The key to solving the mystery of what really happened to Olivia Newton-John’s missing ex-boyfriend Patrick McDermott could be a love letter he sent to the singer.
Patrick gave Olivia the note shortly before he went on an overnight fishing trip off the coast of LA on June 30, 2005 – and was never seen again.
WATCH: Olivia Newton-John’s incredible life story in pictures
Since then the world has been questioning whether he was truly lost at sea or if he faked his own death to avoid crippling debts and the massive toll Hollywood had taken on him.
The new season of Spotify podcast, Pseudocide, has sparked fresh interest in the unending speculation that he orchestrated his disappearance and was allegedly spotted in Mexico on multiple occasions in the months after he vanished.
Patrick was just 48 when he disappeared.
Private investigator Philip Klein claims the cameraman gave Olivia – who had a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship with him for nine years – flowers and a telling note shortly before he went on the fishing trip.
“I will love you and will always love you,” he told Olivia in the love letter, which some now speculate was also a farewell message – and proof he was planning to fake his death.
Patrick had struggled with living in Olivia’s shadow – and had additional issues with his financial situation, which forced him to declare bankruptcy in 2000 after a court ordered he pay child support to his ex-wife, actress Yvette Nipar.
“Hollywood’s a place of money, but it’s also a place of very poor people who are trying to make it, and he just never could make it,” Philip says in the podcast.
The mystery and intrigue over how Patrick vanished began almost as soon as the Korean-born American was reported missing.
The jaunt was supposed to be a straightforward 22-hour overnight trip that Patrick booked on a fishing boat called Freedom.
Travelling without family or friends was perfectly normal for Patrick, who had done so many times before … but questions were raised instantly as to how the 22 others on board didn’t immediately notice his disappearance.
Some of his personal belongings, including his car keys, passport and wallet were later found on the boat, and his car was found parked near the marina where he left it.
Patrick’s disappearance went unnoticed until he failed to attend a family event six days later, and he wasn’t reported missing for another five days.
Official investigations concluded that he must have been lost at sea.
But there have been many alleged sightings of Patrick in the months and years since he vanished into thin air.
His case has been featured on America’s Most Wanted and Dateline, which claimed he was living on a fishing boat off the west coast of Mexico in 2009.
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