Yet another American woman has gone missing in Aruba, 35-year-old local resident Robyn Gardner, and this time the prime suspect is not a young Dutch slacker but a 50- year-old Gaithersburg man named Gary Giordano, owner of a personnel staffing company. This comes 6 years after Alabama teen Natalee Holloway disappeared on the same small resort island just off the Venezuelan coast. Holloway’s body has not been found and, were it not for the wonton arrogance of her presumed killer, Joran van der Sloot of the Netherlands, he probably would have gotten away with it. He is now rotting in a Peruvian prison for the murder of a young Peruvian woman.

Most accounts paint a picture of Robyn Gardner as a fairly reserved, kind and trusting woman. She had a relationship with part-time boyfriend Richard Forester of Rockville and often stayed at his residence. Recently laid off from a job in a dentist’s office, she apparently jumped at the opportunity for an expenses-paid trip to Aruba with Giordano, who has been described by Gardner’s friend Christina Jones as a friend of the missing woman, not a boyfriend. 

It seems doubtful that she was aware of Giordano’s history as man who had been accused by two Montgomery County women of making threats and/or abusive behavior. One woman went so far as to accuse Giordano of stalking her and posting secretly shot video of the two engaged in sex acts on the internet. Neither accusation was substantiated by sufficient evidence. Montgomery County Police discontinued the investigation.

Not to Speculate but…

In the United States, the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Robyn Gardner’s disappearance, however, occurred in Aruba, technically part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, so I presume no such thing regarding Gary Giordano.

After years of media coverage of the Natalee Holloway disappearance in Aruba detailing the seeming incompetence if not downright corruption of its law enforcement and legal system, what better place for an accused stalker/perv to select for his crime? 

The crime may have involved money as, apparently, travel insurance policies were taken out on both Gardner and Giordano. We do not yet know if Giordano would benefit from the accidental death of his traveling companion. We also have not heard if Giordano was in financial trouble.

We do know that Giordano has been accused in the past of secretly taping sexual encounters and that his computer and camera have now been seized by Aruban authorities. We also know that he is no longer cooperating with law enforcement in Aruba and he continues to be held in custody due to what unfortunately-named Aruban Solicitor General Taco Stein calls, “discrepancies in his story.”

 According to Giordano’s account, the couple, who arrived in Aruba July 31, went snorkeling August 2nd, during which time Gardener allegedly disappeared. Giordano reported this to the Korps Politie Aruba, i.e. the police, later that day. While he initially cooperated with police, even going up in a helicopter to show police the area where Robyn Gardener allegedly disappeared while snorkeling, Giordano tried to leave Aruba August 5th, and was detained when he was about to board a flight back to the States. Not too cool.

Furthermore, Solicitor General Taco “sauce” Stein now says that, had Gardener drowned where Giordano claimed the two were snorkeling, her body would have surfaced by now. With the FBI crawling through Giordano’s spacious Gaithersburg home and probable revelations from his laptop and camera soon to come, it may take a pardon from the ultimate authority in Aruba to get him off the hook. Calling Queen Beatrix.