to family and friends who had been desperately hoping the pair would be found alive. 
 
 "It's heart-wrenching and it's a roller coaster of emotions right now. I've never dealt with something like this in my life. It's horrible," said Nancy Rifenbark, a close friend of Matus. 
 
 "He was the greatest guy you'll ever meet," said DeVoursney's friend Brandon Barfield. The two men served together in Iraq. DeVoursney served two tours of Iraq as a Marine, and went to Afghanistan as a military contractor. "This is a true American," said Barfield. 
 
 Source: Duct tape found on couple's wrists 
 
 The law enforcement source said there was duct tape found on the couple's wrists but they were not bound together. After five days in the elements, the bodies were badly decomposed. Autopsies showed they died of manual strangulation -- and had blunt force trauma and broken bones in their necks. 
 
 The source said police are questioning two ex-pats who live near Matus because they were rumored to have had problems with the pair -- but police have not named them as suspects. Robbery is considered the most likely motive. 
 
 Neither Matus nor DeVoursney had wallets or ID with them when they were found -- but Matus' jewelry had not been taken. Rifenbark said the couple got along well with their neighbors and to her knowledge had no enemies. 
 
 Police resources stretched thin 
 
 While local police continue to investigate, Barfield is also looking for answers. He set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to help pay for a private investigator. By Wednesday, Barfield had already raised more than $8,000, and is hoping to raise $20,000. 
 
 While the US State Department reports crime in Belize is high, conviction rates are not. 
 
 "The majority of crimes remain unresolved and unprosecuted. A lack of capacity, resources, and training impedes the ability of local police to effectively investigate crime and apprehend serious offenders," according to the State Department's website. 
 
 "It's definitely not like the system in the US," said Rifenbark. 
 
 "It would be more comforting if there were officials from Canada and the US working on (the case) but I understand it's out of their jurisdiction," she said. 
 
 Tropical home away from home 
 
 Rifenbark was one of the last people to see the pair alive. She was at Scotty's bar the night they went missing. She said Matus was emotional that night -- sad to leave Belize, but excited to see her family back home. Matus owned a bayfront home north of Corozal. She spent time in Belize every winter to relax and take care of her property. 
 
 DeVoursney also owned property in Belize. His was an empty plot of land he bought with Barfield in 2010 with the money they had saved after getting out of the Marine Corps. 
 
 Neither had any connection to the country, but were lured there by what it had to offer. "Great diving, great fishing ... and by the way, it's English-speaking," said Barfield. 
 
 Plans for the property were always changing. Barfield said he and DeVoursney considered building a small B&B, or a bar, or perhaps running a scuba diving or fishing outfit. 
 
 The couple's families are now working with the US and Canadian officials to bring their bodies back for burial. ||||| Police in Belize were questioning “a few people” Wednesday in connection with the strangulation deaths of a Canadian woman and her American boyfriend but no arrests have been made yet. 
 
 The bodies of Francesca Matus, 52, of Toronto, and Drew DeVoursney, 36, from Georgia, were found Monday afternoon in a sugar cane field in the country’s Corozal district. 
 
 Police said on Tuesday that both had died of strangulation and that DeVoursney’s body was found on top of Matus’s body and that both were in an “advanced state of decomposition.” 
 
 David DeVoursney, who is in Belize to bring his brother’s body back to the United States, told The Canadian Press that police have had “a few persons of interest in for questioning” in connection with the murders, but added there have been “no arrests so far.” 
 
 Matus and DeVoursney had been missing since last Tuesday when they were last seen leaving a local bar around 11 p.m. Dozens of Canadian and American expats were involved in the search, scouring the beaches, waterways and the bush. 
 
 On Sunday afternoon, Matus’s car was found in a sugar cane field about 15 kilometres from the bar. 
 
 Belize police Det. Zamir Noh said the bodies were discovered late Monday afternoon in another field “nowhere close to the truck.” Police said autopsies conducted on Tuesday revealed how the pair died. 
 
 Matus was scheduled to return to Canada last Wednesday, but when her friend, Joe Milholen, arrived at her house to take her to the airport, her car was gone and the house locked up. Milholen said he later found her packed suitcases, passport and travelling money inside the house. 
 
 Matus grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and moved to Toronto after college and became a mortgage broker, which she still did for half of the year. She loved the water and boating in Belize, she said. 
 
