As police were probing whether they were facing a sinister kidnapping or a case of unlikely lovers running off, Toby Studabaker's brother Leo told the BBC: "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."

Speaking from the United States, Leo Studabaker added that he had received a call from his 31-year-old brother Tuesday, who did not say where he was phoning from or where Shevaun Pennington was.

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

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

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

Toby Studabaker's sister-in-law Sherry, who also spoke with the missing ex-marine on the phone, told the BBC he had contacted the FBI (US Federal Bureau of Investigation) and wanted to bring the situation to an end.

"I gave him a phone number to get hold of the FBI. He is going to be contacting them. I called the number and the lady told me she was talking on the phone to Toby Studabaker."

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

Leo Studabaker also 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."

Leo Studabaker's wife Sherry told the BBC: "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 Shevaun returned to Liverpool in northwest England after spending a little over two hours in the transit area of Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

But a spokesman for British police in the northwest city of Manchester was quick to deny the claim, saying someone named S. Pennington had taken an easyJet flight to Liverpool in England, but it was not Shevaun.

The latest revelation by British authorities further stoked 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 served in Afghanistan and who was discharged from the US 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.

He is believed to have met up with Shevaun on Saturday after flying into Britain, via Holland, the previous day.

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

British police said they were looking at obtaining an international arrest warrant for Studabaker, adding that he has no previous criminal record.

According to press reports, Toby Studabaker had faced sex allegations against an underage girl in the past, but was reportedly acquitted.

Leo Studabaker told Britain's GMTV television earlier that the former marine and Shevaun had talked of possibly marrying and having children, and that was partly the reason the ex-soldier had gone to Europe.

WAR.WIRE