Not dead ... Patrick McDermott, seen with Olivia Newton-John, "disappeared so he could avoid paying debts"
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- Investigators claim Patrick McDermott is alive
- Appears to have staged his disappearance
- "No doubt in my mind, this guy's alive"
THE former partner of Aussie star Olivia Newton-John is alive and on the run after staging his own disappearance almost four years ago, according to US investigators.
A team of private investigators from Texas said they believe Patrick McDermott has been travelling along the Mexican and South American coastline since disappearing from a fishing charter in 2005.
Investigator Philip Klein said he believed that the former cameraman had disappeared so he could avoid paying debts and enable his teenage son Chance to receive a $150,000 life insurance payout.
"He's alive - there's no doubt in my mind, this guy's alive," Mr Klein said. "Everything was bad in this guy's life. There was nothing good.
"Maybe in his mind if he stages his death, the insurance policy will pay off all his debts and he can leave his child a gift by pretending he's dead."
McDermott, who had been in a relationship with Newton-John for nine years, was 48 when he disappeared after boarding a boat called The Freedom in California.
An official report from the US Coast Guard released in November concluded that McDermott, who had previously filed for bankruptcy and owed thousands of dollars in child support payments to his ex-wife, most likely drowned.
Mr Klein, whose agency specialises in tracking kidnap victims and people who do not want to be found, was hired by US current affairs program Dateline.
In an episode devoted to the mystery this week, Mr Klein revealed that his agency had set up a hi-tech trap to help locate McDermott by making a website called findpatrickmcdermott. com, which secretly showed investigators the locations of people accessing the site.
Mr Klein said he suspected McDermott has regularly been logging on to the "spider site", with the team tracking hits from what he believed was a boat travelling along the Mexican coastline as far as South America.
"When you're running you always are looking over your shoulder and we're going to catch him looking at us. The most interesting hits have come directly from Cabo San Lucas (in Mexico), the last place anybody saw Patrick McDermott," he said.
Mr Klein said he believed that Olivia Newton-John, who refused to be interviewed for the investigation, had regularly been logging on to the site to get updates on the hunt for her ex-partner.
Olivia, who married Amazon herb millionaire John Easterling last year has moved to the upmarket Florida community of Jupiter Island where Easterling owns a three-bedroom house.
Klein, who claimed to have confirmed sightings of McDermott from at least 17 witnesses, said he was confident of tracking him down.
A team of private investigators from Texas said they believe Patrick McDermott has been travelling along the Mexican and South American coastline since disappearing from a fishing charter in 2005.
Investigator Philip Klein said he believed that the former cameraman had disappeared so he could avoid paying debts and enable his teenage son Chance to receive a $150,000 life insurance payout.
"He's alive - there's no doubt in my mind, this guy's alive," Mr Klein said. "Everything was bad in this guy's life. There was nothing good.
"Maybe in his mind if he stages his death, the insurance policy will pay off all his debts and he can leave his child a gift by pretending he's dead."
McDermott, who had been in a relationship with Newton-John for nine years, was 48 when he disappeared after boarding a boat called The Freedom in California.
An official report from the US Coast Guard released in November concluded that McDermott, who had previously filed for bankruptcy and owed thousands of dollars in child support payments to his ex-wife, most likely drowned.
Mr Klein, whose agency specialises in tracking kidnap victims and people who do not want to be found, was hired by US current affairs program Dateline.
In an episode devoted to the mystery this week, Mr Klein revealed that his agency had set up a hi-tech trap to help locate McDermott by making a website called findpatrickmcdermott. com, which secretly showed investigators the locations of people accessing the site.
Mr Klein said he suspected McDermott has regularly been logging on to the "spider site", with the team tracking hits from what he believed was a boat travelling along the Mexican coastline as far as South America.
"When you're running you always are looking over your shoulder and we're going to catch him looking at us. The most interesting hits have come directly from Cabo San Lucas (in Mexico), the last place anybody saw Patrick McDermott," he said.
Mr Klein said he believed that Olivia Newton-John, who refused to be interviewed for the investigation, had regularly been logging on to the site to get updates on the hunt for her ex-partner.
Olivia, who married Amazon herb millionaire John Easterling last year has moved to the upmarket Florida community of Jupiter Island where Easterling owns a three-bedroom house.
Klein, who claimed to have confirmed sightings of McDermott from at least 17 witnesses, said he was confident of tracking him down.
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Suzanne of Pasco, WA