Missing Canadian woman's car found abandoned in Belize

The mysterious disappearance of a Toronto woman who vanished with her American boyfriend in Belize last week deepened on Sunday when her car was found abandoned in a cane field near the village of Paraiso, in the northern district of Corozal.

Francesca Matus, 52, and Drew DeVoursney, 36, were last seen driving the Isuzu Rodeo after leaving a nearby bar around 11 p.m. on April 25, police in the small Central American nation said.

The car was found around 1:20 p.m. local time.

"There was no person in the vehicle," said an officer with the Belize Police Department, who did not give his name.

"That is all the information we can give at this time," he said.

Joe Rifenbark, a friend of the missing couple, could not say what the discovery might mean when contacted at his home in Belize.

"We're aware of that, but the information wasn't really supposed to be publicized," said Rifenbark, whose mother, Nancy Rifenbark, was with the couple at Scotty's Bar the night they went missing.

Joe Rifenbark said police were processing the white SUV Sunday afternoon.

Toronto Star