Patrick McDermott is ALIVE… possibly.

Patrick McDermott is alive – or dead.  No, alive, we think.

I was watching Channel Seven news on Sunday night (1.5 million people can’t be wrong) when Jennifer Keyte offered viewers a delectable little morsel: missing man Patrick McDermott, he of Olivia Newton-John de-facto relationship fame, has apparently sent a fax to police investigators asking to be “left alone”.

I was unable to glean anymore information from the story, however, as it had just come to hand, with Keyte instructing insatiable entertainment junkies to “tune into Sunrise with Mel and Kochie tomorrow for more details”.  Christ.

Naturally, scurillous UK publication News of the World was right on the ball.

Of course, in light of Utegate/OzCar, can anyone ever believe anything sent electronically anymore?  Who can vouch this latest incident wasn’t whipped up by some emaciated public servant – or more likely, someone wishing to reinvigorate a tired, old story?

The story is as such: Guy, reasonably prominent by association to Newton-John, goes missing in 2005 on his appropriately name boat Freedom.  A US Coast Guard report in 2008 found McDermott to have “probably drowned”; the guy had previously filed for bankruptcy and wasn’t a big fan, allegedly, of paying child support.  So in his haste to escape growing debts and an eternal link to the movie Xanadu, McDermott decided enough was enough: “I’m hot-tailin’ it to Mexico.”

No one ever really believed McDermott was dead though, lest of all the tenacious Texan Investigator Phillip Klein.  Klein set up a website, findpatrickmcdermott.com, which allowed his people to check the locations of those visiting the site.  McDermott apparently checked the website religiously from his boat off the coast of Mexico, while a worried Olivia would check the site from hotel rooms while on tour.  Here, from the website, is a personal, heart-felt plea from Klein to McDermott:

Patrick – we know you are scared. And we know that you want to come in. We hear you. You are not charged with a crime. You will be treated fairly. Now is the time. The world now knows you are alive – it is a matter of days and hours Patrick. Do the Right Thing for your boy Chance and your family. You cannot run forever. You will have to use your passport or try to buy a new one. We will find you. Now is the time Patrick. Now is the time.

Would you want to turn yourself into a guy who speaks like that?  And, conversely, do you think a guy with that mindset is going to respect the wishes of McDermott – a guy who has spent four years skilfully evading his pursuer?

I didn’t wake up early enough to watch Mel and Kochie, unfortunately, but I did see an excellent package this morning on Channel Seven’s Morning Show.  I’ll put it up on this site as soon as they get it online.  Sunrise appears to be the number one place to get the latest on Patrick McDermott; this interview with Klein was broadcast on Weekend Sunrise earlier this year:

One gets the feeling this story will go on for a while…