Disappearance of John Darwin - 629
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How you doing tonight, Aaron? I'm doing fine, Justin. How are you? I'm doing good. We got anything going on today?

I want to give a shout out to Nikki Wasilishan. She helped us cover the story about how her mother was murdered back on episode 585. And now Nikki has started her own podcast. I think this is something that's been a long time in the works. The trailer is out now. Poppy Killed Mommy. It's available wherever you listen to podcasts. Please check it out. And we wish Nikki nothing but the best. You know, Aaron, people ask us sometimes, hey, why?

Why do you only put out one episode a week? You should put out more. My answer is we do put out more than one a week, but it's on our Patreon, right? Yeah, we put out a lot of content on our Patreon. That's for sure. We do off-the-cuff conversations. We talk about some current events and we're starting a new deal here. So we're pretty excited about it.

We're doing listener stories. We want to hear from our audience about anything that they've experienced in their life when it comes to weird stories, when it comes to missing or murdered topics. We want to hear from you. Write a long email or record it yourself. Either way, whatever you prefer. Crimes, mysteries, what have you. Just make sure if you're trying to get them to us.

Let us know in the subject line, put in listener stories, or you can even send me a message on Patreon. That works too. So you can go out to patreon.com slash generation Y and find all the good stuff.

Now, if you're listening to this and you're not a member of our Patreon or you're a free member of our Patreon, don't worry. When you go out to listen to these stories, you just have to be signed up on Patreon. So you can sign up with a free account to hear these stories. You don't actually have to pay. But of course, we'd love for you to join because we have a lot of content on there or beyond the episodes that we do or our bonus episodes that we put out each month. So go check it out.

Also, still getting questions about the new season of Framed. If you're not familiar with Framed, an investigative story, there are two seasons currently out. So if you want to listen to season one, it's about Brian Carrick. He was a young man that went to the place where he worked, a grocery store, to get his check and

And by all accounts, he never left. It's a big mystery and a stunning conclusion. 10 episodes, season one, 12 episodes of season two, and working now on season three for this year, framed an investigative story. If you're not following it, subscribe right now.

So, Aaron, tonight's case is, wow, this is a good one. I've not heard of this case prior to this week's research, and I watched some documentaries on it, and there's even a Kansas City tie-in in this story tonight, so that was unexpected.

What are we talking about tonight? Tonight, we're talking about the disappearance of John Darwin in March of 2002 from Seton Carew, England. And if you've not heard of this story, buckle up.

John Darwin was born August 21st, 1950 in England. His father worked as a bricklayer and his mother as a cook for Hartlepool General Hospital. John attended St. Francis Roman Catholic Grammar School before college in Teesside. After college, he finished his education in Manchester Teaching Training College. He taught math, science, and religion at a school in Leedgate.

So fairly well-educated, pretty successful guy. Yeah. Let's talk about John's future wife, Anne Catherine Stevenson. She was born July 3rd, 1952 in Hartlepool, England. Her dad worked as a miner and welder.

Her mom stayed home with her, her older brother, and their younger sister. She attended St. Joseph's Convent Grammar School in Hartlepool. She excelled in shorthand and typing and started working for a local printing firm at 17. She continued night school and gained her English O-level, approximately the same level as a high school diploma in the U.S. Now, John and Ann, they had met on a school bus when they were just kids. John left for college. Ann remained in Hartlepool to finish schoolwork.

schooling. And at 16, Anne worked at a candy store on the weekends, and John was showing interest in her. Now, he asked her out countless times, but she kept telling him no until she was 20 years old. Now, John's proposal wasn't romantic. They say it was more about persistence. He showed her over and over again that he wanted her. That was who he wanted in life was Anne. But Anne grew to love John.

That's always weird to me that when they're so persistent, because if somebody tells me, no, I just move on right from there. Never. I get it. I get it. Cause you think, uh, there's something about me. They don't like if I keep pursuing, it'll just be annoying. Yeah.

But Anne, I think she became more interested in Sean over the time, and she wanted a family. The two ended up marrying December 22nd, 1973, and they were surrounded by their friends and family. They get their first child in 1975. They say it's the happiest part of their lives. Anne said she started to see some cracks in the marriage, though. She needed an emergency C-section.

