BRITAIN:Detectives were due to question missing canoeist John Darwin today as the story surrounding his sudden reappearance - and his wife's decision to sell up and move to central America - began to unravel.
The 57-year-old, who turned up at a London police station on Saturday claiming not to remember anything about the past five years, was arrested on suspicion of fraud early yesterday morning.
The move followed the emergence of a photograph of a smiling Darwin with his wife Anne in Panama last July, four years after he was supposed to have died in a canoeing accident in the North Sea.
The photograph, taken on July 14th, shows the Darwins posing with Mario Vilar, head of the firm Move To Panama, in an apartment they had just rented.
Mr Vilar said: "They said they were starting a new life in Panama and we helped them get their feet on the ground. Then they moved on. I thought nothing of it."
Yesterday, detectives admitted they had had doubts about the case at the time of Mr Darwin's disappearance. They also said there had been a reported sighting of him in his home town of Seaton Carew, in northern England, two years ago.
"There was some concern at the time he went missing," said Det Supt Tony Hutchinson.
"But there was no evidence and what we are doing now is going back through everything that was done by the police back in 2002."
Mr Hutchinson said he had seen the picture of the couple in Panama but added that its veracity needed to be established.
Yesterday it emerged that Mrs Darwin, who sold two houses worth £455,000 (€630,600) and left the UK for Panama six weeks ago, has cashed in her husband's life insurance policy. Her new home in the Los Angeles district of Panama City cost £38,000 and a new car in the drive is registered in her name. It is understood the house was registered to a company created in August 2005, a year before the couple were pictured looking for property in Panama.
Despite the discovery of the photograph, Mrs Darwin insists she believed her husband had died in a canoeing accident and said she claimed the insurance money in good faith.
The former doctor's receptionist said she was delighted he was alive but added that she had no immediate plans to return to the UK.
Yesterday locals said Mrs Darwin had not been at the address since Tuesday evening when she left with reporters thought to be from two British tabloids.
Mr Darwin, a former prison officer, went missing in 2002 after a kayaking trip near his home in Hartlepool. He was officially declared dead 13 months later.
This weekend, he walked into a police station in central London and told the desk sergeant: "I think I am a missing person." Looking tanned and relaxed, he gave them his name, address and date of birth but said he could not remember anything about the past five years.
He was reunited with his two sons, Anthony and Mark, who released a statement saying they were delighted to see him but said he could now not remember anything since 2000, two years before he went missing. Hours after the statement was released, detectives arrived at Anthony's house in Basingstoke and arrested Mr Darwin on suspicion of fraud. Yesterday, police admitted that his account left a lot of questions unanswered.
"Obviously, Mr Darwin's reappearance has raised a lot of questions and created worldwide interest," said Det Supt Hutchinson.
"Without doubt, it is an unusual case. There will be people out there who will know exactly where he has been, where he has been living and what he has been doing. We want to hear from them. It may well be he has been living abroad; he may well have been known by another name."
He said police had reopened the file on Mr Darwin three months earlier but news of his reappearance was a shock. "Nobody was more surprised than I when he walked into that London police station."
Det Supt Hutchinson said one of the key questions was why Mr Darwin had decided to hand himself in at the weekend.
"Clearly, there has been some trigger for him to walk into the London police station, but I do not know what that motivation is."
Det Supt Hutchinson said the police had no immediate plans to speak to Mrs Darwin but he said they had not ruled out using the UK's extradition agreement with Panama to force her to return home if necessary.
Mrs Darwin has talked to her husband by telephone three times since he reappeared but she said she was unable to return to the UK immediately because of issues with her visa.
"As soon as everything is sorted out, of course I'll be straight back," she said.
"People can think what they want. I know the truth."