John Darwin Disappearance Case - Missing Years

Missing Years

During the years that Darwin was presumed dead, he lived for some time in a bedsit next door to the family home; he then moved back in with his wife Anne in February 2003. A death certificate was issued the following month, stating that John Darwin "probably encountered difficulties, as a result of which he died". This allowed his wife to claim on his life insurance; it is alleged that £25,000 was paid out from Unat Direct Insurance Management Limited (part of the AIG insurance group) as well as a much larger amount which paid off the £130,000 mortgage. Sometime that year, a tenant of the block of bedsit flats that the Darwins owned, Lee Wadrop, recognised Darwin and asked him "Aren't you supposed to be dead?" to which Darwin replied "Don't tell anyone about this". Wadrop later said that he had not told the police because he "did not want to get involved".

In 2004, the Darwins decided to move abroad, considering Cyprus. John Darwin applied for, and obtained a passport using the false name "John Jones", but using his true home address. In November 2004, the couple visited Cyprus to investigate buying property there.

In May 2005, an angler named Matt Autie claimed to have met John Darwin - who was going under the name "John Williams" - at a lake near Penzance, Cornwall. When back at home, Darwin is reported to have spent most of his time on the Internet where he encountered a woman from Kansas in the United States whom he flew out to meet. By November, Darwin was back in the UK and flew from Newcastle to Gibraltar, and then travelled to El Puerto de Santa María to view a £45,000 42 ft catamaran that he was considering buying from boat dealer Robert Hopkin.

On 9 March 2006, Darwin is reported to have signed a planning objection to a neighbour's building work using a false name. Darwin and his wife began to consider Panama as a possible destination. The couple flew from Newcastle to Panama on 14 July 2006, where they were photographed by a Panamanian property agent. In February 2007, they spent a further week in Panama. Newspapers from February 2007 were later found in the boarded-up gap between the Darwins' house and the bedsit where Darwin had hidden. In March 2007, the couple returned to Panama and formed a company called Jaguar Properties in order to buy a two-bedroom apartment in El Dorado for £50,000. The bedsit house next to the family home was sold under the name of the Darwin's son, Mark; the home had been transferred to Mark Darwin in 2006. The proceeds from the sale were then transferred to Panama.

The following month, Anne Darwin returned to the UK to sell her home while John Darwin remained in Panama. In May 2007, the couple purchased a £200,000 tropical estate in the village of Escobal, Colón, Panama, near the Panama Canal, with the intention of building a hotel from where canoeing holidays could be run. Anne Darwin visited Panama again in July 2007, staying for six weeks. A police investigation was then started in September when a colleague of Anne Darwin became suspicious upon overhearing a phone conversation between the couple. The Darwin family home was sold for £295,000 in October 2007 and Anne Darwin subsequently left for Panama. In the third week of November, the couple holidayed in Costa Rica before returning to Panama. On 30 November 2007, Mrs Darwin bought an airline ticket for her husband to England because "he was missing his sons". On the same day, their son Mark left his property firm after working his notice period.