Aruban officials are pondering their next move in their efforts to find the body of a missing Maryland woman after a new search effort Monday yielded little information.
Fifty to 60 people searched the desert-like area on the island’s southern tip for more than six hours for the body of 35-year-old Robyn Gardner, Solicitor General Taco Stein said.
The uninhabited area of brush, rocks and sand is a few miles from where Gary V. Giordano — Gardner’s traveling companion who is detained on suspicion of involvement in Gardner’s disappearance — reported that the Frederick woman disappeared at sea where the two were snorkeling, Stein said.
He said investigators had no new information about what happened to Gardner after Monday’s search.
Gardner was last seen on the Dutch Caribbean island on Aug. 2. Giordano, of Gaithersburg, was taken into custody as he was trying to leave the airport three days later.
Authorities have been expanding their search from the point where Giordano claimed Gardner drowned. Stein said officials are now deciding what to do next.
“At this point, we searched the area we planned to search,” he said. “We’re considering our next options.”
Monday’s search only concentrated on the land.
“There is no indication that the body was dumped in the water,” Stein said.
A judge ruled at a closed hearing last week that authorities had enough evidence to keep Giordano, 50, in custody for 16 more days. Another hearing will be held by Aug. 31 to determine whether Aruban officials can continue to detain him.
Giordano had a $1.5 million accidental-death insurance policy that covered Gardner, Aruban authorities said. He made calls about redeeming the policy on Aug. 4, two days after she went missing, a source told the Associated Press.
His attorney could not be reached for comment Monday.
The FBI has also taken on a role in the case, searching Giordano’s home and distributing a missing-person poster about Gardner.
The case has drawn international attention, in part because of comparisons to the still-unsolved disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an American teenager who went missing in Aruba in 2005.
