Gary Giordano held in Aruba in missing snorkeler case

[DandyDon]

Some of these missing or dead buddy/spouse/whatever cases have really made me wonder about possible appearances if a buddy does something to get him/herself killed. At the time of the loss, he and Robyn Gardner were snorkeling - and having only his story, they were snorkeling at Baby Beach, got caught in a current, he motioned to her to go back to shore, but she didn't make it. From Baby Beach Aruba

The waters are shallow; swimmers can wade out for a long distance and still touch the sea bottom. Where the bay opens out to the sea, snorkelers will behold a colorful kaleidoscope of coral and tropical fish, but watch out for strong currents here.

Well, that sounds feasible enough - a couple of American tourists, perhaps with rental snorkel gear and no training, probably not snorkel vests, not being very careful, maybe not completely sober, caught in a tidal flow?

Now, in this case, there seems to be plenty of dirt printed on both of them. He was accused by two women of abuse. She told her boyfriend that she was traveling with a platonic friend but some of the other reports sounds more like a fling. He was accused by one former GF of secretly shooting some explicit videos of them, and "Investigators found explicit pictures of Gardner on Giordano's camera" whatever that means.

That they took trip insurance policies with $1.5 million death benefits seems odd. Maybe making him the beneficiary of hers was intended help in case of accidents or other needs, but the amount is huge. I think my trip insurance has $10,000 benefit.

But really, they have jailed him for 2 months on weak suspicions. He may be a louse, he might even be guilty of murder, but they have so little against him?

And it makes me wonder if I had a female travel companion & dive buddy who went missing on a dive, would I look as guilty? Would my Rescue card be held against me? What if she decided to do a 250 ft bounce dive against my objections and didn't come back? I saw a guy do one once without warning me, but fortunately he did come back - altho a little bent I think. He avoided me the next couple of days but I heard more later.

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

Something to think about, ACCIDENT'S don't happen anymore!! It's always SOMEONE ELSE'S fault!!

Even though this didn't happen in the U.S., once the media gets a story, you're always guilty until proving innocent. And then you just got away with it, because here come the wrongful death lawsuits!! It's almost like you need to make a contract/disclaimer with anyone you vacation with.:depressed:

 

[VooDooGasMan]

I remember the boyfriend back home claims he was still going to marry her. Don that is Why you should be Bounce Dive Trained so you would no how to handle the situation in hand and can be a supportive buddy and not just leave him to get bent. Unless you had a $1.5 million insurance policies.

 

[DandyDon]

I've had insta-buddies vanish on me on dives. Sometimes because I was following my camera, sometimes because of them, but there are other ways to lose contact.

 

[Tricia]

Thanks Don for this. I hadn't seen this case in the news.

If you read the stories on ABC news carefully, you'll see that the last place Gardner was seen alive was on the beach. Giordano is the one who says they were snorkeling and he lost her. So there's no proof that she was ever even in the water. (Please correct me if you've seen a report that says differently.)

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks Don for this. I hadn't seen this case in the news.

If you read the stories on ABC news carefully, you'll see that the last place Gardner was seen alive was on the beach. Giordano is the one who says they were snorkeling and he lost her. So there's no proof that she was ever even in the water. (Please correct me if you've seen a report that says differently.)

There is not much proof of anything in this case. He said they were snorkeling at night, at the outskirts of the bay, the tide started pulling them out, he signaled for them to return to shore, but she didn't make it. Certainly possible. No specifics have been given about their gear, but it's rare to see vacation snorkelers wearing flotation collars on their own.

Aruba has really worked it as this loss after the US high school girl vanish there a few years ago has tarnished the reputation as a vacation destination. One member here on SB wanted to organize a boycott here after the first one. Anyway, the local authorities, our FBI, and Dutch authorities have worked both cases extensively not finding much on the first one, nothing on this one.

So they have held him in jail for 4 months for lack of any proof of anything. The huge trip life insurance policy made him look bad, but maybe some people buy those - which must be somewhat true, since they're sold. He seems to be getting out Tuesday. see Aruba orders release of Gary Giordano - CBS News Still, it makes me wonder how much proof I would need if a buddy put himself into harm's way and failed to come back, in spite of my efforts...?