And John decided to go home because he couldn't be in the room for the birth. Well, this is understandable, though. I've been in hospitals and I've been there to see the birth of my kids. And one of the times I was asked, hey, do you want to watch the C-section? And I said, sure. They said that most of the men who are asked can't do it.

That's fine, but you can just go out to the lobby and wait. That's a good point. You don't have to go home. What message does that send Anne? The operation is going to be over pretty quickly and go back in and hold their hand while they're recovering. But no, he goes home. And so Anne obviously knows where she falls on the priority scale of John.

Yeah, he should have hung in there. But yeah, he doesn't come back till the next day. But they have their first son, wonderful son, Mark. He was born November 23rd, 1975.

Despite his wife and baby being at heightened risk, their second son, Anthony, was born about three years later on September 3rd, 1978. So I don't know if John stuck around at the hospital for that one, but we're starting to see a pattern of behavior here. According to Anne, John was really interested in having a good life. He wanted money so he could get the finer things.

He wanted to live in a modern home, and he wanted to become a millionaire by age 50. He worked a second job to earn money, and Anne left her job so she could take care of the boys at home, and Anne ended up going back to work when the boys were a bit older. So John eventually leaves teaching to work as a financial advisor, and then as a prison guard.

where he actually enjoyed that career. But of course, that's not really going to get him to become a millionaire. No, that's not going to pay the amount of money that he needs for his extravagant lifestyle. But they're going to get into property investment because, hey, flipping properties, renting properties, that's good money, right? Yeah. And a lot of people have become millionaires by investing in property or in real estate. And in fact-

If you know the name Arnold Schwarzenegger, he made his first million in real estate, not as an actor. I wish I had the money to start investing in real estate, but yeah.

So it's in the mid-1990s when they start investing in property. They bought multiple homes that were converted into apartments in a lower-income mining town. This was how John was going to build and achieve his dream of becoming a millionaire. In 2000, John convinced Ann they should purchase two seafront homes in Seton Carew at the residences called The Cliff. Now, the homes shared a wall similar to townhomes, and both needed work.

John and Anne planned to live in number four and then rent out the rooms in number three. And even better, they could roll all of the rental loans plus their new mortgage into one global mortgage to make payments less complicated. So when John applies for this global mortgage, he failed to mention to the bank that about, you know, when John applied for the global mortgage, he failed to mention to the bank their overwhelming credit card debt. Ooh, banks don't like that.

You think? You can have a good credit score and still not get a loan. But by 2002, they had acquired 64,000 pounds or $96,000 in credit card debt on top of their high interest loans. And of course, they're struggling to keep tenants in their rentals and they couldn't sell them now because they were part of the global mortgage that also covered their home.

So they've locked all of their properties together with this global mortgage. So this at a high interest rate, this was probably a really bad idea. I mean, as much as it might have been like, oh, I don't want to pay five different mortgages or different loans back. I want it all under one. Well, now they sell one of those properties. I guess it's a whole ordeal because it can cause trouble with their own home that they live in. So, yeah.

Creditors are now calling and leaving letters on their doors demanding payment. And the Darwins quickly approached the point of no return, and they were going to have to file for bankruptcy. But John, he was like, I'm not going to do that. He thought bankruptcy was the worst thing you can do. It ruins your reputation. It's public embarrassment. And he just was confused.

completely and utterly against bankruptcy, which I know people that have declared bankruptcy. I don't know. I didn't realize there was such a huge stigma about it. But I guess when you're John and you have this name and this reputation to him, that was a no-go.

So on March 21st, 2002, John decides to take his canoe out along the coast and Ann went on to work. Well, Ann got out of work around 6.20 p.m. And after she got home, she called 999 and reported that she didn't know where John was. That's her husband, right? She doesn't know where he is. He never even made it to work. So the police arrive.

And they start talking to people. They learn from witnesses that John Darwin was spotted paddling his canoe away from shore in the morning. And by the next morning, John's still missing. And the police were worried that the sea had overtaken him. The weather wasn't good that day. There was strong winds there. It was not a typical day that you'd want to go out canoeing.

