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Phoenix man goes missing in SoCal during business trip

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DANA POINT, Calif. — A 71-year-old Phoenix man who traveled to Orange County to seal a $1 million deal on what he was told was a promising computer-program venture has gone missing, authorities said Wednesday.

Sheriff's deputies began searching for Robert Lee Vendrick after he failed to return home to Phoenix on Monday as planned. They found his rental car parked near a dock in this beachfront city and his clothes, suitcase and medicine still at his hotel room.

In Long Beach, a port city north of Dana Point, authorities found a 23-foot sailboat Vendrick had bought with his investment partner, Gary Shawkey.

Authorities also found Shawkey in Long Beach, said Lt. Fred Furey of the Orange County Sheriff's Department, Shawkey, who was interviewed by homicide investigators, is considered a person of interest in the case but not a suspect, Furey said.

Shawkey runs several Internet-based companies and is the author of "If I Can … Anybody Can: Part One in Gary Shawkey's 'Anybody Can' Series."

He did not immediately respond to an e-mail message sent to one of his companies.

Meanwhile, investigators were waiting for a warrant to search the boat, which they said remains in their custody.

While it is unclear how they met, Vendrick invested more than $1 million in the deal, said a sheriff's spokesman.

Promises of a handsome contract with the federal government persuaded Vendrick to ask his brother Fred to wire him $40,000 more after he arrived in California.

"I just have this feeling that something terrible has happened," Fred Vendrick told the Orange County Register. "I just feel it in my heart."

On Friday, Vendrick flew to Long Beach, where he rented the car and drove to Dana Point. He called his wife on Saturday and told her he was preparing for a boat trip to San Clemente Island to close the deal with government workers.