ORANJESTAD, Aruba — Aruba has turned to the FBI for help investigating the disappearance of 35-year-old Robyn Gardner of Maryland, an agency spokesman said Thursday as official doubts grew about the story told by the suspect in the case.
FBI Special Agent Richard Wolf said the U.S. agency is conducting interviews and giving other assistance to Aruba.
Gardner was reported missing Aug. 2 by traveling companion Gary V. Giordano, who is also from Maryland. The 50-year-old man told police that Gardner disappeared while they were snorkeling off the southern tip of the Dutch Caribbean island.
Aruban Solicitor General Taco Stein said earlier that police had detained Giordano because of seeming inconsistencies in his version of events. On Thursday he said that if Gardner had drowned where Giordano had said, “We think that her body would have surfaced by now.”
He said it was also possible that Giordano had told police to search in the wrong spot.
Giordano’s Aruban lawyer, Michael Lopez, insists his client is innocent and is being unjustly detained.
In 2005, another American, Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, disappeared in Aruba during a class trip. Her remains were never found.
