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Romano: A search for the son who never came home

 
Paul Marvella, 30, disappeared without a trace while driving from Jacksonville to his Spring Hill home on Jan. 15.
Paul Marvella, 30, disappeared without a trace while driving from Jacksonville to his Spring Hill home on Jan. 15.
Published Jan. 26, 2017

They came looking for a truck disguised as a miracle. They fanned out across counties and highways, clinging to their hopes and ignoring their doubts.

And when they finally found the GMC Yukon, submerged in the muck of a lake, they accepted that a rescue was doomed and retrieval would have to suffice.

And then even that turned out to be false hope.

Paul Marvella, 30, disappeared without a trace while driving from Jacksonville to his Spring Hill home on Jan. 15. It took law enforcement, hired airplanes and search parties nearly four days to discover his torn-off bumper floating on the surface of a lake off Interstate 75 near Gainesville. It took another four days of dredging and diving in alligator-infested waters for officials to finally call off the search for his body.

For the better part of his adult life, George Marvella has worked as a funeral home director in upstate New York and Hernando County. Guiding. Comforting. Supporting the grief-stricken.

And he never understood his job until he lost his youngest son.

"I've dealt with a lot of families over the years, and I've never truly realized what this could feel like. It's horrible," he said. "I told my wife this morning, 'Dear, I have no words. I don't know what to say. I can talk to others going through something like this, but I don't know how to help myself.' "

This realization came painstakingly slowly to the Marvella family and friends. It was as if they were caught in suspended animation for nearly nine days.

A driver for a company that transported the deceased, Paul had dropped off a body in Jacksonville late on a Sunday afternoon. According to a credit card bill, he stopped at a Zaxby's for dinner and was driving near Starke when he called a friend about 7:30 p.m.

And then … nothing.

He didn't make it home Sunday night, and his fiancee, Kristen Gould, texted George to see if he had heard anything. After checking with another son in Ocala to see if Paul had spent the night there, George and Wendy Marvella headed to Starke early Monday.

For two days, they drove up and down U.S. 301 in Bradford County. George eventually got out of the car and walked the side of the road, desperately searching for clues.

He hired an airplane to circle the area, hoping to find the black GMC in paths hidden from the main roads. Their first real break came later in the week when, after cutting through some bureaucracy, a wireless provider said the last ping from Paul's cellphone came somewhere near Gainesville.

Kristen organized a search party, and her brother spotted the bumper floating in a lake in Paynes Prairie, a state preserve in Micanopy. When the GMC was pulled out of the water, it was empty. George said the airbags had deployed and the driver's-side bag had been cut with a knife, leading investigators to believe Paul had freed himself from the vehicle but drowned in the murky water.

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As for the accident's cause, George said investigators were perplexed. There were no skid marks nearby, leading them to believe Paul might have fallen asleep, but George doesn't believe that.

George and Wendy spent Friday and Saturday in a nearby hotel as divers from the Alachua County Sheriff's Office searched the lake. They watched as equipment was brought in to cut through the dense vegetation, and they went home when the mission was suspended by foul weather on Sunday.

They were back out Monday morning, and the divers kept going in the water until the light finally ran out at dinnertime. At that point, George said state park officials told him there was nothing more that could be done without damaging the preserve's natural state.

"The police told us they had run out of resources, and that's understandable. The Alachua County Sheriff's Office went above and beyond," George Marvella said. "I told them I would pay for everything if they just kept trying. I would spend every nickel I had, but (park officials) said they didn't want us to destroy their beautiful lake.

"Now we have to leave our son somewhere under that layer of crap in the water. We can't bring our son home."

So instead the funeral director is contacting another funeral home to arrange for a service. There will be no casket, and there will be no funeral, per se. Instead, they are planning a celebration of Paul's life.

"I want to hear stories about Paul from other people," George said. "I want to hear who my son is — not who he was, because he'll always be a part of me."

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.