Olivia Newton-John’s missing boyfriend didn’t fake his own death

A new podcast delving into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Olivia Newton-John’s ex-boyfriend has debunked the idea that she faked her own death.

Patrick McDermott, a videographer who dated the late actress and singer on and off for nine years beginning in 1995, was 48 when he disappeared in June 2005 after taking an overnight fishing trip off the Los Angeles coast with 22 other people.

Seventeen years later and with no trace of Patrick, many have explored the theory that he faked his own death due to financial problems (he was reported to be $30,000 in debt and filed for bankruptcy) and the pressure of keeping up with the “style of Hollywood life”. ‘.

But after investigating the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, the hosts of Pseudocide: The Disappearance of Patrick McDermott told FEMAIL they believe Patrick really did die on the fishing trip and several ‘sightings’ of the cameraman don’t hold up.

The podcast investigates reported sightings of McDermott in Mexico over the years, which hosts Poppy Damon and Alice Fiennes believe were hoaxes and red herrings. After carrying out their investigation, the hosts told FEMAIL that they are convinced that Patrick really is lost at sea.

When they began researching the series, they admitted they were skeptical of rumors that Patrick had faked his death, but “wanted to keep an open mind.”

They said: “So many people thought they had seen Patrick in Mexico that at first we thought there might well be some substance to the rumors.”

Patrick McDermott was born in South Korea and orphaned by the Korean War in the 1950s. As a young child, he was adopted by an American family and raised in the United States.

When Patrick went fishing on the Freedom boat on June 30, 2005, Olivia was on a promotional tour of Australia.

The next day, when other passengers disembarked from the ship, crew members found no sign of Patrick, but his car keys, wallet, and passport were still on board.

However, because the crew had not done a passenger count, it took another week before anyone realized that Patrick had not returned from the trip when he missed a family event on July 6. His car remained parked near the San Pedro marina.

Mystery has surrounded the mysterious disappearance of the cameraman ever since investigators found no trace of him. They also could not find evidence of a crime, an accident, a suicide or a hoax on the ship. Patrick was supposed to have been lost at sea.

Authorities believe he simply fell overboard and drowned, but conspiracy theorists insist he may have had another ship lined up to meet him on the high seas. Over the years, several sightings of Patrick have been reported in Mexico.

As the new podcast series unfolds, the hosts interview Wes Stobbe, a Canadian from the province of Manitoba, whose image graced the front page of the National Enquirer in November 2017 with the headline: ‘Mystery Solved in 12 Years! !’

He tells the podcast hosts of his surprise at seeing his photo, which was sold as a photo of Patrick McDermott, from his vacation home in Sayulita, Mexico.

He says, ‘I said, ‘Well, I don’t look like him, but I guess some people think I do.’

Wes, a pub owner, adds: “I had to laugh. I laughed.

He tells the hosts that his friends also had a lot of fun seeing the photo on the cover, and that one of his heavily tattooed friends also got some new ink from the incident.

However, apart from the hilarity of the mistaken identity case, Wes reveals to the hosts that he felt guilty about the incident.

“I felt a little sorry for some of the family members… who might be harboring a faint hope that he would be found alive,” he says, recalling how he tried to contact Olivia Newton-John to confirm that he was definitely missing. his ex-partner disappeared.

As the mystery wrapped around Patrick’s disappearance, private investigators created a website called FindPatrickMcDermott.com that tracked the locations of its visitors. After a burst of web traffic arrived from the town of Sayulita, the focus of the case turned to the Mexican people.

Over the years, Sayulita has continued to be the focus of conspiracy theorists who believe that Patrick McDermott is alive and well, and in 2016, Spanish media quoted locals from the town as saying that Patrick was there and that he wanted to be left alone.

Other locals were quoted as saying that Patrick was often seen running on the beach and that he was a “classic hippie” who had messy hair and frequented the local bars and cafes.

After reading the reports, the presenters speak with Sayulita City Manager Oswaldo, who was one of the locals cited as having seen Patrick around town.

However, when contacted by journalists, he says: ‘Patrick, who?’

He then reveals that he has not actually seen or spoken to Patrick, and gives a different version compared to the one reported in El País in 2016.

It soon becomes clear that many Sayulita locals have spoken about sightings of Patrick, but it is unclear if any of them have actually seen him in person.

The hosts contacted 10 people who had previously been quoted as saying they had seen Patrick in Sayulita, but none of them could confirm that they had actually seen him for themselves.

Speaking to FEMAIL, the hosts said it was “strange” to know that no one in Sayulita had seen Patrick themselves.

They said: ‘We were never able to get to the bottom of this discrepancy. Why were they cited with more certainty earlier? Did their memories change over time, or was there something darker at play?

Olivia Newton-John died at the age of 73 in August of this year after a battle with breast cancer.

In 2016, he revealed that he paid no attention to rumors that his missing ex-partner was still alive and had likely died on the fishing trip.

She told 60 Minutes: ‘It’s human to wonder. Because every time you go through difficult times, there are always those worries.

‘Those are the things in life that you have to accept and let go of. Of course, questions always arise and that is human.

But you know, I’m still living.

Speaking about the Patrick disappearance case, which has captivated people around the world for nearly two decades, the hosts said: “Unsolved mysteries are always fascinating: you can project all kinds of weird and fantastic theories into space on white”.

“We even read a bogus theory that Patrick was paid to date Olivia Newton John, and they were never actually together!”

They added that media interest in the case may well have kept conspiracy theories alive rather than settle for the US Coast Guard’s conclusion at the time: that Patrick was dead.

They said: ‘In the fake death version of the story, Patrick is a mastermind behind the fraud. The true answer to the mystery, that he died at sea, is comparatively simple and incredibly tragic.

Pseudocide seasons 1 and 2 are available on Spotify. Season 1 covers nine different cases and Season 2 is the story of the disappearance of Patrick McDermott.

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