 “She was 52 in a 35-year-old body,” Pucci said. “She really was such a beautiful person — both inside and out — and she did not deserve this. Nobody does.” 
 
 Pucci didn’t know much about Matus’s relationship with DeVoursney, but said she appeared to be happy. 
 
 In Georgia, DeVoursney’s mother, Char, said she learned about her son’s death from the U.S. embassy in Belize. They told her the pair had been murdered and found with duct tape around their wrists, she said. 
 
 “I’m not able to really do anything, kind of just sit and think and cry and that’s all I’m capable of at the moment,” she said. 
 
 Her other son, David, was at the Atlanta airport Tuesday morning with DeVoursney’s best friend, Brandon Barfield, waiting to board a flight to Belize. 
 
 “He’s going to go bring my boy home,” Char DeVoursney said through tears. 
 
 Drew DeVoursney was a big man with a big heart and a big smile, his mother said. The six-foot-six former marine had overcome post-traumatic stress disorder while serving two tours in Iraq, she said. 
 
 About four years ago, he bought a piece of property with Barfield in Belize — with nothing on it — and went down in December with the idea of starting his own dive company, his mother said. 
 
 “He’s a real adventure boy, that’s what I call him, my adventure boy because he’s done so many different things,” Char DeVoursney said. 
 
 Drew DeVoursney went to college in North Carolina on a soccer and academic scholarship, but never finished. 
 
 “Then 9/11 happened and he went straight into the marines,” she said. 
 
 He ended up going to Afghanistan for two years after he left the marines as a contractor to help soldiers learn how to use technology on the battlefield. 
 
 “I’ve dreaded news of his death, but that was when he was in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Char DeVoursney said as she sniffled. 
 
 She said her son was having trouble getting work in Belize, so he decided to return home. 
 
 “He was supposed to come home next week and was signed to start school with his brother where he was going to learn to operate heavy machinery,” she said. “Now he’s coming home in a way I’ve always dreaded.” 
 
 Report Typo/Error ||||| Francesca Matus was living her dream. The 52-year-old mother of two had always wanted a warm, sunny place to escape to during the Canadian winters, and after establishing herself as a successful property manager in Toronto, she found a retreat in the tropical Central American nation of Belize. 
 
 Francesca Matus, 52, of Toronto and her American boyfriend Drew DeVoursney, 36, were last seen driving away from a bar, headed for Matus’s house. They were found Monday afternoon in a sugar cane field in the Corozal district. ( Joe Milholen ) 
 
 “That’s just what Francesca was — she was someone who was very simple and living her dream,” Matus’s real estate mentor and friend Robert Di Matteo told the Star on Tuesday. “Not over the top, not extravagant in terms of her lifestyle, just a very simple life … Belize is where she wanted to be.” But that dream turned into a nightmare for Matus’s friends and family when she and her American boyfriend, 36-year-old Drew DeVoursney, disappeared after leaving a bar in the northern Belizean town of Corozal on April 25. Police found their bodies in a sugar cane field Monday, a day after finding Matus’s car, abandoned, about 15 kilometres from the bar. The couple had been strangled, according to police. DeVoursney’s body was on top of Matus’s, their wrists were duct-taped, and both were in an “advanced state of decomposition.” 
 
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 Matus had been scheduled to fly home the day after she disappeared. A friend who was supposed to drive her to the airport found her house locked, with her packed suitcases, passport and money still inside. 
 
 Francesca Matus and Drew De Voursney had been dating for a few months before they were last seen last Tuesday night leaving a bar. ( JOE MILHOLEN ) 
 
 The news has been “absolutely devastating,” Matus’s friend Nikki-Monique Kurnath said Tuesday. The two met about a year and a half ago, she said, and became instant best friends; although Matus was about a decade older, she exuded a youthful energy, loved going out and was “happy, positive, care-free.” “She was the person that would make you smile when you had a cruddy day, she would be the sunshine… She was the love and light of a cloudy day,” Kurnath said. “We’re not going to see that smile again in person, and we’re not going to feel that energy, having her hold us and kiss us and calling us ‘bella,’ and having her tell us that she loved us. That’s the hardest thing.” Originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Matus most recently lived in Keswick, Ont., but owned several properties in Toronto. She began travelling to Belize four years ago, Kurnath said, living there from December to April and managing her Toronto properties remotely. She had never run into problems before, Kurnath said. 
 
