Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Where's Leta Lynn?

On Sunday, Jan. 13th while in St. Maarten, the spousal unit and I supped at a delightful little outdoor pizza parlour called Mama Pizza. This place was very near our hotel and just on the French side of the island.

A trio at an adjacent table was engaged in an animated conversation. There was a man of German descent in his mid-to-late 40s, sporting a muscle shirt, camouflage cargos, and a rockin' Scorpions hairdo. A woman of about the same age had a wicked Long Island accent. The third member of the party was an elderly woman who spoke little.

As bits of their conversation drifted over we were able to determine that they were searching for someone. It sounded like a crime had been committed. Furthermore, they had been showing pictures around the hotel we were staying at, trying to locate a woman. Somebody said, "she's done this before". Then the woman kept saying that she wanted the police to use K9s. The man complained that the police were focusing too much on "building a case against him" and not enough on "finding her."

As morbid as it sounds, we were highly intrigued. During dinner I exchanged raised eyebrows with a woman at another table. She was clearly interested too. Back at our hotel, we searched for more clues to what was going on but found none. It felt as if we'd turned on a movie partway in and didn't get to see the ending.

Upon returning home, I enlisted my pal Google and found a St. Maarten news website. It turns out that Leta Lynn Cordes went missing on January 11th. She hasn't been found.

I'm really suprised this hasn't gotten more media coverage. Usually it's pretty big news when an American goes missing abroad. I hope they find her soon for the poor family's sake.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! I am interested to know who this third person was. I am assuming the older woman was Frank's mother. What did this woman look like and when you say LI accent, do you mean "The Nanny" from Queens or more like a Conn/Mass/Long Island accent. Thanks! Wendy

Slave to the dogs said...

Hi Wendy! Not being from the East coast I'm not an expert on the accent but it wasn't quite as strong as The Nanny. It wasn't a Massachussetts accent either though. It could possibly have been a Jersey accent.

I saw some pictures on an ABC site with Leta in a group of friends. One of them looked like it could have been this woman. I'll see if I can find the link.

Also, I gleaned that she was staying with Frank and that he was letting her stay in the room that he had been sleeping in while he moved to another room in the house.

This was Jan. 13th, and it sounded like she'd only just arrived, perhaps to help with the search.

I really hope they find her safe. She sounds like a great lady. It's hard to believe she would have disappeared in that area - it seemed so quiet and peaceful.

Slave to the dogs said...

Here's the link.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=5897512

Wathch the video. In the group pictures they show where Frank is on Leta's left, I believe the woman from Mama Pizza may be the brunette on Leta's right.

BeckEye said...

She doesn't look like the sweet little girl next door, like Natalee Holloway, which is probably why the media hasn't bothered to cover it much.

In other news, your birthday present is on my blog. Funny how I knew exactly what to get you.

Slave to the dogs said...

Beckeye, you're right. She's white and blonde, but she's not young so she just misses the profile that the media loves.

From what I can tell the husband is also refusing to talk to the American media. Seems he fears people will think he's the next Drew Peterson.

justacoolcat said...

Whoa. That is a weird story.