Missing woman a no-show at resort

A Mission Viejo woman who disappeared this month while reportedly walking to a casino on the Caribbean island St. Maarten never arrived at the resort, a spokeswoman said.

Frank Cordes, 42, said his wife, Leta Lynn Cordes, 49, left their island vacation home -- where they had gone to spend the holidays -- about 11 p.m. Jan. 11 and walked to the Westin St. Maarten Hotel, about 10 minutes away.

But surveillance tapes from that evening show that she never entered the hotel or casino, said Westin spokeswoman Karen Gee-McAuley.

“She’s a regular customer,” Gee-McAuley said, adding that the hotel and casino staff “know what she looks like. She wasn’t there that night.”

None of the casino employees “reported seeing her that evening,” she said. The surveillance tapes were turned over to local authorities after being reviewed by security personnel.

On Tuesday, Cordes said he had heard “conflicting accounts” about whether his wife had arrived at the casino. He said the local media reported that she was seen at the casino, but “this has not been 100% verified by police.”

Cordes said he had been stymied in his efforts to obtain information from Westin officials because they refuse to talk to him. Gee-McAuley said he should be talking to police because they are in charge of the investigation.

St. Maarten police declined to comment Tuesday.

Cordes said, however, that he met Tuesday with a “special task force” of investigators who asked him “redundant questions” about his wife’s disappearance. He said the investigators apparently were working independently of the police detectives investigating the case, but he was not sure if they were all from St. Maarten.

Last week, the FBI offered to assist local authorities, but Cordes said he had not met with any U.S. law enforcement officials.

Cordes said the task force buoyed his hopes that investigators “are in a search for a live wife” because he believes the probe by local police has turned into a search for a body.

Last year, Orange County sheriff’s deputies responded to a domestic violence call at the couple’s Mission Viejo home. Cordes said he called authorities when his wife became violent after they had argued. He said his wife chased him into his home office and was banging on the door with a hammer.

Cary Honstein, a friend of the missing woman, said Tuesday that Leta Lynn Cordes called her the night of the incident in January 2007 and said that Frank Cordes “had laid hands on her.”

Cordes denied hitting his wife and said he had been slapped by her. He said she “went on a rampage” over a dispute about life insurance and threw household objects at him.

Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said deputies defused the situation and there were no arrests.

Cordes said he and his wife had enjoyed a “harmonious relationship” since the incident.

The couple built a vacation home in St. Maarten last year and had been vacationing there for seven years, he said.

Cordes said he arrived Dec. 3 and his wife eight days later to celebrate the holidays. The couple work as computer animators from an office in their home.

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hgreza@latimes.com