But the neighbors that saw him, they were like, well, that guy goes out canoeing all the time, so he knows what he's doing. But there is a shipping line that comes in to a port. There's a lot of factors here. So people are wondering, was this intentional? Like he was going to take his own life because he's in overwhelming debt? Or did he just go out for a recreational trip and then he got overtaken by the ocean?

So a massive search operation is launched by the Coast Guard along with local authorities. They had lifeboats and helicopters searching the coastline, and there was a large-scale search effort continuing for several days. Now, despite all these efforts, John is still missing, and on March 25, 2002, the authorities ceased the rescue mission because they said it was unlikely a person could survive that long in the open water of the North Sea in just a canoe with no supplies.

So the officials were under the belief that John had drowned at sea.

And after six weeks, a red canoe, broken and weathered, was seen by pedestrians. They dragged it from the water and they called 999. And the Coast Guard was dispatched to the area and they recovered a yellow jacket down the shore. And police informed Ann of their findings. And after seeing the canoe, she confirmed it was John's. It had a distinct name on it. It was called the Orca Pansy.

painted along the side along with three whales. So this kind of confirms that John suffered a terrible tragedy while he was out at sea and they've not been able to find his body.

Months later in August, a male body was discovered off the coast in Hartlepool. Now investigators immediately thought of John Darwin, but after comparison, there was no match. Police searched the Darwin residence for any clues multiple times, but nothing seemed to help.

While officers investigated the disappearance, some questioned the validity of Ann's claims. Some investigators believed John staged his death, but they didn't have any definitive proof. They asked Ann to make a public statement, and she did. In the statement, Ann claimed she didn't believe John's disappearance was manufactured. She thought he had a tragic accident out at sea. So, overwhelmed with the sole responsibility of their financial burdens, Ann called creditors and requested...

a suspension of payments. She went back to work, but was struggling to make ends meet. She contacted insurance, but they said without a death certificate, they wouldn't pay out.

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And without a body, the coroner was unlikely to open an immediate inquest that could rule John Darwin dead.

which that's normal insurance and whatever coverage they're not going to pay unless you have all of your documents in a row. And this search effort cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The investigators think there's something up, but Angie comes off somewhat believable here. So it's in late February of 2003, the Hartlepool Corp.,

coroner, Michael Donnelly, informed Ann that an inquest was approved by the Home Secretary. The inquest was set to begin on April 10, 2003. During the formal inquest, police gave several options as to John Darwin's disappearance. He took his own life, he was murdered, he staged his death, or it was a tragic accident.

Authorities found no evidence to support a staged death or murder, and loved ones gave no indication that John was suicidal. Police confirmed it was likely he died at sea by drowning, and at the end of the inquest, Donnelly agreed John's disappearance was accidental. His date of death was March 21, 2002, and with the official cause of death, the insurance companies will now be moving forward with Ann's claim.

So now, Anne was paid £90,867 or around $140,000 in life insurance and pension. A mortgage protection policy also awarded Anne an additional £137,000 or over $200,000. She paid a large portion of the global mortgage that they had and

That allowed her to sell some of the rental properties to get more money. And that's when she started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. When she was getting out of debt, she's getting out of this financial constraint. And she received a call from the police in June of 2004. A colleague from the prison where John worked reported seeing John outside number four. That's their beachfront property.

But the report was never substantiated. So that's interesting. She gets this call from the police saying, hey, your husband was seen outside your home. What's up with that? Well, that's the thing that happens though, right? Whenever anyone disappears, there are sightings. It doesn't matter what case you look at. People claim, oh, I saw him here. I saw her there. It's very common anyway.

But after John's disappearance and all of this, Anne traveled to Europe and Panama. And she told her sons she planned to move there to Panama to get away from the reminder of their father's untimely death. And Mark and Anthony were surprised. They couldn't believe that she was just going to move that far away, but they wanted to be supportive. In early 2007, Anne listed number three and number four for sale. In March of 2007, she sold number four for 160,000 pounds.

and in October, number three sold for 295,000 pounds. In between these two sellings, she also started a corporation in Panama City named Jaguar Properties. Under the corporation, Anne bought a $97,000 fully furnished apartment and arranged to have the rest of her belongings shipped from England. She also purchased $360,000 worth of land. In mid-October 2007, she finally made the move to Panama

She seemed to be starting fresh, right? Until just six weeks later when something very surprising happened. Oh yeah. This is five years after John Darwin's disappearance. December 1st, 2007 at 7.30 PM. Who other than John Darwin walked into a local London police station and disappeared?

gave his name. He said he couldn't recall anything else. Essentially, he had amnesia. Of course, the database indicates John Darwin was missing and presumed deceased. John claimed he had no recollection of the events leading up to his disappearance. This story obviously confused investigators, and they had an inclination that John didn't have amnesia and that he was not telling them the truth.

