French Quarter: --- Some sixteen divers were seen in a number of small dingy boats with sonar equipments trying to see if they can find the remains of Leta Lynn Cordes in the French Quarter fish pond (Etang du Poisson). The area that is being searched is located to the end of Le Galleon beach.
The divers began their search on Monday but so far they have not found anything that would help them solve the case of the missing woman.
The operation which is led by the RST comprised of six experienced divers from the United States of America, six from the Netherlands who have the same type of experience and four from the French crime squad. The search which is presently underway may last all week depending on the outcome each day.
Leta Lynn Cordes is a Mission Viejo woman who also owns a vacation villa in Dawn Beach; went missing on January 11 2007 after a day’s outing with her husband Frank Cordes. According to Frank Cordes his wife left their home around 11 pm that Friday night to go gambling at the Westin Casino. Since then police on Dutch St. Maarten conducted numerous searches with cadaver and other dogs to locate the missing woman.
Frank Cordes was arrested on October 14 2008 as the prime suspect in his wife disappearance but was released from pre-trial detention in January 26 2009 after the investigators could not locate the body of Leta Lynn and prosecuting a suspect for murder without a body in the Dutch criminal system can be painstaking.
In an invited comment Prosecutor Rienk Mud said the searches are presently taking place but up the press time there were no new developments.