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Newton-John ex: Dead or alive?

By Ruth Doherty on Thursday 29 January 2009

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Olivia Newton-John and Patrick McDermott, celebrity news, Marie Claire

Since Olivia Newton-John’s ex-boyfriend disappeared four years ago, there’s been one question hanging in the balance: is he dead or alive?

Coastguards who investigated the disappearance at the time believe he fell out of the boat on his fishing trip and drowned.

But private investigator Philip Klein is adamant Patrick McDermott is still alive.

And he thinks he’s got evidence to prove it.

It was 30 June 2005 when a chartered fishing boat called Freedom left for a night time trip in the Pacific Ocean off LA. There were 23 fishermen on board – and one of them was Patrick.

Ten days later, the phone rang at the Freedom’s base of operations. It was Patrick’s ex-wife, actress Yvette Nipar. He had not turned up to pick his 13-year-old son from school.

But it was a full seven weeks before Newton-John issued a statement on the case, expressing concern for her ‘treasured friend’.

This led Klein to believe all was not well between McDermott and his girlfriend of nine years – and Newton-John confirmed later they had in fact split up before his disappearance.

Reports also indicated that there were tensions between McDermott and Nipar, to whom he reportedly owed thousands in child support. And McDermott, a lighting technician, was reportedly constantly out of work and not earning much money.

Some suggest that McDermott committed suicide because of his troubles, but Klein firmly believes he disappeared so that his son would inherit a $100,000 life insurance policy.

Klein claims two fishermen told him they saw McDermott step off the Freedom boat after the trip.

A galley tab says he bought a hot dog in the last hour of the trip and, from that point on, Frank Liversedge – the manager of the marina at the time – says ‘it’s a million to one odds a guy could fall overboard, be pushed, jump, without half the boat seeing it.’

Another fisherman on the trip, known as Casey, said he heard McDermott make a joke about ‘scamming an insurance and jumping overboard’.

Klein set up a website findpatrickmcdermott.com, which he is certain the man himself logs on to.

Hits started coming in from the last place someone said they saw McDermott: Cabo San Lucas. Hits keep coming in from someone travelling up and down the Mexican coast, and when Klein follows the tracks, numerous people in the area say they’ve seen McDermott.

But Klein himself hasn’t found him yet, even though the hits keep coming. He’s convinced the hits are coming from the man he’s chasing but, the fact is, there’s no way of knowing for sure and, therefore, no way of knowing whether McDermott is dead or alive.

Klein believes he’ll track him down. ‘He’s done a good job,’ he admits. ‘[But] Patrick McDermott walked off the Freedom and Patrick McDermott's running in Mexico. That simple.

‘He's gonna make a mistake. They all make mistakes. He's gonna do something. And I'll be right on his tail.’

Thursday 29 January 2009