Yarmouth, Mass. - The mystery behind the two-week disappearance of two MSU students was solved Saturday as the couple was discovered in Orlando, Fla., the city where they met nearly five years ago.
But the reason for disconnecting from their families and friends continues to puzzle those concerned. The two refuse to explain their action or say whether they plan to return.
The couple, Justin Gouveia, 21, of Lowell, Mass., and Danela Alfaro-Lopez, 19, of Dearborn, were not seen or heard from for two weeks after abruptly leaving a Cape Cod bed and breakfast July 26.
"I have no explanation whatsoever. I have no idea why he would do it," said Joseph Gouveia, Justin's father. "Knowing my son ... I didn't think this would ever be possible."
The couple were supposed to stay two nights at a bed and breakfast, Blueberry Manor in Yarmouthport, Mass., and then drive to Maine to meet Gouveia's parents to spend the rest of the week at a cottage in Boothbay Harbor.
Instead, the students left Yarmouthport after staying only one night, never making it to Maine, and Alfaro-Lopez did not return home on her Aug. 3 flight back to Detroit.
After days without hearing from their children and no cell phone or credit card activity from either student, the parents' concern grew, so they reported Gouveia and Alfaro-Lopez missing.
More than five police agencies between Massachusetts and Michigan began investigating the disappearance.
A nationwide bulletin was sent out to police with the description of Gouveia's car. Officers searched computer files and belongings of Gouveia and Alfaro-Lopez, looking for clues as to what might have happened to them.
Families and police continued to worry as the couple remained missing as tips and leads from across the county never panned out.
Parents of both students appeared on national morning shows in hope someone would see a picture of their children and call police. The media coverage led to tips from throughout the country.
The disappearance of the couple baffled family and friends who describe the couple as responsible and their disappearance "out of character."
Gouveia family friend Dan Takesian said he never believed Justin would choose to disappear.
"He's a good kid, definitely not the type of kid to just drop out of sight," Takesian said.
Beantown and beyond
After saying goodbye to his mother July 25, Justin Gouveia headed about 30 miles from his Lowell hometown to pick up Alfaro-Lopez at Logan International Airport in Boston. They had intended to spend the day in Boston, visiting the Museum of Science and a Red Sox baseball game, said Leanne Gouveia, Justin's mother.
Before the game, they drove to Cape Cod to check into their room at the bed and breakfast at about 2 p.m. The innkeepers said they left about 5 p.m. for the game, but left in the seventh inning, returning to Cape Cod around midnight.
The next morning, as innkeeper Victoria Schuh was preparing breakfast, she saw Gouveia and Alfaro-Lopez drive off and wondered if they were coming back. They still had one more night reserved at the bed and breakfast.
Gouveia and Alfaro-Lopez never returned and had no contact with family members until Saturday.
Searching for hope
Huddled beneath a blue rain tarp, more than 70 family members and friends gathered Saturday in a Yarmouth parking lot in an attempt to blanket Cape Cod with fliers of the missing students. People wore yellow ribbons and T-shirts that bore a picture of the couple, a description of the car and the word "Missing."
Leanne Gouveia anxiously passed out stacks of fliers and set up boxes of snacks and water for those helping out.
John Gianino, a chaplain and family friend, held a short prayer vigil as people grouped up, gathered maps and posters and prepared to head out to their assigned posting destinations throughout the Cape.
Less than an hour after groups dispersed, Joseph Gouveia was conducting a television interview when his cell phone rang. On the other line was a private detective on the case, informing Gouveia that his son and Alfaro-Lopez were alive and well staying at an Orlando-area hotel.
He shouted to those around that the couple had been found and then immediately was brought to tears. His wife, Leanne Gouveia, began screaming and shaking, tugging on her husband's arm, asking where her son was found.
"Is he OK? Are they alive?" she asked.
When she learned their son and his girlfriend were safe, she buried her head in her husband's arms, crying.
She then frantically called family members back to the meeting place, still overcome with emotion.
"My knees are shaking. I just have this huge weight lifted off me," she said. "This is all we wanted."
The phone call provided relief for the parents, who have had endured nearly two weeks of sleepless nights, and family and friends - some of which had begun to lose hope.
"For the last week and a half, I was thinking the worst since they hadn't found the car," said Joyce Normand, Justin's grandmother. "I didn't want to pass that on to my daughter. I just tried to remain focused and strong.
"This is beyond what I ever expected and I am so happy."
While running routine checks on out-of-state license plates, police in Orange County, Fla., checked the plate of Gouveia's car. The check triggered an alert on the computer systems of the Lowell Police Department, which confirmed the sighting.
