Husband Arrested in Missing Woman Case

Oct. 16, 2008— -- The husband of a California woman who was last seen in January on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten was arrested and is being held in connection with her disappearance, local police said today.

Frank Cordes was arrested Tuesday, St. Maarten Police spokesman Ricardo Henson said. Cordes has not been charged with a crime.

Earlier this month, local prosecutors announced they had discovered new evidence in the disappearance of Cordes' wife, Leta Lynn Cordes, but did not elaborate, according to the Daily Herald, the local newspaper. Chief prosecutor Taco Stein was not immediately available for comment.

Brian Sutton, a homicide investigator with the Orange County, Calif., Sheriff's Department, who has been assisting St. Maarten authorities with the investigation, said prosecutors must bring Cordes in front of a judge within 48 hours, but could request to hold him. The couple are from Orange County.

Sutton said he did not know what new evidence prosecutors may have.

Leta Cordes, 49, was last seen Jan. 11. Her husband reportedly told police at the time that she left their vacation home around 11 p.m. to walk about half a mile to a local casino. She never returned.

"Considering Frank and Leta were my best friends, it's very heartbreaking," Cary Honstein of Riverside, Calif., a family friend, said of the arrest. "We don't know what to think."

Soon after his wife's disappearance, Frank Cordes told the Orange County Register that Leta Cordes made a quick phone call then left for the Westin Hotel to gamble.

Cordes told the paper that he offered to drive his wife to the casino but she refused. Minutes later, Cordes said, he drove after her to make sure she made it. When he didn't find her on the road, he assumed she'd arrived safely, he told the Register.

Honstein said the stretch of road between the house and the casino was poorly lit. "Leta was fun and caring and loving and she just was the perfect best friend, really," she said.

Cordes is not the first American to go missing in the Caribbean.