Sunday, December 9, 2007
THE wife of back-from-the-dead Briton John Darwin went along with his faked death to escape from huge debts, and lived with him in secret for years, she admitted in comments to newspapers yesterday.
Anne Darwin, who faces arrest in Britain where she could return this weekend, said the couple got caught up in a spiralling web of lies which finally unravelled last week when he walked into a London police station.
"For three years, while virtually everyone close to us believed John was missing, presumed dead, he was actually at home with me," she told the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror tabloids.
"I know it seems too incredible to be true, but it is," she added, revealing details about the bizarre case and how they fooled the authorities, friends, and even their two children.
Darwin, now 57, was presumed dead after disappearing in an apparent canoeing accident in March 2002 near their home in northeastern England.
But he reappeared last weekend, telling police officers that he could remember nothing of the last seven years, and believed himself to be a missing person.
In a case that has sparked worldwide interest, his wife was tracked down to Panama and initially claimed shock at his reappearance, before admitting she knew him after a photograph of the couple from last year was published.
In comments published yesterday — in stories datelined from Miami, where she is believed to be en route home from Panama accompanied by reporters from the British newspapers — Anne Darwin revealed more details of what went on.
Recounting how the extraordinary tale started, she said the couple had about 12 houses as rental investments in County Durham, north-east England, and began to run up debts of tens of thousands of pounds.
Her husband told her faking his own death was the only way out and on March 22, 2002, he took his canoe out to sea and did not return, though the canoe washed up weeks later.
"I really thought that he was dead," she insisted.
Then, 11 months later, in February 2003, Anne Darwin had a knock at her door. It was her husband, in a dishevelled state.
He occasionally stayed elsewhere but eventually moved in, hiding in the adjoining bedsit they owned when their grieving sons visited. He used a woolly hat, upturned collar, walking stick and limp to disguise himself outdoors.AFP
Anne Darwin, who faces arrest in Britain where she could return this weekend, said the couple got caught up in a spiralling web of lies which finally unravelled last week when he walked into a London police station.
"For three years, while virtually everyone close to us believed John was missing, presumed dead, he was actually at home with me," she told the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror tabloids.
"I know it seems too incredible to be true, but it is," she added, revealing details about the bizarre case and how they fooled the authorities, friends, and even their two children.
Darwin, now 57, was presumed dead after disappearing in an apparent canoeing accident in March 2002 near their home in northeastern England.
But he reappeared last weekend, telling police officers that he could remember nothing of the last seven years, and believed himself to be a missing person.
In a case that has sparked worldwide interest, his wife was tracked down to Panama and initially claimed shock at his reappearance, before admitting she knew him after a photograph of the couple from last year was published.
In comments published yesterday — in stories datelined from Miami, where she is believed to be en route home from Panama accompanied by reporters from the British newspapers — Anne Darwin revealed more details of what went on.
Recounting how the extraordinary tale started, she said the couple had about 12 houses as rental investments in County Durham, north-east England, and began to run up debts of tens of thousands of pounds.
Her husband told her faking his own death was the only way out and on March 22, 2002, he took his canoe out to sea and did not return, though the canoe washed up weeks later.
"I really thought that he was dead," she insisted.
Then, 11 months later, in February 2003, Anne Darwin had a knock at her door. It was her husband, in a dishevelled state.
He occasionally stayed elsewhere but eventually moved in, hiding in the adjoining bedsit they owned when their grieving sons visited. He used a woolly hat, upturned collar, walking stick and limp to disguise himself outdoors.AFP