A new Spotify podcast called Pseudocide is reopening the year’s old speculation that Olivia Newton John‘s ex-boyfriend Patrick McDermott allegedly faked his own death because he was in debt.
In 2005, McDermott went on an overnight fishing trip off the coast of LA, it wasn’t until days later that they realised he was missing. Crew on the boat found his car keys, passport and wallet in a bumbag on board — while his car was parked at the San Pedro marina.
The six part series hosted by Poppy Damon and Alice Fiennes aims to address all the key facts of the cold case, uncovering new revelations in the process. It looks at McDermott’s evident disdain for Hollywood, and how he tried to distance himself from it.
It also looks at how Patrick McDermott filed for bankruptcy not long before he went missing and how he was allegedly spotted in Mexico by multiple sources in the months that followed.
“Hollywood’s a place of money, but it’s also a place of very poor people who are trying to make it,” private investigator Philip Klein told the podcast.
“And he just never could make it.”
Klein claims that McDermott was tired of “living in the glare” of Olivia Newton John and because of that they took a break. He also claims that Klein gave her a note and flowers that read “I will love you and will always love you” shortly before he went missing.
The Pseudocide podcasts said this piece of alleged evidence could be read as meaning that he knew something big was about to happen. Or it could just be a coincidence.
Despite the new developments in the case, the podcast keeps a neutral stance — neither suggesting he faked his own death or that it was only an accident. The podcast also critiques the major pieces of evidence surrounding the case, and says that the ‘note’ has neither been confirmed or denied by the police.
You can listen to the first episode of the series here.
Or, you can also listen to PEDESTRIAN TV’s own investigation of the case here.