Investigators called Anne and informed her that her husband was alive. Anne was in Panama, but John's sons, Mark and Anthony, they would go directly to that police station to take him home.

So with this reappearance of John Darwin, journalists wasted no time in researching Anthony's address where John was staying in hopes of getting an interview. This created a media frenzy, and Anne was approached by journalist David Lee, L-E-I-G-H. Now, David Lee is most famous for covering this story, I believe. On December 3rd, 2007, Anne was in her Panama City apartment when the buzzer rang.

And there was a man asking if she was home. He was buzzing through, right? For quite a long time. I think it was up to 30 minutes and didn't answer. But that journalist, he really wanted to talk to her and he was hopeful that she was home, but hesitant to open the door. Yeah. You don't fly down to Panama just to leave, right? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I rang the bell a couple times and left. No, that's not a journalist. Right.

They get to the bottom of the story. So eventually, Anne goes to the door and she ends up inviting David inside. He traveled all the way from Miami and Anne stated that she wanted to go back to England to see her long lost husband. But she said she had to sign for her visa application and her possessions were set to arrive from England in the next few days. So it wasn't very convenient just to get up and leave. But David informed her that other reporters would find her address because he had, you know.

They're going to want to talk with you. This story is a buzz. It's all over the world, really. Everybody was interested in it. And so Anne started to worry about all this attention that was headed her way. So she agreed to leave the apartment with David and his photographer, Steve Dennett, that evening. David rented two cheap hotel rooms for the night. So he and his photographer could have a room and Anne would have her own room.

And the next morning, they relocated to a nicer hotel about 60 miles outside Panama City. This gives David the time he needs to question Ann and find out what's behind this whole story.

Anne said she didn't know what happened to John over the past five and a half years. She thought maybe he had an accident in his canoe, hit his head, and that's why he can't remember anything. He again asked why she didn't get the first flight home, and she reiterated that she had to deal with that visa situation before she could leave. When directly asked, Anne denied knowing John had been alive the whole time, she

She said, this is all news to me. Well, after dinner, David asked Anne to review an email the paper sent him with new information. And he showed her a photo from July 14th, 2006. This is just a year ago in Panama. And on one side of Anne stood their real estate agent and on the other side stood David.

John Darwin. She's standing with her husband a year before his reemergence. So Anne's claim that she didn't know John was alive was clearly a lie. So this is big news because this reporter has caught her and he's essentially interrogating her and showing her a photo and saying, this is all a sham.

When Ann was shown this photo, she changed her story. She said she did know that John was alive, but initially thought he was dead. According to Ann, about a year after John had disappeared, he arrived at their home and revealed that he was okay. So investigators also get this photo, and they immediately arrest John. It was clear he was a flight risk.

Back in Panama, David, Ann, and Steve prepared to fly back to England to deal with the fallout. But before they got home, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror published Ann's confession about how she knew John was alive.

The article reported that Anne believed John died at sea until he reappeared on her doorstep years later. But of course, back in England, the officers are now thinking Anne knew about this from the beginning. So what they did was they returned to number four and they found old communications between a John Jones and Anne.

Investigators traced the name and made a crazy discovery. Less than a month into his disappearance, John went to a local library and registered for a card under the name John Jones. Investigators suspected he found the name on a tombstone, and so they checked local graveyards. They found a headstone for a John Jones, born around the same time as Darwin, but this John Jones died as a child.

Just weeks after he disappeared on April 22, 2002, John also acquired a passport under the alias, and the address provided was to the No. 4 residence. Hmm. That's suspicious.

