Private detectives hired to investigate the disappearance of Olivia Newton-John's former boyfriend claim they have made contact with the missing man through a "representative".
In what may turn out to be the first contact with Patrick McDermott since his disappearance in 2005, a person identifying themself as a representative of the former cameraman has approached investigators.
In an update posted on findpatrickmcdermott.com today, lead investigator Philip Klein said his agency had received a mysterious fax from Mexico that led to a breakthrough in the case.
"On February 10, 2009, our firm received a fax from a small city in Mexico near Acapulco in the Guerrero province of the pacific coast," Mr Klein said.
"Since that time we have been in phone contact with a 'representative' of Mr McDermott. We find this 'representative' credible."
Klein, who was hired by US current affairs program Dateline in 2007 to find McDermott, said he and his team were currently in "negotiations" with the mystery representative and would make an announcement "when necessary".
McDermott was 48 years old when he disappeared after boarding a fishing charter boat called The Freedom in California in June 2005.
Officials at the time concluded that McDermott had 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.
In January this year, Mr Klein and his team went public with explosive allegations that McDermott was alive and on the run in Mexico after staging his own disappearance. (Watch more: Klein's 'breakthrough')
McDermott had 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 investigators claimed.
Klein also revealed in January how McDermott had turned up at Newton-John's house on the day he disappeared and gave her flowers before breaking up with her.
Newton-John briefly spoke about the disappearance of her long-time partner two months after he vanished but said it was "a very painful topic".
"Patrick has a young son so we still hold out hope that he'll come back," she said.
"I love him very much, as you can imagine it's an incredibly hard thing to go through."
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