Photo 'shows dead canoeist'
Updated on 05 December 2007
A photograph of the man who appeared five years after he was thought drowned, has been published in the Daily Mirror - apparently showing him and his wife in Panama last year.
It's looks like a simple holiday snap - taken in a hotel room in Panama City last July and published in the Daily Mirror today. Yet if this photo is genuine than the man was thought to be dead at the time, his wife in mourning.
And yet - John and Anne Darwin apparently agreed for their picture to go up on the property website called Move to Panama. It even had their first names under the image. Although the manager of the company - said the couple did give a different surname.
Timeline: the missing canoeist
Apparently missing for five years, and declared dead, now John Darwin is in police custody. What happened, and when? Read more
John Darwin has been staying with his son in Basingstoke - ever since he walked into a police station on Saturday and claimed to have no memory at all of the last 7 years. Now, prompted in part by that Panama photo, he's been arrested for fraud.
His ex-widow Anne Darwin so far refuses to come back and see her husband. She claims she has to stay at her flat in Panama to wait for furniture to arrive. Before that photo emerged she told reporters she believed her husband was dead - and received a life insurance payout. Police are now considering issuing a warrant for her extradition.
John Darwin went missing from his home in Seaton Carew in 2002 - when it's thought he went out canoeing. In fact - a paddle and the wreck of his canoe were found in the weeks after his disappearance. Later his wife asked for an early inquest - so he could be ruled officially dead.
Now its been revealed police have been investigating reports that a bank account was recently opened in his name with financial links to Panama.
The police have issued an appeal for anyone who might have seen Mr Darwin in the past five years. They say he was tanned and healthy when he re-appeared suddenly five days ago - so they suspect he may have been abroad - in a sunny country.