December 8th, 2007, authorities announced at a press conference that John Darwin, not John Jones, now 57, was charged with obtaining a money transfer by deception and making an untrue statement to procure a passport.

So Anne returns home to England on December 9th of 2007, and she was immediately taken into custody at the Manchester airport. And on December 11th, police charge her with deception that totaled 162,000 pounds. So they pretty much know that he faked his death and Anne really had a hand in this.

Well, that's the idea. But when John is interrogated, he says that he forced Anne to agree to the plan. Now, he doesn't give them any information on when she became involved, but he backs Anne's story that she believed he was dead until he showed up at their home. But it seems like Anne knew John planned to fake his death, and she tried to persuade him to file for bankruptcy instead. But of course, John wouldn't go that route.

It's so weird how people think, I'll just disappear and fake my own death just so I don't have to pay off my debts. So it's March 21st, 2002. John says he took the canoe out. He paddled along the shore and then pushed the canoe out to sea.

At his direction, he had Anne pick him up at a predetermined spot, and they drove him to a train station. John took the train without Anne to Carlisle and stayed at a B&B. His money, of course, quickly ran out, and he ended up living at Sillith Beach for a few weeks with some camping equipment he had purchased.

But John, you know, he's never been camping before because his lifestyle was always in a climate-controlled environment. So he's not doing too well with this camping life. And he called Ann in his...

had a breakdown. He asked if he could come home. Several times, Anne told him no because people at the house were comforting her. People were coming and going. So she's like, you can't come here. So a few weeks after John disappeared, he called again begging to come home. And Anne picked him up and brought him back to number four. So from the get-go, John is saying, I just faked my own death and my wife picked

picked me up at the shoreline. And then he tried to camp out at a campground for a while and that didn't work out. So she brings him back and this has all been planned.

Yeah. So the plan was John would disappear, leave town for a while. And then once everything calmed down and people went back to their daily lives, he would go back to number four with Ann. Now that was just the easiest option. And John didn't want to give up the comfort of his home and his wife, but his return home wasn't a hero's welcome.

Anne was distraught. She was having to lie to police, friends, family, and even their sons. So she was pretty angry at John for pulling her into all this, and she blamed herself for agreeing to it. According to Anne, John was persuasive and always got his way. So this is like townhouses. So you have units side by side, separated by a wall.

They had a secret door that connected these adjoining properties. So John could cross over from number four to number three of these adjoining homes. It's like hotel rooms separated by a door with a deadbolt. But this was sort of a hidden wall. So whenever John was hanging out in his house and he heard a car drive up or he knew there was company coming over, he would go upstairs and go through this little passageway and hide out.

And that's how he lived for a long time. It's kind of interesting that this is the life he's choosing. This is somehow simpler than paying off debt. But over time, John grows bored. He paints his room in number three, and then he starts working on other projects. He's got a beard now, but this disguise isn't really elaborate, you know?

Of course, somehow the tenants don't recognize him as their landlord and he's just moving around. But Anne's worried about the way John's acting. And she starts to notice the same few cars parked across the street. And she's starting to wonder, is it the police or is it the insurance company? Are they waiting for them to slip up?

Anne is smart here. She knows that they can't make a single mistake, and she knows that she is going to be held accountable too. So she's worried. But John, he isn't. He's just like, you know, he would just leave the property and go into town. Anytime the police or family would come by, you know, he would just leave and walk around out in the open.

He even went shopping and took a walk along the beach with no regards for trying to stay hidden, not even wearing a hoodie. He'd just be out in the open. He even admitted he passed right by his father and brother one day, and they didn't notice him. And according to a local reporter, John and Ann had signaled using the curtains so John would know if it was safe to return home. If

If the curtains were hanging straight down, it meant someone was visiting in. If they were open, he could come home. So they had a whole process, a whole thing here. In 2002, officers and insurers were suspicious of the sudden disappearance, but never discovered any evidence to support the theory that John had faked his death.

The insurance company where the Darwins held a policy contacted John Saunders, a life and health claims investigator, to look into the case. Saunders and his colleagues recently investigated three deaths at sea, and all three of them were fraudulent. With their financial troubles, Saunders suspected John faked his death for the insurance money. He recommended surveillance to see if Ann met up with John, as the wives in the previous cases had. Ann had every reason to be worried.

