Leta Cordes family cries foul
over missing reward money
~ We used money for research, says Honstein ~
PHILIPSBURG--The family of missing American tourist Leta Cordes (49) demanded on Wednesday the return of thousands of dollars withdrawn recently from a joint bank account established to pay out a reward for the missing woman’s rescue.
US $7,000 was withdrawn just days ago from a US bank account opened soon after Cordes disappeared on January 11 somewhere near Dawn Beach. The woman’s family blamed two former friends of the family for taking the money, leaking confidential information to the media, and “smearing” her husband’s name.
The Arrowhead Credit Union account in Corona, California, was left with $200 following the withdrawal.
Ousted family friend Cary Honstein admitted yesterday to withdrawing the funds, saying the money had been needed to pay for “research”
“We shifted the funds out for research,” Honstein told The Daily Herald in a telephone interview Wednesday, but he refused to give details about the research. He referred this newspaper to another ousted friend, Elaine Karas and said, “… if Frank wants his [portion of the money] back, we will give it to him.”
This newspaper was suddenly disconnected from a telephone interview with Honstein in the U.S. while requesting Karas’ contact information, and was greeted with an answering machine when attempting to resume the interview.
Cordes’ son Rory Bryant told this newspaper he had not been told about the withdrawal in advance. He also said recent media reports about a sudden spike in the reward being offered to US $25,000, citing a source R.B. as a relative, had been incorrect. “They never contacted me [in any way],” he said from his office in the U.S.
According to Cordes’ husband Frank, Karas had become Windward Islands Chief Prosecutor Taco Stein’s contact person to the family and, apparently, the source feeding “confidential information” to sections of the media.
“They are smearing me with leading headlines like “Has he left island?” Cordes said about the women he blamed for trying to vilify him.
Stein confirmed that he had been in contact with Karas about the investigation, but said he knew nothing about Honstein, whom the family considers the mouthpiece of the ongoing investigation.
Bryant explained that the joint account had been devised “very early on” at a time when they all wanted to share involvement in the stakes of the reward. “[It was a joint account] because none of us wanted full responsibility [over the funds],” Bryant said, adding that they had all been very close at the start.
“We were a support group for each other,” he added.
The relationship fell apart, he said, when Frank was being demonised and the women began speaking out of turn and without the approval of the family.
In a written statement to this newspaper delivered through Frank Cordes, Leta Cordes’ brother James McLondon said, “There are actually no family members in the group and they do not work on behalf of the family.”
The announcement that the reward had been stepped up from $5,000 to $25,000 was made without the approval of the family, Bryant said, adding that they “are misrepresenting who they are.”
Cordes went missing on a Friday night when reportedly on her way to the casino at The Westin Dawn Beach St. Maarten Resort and Spa.
On Wednesday Frank Cordes again flatly denied any involvement in her disappearance and dismissed as laughable reports that he owned a pistol and silencer.
The police are investigating.
