An appeals court in Aruba has upheld the detention of a Gaithersburg man suspected in the disappearance of his traveling partner.
The court on Wednesday denied 50-year-old Gary Giordano‘s appeal of a magistrate judge’s ruling last week that authorities can keep him in custody for 60 days, said Ann Angela, a spokeswoman for Aruban prosecutors.
Giordano is a suspect in the disappearance of 35-year-old Robyn Gardner, of Frederick. Prosecutors say they doubt his story that Gardner disappeared at sea while the two were snorkeling.
Giordano’s lawyer has maintained that his client committed no crime.
Gardner was last seen on the Dutch Caribbean island on Aug. 2. Giordano was taken into custody at the airport, as he was about to leave the country, three days later.
The pair had arrived in Aruba on July 31. Shortly before the trip, Giordano took out a $1.5-million accidental-death insurance policy on Gardner, according to Aruban authorities. Giordano was the beneficiary of that policy.
The FBI has searched his Gaithersburg home.
Gardner’s case has drawn international attention, in part because of comparisons to the still-unsolved disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an American teenager who vanished in Aruba in 2005.
