Olivia Newton John and Patrick McDermott on 1/15/05. Credit: WENN.com
Olivia Newton John’s boyfriend of nine years, Patrick McDermott, went missing off the coast of California in 2005. McDermott’s wallet and keys were found in his fishing boat and it was assumed that he had fallen overboard and drowned. Newton John, 60, was said to have been heartbroken. She has moved on, and married natural health supplement entrepreneur last year.

A team of private investigators hired by NBC show Dateline claimed earlier this year that McDermott, who owed thousands in debts, had faked his death. The investigators set up a website, findpatrickmcdermott.com, primarily to log visitors. They found that there were many hits coming into the site from “a boat traveling along the Mexican coastline as far as South America.” (You can trace a visitor’s location using their computer’s IP address, or unique identifier.) The site was also being accessed from the very same hotels where Olivia-Newton John was staying during her tour last year.

These same investigators claim to be in touch with someone who has sent faxes and spoken to them as a “representative” of McDermott. The representative is asking them to quit sniffing around and to leave the guy alone. McDermott is thought to be working as a deckhand on boats in Mexico:

he bankrupt cameraman left Grease star Miss Newton-John heartbroken after he went on a fishing expedition around San Pedro, California, and never returned.

Items that belonged to Patrick were left on the boat, including his wallet and keys.

It was widely assumed that the 48-year-old, who had dated the singer for nine years, fell overboard and drowned.

Close friends said Miss Newton-John took years to deal with the grief and uncertainty about what had happened, amidst mounting speculation he had staged his own death to escape mounting debts.

She has since found love again with herb tycoon John Easterling, 57, and the couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary last month.

Over the past few years there have been 16 sightings of Patrick in Mexico.

Now investigators hired to find out exactly what had happened claim they have received a fax letter sent on his behalf.

Philip Klein, the private investigator leading the probe, said he and his team have had three phone calls from people claiming to be McDermott’s representatives in the past six months.

Further evidence suggesting he faked his death has also been uncovered by detectives and the U.S. Coast Guard.

It has emerged that McDermott secured a second passport in his birth name Patrick Kim and withdrew life savings from two bank accounts before vanishing.

The most recent fax insisted he had fled California to get out of the rat race and spotlight.

It said: ‘Pat has asked that I portray to you his innocence. Pat has committed no crime. Pat simply wishes to be left alone.

‘Let him live his life in peace and harmony. He is safe and has started anew again in a new place both physically and mentally.

‘Stop this search immediately.’

Mr Klein and his team have evidence that shows McDermott now works as a deckhand in the small Mexican fishing town of Sayulita – a favourite with drifters.

They also believe he has worked on a yacht.

McDermott is divorced from former actress Yvette Nipar, and reportedly owed back child support to her for their now teenage son.

[From The Daily Mail]

There’s something so intriguing about a guy faking his death and living a carefree life as a sailor. It’s the stuff of movies, but this guy left behind a teenage son and a girlfriend. Do you think they knew that McDermott was alive and well? If he’s so willing to talk to private investigators, he probably told the people close to him that he needed to disappear. He seems to have done it primarily to avoid child support payments, so maybe his son was in the dark too. It may sound daring to leave everything behind and fake your own death, but it’s more cowardly than anything else. How lame that this guy even contacted investigators. He should have wised up and stopped going to that website or set up a proxy so that he couldn’t be traced. Maybe he really wants to be found. There’s some cash to be made in selling his story, although he’ll have to face charges first.