American tourist vanishes in tropical paradise after early morning walk from vacation rental
Brian Tarrence, 51, was last seen leaving his condo around 3:30 a.m. at the Paradise Inn in Grace Bay, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, according to a missing persons flyer from the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.
"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 Tarrence family's private investigator, Carl DeFazio, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. "And we have him on camera, and he walks into town, and then he basically disappears, and we haven't heard from him since."
Tarrence, who recently moved from Monroe to Manhattan, arrived in Turks and Caicos with his wife of one year on June 22, and they planned to leave on June 29.
DeFazio said the Turks and Caicos police force is using every resource it has, including drone technology and CCTV to try and locate the 51-year-old man. He also described Grace Bay Road as a "very safe" area.
"So far, we haven't been successful in anything, but we're not giving up hope. … What I tell the family … in cases like this: Stay positive until you have a reason not to be," DeFazio, a former NYPD officer and Marine who has been a PI since the 1990s, said. "He's a smart guy. … We don't know what's in his mind or if he did this on his own or if somebody took him in."
"It's the No. 1 case right now. Everyone's looking for him."
He left his rental with his phone and wallet. He was wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, DeFazio said.
The private investigator has been working to get records of Tarrence's phone activity on the islands, but it's taking time, he said.
The day before his disappearance, he and his wife had gone on a boat trip. That evening, his wife went to bed, and when she woke up, he was gone. She hadn't noticed he left, DeFazio said.
The PI added that he is "very proud of the response from the local businesses and people on vacation" who have been offering their assistance after he posted Tarrance's missing persons flyer "everywhere in Turks and Caicos."
He added that he has no reason to suspect any kind of criminality in Tarrence's disappearance at this point, but anything is possible with so few answers six days after he vanished.
DeFazio said that in missing persons cases like this one, he typically tries to establish a behavior pattern, trying to hone in on activities the missing person likes and does not like to do. He also tries to determine how familiar the missing person is with the area he or she vanished from and what he or she frequented in that area.
Then, he canvases the area where the person disappeared and tries to track down phone and smartwatch records to track the person's last known movements.
Turks and Caicos police are asking anyone with information about Tarrence's disappearance to contact 911 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477.
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