health

New claims say Olivia Newton-John's missing partner is 'alive and well'.

Recent reports claim Patrick McDermott, Olivia Newton-John‘s former boyfriend who disappeared in 2005, has been found alive and well.

According to Woman’s Day, McDermott is secretly living in Mexico with a European lover.

Olivia Newton-John in a landmark interview about her missing partner. Image courtesy of ABC.

There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the former cameraman's fate in the 11 years since he vanished overnight from a fishing boat in California.

He was reported missing a week later by Olivia Newton-John after he failed to attend a family event. Newton-John was in the middle of a promotional tour in Australia when McDermott first went missing.

In an interview in 2009, Newton-John said of her partner's disappearance, "I think there will always be a question mark about what happened. I don't think I will ever be really at peace with it."

"I remember moments during that time when I would look out of the window and see the sun and the birds and think that one day this will pass."

A Coast Guard investigation originally concluded McDermott, who was 48 at the time, had most likely drowned, but multiple holes in the story led to further investigations, which suggested he might have faked his own death to avoid debt. Interestingly, none of the 22 passengers who were also on the fishing boat in San Pedro saw him go overboard.

Now, fresh evidence from investigator John Nazarian claims to point to McDermott's exact whereabouts. Nazarian told Woman's Day, “It’s rumoured he was with a German national. I spoke to people there. The girl he was travelling with was described as having a German accent.”

The investigator argues previous conclusions regarding McDermott's death were nothing short of "preposterous".

“To come up with the conclusion that he fell off the boat, and allegedly no-one saw him fall off the boat, is the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” he said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Not long after his disappearance, a group of US investigators claimed McDermott had faked his own death. They found he had filed for bankruptcy not long before his disappearance, and that he owed more than $30,000.

They also revealed McDermott, who was born in Korea, had organised a second passport under the name 'Patrick Kim', and had withdrawn all his savings before he vanished.

Olivia Newton-John has since moved on from the relationship, and secretly wed John Easterling in Peru in 2008.