The whole story smells a lot really. None of the characters seem too admirable. He has a shady record. It seems like she lied to her BF to go off on a fling trip to the Caribbean with an internet flame and there are some rumors of photos the couple made that cannot be published on the net, called "beyond porographic" in some news stories.

 

[Ayisha]

This case is on right now on Dateline.

 

[DandyDon]

This case is on right now on Dateline.

Anything interesting come up? I think he's done a few interviews. His new hair piece got some bad reviews, along with his acting.

Her cuckolded BF agrees with the human trafficking theory but thinks that Giordano is involved. One of Giordano's statements may hold more truth than most travelers think about...

"What you don't know about Aruba is Aruba has two main sources of income and it's not tourism. It's cocaine and human trafficking," Giordano said. "And where we were it takes a half hour to drive a boat to Venezuela... and it turns out that where we were, the beach, that's where they drop off illegals to swim to shore."


Forester agreed with Giordano's theory of how Gardner could have disappeared in connection with human trafficking, but suggested that Giordano may have been involved.

The snorkel story really seems reasonable to me: untrained tourists out too far with no support. The huge insurance policy is the smoking gun; I wonder if he always bought that same policy for other trips with other women? My dive bud & I have DAN dive insurance and take trip insurance, but his mom is always his beneficiary. On Good Morning America he's quoted...

He added that his lawyer at the time, Michael Lopez, told him to contact his insurance firm only two days after Ms Gardner went missing to ask about a $1.5million policy he had taken out on her.


'Helicopters and divers might send you an invoice,' Giordano told Good Morning America. 'Call insurance and ask them how they deal with these expenses.'

 

[Ayisha]

That's a good question about whether he took out insurance on other travel mates, but Dateline did not go into that at all. They didn't go into human trafficking at all to my knowledge. I did receive a couple of phone calls during the show so I may have missed it if it was brief, but I didn't see anything about it.

They mentioned that the affair had been going on for about a year and they met on an online dating site. Her friend mentioned that Gardner was tiring of the affair and Giordano asked her to go on a cruise a couple of months earlier and she refused and tried to break up with him. The friend said that Gary was threatening to expose her affair to Robyn's boyfriend. Robyn lost her job and then shortly after went on the trip to Aruba with Gary. She initially told the boyfriend that she was going on a family trip. Then she texted/FB'd that there was a change of plans and that she loved him and would tell him all about it when she got home. Then the next night she FB'd that things were going really badly. Then the boyfriend got a call the next day from Robyn's brother saying that the Aruba police had called and told them that Robyn was missing.

They showed video footage of Giordano arriving back at the hotel (at least 20 minutes away from the beach she disappeared at) and knocking on a couple of doors. Each investigator said that there was no urgency in his demeanor. He was just walking at a normal pace and casually knocking on a couple of doors.

When Giordano was asked why he chose that extremely rocky isolated beach to drive her to when he had passed many beautiful beaches along the way, he said that Baby beach was recommended by a couple they met. I'm not entirely certain if that was Baby beach. He said it wasn't that isolated - there was a SCUBA shop 100 yards away.

I wondered why he didn't alert the SCUBA shop that Robyn had disappeared under the water.

Dateline showed some paperwork from Gary's first marriage that he battered his wife. There were 2 restraining orders granted against him from two ex-girlfriends as well.

They showed that Gary does not appear to be in need of money. He owns a successful business and lives in a million dollar-plus home. They do not think he has a financial motive.

They had a retired investigator and a CSI from Vegas (that the character of Catherine was based on) go there and investigate for several days two months after the disappearance. They were convinced of his guilt. Every detective, the Aruba Solicitor General, and others that they or the Dateline host spoke to were all convinced of his guilt other than Giordano's own lawyer.

They said this was Giordano's first interview. It seems that it just took longer to air than the others.

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks. I am mostly concerned on possible liabilities and implications if a dive buddy goes missing on a dive, but curious about the back story on this one.