Eerie moment Olivia Newton-John’s ‘missing’ ex is shown at the ARIA Awards
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Olivia Newton-John’s longtime partner, Patrick McDermott, went missing in 2005 during a fateful fishing trip.
And fans were reminded of the incident at the 2022 ARIA Awards on Thursday during a tribute to the late Physical singer.
During a montage of Olivia’s life and career, Patrick was briefly shown with Olivia’s daughter Chloe Lattanzi during the 2002 ARIAs.
Olivia Newton-John’s longtime partner, Patrick McDermott, went missing on a fateful fishing trip in 2005, but he made a brief appearance Thursday night during a tribute to the late singer at the ARIA Awards. Patrick and Olivia pictured in 2005
In the footage, Patrick and Chloe give Olivia a standing ovation as she is admitted to the Hall of Fame.
The Korean-American cameraman, 48, who dated the late Australian singer for nine years, was last seen alive in June 2005 when he went on an overnight fishing trip off the coast of Los Angeles with 22 other people.
Interest in the case has increased since Newton-John died of cancer in August, and researchers have now found new evidence that sheds light on the mystery.
During a montage of Olivia’s life and career, Patrick was briefly shown with Olivia’s daughter Chloe Lattanzi during the 2002 ARIAs. Pictured
The Spotify crime podcast Case File Presents: Pseudocide examines the widely held theory that McDermott faked his own death.
The six-part series features never-before-heard interviews and covers the facts and speculation that followed the incident years later.
After McDermott disappeared on June 30, 2005, media reports suggested that he was in a significant amount of debt.
He had filed for bankruptcy with more than $30,000 owed.
Interest in the case has increased since Newton-John died of cancer in August, and researchers have now found new evidence that sheds light on the mystery. Pictured in LA in 2001
Private investigator Philip Klein suggested that McDermott’s bankruptcy was an important part of the mystery.
He also said that McDermott, who was born in Seoul and adopted by an American family at the age of two, hated the “Hollywood lifestyle” during his relationship with Newton-John, and particularly hated red carpets .
“Hollywood is a place of money, but it’s also a place of very poor people trying to make it,” Klein said. “And he was just never going to make it.”
In another explosive revelation, Klein claimed that McDermott left Newton-John a “sincere note” and a bunch of roses shortly before he went missing.
The note was passed on to Klein when he was investigating McDermott’s disappearance for the American news program Dateline.
“The note told her he had always loved her, always will love her,” Klein said. “But they had a lot of problems.”
He added, “Patrick pulled out of the relationship because he didn’t like Hollywood — he didn’t like what he was doing.”
After McDermott disappeared on June 30, 2005, media reports suggested that he was in a significant amount of debt. He disappeared at sea during a night fishing trip on the boat ‘Freedom’
According to an unproven theory, McDermott is hiding in Mexico, on the run from crushing debt and living on a yacht off the coast of Sayulita.
The letter could be interpreted as McDermott’s “final goodbye” to Newton-John, perhaps suggesting that he knew something bad was about to happen.
There are still many questions about McDermott’s disappearance, with wild theories that he may have faked his own death for a new life in Mexico to evade taxes.
He disappeared aboard the fishing boat ‘Freedom’ and his absence was not noticed until the boat returned to dry land. He was then 48.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be completely at peace with it,” Newton-John admitted to Women’s Weekly magazine in 2009.
“I think there will always be a question mark.”
“He was lost at sea and nobody really knows what happened,” Newton-John told 60 Minutes in 2016
The Grease star began a nine-year on-off romance with McDermott following her 1995 divorce from her first husband Matt Lattanzi.
Newton-John was on a promotional tour in Australia when McDermott disappeared.
The crew of his fishing boat had found his car keys, passport and wallet on board the boat and his car was found parked at the San Pedro marina in Los Angeles.
But still no one realized he was missing until he failed to show up at a family event on July 6, and the police finally called on July 11.
Newton-John died on August 8 at the age of 73 after a long battle with cancer. Pictured is Olivia and her husband John Easterling
By then, however, the trail had gone cold — and investigators had found nothing.
Prior to dating Newton-John, McDermott was married with a son, and was served with a court order to pay $8,000 in back child support.
A Coast Guard investigation admitted at the time that they “found no evidence of any criminal action, suicide, accident or fraud in McDermott’s disappearance.”
A three-year investigation into the fishing boat ‘Freedom’ found that no heads were counted on the day of the trip, so McDermott’s disappearance went undetected.
Both probes concluded that McDermott was probably lost at sea during the night and probably drowned. He has since been presumed dead.
WHAT HAPPENED TO OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN’S LOST LOVER?
For nearly two decades, theories have raged about the fate of Olivia Newton-John’s on-again, off-again love, movie cinematographer Patrick McDermott, 48.
He disappeared on June 30, 2005 during a 22-hour overnight fishing trip on the boat ‘Freedom’ from the San Pedro marina in Los Angeles.
The boat’s crew found his car keys, wallet and passport on board after all other passengers disembarked the next day, and his car was found nearby.
The crew hadn’t counted the staff, so no one noticed he was missing for another week when he failed to show up for a family event, and the police alerted almost a week later.
Since then, much speculation has raged about what happened to him, with investigators unable to find any evidence of a crime, suicide, hoax, or accident during the fishing trip.
Officials believe he simply fell overboard and drowned, but conspiracy theorists insist he may have had another boat lined up to meet him off shore.
Others think he planted his belongings on the boat before it slipped off, possibly even before he left port, without his noticing.
Private investigators set up a website FindPatrickMcDermott.com to try to trap the missing American into giving himself away, identifying the location of everyone who visited the site.
Olivia Newton-John kept in touch with McDermott’s ex-wife Yvette Nipar (pictured)
A wave of web traffic from the Sayulita area on Mexico’s west coast led to a hunt for him there without any success.
Others say they saw him living on a yacht off the coast of Acapulco, 1,000 km further south.
An investigator claimed to have found and spoken to him in 2009, claiming he just wanted to be left alone, but the claim was baseless.
Another claimed to have categorical proof that he was alive and about to reveal it – but never did.
Over the years, there have been at least 20 sightings of him in Mexico and Central America, but many have turned out to be false.
A series of photos of a couple purported to be the signature McDermott – who was half Korean and was adopted at age two – turned out to be a Canadian couple.
His ex-wife Yvette Nipar, the mother of their son Chance, pleaded for the speculation to end for the sake of their child.
She begged Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to block the publication of a book by private investigator Philip Klein about her ex’s disappearance.
“My son has been through enough emotional agony here,” Nipar wrote, calling Klein a “serial liar.”
‘He has to go even further due to Mr. Klein’s continued efforts to keep him in the public eye. Let him rest in peace.’