1999-2010

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Mystery message from missing McDermott?

Olivia Newton-John's missing lover Patrick McDermott is alive, hiding out in Baja Mexico, and has come forward to tell investigators to leave him alone. So reports the News of The World in the latest update to a story Tabloid Baby alone has kept in the public eye for the four years since the cameraman and public companion vanished from fishing charter boat that docked in San Pedro. Private eye Philip Klein, who's been on the McDermott case for months, tells the British tabloid that he received a fax from a friend of McDermott, asking him to call off the search. The fax, dated February 10, describes how McDermott fled the United States at a time he was suspected to have been having major financial problems. "You may assume Pat is alive and very well. Pat asked that I portray to you his innocence in the crimes you have accused him of. Pat has committed no crime He simply has gone to a new life without the hassles of California or the spot light to which he has lived for years. Pat has no ill will to anyone. 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 mentally and physically." Klein says he's received three phone calls from McDermott pals since February. According to his story, the 52-year-old has dyed his silver hair black and works as a deckhand in the small Mexican fishing town of Sayulita. When he's not on the move he stays at a £20-a-night beachside motel, always in room 10. The Coast Guard investigators in 2008 concluded that McDermott probably drowned, but there was speculation from the start that he'd staged his disappearance to escape debts and provide insurance money for his son. Klein says he evidence McDermott spent six months planning his getaway, got a second passport in his birth name Patrick Kim and withdrew his life savings from two bank accounts before skipping. McDermott was Newton-John's companion for nine years. Eyebrows were raised when it was realized she'd never reported him missing nor gone to the media for help finding him. McDermott left on the fishing charter on June 30, 2005. His ex-wife reported him missing on July 6th. Newton-John acknowledged the loss seven weeks later, after a reporter brought it up. She married a rich guy last year.

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