Gouveia's parents spoke briefly with their son and said they are not sure if their son and Alfaro-Lopez intend to come home.
Leanne Gouveia told her son she loved him and offered to send money, if he needed it.
"You've done nothing wrong, Justin, there's just a lot of people concerned for you," she said. "I love you. You're not in trouble, you or Danela."
She hung up the phone and took a deep breath. "We just know they're OK and that's fine."
When Joseph Gouveia spoke with his son, he described Justin as sounding "very confused."
"You don't have to come home, Justin. You come home when you're ready. Call me when you're ready," Joseph Gouveia said to his son. "Don't think you hurt us. You didn't hurt us. We just had to know what was happening. You just scared us that's all."
Orange County police spoke with Gouveia and Alfaro-Lopez in person and told the students about the extensive search efforts their parents were conducting.
The students seemed upset when they heard, but they said their parents would not have given them permission to take the trip, said Sgt. Steve Chandler with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
Private detective Rob Long, who delivered the good news to Justin's father, was hired by Normand's employer, Lycos, to assist in the case.
"A lot of times, I have to deliver sad news, telling someone news like this is nice and refreshing," Long said.
Love and distance
Gouveia and Alfaro-Lopez met five years ago while both of their families were vacationing at the same time-share resort. While swimming in the pool one day, the students met and struck up a friendship, Leanne Gouveia said. Beginning as a friendship through e-mail and online instant messaging, the pair eventually formed a long-distance romantic relationship.
"They talked every night on the phone. He would sit and watch TV and she would do the same and they would talk about it on the phone," Leanne Gouveia said.
Justin Gouveia originally attended the University of Massachusetts-Amherst but transferred to MSU two years ago to be with Alfaro-Lopez for her freshman year.
"It wasn't a bad move, just a far away move," she said. "My son was in love with her. We've never told him he couldn't do anything."
Gouveia, a senior, and Alfaro-Lopez, entering her junior year, are both political science and pre-law students, dating for almost five years. The couple last saw each other in May when they both left MSU to return home for the summer.
Marketing junior Melis Mandel lived down the hall from Alfaro-Lopez and remembers seeing the couple always together.
"They were really sweet. It seemed like they really loved each other," she said. "They always said 'I love you.'"
Manor and manners
Nestled between thick tall trees, the Blueberry Manor bed and breakfast is where Gouveia and Alfaro-Lopez stayed in Yarmouthport, Mass., on Cape Cod. Inside the large white house, built in 1740, sit antique furniture, tea-cups and books.
A table for eight sits next to a window overlooking a garden in the front yard.
Innkeeper Jerry Rosen said it's possible Gouveia and Alfaro-Lopez might have been looking for a different atmosphere, which could have been the reason they left a night early.
"Maybe they thought it would be a romantic hideaway for young lovers," he said. "They probably didn't expect to be sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at breakfast, talking with people about the stock market."
Entering the unknown
It is unclear to family members why their children left for Florida without contacting them.
"It was like walking around in a fog. It's the fear of the unknown," said Susan Flynn, Leanne Gouveia's aunt. "You don't know if they're alive or dead, or where they might be."
"There's still a lot of questions," said Eddie Flynn, Leanne Gouveia's uncle. "It's a great ending. Now we just have to figure out the whys."
But parents say just hearing from their children is enough.
"They probably have their story or whatever their reasons for it," Leanne Gouveia said. "I'm going to respect that and I know he'll tell me why. I'm not going to ask why he did it."
Police also remain curious as to why the students, who apparently had good relationships with their families, fled without calling their parents.
But Larry Schiamberg, a professor of family and child ecology, said young adults might sometimes exhibit this kind of behavior when involved in a serious relationship.
"It is possible that these are two young people that were so involved in their relationship that they did not fully comprehend the impact of their disappearance," Schiamberg said.
The grief parents might feel in this type of circumstance can have a lasting effect, Schiamberg said.
"Regardless of whatever issue (the students) were trying to resolve, it pales in comparison to the agony and fear and potential horror of two young people missing, about which almost nothing is known," he said.
As parents wait patiently for the next call, they say they hope their children will decide to return home soon.
"We'll get the whole story eventually, but he can just take his time with it," Joseph Gouveia said.
"He has something else to tell me, and in time he will, hopefully tonight. But if not, if it's two years from now, I have my son back, and we have Danela, what more can you ask for."
Sarah Frank can be reached at franksa2@msu.edu.
