Aruba Suspect Gary Giordano and Missing Maryland Woman Robyn Gardner Shown in Surveillance Video

Robyn Gardner and Gary Giordano seen on same beach the day before she vanished.

ByABC News
September 12, 2011, 8:01 AM

Sept. 12, 2011 — -- Surveillance video from the day before tourist Robyn Gardner vanished in Aruba shows her and the prime suspect in her disappearance walking the same stretch of beach from which she would vanish a day later.

Gardner, 35, has been missing since Aug. 2. Gary Giordano, who is being held in an Aruban jail, has told authorities that the two went snorkeling and the Maryland woman got swept out to sea. The two were in the midst of a weeklong trip to the Caribbean and had met on an online swingers' website.

The surveillance video, obtained exclusively by ABC News, shows the travel companions at the beach Aug. 1.

The twosome's rented Toyota Rav-4 is visible and grainy video shows Giordano of Gaithersburg, Md., and Gardner walking near the restaurant where the two would share one final meal the next day. They are walking on the beach at around 3:41 p.m., about the same time she would disappear Aug. 2. Gardner is wearing the same printed sundress she wore the day she vanished.

ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams said the video could show that the suspect was preparing to carry out a crime in Gardner's disappearance.

"You've also got the possibility now that he may have been casing it the day before so all of these pieces together are going to lead investigators in their minds to believe they have a right guy," Abrams said.

Was Giordano Creating an Alibi on Surveillance Video?

Gardner was ordered to stay in an Aruban jail for another 60 days last week but has yet to be charged with a crime.

"They [Aruban investigators] have enough evidence to convict him in the court of public opinion and not in the court of law," Abrams said. "After another 60 days, how much more evidence are they going to be able to find. The key question is are they going to be able to find a body. That is the break-or-make issue."

Two pictures taken on a BlackBerry the day Gardner vanished reveal the couple at the same restaurant, Rum Reef Bar & Grill in the Baby Beach, at around 4 p.m. Giordano, 50, is wearing khaki shorts, a black shirt and white sneakers. Two hours later, around 6:15 p.m., Giordano is seen on video alone near the restaurant. He's now wearing printed swim trunks and is shirtless. He is still wearing his white sneakers.

Witnesses have previously described him as eerily calm in the initial hours after Gardner vanished and that his clothes weren't dripping with water like he'd been frantically searching for someone. They also told investigators that they saw blood on the beach and that Giordano had a cut on his throat. By the time Giordano reached the restaurant, it was closed.

Giordano told investigators he was trying to get help, rouse someone from the restaurant. The surveillance video shows him crisscrossing the restaurant from the bar to the patio and went around back. He appears calm.

"If I were interviewing him, I would really push him on .. .here you are sort of walking around like you don't really care and you're not really trying to find the people on the other side of those doors," said Brad Garrett, an ABC News consultant and retired FBI profiler.

Investigators said that it appeared that Giordano wanted to be visible on every camera at the restaurant as if to establish an alibi.

"I would think the normal person would be very excited, they would be beating on doors trying to find somebody. He's not conveying that in this video," Garrett said.