Key figure in California missing-man case found in Arizona

Gary Shawkey, 44, was apprehended by Border Patrol officials as he crossed from Mexico into Nogales, Ariz., said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino.

Shawkey is on a bus back to Santa Ana, where he will be interviewed by homicide investigators, Amormino said.

Shawkey claimed he had gone to Tijuana to speak to his missing business partner, authorities said.

Shawkey left a voicemail Sunday telling a sheriff's homicide investigator that he was heading to Mexico to pick up the missing man, Robert Lee Vendrick, 71, of Phoenix, who has been missing since February.

Shawkey told Arizona law enforcement that he had gone to Tijuana and met Vendrick and "had every intention of turning him over to Border Patrol, but Vendrick jumped on a bus to Mazatlan instead," said Amormino.

According to Amormino, before Shawkey left California, he told a co-worker: "If I'm not back at 12 o'clock Monday afternoon, something awful happened to me."

The co-worker called the Sheriff's Department Monday. That afternoon, investigators went to the Santa Ana motel room where Shawkey had placed the call and found the television on and Shawkey's possessions untouched, including his wallet, passport, keys and medication, Amormino said.

"I know it sounds crazy but the whole case sounds crazy," said Amormino.

Police declared Shawkey, Vendrick's former investment partner, a missing person.

Shawkey is a motivational speaker from Virginia who runs several Internet-based companies and co-authored a motivational autobiography called "If I Can ... Anybody Can."

Amormino said he is a "person of interest" and a "key figure" — but not a suspect — in the Feb. 16 disappearance of Vendrick.

Vendrick invested more than $1 million in a computer program venture with Shawkey and he vanished a day after arriving in Southern California to seal the deal, authorities said.

Vendrick told his wife he was preparing for a boat trip to San Clemente Island to close the deal with some secret government workers, Amormino said.

A search began after he failed to return home to Phoenix. Investigators later found a 23-foot sailboat in Long Beach that Vendrick had purchased with Shawkey.

Shawkey told investigators the two sailed out of Dana Point harbor but Vendrick changed his mind during the trip and he took him back to shore and went on alone to Long Beach, Amormino said.

Investigators discovered that the boat's anchor, anchor rope and engine had been replaced, Amormino said.

Shawkey told investigators that the original engine malfunctioned before the trip and he bought another and left the original on a dock. He also claimed to have thrown away an anchor and lost another at sea, Amormino said.

Divers recovered an anchor in the Dana Point area but investigators have not been able to confirm that it belonged to the boat, Amormino said.