Gary Giordano Says He Has No Idea How Robyn Gardner Disappeared

Dec. 4, 2011 — -- Gary Giordano, the lone suspect in the disappearance of Robyn Gardner in Aruba, said he believes human traffickers may be behind it, but he couldn't explain how they might have made off with the woman.

Giordano and Gardner were snorkelling Aug. 2 off the coast of Aruba when she went missing.

"At some point I became distressed and found out that I had a problem coming back to shore. Robyn was, I thought, behind me, and she wasn't. I turned, did not see her, and I went for help," Giordano said this morning on "Good Morning America."

Giordano last saw Gardner at around 4:15 p.m., but he did not tell anyone she was missing until 6 p.m., an hour and 45 minutes later.

Giordano told "GMA" last week that Gardner may have been kidnapped as part of a human trafficking crime.

"What you don't know about Aruba is Aruba has two main sources of income and it's not tourism. It's cocaine and human trafficking," Giordano said. "And where we were it takes a half hour to drive a boat to Venezuela ... and it turns out that where we were, the beach, that's where they drop off illegals to swim to shore."

But today, he said that he doesn't "know how that would work."

"While I was in prison, I was talking to several prisoners ... some of the prisoners native to the island had mentioned that that location is very dangerous, currents and so on, and also mentioned that boats come from Venezuela, a half hour away boat ride, and they drop off illegals, and they swim the rest of the way in, and several of them don't make it to shore, because it is dangerous there," he said. "Also the detectives ... mentioned that there was a boat out there. I didn't see a boat out there."

Prosecutors have told ABC News that they do not find the human trafficking theory credible.

No charges have been brought against Giordano, and prosecutors have not found a body, a motive, or a weapon.

"They exhausted every resource possible on the island of Aruba and the United States and Holland, and found zero evidence that implicates Gary. There's plenty of fodder going on and plenty of nonsense and stories ... but there's absolutely nothing that indicates that Gary is guilty of anything," Giordano's attorney, Jose Baez, said today.

Skeptics have questioned Giordano's lack of emotion in his previous interviews. In his lengthy interview on "GMA," Giordano only said Gardner's name once.

When asked today if he misses Gardner, Giordano said "I do miss her and I personally feel like I'll see her again it seems. That's how I feel in my mind. I just haven't come to grasps with, she's gone."

Gardner's Boyfriend Speaks Out

Gardner's boyfriend said Friday that he agreed with Giordano's theory that Gardner could have disappeared in connection with human trafficking but suggested that Giordano may have been involved.

"Human trafficking, yeah absolutely, that's something I've been thinking about the entire time, since day one," Richard Forester told "GMA" today.

"I think it's very possible and I wonder what (Giordano's) involvement was," Forester said. "There's a whole underworld down there. I don't know what he knows about Aruba."

Forester appeared on "GMA" to respond to Giordano's first interview since being released Tuesday night from the Aruba prison where he spent four months as a murder suspect in Gardner's disappearance.

Giordano, 50, who met 35-year-old Gardner on a swinger's website a year before they decided to go on vacation to Aruba together, told prosecutors that Gardner been swept out to sea in rough currents while the two were snorkeling one evening.

Prosecutors have said that Giordano's story doesn't add up, and Gardner's boyfriend indicated that he agrees.

"There isn't any sign of her at all, no clue of her, no trace of her whatsoever that we know about," he said. "I can't imagine it would take more than a half hour to get to Venezuela. So from 4:15 in the afternoon until six in the evening, there's an hour and 45 minutes before he comes back and finally tells somebody that she's missing."

Forester said he had relayed his suspicions to the FBI and Aruban authorities, who told him they would follow where the evidence leads.

"I think it's an option that needs to be looked at," Forester said. "I know that it happens in that part of the world. It happens all over the world, but it's pretty big in that world."

Taco Stein, Aruba's head prosecutor, told ABC News that he would not comment on the the claim, but that it "speaks for itself."

Forester said he and Gardner were planning to get married and he did not learn that she'd gone to Aruba with Giordano until after she vanished.

"The last message I got from her was 'I love you, we'll talk and sort things out when I get back,'" Forester said.

Forester said in previous interviews that during Gardner's trip to Aruba, they kept in touch through Blackberry text messages and emails from her iPad until the day of her disappearance, including one message, in particular, that raised his alarm.

"On Tuesday morning, the 2nd of August, at about two in the morning, she posted on my Facebook wall, 'this sucks,'" he said. "I tried to figure out what was going on, but she didn't really respond."

Forester said today he still believes Giordano should be held responsible for her disappearance.

"Where's Robyn? Where is she? You're the last one to see her," he said of Giordano. "Where'd she go? I believe that he being the last person to see her and be with her is responsible."