Trouble in paradise: The St. Maarten mystery

Dennis Murphy Correspondent • Profile

Paradise is a word that gets thrown around loosely in the rum-soaked necklace of islands called the Caribbean.  But if your test for paradise is satisfied by white sand beaches, a clear bathtub-water sea, bustling cafes, bars, casinos, duty-free…  then the island of St. Maarten may be just your glass of sunset punch.  Paradise enough.

Thousands of vacationers every year happily invest seven-nights, eight-days in the half-French, half-Dutch isle.  Some of those visitors like the laid-back life on St. Maarten so much, they buy a little place.

Frank and Leta Cordes of Mission Viejo, Calif. did just that.  And friends like Gar Buchanan were all for it.

Gar Buchanan: They had talked about making a home there for some time, then eventually took the plunge.  So I think they were very excited about finally having a home there.

But their time in Paradise was very short indeed.  Frank and Leta's story is the giant mystery of St. Maarten.

Diane Smith:  It's so hard.  You can make up a hundred stories about what happened and nobody knows.

Just what happened to Leta that night that she seemed to walk off the face of the earth?

Prosecutor: We came to the conclusion, in the end, that this woman must have come to harm.

And today, more than a year after his wife's disappearance, what can Frank Cordes tell us about that evening in question?

Frank Cordes: Oh, she had quite a bit to drink.  I did too.

The mystery begins at this red-roofed that Frank and Leta had just finished on a hillside overlooking the sea.  It was the December 2007 holidays.  And a whole houseful of guests had flown in from the States for their housewarming party.  The little house on sunny St. Maarten had been intended to patch up so many things that had gone wrong in their relationship over the years.  It would be a place to heal the damage from their mutual affairs.  You're going to hear more about all of that.  But first, get to know Frank and Leta, a little bit.

Leta Cordes: "We're having a party!  Frank gets me up at seven in the morning, you guys..."

That's Leta - blonde, Californian, and as wired as her electric hairdo.  She was 49 years old, mother of a grown son and wife of Frank.  Her German-born husband of 20 years.

Frank Cordes: We've got out beers, we're ready to hit the beach. 

That's Frank there.  Younger, quieter, a techie.  A little bit the wallflower to her let-the-party-begin spirit.  Leta's friend, Lilee Bridges.

Lilee Bridges: He knew how to handle her.  They made a good pair.

In their snapshots and videos, you can see that Frank and Leta were drawn to St. Maarten for the same reason so many others were: the great weather, the beaches.  And especially, for Leta, there were the casinos at the resorts.  She loved to gamble.  And a new favorite place was the Westin at the foot of the hill, down the road from their house.

Video   Reporter: Cordes was ‘always prepared’ St. Maarten Today reporter David McGregor talks about his experience interviewing Frank Cordes in January 2008. McGregor and is a former British police officer. Dateline NBC

Let's go back up the hill to the house on the night of Jan. 11, 2008. The house party is over.  The last of Frank and Leta's friends have left the island.  A new guest has arrived: Frank's mother, jet-lagged, in from Germany that afternoon. 

Frank Cordes: We parked the car just like we did just now, walked over here.

As Frank tells the story, he, Leta and his mother had a casual meal on the French side of the island. 

Frank Cordes: Then the real party, strangely enough, started at the parking lot.  That's where the real party started.

He showed us the parking lot here where later he said the three pulled up plastic chairs, turned up the boom box, and joined some friends for an impromptu cocktail party with beer and liquor from a nearby bar.  After an hour or so of drinks in plastic cups under the stars, they decided to call it a night and head back to their place on the Dutch side.

Leta, Frank says, was wobbly with drink.  Some of her friends would say later how distressed they were with her drinking, and her prescription pills.

Frank Cordes: Leta couldn't, I guess, hold her balance, whatever.  So, I helped her a little bit walk to the car.  And my mother then, you know, went to the front seat, Leta in the back seat.  And she passed out a little bit, I guess.

Back up at the house, Frank and his mother went inside he said while Leta lay groggy in the back seat.

Frank Cordes: At that point, Leta wasn't ready to get out of the car yet. 

Video   Fond memories of Leta Family friend Trent Lapinski shares his thoughts on the woman he grew up knowing as "Mom's best friend." Dateline NBC

A next-door neighbor of Frank's would tell authorities later that he remembers looking in and seeing Leta in the backseat of the car about 9:30 p.m.  It is the last independent sighting of her.

Frank Cordes: So I come in, what she did exactly- I don’t remember. 

Frank's recollection is that Leta rallied a few minutes later. Inside the house now, revived and ready for part two of the night, she wanted to take the car.  She was going gambling down the hill at the casino.  Frank says he refused to give her the keys.

Frank Cordes: She wanted the car keys.  And she was a little too drunk for me to feel comfortable driving that road with the car.

With some cash in her purse, Frank says Leta was out the door.  And after that?  No one knows what happened to Leta Cordes as she headed out into a Caribbean night.  Had she run into some sort of trouble down at the casino?  Had she been abducted by a person or persons unknown?  Who knew?  Frank says he hasn't seen his wife since.

Frank Cordes: That was the last time that I saw Leta.  And that was over a year ago, now.             

The mystery of Leta had begun.  An international investigation was about to start.

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