The body presumed to be the Westchester man who went missing with his girlfriend in the Dominican Republic was “eaten by fishes,” according to a local report.
Two bodies that police say appear to have similar characteristics to Orlando Moore and Portia Ravenelle were recovered following a car crash on Las Américas freeway. The major thoroughfare leads to the Las Américas International Airport in Santo Domingo.
Asked whether the male corpse showed signs of physical injuries, the doctor, who was with the Instituto Nacional de Ciencia Forenses, said he couldn’t tell.
“He’s been eaten by fishes,” the doctor told Dominican Republic news outlet InformativosTA.
Police say Moore and Ravenelle, both of Mount Vernon, were likely killed in the crash en route to the airport on March 27, when they were set to return home following the four-day trip.
Fishermen told police they heard a “rumble” coming from Las Américas highway and found a car in the water nearby that day.
The woman was taken to the hospital in serious condition, police said. She died April 4.
Meanwhile, the decomposed body that’s presumably Moore’s washed ashore on March 31 about 19 miles from the scene of the crash, CBS News reported.
The body had a tattoo reading “MILANO” — which is similar to one that Moore had.
The doctor said an autopsy will be performed and the results could come in as early as Wednesday.
“Hopefully by [Wednesday] we’ll have some answers,” he said.
Authorities are working on recovering the car, which is still at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea.
“We have information on a vehicle at the bottom of the sea near the location where they were last seen. We can’t confirm the characteristics of the vehicle because of rough seas and our divers are having a hard time reaching the depths,” Dominican Republic national police spokesman Col. Frank Félix Durán Mejia told CBS.