We were in the midst of a three-part E! Special when police got the tip that led to Devore's body. Our series details his career rise and fall, his climb back and his family's agony and confusion when he simply vanished
But the real ending, as far as family and friends are concerned, might take a while.
According to wire service reports, a Los Angeles County Coroner official said Thursday they will use dental records to confirm that the remains found inside the cab of Devore's white Ford Limited Edition Eddie Bauer Explorer--discovered Wednesday submerged under 15 feet of murky water in the California Aqueduct--are those of the vehicle's owner.
No timetable was given as to how long it will take to complete the test. However, much of what was left of the body was found strapped inside the driver's side seatbelt, western shirt and cowboy boots included--a consistent M.O. for Devore, 55, and for the most obvious theory that he simply fell asleep at the wheel in the early-morning hours of June 28, 1997, and drove his car off Southern California's high-desert Antelope Valley Freeway.
Probably not waiting with bated breath for the coroner's results are some of those who have worked hardest to keep the search for the writer alive--Devore's wife, Wendy, and his longtime friend and publicist Michael Sands. Defying abduction theories that include everything from biker gangs to CIA operatives to experiment-minded space aliens, both seem to believe the body belongs to Gary Devore.
Both, however, want to know a lot more about the private individual who solved the case--San Diego self-styled private eye Douglas Crawford.
In published interviews, both Sands and Wendy Devore have questioned how Crawford solved the case in one week when both Santa Barbara sheriffs and FBI officials were baffled for an entire year.
"I believe [the body] is him," says Sands, "but we'll have closure when everything is pieced together. We have a lot of questions."
Perhaps Crawford, paid to appear on the tabloid television show Extra Thursday, answered some of them.
Crawford, who in an email to Sands last week detailed a one-car crash scenario that led to the discovery of Devore's Explorer--says on the show that Santa Barbara police initially treated him like a suspect.
"I believe the police really put me through the wringer," he says. "I don't believe they needed to go as far as they did."
As for Wendy Devore's suspicion of him, however, he says he understands, given "the fact she was hoping her husband was still alive."
"I would like to extend my condolences to the Devore family and to their loved ones," he adds. "And I am sorry about what happened, and I am sorry I had to be the bearer of bad news."