Canoeist, who disappeared 5 years ago, claims amnesia

John Darwin is held on suspicion of fraud. His wife has cashed in on John’s life insurance policies and sold their properties for £5,00,000

LONDON: He was last seen paddling his canoe out into the North Sea in 2002. John Darwin’s family organised a large-scale search for him when the wreckage of his red canoe was found, but he didn’t return and eventually he was presumed dead. That was until this week-end when the 57-year-old former science teacher walked into a police station in London’s West End and told the desk sergeant “I think I am the missing person.”

On Wednesday morning, Darwin was arrested for fraud from his son’s home in Basingstoke, Hampshire, where he was staying since his sensational return after being missing for over five years. There are allegations that Darwin faked his own death so that he and his wife could cash in on his insurance policies.

Giving credence to the allegations is the fact that his wife Anne had encashed all his insurance policies and sold their two properties in Seaton Carew for £5,00,000 and moved to Panama in South America just six weeks ago. 55-year-old Anne told a British newspaper from Panama that she claimed the insurance money ‘in good faith’ when she thought her husband was dead, but that though she is happy he is alive, she has no intention of rushing back to the UK to meet him.

In Britain it normally takes seven years for a missing person to be declared dead unless there are compelling circumstances. In the Darwin case, an inquest was held in April 2003, just over a year after his disappearance, which was unusual. As no body was found, permission had to be secured from the Secretary of State and an open verdict was returned. The police presented a file which said there were no suspicious circumstances and he was probably dead. On that basis Anne was able to cash in his insurance policies.
 
Darwin is claiming amnesia and his two son’s have issued a statement saying their father, though well, can’t remember anything since June 2000 — two years before he went missing. Some family members have alleged that Darwin is faking his loss of memory too. “I don’t believe he ever got wet,” said his 80-year-old aunt, Margaret Burns.

However Anne is sticking by her husband. “John wouldn’t fake his own death,” said Anne. Police at the West End station said Darwin looked fit and with a sun tan. They are also looking into a photograph which shows Darwin with his wife in Panama taken a year ago.