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August 17, 2011
Robyn Gardner: Gary Giordano and the travel insurance
A U.S. tourist detained in the presumed death of his travel companion had an insurance policy that covered the missing woman, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Gary Giordano mentioned the travel insurance during questioning, but authorities haven't determined whether it is relevant to their investigation into 35-year-old Robyn Gardner's presumed death, Solicitor General Taco Stein told The Associated Press.
The policy included both travelers, but it wasn't clear whether it included accidental death coverage for Gardner, Stein said. Nor was it clear who was the beneficiary.
"If you travel, you take out insurance. That's not an uncommon thing, to say the least," Stein said. "It all depends on what's in the policy."
An Aruba police source gave a slightly different account to ABC News, saying Giordano had taken out a $1.5 million accidental death policy on Gardner.
The source also said Giordano took out a more expensive one-year policy instead of a more common five-year one, ABC reported, and that Giordano was named as the beneficiary.
Giordano, a 50-year-old businessman from Gaithersburg, Maryland, traveled to Aruba with Gardner on July 31 and reported her missing two days later, saying she disappeared while the two were snorkeling. He assisted the search but was detained at the airport as he tried to leave the country because of questions about his account of what happened.
Giordano's attorney has said his client had nothing to do with her disappearance and has called for his release from jail.
On Tuesday, Aruban authorities announced plans for an extensive search involving police, firefighters and possibly the military as investigators try to determine what happened to Gardner.
The search was expected to start later this week and would be centered around the southern part of the Dutch Caribbean island near where Gardner was reported missing by her travel companion, Solicitor General Taco Stein said.
The new search will involve many more people and will cover a larger area in the hunt for the woman's body or any evidence linked to her, Stein said.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44174039/ns/today-today_news/t/prosecutors-probe-aruba-suspects-insurance/
Posted by Nealus at August 17, 2011 12:50 PM
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