The suspicious cars parked across the street were watching the house.

Now, Ian Burnham, a family liaison officer, received a call from an old friend who worked at Holmhouse Prison, where John was employed before his disappearance. He claimed he was in Seton Carew and saw John walking towards a car. Burnham submitted a report about the statement, but he never heard about it again. However, his friend wasn't the only one who saw John. Another co-worker claimed to have passed him while they were driving in opposite directions, but they weren't believed.

Hey, if he's been lost at sea and people claimed he's dead, I guess when you see this person, people might give you the side eye and think you're crazy. You know, it's like, oh, I saw John Darwin today. And it's like, no, that guy's gone.

So obviously, this reappearance of John and the arrests of him and Anne, this is a media frenzy. And their sons, Mark and Anthony, are now being overwhelmed by reporters asking for comments and interviews. And you got to realize the sons thought their father was lost at sea. They were not in the know. So they had to contend with the police and the reporters and

And they were accused of being part of the scheme in on this. And, you know, this is Anne and John entangled their sons in their finances and the years leading up to John's reappearance. They had them do a lot of shady things, even though the sons had no idea that this was all to essentially launder money for their father.

Yeah. I mean, they didn't know it didn't appear shady to them at all, but let's talk about where John was because in 2004, um, he ends up meeting a woman online via an MMO video game, which we suspect is EverQuest because John was playing a druid and he meets a woman named Kelly Steele. And Kelly said that he seemed nice and they played together for like a year. They

They talked online, but after a while, John started asking her if she knew about any property over there in Kansas City. And she told him how cheap it was to live in our little area. And so John's like, okay, well, how about we go into business together? Can you go look at some properties for me? Can you go look at some stuff?

And Kelly's, you know, she's like, sure, here's a few listings. But it's not until John wires her some money that she's like, oh, this guy's serious. He really does want to move out here. Yeah. And he wants to find somewhere that's kind of remote because he wants some peace and quiet. He can't just up and fly around and get all this done. You know, he's trying to hide out. She finds him a place, but he also needs to go out to meet her because he needs to look for himself, too.

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So he flew out and Kelly picks him up from the airport, brings him back to her house where her and her family live. And she's like, you can stay in my daughter's bedroom. And this is like within 10 minutes of him showing up.

He goes up in her daughter's bedroom and he's putting his stuff away. And Kelly comes back up and there's John with his pants down, exposing himself. And Kelly is like, I don't know how you do things over there in Europe, but over here, we change with the doors closed. And this bothered Kelly so much that she told him to pack his things, repack his things. And she took him to a hotel. She's like, you're not staying in my house.

That's how bothered she was by this. But they did purchase a ranch, a property for $26,500. Like you said, it was very remote. There were structures. There was like a house on this property, but everything was in shambles. So their plan was to rehab these structures together, hire workers, do the work themselves and get this up and running.

John now says that he wants to live on the property during this build. And Kelly's like, that wasn't part of the plan. You were supposed to just come out here and visit. You were supposed to just come out here and assess what's going on, essentially be a financial backer. And now John's changing the terms and he's saying, I want to live there. So this causes a big argument between them because

Kelly's already got the ick from this guy. She doesn't feel comfortable around him. Her family doesn't feel comfortable around him. So they're like, you're not staying here. So this turns into a big debate. Yeah. And John begins to threaten her and her family. Allegedly, he said he would torture and kill them, burn their property down.

And they had horses, and I guess he made reference to, was it the Godfather movie, where a horse head's found in the bed, says he's going to kill their horse, he's going to poison them. She said that this man ruined her life, and she was afraid, and she would sleep in her bed at night with a shotgun next to her, because this man has now threatened her and her family over the course of several months, if not longer.

I mean, that's pretty scary stuff. And what was a regular just, I guess, fraud or scheme, now we're seeing John's true colors.

Yeah, and there have been some suggestions there might have been more to their relationship instead of just a business relationship where Kelly's supposed to help him purchase this property and help him fix it up. But as far as we can tell, it seems like there wasn't because Kelly responded with a lot of ick when he was being a little too casual with her. She didn't like that. So it doesn't seem likely that there was more to their relationship beyond just a video game and this purchase of this property.

