The former partner of Olivia Newton-John, who was believed to have drowned at sea nearly four years ago, staged his own disappearance, private U.S. investigators have claimed.
Patrick McDermott is said to be travelling along the Mexican and South America coastline under an alias to avoid paying debts and enable his teenage son to cash in on a $151,000 insurance policy.
McDermott was 48 years old when he disappeared after boarding a fishing charter boat called The Freedom in California in June 2005.
Patrick McDermott, pictured here with Olivia Newton-John in 2005, just months before he allegedly staged his own death in an apparent boating tragedy
U.S. Coast Guard officials concluded that the cameraman had most likely drowned in a boating tragedy - which Newton-John, his parter of eight years, has always accepted.
But suspicion remained over McDermott's disappearance after it emerged he filed for bankruptcy before his disappearance.
He also owed thousands of dollars in child support payments to his ex-wife.
Olivia married John Easterling in 2008
The explosive new claims will be detailed in U.S. network NBC's current affairs show Dateline this week.
The show hired a private investigators agency in March 2007 to find McDermott and now believe they are getting close.
'He's alive - there's no doubt in my mind, this guy's alive,' lead investigator Philip Klein told the programme.
'Maybe in his mind if he stages his death, the insurance policy will pay off his debts and he can leave his child a gift by pretending he's dead.'
Klein claims that McDermott's life insurance policy 'is in full force and effect. The premiums have been paid every month. There has also been an inquiry by a person or persons in an attempt to possibly file a claim on the insurance money.'
Klein's agency set up a website called findpatrickmcdermott.com.
But it was actually a ruse to find McDermott by showing investigators the locations of people logging on to the site.
Klein began tracking hits from what he believes was a boat travelling along the Mexican coastline as far as South America.
'Sayulita, Mexico, is where many of the hits were coming from,' Klein said.
'We got to Sayulita, we began to show his picture around to witnesses in the area, and we found people who said, "Yeah, I know him, he comes here all the time." We have witnesses, including five Americans, willing to give us signed affidavits that they've seen him.
'He asked waiters to put him in corners, he had changed his appearance once or twice. He's moving as a lone wolf.'
'The rule of thumb is always this - when you're running you are always looking over your shoulder and we're going to catch him looking at us,' he said.
'We fully anticipate he's going to go underground for a while," Klein said. "But when he raises his head, he's not just going to have 20 eyes looking for him, he's going to have a million eyes looking for him.'
The investigator said that Newton-John, who declined to be interviewed for the Dateline programme, apparently was also accessing the site on a regular basis for updates on efforts to find McDermott.
'The most unusual hits we've gotten were Olivia Newton-John when she was on tour in Asia. Every hotel she was registered at and staying at there were hits from that hotel on that night where she was staying,' Klein said.
He said his team had 'confirmed' sightings of McDermott from at least 17 witnesses across Mexico.
In 2008 Grease star Newton-John married John Easterling, founder and president of natural remedy firm, Amazon Herb Company.Original here
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