"From what I understand Shevaun (Pennington) had written a letter and signed it for him to give to the authorities clearing him of any wrongdoing," Toby Studabaker's brother Leo told the BBC.

"He gave no indication of when he had last seen her or where she had gone," he said, adding that he thought "she was on her way back to England."

"He was going to give all that information to the FBI (US Federal Bureau of Investigation)," Leo Studabaker said.

In an interview broadcast on CNN Leo Studabaker said that his brother told him "he had not touched or harmed her in any way."

The case has sparked concern and an international manhunt for the two, who were last reportedly at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Saturday after she disappeared from her home near Manchester in northern England.

Shevaun is said to have flown to Paris via London from England with the 31-year-old Studabaker, after corresponding with him for the better part of a year via the Internet. They reportedly met in an online chat room.

Leo Studabaker told the BBC his brother had told him he was angry after finding out he had been "deceived" into meeting Shevaun, who reportedly told him she was 19 years old, and that he was "very mad when he found she had lied about her age."

Studabaker's sister-in-law Sherry said "Shevaun is fine, she is not hurt, she is unharmed. He didn't give me any sense of if she was with him and where she was at at that time."

On Tuesday, French authorities said she returned to Liverpool in northern England after spending a little over two hours in the transit area of the airport.

But a British police spokesman was quick to deny the claim, saying someone named S. Pennington had taken an easyJet flight to Liverpool that night, but it was not Shevaun.

The latest revelation by British authorities will only further stoke the controversy, which has seen Pennington's parents plead on television for her to come home.

Officials gave Pennington's description as white, 1.60 meters (five feet three inches) tall, with mid-length fair hair and gray-blue eyes. Studebaker was said to be white, 1.75 meters tall, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Studabaker -- who was discharged from the Marines in June because of a shoulder injury -- has been described as a devout Christian who attended a bible college in Ohio from 1993 to 1994. His wife Jenny died of cancer last year.

All European police forces, particularly at ports and airports, have been alerted to the disapperance of the two.

WAR.WIRE