Newton-John's former partner 'alive, on the run'

Olivia Newton-John's former partner, believed drowned in a boating tragedy three years ago, staged his own disappearance and is still alive and on the run, private investigators in the US claim.

Patrick McDermott apparently has been travelling along the Mexican and South American coastline under an alias to avoid paying debts and enable his teenage son to cash in on a $151,000 insurance policy.

The explosive new claims will be detailed in NBC's current affairs show "Dateline" this week.

McDermott was 48 years old when he disappeared after boarding a fishing charter boat called The Freedom in California in June 2005.

US Coast Guard officials concluded that the cameraman is most likely to have drowned — a fate which Newton-John, who was McDermott's partner of eight years, has always accepted.

But suspicion remained over McDermott's disappearance after it emerged he filed for bankruptcy before his disappearance and owed thousands of dollars in child support payments to his ex-wife.

"Dateline" hired a private investigators agency in March 2007 to find McDermott.

Now they believe they're getting close.

"He's alive — there's no doubt in my mind, this guy's alive," lead investigator Philip Klein told "Dateline".

"Maybe in his mind if he stages his death, the insurance policy will pay off his debts and he can leave his child a gift by pretending he's dead."

Klein's agency set up a website called findpatrickmcdermott.com — but it was a clever trap to find McDermott by showing investigators the locations of people logging on to the site.

Klein began tracking hits from what he believes was a boat travelling along the Mexican coastline as far as South America.

"The rule of thumb is always this — when you're running you are always looking over your shoulder and we're going to catch him looking at us," he said.

The investigator said that Newton-John, who declined to be interviewed for the "Dateline" program, apparently was also accessing the site on a regular basis for updates on efforts to find McDermott.

"The most unusual hits we've gotten were Olivia Newton-John when she was on tour in Asia. Every hotel she was registered at and staying at there were hits from that hotel on that night where she was staying," Klein said.

He said his team had "confirmed" sightings of McDermott from at least 17 witnesses across Mexico.

Newton-John has since remarried.