 “She never flashed her (wealth), she wasn’t like that,” she said. “She had everything planned and she was very organized. There was no cause for alarm prior to this.” Di Matteo, who’d known Matus for eight years, said the same; there had never been any signs of trouble. 
 
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 “She only said really good things about Belize. She loved it there,” he said. “She loved the bay, she loved lying in her hammock, she loved the spirit and the energy that it brought.” Di Matteo last heard from Matus April 24, when she sent him a message saying she was flying home Wednesday and would pick up her keys from his office Thursday. She ended the message with her usual upbeat sign-off: “Positive vibes.” It wasn’t until Thursday night, when another friend of Matus’s called, that Di Matteo realized something was wrong. “She said, ‘Francesca didn’t get on the plane,’ ” Di Matteo recalled, his voice breaking. “And that’s when our world went for a tailspin.” Matus’s twin sons, 22, her mother and brother have gathered in Toronto and are “coping” with her death, he added. Family spokesperson Ivana Pucci, Matus’s second cousin, described her as “52 in a 35-year-old body.” “She really was such a beautiful person — both inside and out — and she did not deserve this,” Pucci said. “Nobody does.” Matus owned multiple properties around Toronto, including a four-storey semi-detached house on Woodbine Ave. In an email, Global Affairs spokesperson Austin Jean confirmed the death of a Canadian in Belize but did not provide further details. “Our thoughts are with the loved ones of the Canadian citizen who passed away in Belize,” Jean wrote. “Consular services are being provided to the family during this difficult time. Canadian consular officials continue to liaise with local authorities to gather additional information.” The U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs spokesperson said the bureau was “aware of reports” that a U.S. citizen had died in Belize but could not provide further comment. In Georgia, DeVoursney’s mother, Char, said she learned about her son’s death from the U.S. embassy in Belize. They told her the pair had been murdered and found with duct tape around their wrists, she said. 
 
 Francesca Matus, right, with friend Nikki-Monique Kurnath in an undated photo. Matus, 52, and her boyfriend, 36-year-old American Drew DeVoursney, were found murdered in Belize on May 1. Kurnath said Matus was "happy, positive, carefree. 
 
 “I’m not able to really do anything, kind of just sit and think and cry and that’s all I’m capable of at the moment,” she said. Her other son, David, was at the Atlanta airport Tuesday morning with DeVoursney’s best friend, Brandon Barfield, waiting to board a flight to Belize. “He’s going to go bring my boy home,” Char DeVoursney said through tears. Drew DeVoursney was a big man with a big heart and a big smile, his mother said. The 6’6 former marine had overcome post-traumatic stress disorder while serving two tours in Iraq, she said. About four years ago, he bought a piece of property with Barfield in Belize — with nothing on it — and went down in December with the idea of starting his own dive company, his mother said. “He’s a real adventure boy, that’s what I call him, my adventure boy because he’s done so many different things,” Char DeVoursney said. He ended up going to Afghanistan for two years after he left the marines as a contractor to help soldiers learn how to use technology on the battlefield. “I’ve dreaded news of his death, but that was when he was in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Char DeVoursney said through tears. “Now he’s coming home in a way I’ve always dreaded.” Correction – May 4, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Robert Di Matteo’s surname. With files from The Canadian Press, Ellen Brait and Peter Goffin
– Grim news from Belize: Searchers say they have found the bodies of missing Canadian woman Francesca Matus and her American boyfriend, Drew DeVoursney. According to Breaking Belize News, the bodies were found Monday evening in Corozal District, near the border with Mexico. "They were both found ... they are dead," says Nancy Rifenbark, a friend who joined a search party, per Global News. Matus' vehicle was found abandoned in a sugarcane field on Sunday around 15 miles from where they were last seen leaving a bar last Tuesday night. It isn't clear how the couple died, though foul play is widely suspected. Matus, 52, who spent winters in the Central American country, was supposed to fly back to Canada last Wednesday, the CBC reports. DeVoursney, a 36-year-old former Marine who had been with Matus for a few months, was scheduled to return to Georgia this week. "Drew is no longer with us. Someone had killed a United States Marine, my brother in arms, who survived Fallujah, Iraq, and Afghanistan," said friend Brandon Barfield, per the New York Daily News. Barfield says DeVoursney signed up after the 9/11 attacks and served two tours in Iraq. Police have not released any official comment on the deaths.