So now John's dreams of solitude and Midwest are over. This plan hasn't worked out for him. So what do they do next?

Well, Jaguar Properties was one of John's get-rich-quick ideas. In July 2006, John and Ann traveled to Panama where they met with Mario Villar and took the infamous picture. This is the one that sunk their canoe, essentially, right? On November 11, 2006, John emailed Ann for a host of reasons, including confidentiality, estate planning, anonymity, and also to protect your property against any legal proceedings or situations with creditors or

or recoveries aimed at a natural person's estate, it was becoming common practice locally to organize a Panamanian corporation to serve as the owner of a property. So from his research, John determined that buying land in Panama as a corporation would protect their assets even if they were caught for the fraudulent acts. So Ann named them directors of Jaguar Properties and gave 15 shares each of the company as John advised. Okay, so this is

a way to bring in their kids so that they're in charge.

Additionally, John instructed Ann to provide each son £30,000 to buy premium bonds, and Ann asked Mark to cash out his bonds and purchase No. 3 and No. 4 seafront homes at the cliff, and then sold Mark No. 3 and No. 4 homes at the cliff for £30,000. Ann explained that the homes needed to be in Mark's name so he could manage their sale because she was going to be traveling back and forth to Panama to prepare for her new life.

And when the home sold for a collective 455,000 pounds, this large amount of money was in Mark's bank before he transferred it to Ann's bank and an HSBC. Those are bank accounts outside of the country of residence. It's an offshore account in New Jersey. Despite the plot here with Ann and John, the police quickly realized that Mark and Anthony weren't actually involved in the scheme. They were unwitting participants.

Instead, these two thought they were supporting and helping their mother through her grief. And not long after the arrests, Mark and Anthony released a statement that they wanted nothing to do with either of their parents. They were lied to. They thought their father was dead. They grieved the loss of their father. And now their mother's like, oh, here, we have this business and you need to buy stocks in it.

Well, this was essentially all a scam business, and now the sons are involved. And of course they're going to say, I don't want anything to do with my parents after this because they've been lied to, and now they're possibly going to be implicated in this financial fraud.

So on top of all the financial and legal implications to their sons, Anne and John also ruined what should have been happy memories. I mean, when John disappeared, Anthony was in Canada with his girlfriend and he was wanting to propose to her. But because of John's disappearance, they ended their vacation early and returned to England so that Anthony could be with his mother. Anthony's wedding did take place in September of 2003. And while, you know, obviously it was a joyful occasion,

there was just still this bit of sadness over it because of John's disappearance.

So Anne ends up writing a book with David Lee. And according to the book, Anne intended to plead guilty to avoid a public trial that would add insult to injury for herself and her family. But her lawyer suggested she could use marital coercion as a defense. Essentially, the defense would argue that John forced Anne to commit her crimes in the scheme. Now, before I go on, I do want to say

This is what they came up with. But some people do believe that she was coerced into this because John always got his way. We've heard that before. And, you know, depending on what was going on, maybe this just hit harder for Ann once there were arrests happening, you know, and it really brought it home just how serious this was.

On March 13th, Anne and John appeared before the crown, and John pleads not guilty because he's a narcissist, and pleads not guilty because her defense attorney says, we have a defense here. We can blame John for this. So John is awaiting sentencing, and Anne is waiting for her trial.

And they're going to go through with this because at this point, this has been a massive story in the news. Like what could have been just a basic fraud case has now turned into a media fiasco and the crown, the police, everyone, they have to make an example here. They have to show that you can't just do this and get away with it.

July 23rd, 2008, both John and Anne were found guilty and they were sentenced together. John received six years and three months. Anne received six years and six months.

Now, this judge highlighted that the Darwins wasted valuable resources. Remember, there were all those search efforts, right? And the deception. They put rescue workers' lives at risk during that search. He also emphasized the harm it caused to their family. They lost their sons over this. The sons wanted nothing to do with them. So he ordered the maximum sentence for these two. And after the trial, both John and Ann filed appeals.

