American held in disappearance in Aruba

ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- A U.S. tourist who told authorities his friend disappeared while the two snorkeled in Aruba has been detained because police doubt aspects of his story, including whether the pair even went into the water together, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Gary V. Giordano's account of the disappearance of his travel partner, 35-year-old Robyn Gardner, had enough inconsistencies that authorities decided they couldn't let him leave the Caribbean island and arrested him, Aruban Solicitor General Taco Stein said.

"The only thing we have is his story, his statement, and it leaves us with some questions," Stein said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The prosecutor would not disclose the specific doubts, fearing it could undermine the investigation, but one of them is fairly basic: So far, there are no witnesses who saw the couple go snorkeling in the late afternoon on the wind-swept southern tip of Aruba. "We only have his story on that," Stein said.

Prosecutors aren't the only ones with doubts. Gardner's brother, Andrew Colson, and a boyfriend who didn't join her on the Aruba vacation say the woman was not someone who was likely to go snorkeling at all.

"She just wouldn't want to ruin her makeup or get her hair wet," Colson said.

Giordano, 50, of Gaithersburg, Md., called police in Aruba around 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 2 to say that he and Gardner, also from Maryland, got separated while snorkeling and she never made it back to shore. Video and photos obtained by the AP show him assisting police in a helicopter and boat search of the Dutch island's coastline.

Giordano has been in custody since Friday and investigators are interviewing him every day. His Aruban lawyer insists he is innocent and is being unjustly detained.

Aruba has experience dealing with missing person cases following the still-unsolved disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway during a high school class trip to the island in 2005. Her remains were never found and the main suspect, Joran van der Sloot, is in jail in Peru on charges of killing a 21-year-old woman last May.