The fate of Olivia Newton-John‘s ex-boyfriend, American cameraman Patrick McDermott, has remained shrouded in mystery since his disappearance while on a fishing trip in 2005. Although no-one actually saw him fall overboard, he was declared dead in 2008 – and rumours have been circulating since at least last year suggesting that the 60-year-old is in fact alive and well, and living in Mexico having faked his own death to avoid mounting debt.
Now, gossip rag New Idea says they’ve got proof that he’s still alive: a single, grainy photo of a man who does look quite a lot like McDermott. Check it out on their cover here:
The magazine is saying that investigators found the photograph in a Mexican campsite last month, showing McDermott reclining next to a “mystery woman” (isn’t it always a mystery woman).
Private investigator Charlie Parker told New Idea, “The widow’s peak is exact. The eyes are very similar and the ears extend down on the head the same distance. I believe it is him.” He called the resemblance a “90 per cent match“.
Reports that McDermott is still alive and swanning about Mexico have surfaced regularly since his disappearance, mostly fuelled by the fact that he owed $12,000 (£7,000) in unpaid child support when he vanished, and the suspicious circumstances surrounding the fishing trip that he never returned from.
Olivia Newton-John addressed the disappearance in an interview with 60 Minutes earlier this year, saying of the whole situation:
It was very hard, he was lost at sea and nobody really knows what happened.
It’s human to wonder [about what happened to him]. Those are the things in life you have to accept and let go because whenever you go through difficult times there are always those concerns but… I live on.
Does McDermott as well? New Idea seems to think so. Regardless, can we have this movie made immediately, please? I am completely hooked.