But those appeals went nowhere because the Court of Appeal in 2009 upheld the convictions and sentencing for both. And this ended with Anne and John getting divorced. And it was filed for in August 2011 and finalized in January 2012. Anne has been asked about John, you know, because obviously either she was coerced or she did everything because she loved him and would do what he said. That's the idea here. But

She said in interviews that she doesn't hate John. She doesn't have animosity for him. She doesn't think about him. Now, John was released from jail in January 2011. After his release, he lived with a friend and later he met a Ukrainian woman online and traveled to meet her. And then when he got back, he was arrested and held for nearly a month for breaking the terms of his release by leaving the country.

He then moved to Manila, Philippines and married a woman named Mercy, who is 23 years younger than he is. She has a clothing stall in Manila's market and a retail business. John has his pension.

I'm just a little shocked that Anne got three more months than John. I'm wondering what charge or what happened there where she got a longer sentence than John. Because even if she was a willing participant, John was the one that... He was the idea man. This was all him. He was the one that was committing most of the fraud. I think more of the serious fraud.

Whereas she is an accessory. She is helping, but I would have assumed that she would have gotten a lesser sentence than John in the scheme of it all. Yeah, that, but that's how it goes sometimes. Right. I mean, it seems like it's not fair, but this is what happened.

Anne was released in March 2011 and lives in Northern England. And, you know, I mentioned her book, Out of My Depth. She talks about the scheme in detail. Now, this is something because there are a lot of things that she alleges in here and says in here. But I think the most interesting thing is why he came home. And it has a lot to do with him missing his sons.

But David Lee, who helped her with this book, has since written his book titled The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe. There's a four episode TV series based on that book that was released in 2022.

Now, Anne reconnected with her sons while in jail, and she does now spend time with them and her grandchildren. Now, Mark ended up being in contact with John, but Anthony completely disowned his father. All of the money and the assets acquired between 2002 and 2007 were recovered by the authorities. That amount totaled 501,641.39 pounds.

But he missed his sons, so he came back. And where in his little puny mind did he think, oh, I faked my own death, my sons have grieved my death, and I'm just going to walk back into their lives? Like, what kind of sociopath thinks that? Like, all's going to be fine? Like, I just...

I don't get it. I don't understand how he thought he could walk back into his family's life as if nothing happened. I don't think he was thinking clearly. Our researcher, Keely, she actually read Anne's book to prepare for the research on this. And it's a big help. Now, she goes on to say right away that, obviously, Anne, you have to include some pinches of salt here and there because she's not known to be

completely honest, right? But still, there are some things in here that, from an outside point of view, you could see what would trouble Anne, because John was actively trying to find other partners and even asked Anne if he could have a female pen pal during one of his calls to her. And it does seem like John was kind of coercing her, you know? But again, this is just what it seems like. We'll never truly know the truth.

You can choose to go with Anne's side of the story, if only because John seems completely untrustworthy. And it does seem like Anne suffered the most because she had a loveless marriage for a long time. And she probably has a lot of problems with what occurred because she probably wasn't thinking clearly either. Because why would she do all this for a guy that wasn't doing anything for her? It's a good question.

And then insult to injury, she gets a longer sentence. Like, go figure, you know? Yeah. But Keeley finishes, and I want to read this because Keeley includes some of the book in here. It says, "...abuse can take many forms, and quite often the victims themselves don't realize what is happening until it is too late. I believe it's possible to know what is happening is wrong."

but still feel you have no power to prevent it. In my case, I had no self-confidence and low self-esteem and didn't have the courage to do the right thing. I put all my trust in the man I married and could not perceive a life without him. As a result, I committed a crime that will haunt me for the rest of my life, but of greater regret is the impact it had and continues to have on other members of my family. And I feel like that's amazing. I think that reveals quite a bit. No matter who you believe or don't believe,

That feels real to me. Anne's thoughts. I mean, even during the police interviews when they've been caught, Anne just seems remorseful even before they've gone to trial or anything. She's coming clean with the investigators for the most part, and she seems very disheartened.

distraught and meanwhile John is just like yeah you're wasting my time like why do I have to tell this story like he's just seems so dismissive of the whole process let us know if you've heard this story before or if you knew anything about it and whether or not you thought and deserved a longer sentence than John I'd sure like to hear other people's opinions music music

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