Timeline: the missing canoeist

Just a few months before he disappeared on the 21 March 2002, John Darwin wrote about his life so far on the Friends Reunited website.

Then aged 51, he said: "Taught in Derwentside (County Durham) for 18 years before leaving teaching to join Barclays Bank. At present work for Prison Service and have portfolio of properties.

"Married to a convent girl, Anne Stephenson, we have two grown-up sons and two dogs. Recently moved to Seaton Carew (near Hartlepool) where I hope to retire soon."

On the day of the spring equinox, Darwin went out to sea in his canoe and never came back...

Here's what has been so far pieced together about the time between that fateful day and now:

March 22 2002: Darwin's battered red canoe is found washed up a Seaton Carew beach. A coastguard and police search of the coastline between Hartlepool and Staithes proves fruitless.

April 2003: An open verdict is recorded at an inquest into the missing canoeist's apparent death.

November 2007: Darwin's wife Anne sells the family home in Seaton Carew and moves to an apartment in the offshore financial centre Panama City.

1 December 2007: At 5.30pm Darwin, now 57, walks into a London police station and announces: "I think I am a missing person."

2 December 2007: Darwin's sons are called to the police station for an "emotional reunion" with their father.

3 December 2007: Darwin's 90-year-old father, Ronald Darwin of Blackhall Colliery, Co Durham, tells the London Evening Standard newspaper: "I always said to the police that there might be more to this than it appeared at first. When his canoe was found but he wasn't, it didn't seem right."

4 December 2007: It's announced that Darwin can't remember anything after 2000 - two years before he went missing.

His aunt, Margaret Burns, 80, tells the Evening Standard: "I'm a cynic now. To be honest I don't believe he ever got wet."

5 December 2007: A photo is printed in the Mirror newspaper allegedly shows Darwin with his wife in Panama last year. Darwin is arrested in Hampshire.

6 December 2007: Anne Darwin admits to the Mirror that she lied and that the photograph was indeed of her and her husband in Panama.

She said: "Yes, that's him. My sons will never forgive me. They knew nothing. They thought John was dead. Now they are going to hate me."

The canoeist's sons issued a statement, reading: "Having seen the recent media speculation surrounding our parents ever since our dad was arrested, we are very much in an angry and confused state of mind."

8 December 2007: Darwin is charged with fraud. Police urge his wife Anne to contact them and return to the UK.

9 December: Anne Darwin is held by Cleveland police after returning to the UK. Armed police boarded her plane and took her away for questioning after she landed in Manchester airport on a flight from the United States.

10 December 2007: Detectives release new photo of John Darwin and say they had no idea he was alive until he turned up in a police station nine days ago.

Detective Superintendent Tony Hutchinson says there are no plans to arrest the Darwins' two sons as part of Cleveland Police's investigation into the "scam".

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