Aruba Suspect Tried to Redeem Insurance Policy

Just two days after telling Aruba police that his traveling companion Robyn Gardner was missing, Gary Giordano tried to collect on the accidental death provision in the $1.5 million travel insurance policy he’d taken out for the trip, a source tells the AP. Giordano has since been detained as a suspect in Gardner’s disappearance, and investigators are now trying to determine if there was anything unusual about the policy.

“If you travel, you take out insurance. That’s not an uncommon thing, to say the least,” says Aruba’s solicitor general. “If you change the policy around and make it higher or whatever, then it may be of interest.” According to the source, the policy covered just the one trip. Giordano called to verify that he was the beneficiary, to see if it would cover search costs, and to start the wheels moving on a claim. Click for more on the case. (More Aruba stories.)