Frederick woman missing in Aruba 
 
 A Frederick County woman is missing in Aruba, and police there have detained an American for questioning in the case, according to Aruba authorities and a missing persons organization. 
 
 
 
 Robyn Gardner (Courtesy of Richard Forester) Robyn Gardner, 35, was last seen a week ago, Aug. 2, at the Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino in Oranjestad, Aruba, according to the Natalee Holloway Resource Center, an organization that grew out of the Holloway case, also in Aruba. On Friday, four days after Gardner was reported missing, authorities there detained another tourist at the airport, said Ann Angela, a spokesperson for the Aruba’s public prosecutor’s office. 
 
 “We arrested him at the airport. He was on his way back to the U.S.,” Angela said. 
 
 She said policy allowed her to only identify him by his initials: G.V.G. 
 
 She called the American a “suspect” in the case, but stressed how that covers a wide range of possibilities – from untimely reporting of Gardner’s disappearance to something more serious. “It’s too soon for us to be more specific,” Angela said. 
 
 The Aruba Herald has identified the man, and reported that he told authorities that he and Gardner had been our snorkeling. He said he swam to shore and then realized that she was not with him, the Herald reported. 
 
 Angela said Gardner arrived on the island with the man on July 31, and was last seen Aug. 2 in the area of “Baby Beach” on the southwestern tip of the island. 
 
 The man reported Gardner missing, Angela said. “He was the one who rang the alarm bell,” Angela said. She declined to elaborate on what he told authorities. 
 
 Richard Forester, who said he is the missing woman’s boyfriend, said he learned that Gardner went to Aruba with the man. Forester said the man recently lived in the Gaithersburg area. Michael Lopez, a lawyer in Aruba who the Herald said was representing the man, could not be reached. 
 
 Angela, the prosecutor’s office spokesman, said that on Sunday the suspect and Aruba police went to a beach where the man said Gardner was last seen. In recent days, a local judge ordered him held for an additional eight days while the probe continues, she said. 
 
 “The investigation is in full swing,” Angela said. 
 
 Gardner is described as 5-foot, 5-inches tall and 120 pounds, with blond hair and brown eyes, according to the Holloway missing person’s group. She has tattoos on her left arm (back of her shoulder to her elbow), her rib cage, and her right biceps, the group said. 
 
 Gardner’s family could not immediately be reached for comment. 
 
 Cpl. Jennifer Bailey, a spokeswoman for the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, said the office has not been brought into the case. 
 
 Forester, who said he has dated Gardner for the last eight months, said he only learned she was in Aruba after she got there. He said he last heard from Gardner a week ago, via a Facebook message in which she told him she loved him. 
 
 Forester said that Aruban authorities told him they plan to send Gardner’s Blackberry to the Netherlands for examination. He also said they are looking for clues in her iPad. ||||| A Maryland woman vacationing in Aruba has disappeared from the same resort town where Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway was last seen six years ago. 
 
 Robyn Gardner, 35, of Frederick, Md., disappeared Aug. 2 from the Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino in Oranjestad, MyFoxDC.com reports. 
 
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 Robyn Gardner, 35, of Frederick, Maryland, vanished after snorkeling with her companion off the western tip of the Caribbean island Aug. 2, said Ann Angela, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office. She said police immediately launched an extensive search of the water and shore but turned up nothing and Gardner is still listed as missing. 
 
 As the official search ended Saturday, the man who accompanied Gardner to the island sought to fly back to the U.S. but he was detained at the airport. 
 
 "Statements made by the traveling companion led to such questions that on Friday, Aug. 5, 2011, it was decided to detain him for further questioning on the possible drowning of the woman," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. 
 
 Authorities referred to the man only by his initials, but his lawyer identified him as Gary V. Giordano, 50. 
 
 Island officials declined to say what precisely led them to stop Giordano or to provide many details about the case. 
 
 The newspaper Aruba Today said Giordano was detained because he bought a ticket to leave the island after earlier agreeing to stay and help the missing woman's mother search for her and to cooperate with the investigation into her disappearance. 
 
 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. 
 
 Giordano's Aruban lawyer, Michael Lopez, said his client was being unjustly held. 
 
 "Our client emphatically denies being involved in any malicious act concerning his friend and consequently does not consider himself a suspect," Lopez said in a written statement provided to The Associated Press. 
 
 The two Americans had been in Aruba a couple of days when they decided to go snorkeling in the area known as Baby Beach, Lopez said. He said the pair eventually realized they were being pulled out to sea by the current and Giordano tapped on Gardner's leg to signal that they should swim back. When he got to shore, he noticed she wasn't with him and ran to get help after looking for her unsuccessfully in the water, the lawyer said. 
 
 Lopez said that in the following days, Giordano assisted with the search and answered questions from police. He said his client waited until the woman's mother arrived before he decided he should return to the U.S. Giordano says he was given permission to leave by an official at the U.S. consulate on the nearby island of Curacao, the lawyer said. 
 
 The U.S. vice consul, Winnie Hofstetter, declined to comment on the case. 
 
 Lopez said that after being detained, Giordano initially declined to cooperate further with prosecutors and police because he felt he was being wrongly detained. 
 
 "As judicial representative of our client we can say that after reading and analyzing everything there is until now in his case file, there is no concrete or direct indication that our client might be involved in any illicit act concerning his friend," Lopez said. 
 
 Giordano is from Gaithersburg, Maryland. His lawyer said he runs an employment agency. 
 
 Gardner's boyfriend, Richard Forester, said he doesn't believe Giordano's account and pleaded for the public to help find her. 
 
 "I want to let people know this is going on," Forester told the station. "She's been missing six days, and every day she's gone raises fear that she won't be coming back." 
 
 Gardner's case comes six years after 18-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared in May 2005 during a high school senior trip to the island. Her body has never been found. 
 
 Gardner is described as 5-foot-5, weighing 120 pounds, with blond hair and brown eyes. She has tattoos on her left arm, rib cage, and right bicep. 
 
 Anyone with information on her whereabouts is being urged to contact Fred Panneflek with the Aruban authorities at 011-297-597-5201. 
 
 Click here for more on the disappearance of Robyn Gardner from MyFoxDC.com 
 
 Frederick Woman, Robyn Gardner, Missing in Aruba: MyFoxDC.com 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
– A Maryland woman has gone missing while visiting the same Aruba resort town where US teenager Natalee Holloway was last seen six years ago, Fox News reports. Four days after the disappearance of Robyn Gardner, 35, police arrested a man they called a suspect in the case. Gary Giordano, who was also the first to report Gardner missing, said the two had been snorkeling together, the Aruba Herald notes. When he returned to shore, he realized she wasn’t with him, he said. But he has allegedly changed his initial story multiple times. Gardner’s boyfriend, Michael Forester, says he didn’t know she was going to Aruba with the man—also from Maryland, he says—until she arrived there. He says he hasn’t heard from her for a week, the Washington Post reports. Police are investigating her iPad and sending her BlackBerry to Belgium for examination.