The heartbroken friend of a New York couple said she was in Dominican Republic searching for them while one lay dying in a hospital bed for eight days following a fatal car crash.
Dominican Republic authorities announced the recovery of two bodies they believe are Orlando Moore, 43, and 32-year-old Portia Ravenelle on Tuesday night.
The couple had not been heard from in two weeks and were last seen on the evening of March 26 before heading to the Las Americas airport for their 2am flight back to the US.
Francesca Figueroa said on Wednesday that she's been friends with Moore for 25 years.
Figueroa said she was in the Dominican Republic when authorities believe the couple got into a car accident and plunged into the sea.
'She had to die by herself,' Figueroa told CNN, referring to a local police report that said a woman, believed to be Ravenelle, was found injured on the highway and taken to the Darío Contreras Hospital unconscious with multiple injuries on March 27.
The woman died eight days later, on April 4.
Figueroa said had she known her friend was in the hospital, 'one of us could have been there holding her hand'.
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Missing New York couple Portia Ravenelle, 32 (left), and Orlando Moore, 43, who vanished after checking out of their hotel in the Dominican Republic, were warned not to stop for locals while driving to the airport, which was about 100 miles away
Figueroa said she and her family went looking for the couple when they didn't return to New York on March 27.
On March 31, Figueroa spoke to a US Embassy representative who told her 'no bodies were found' and there were no accidents reported, according to CNN.
But on Tuesday, authorities announced that the couple may have been involved in a car accident.
Figueroa said she heard the news as she was on her way to the airport to go back home.
'I am saddened it took this many days to find out,' Figueroa told CNN.
Police said on Tuesday that they located a rental car at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea near the highway to the airport in Santa Domingo. The car is believed to be the couple's rental.
National police chief spokesman Col Frank Félix Durán Mejia said the car appeared to have been involved in a crash during the 100-mile journey to the airport in the early hours of March 27.
Local authorities recovered a decomposing body on March 31 from the shore in Sans Souci. It is believed to be Orlando Moore
Dominican police believe that the couple possibly suffered a car accident while en route to the Las Americas International Airport. The airport is approximately a two-hour drive away from the all-inclusive Gran Bahia Principe Cayacoa in Samana, where the couple had been staying
Also on March 27, a woman, believed to be Ravenelle, was taken to a local hospital with multiple injuries. She died on April 4.
On March 31, local authorities recovered a decomposing body on the shore in Sans Souci, roughly 19 miles from where the car accident took place.
Mejia said the two victims have 'similar characteristics' to Ravenelle and Moore.
A tattoo on the decomposing body reportedly reads 'MILANO', which is consistent with one hat Moore has, according to CBS News.
The couple's rental car was discovered by group of fishermen on a seabed near the Las Americas Highway, but
