MARCH 22 , 2002

Gone for a dip

APRIL 2003

Cash in

2003-2006

The criminal , the secret and the wardrobe

A battered , second hand canoe is washed up along the UK coastline close to Seaton Carew , the location where a man has been reported missing the previous day . A huge search and rescue mission is launched by the coastguard , but the man , identified as John Darwin , a local teacher , is not found .

More than a year later , and there is still no sign of John Darwin ’ s body . A court reviewing the case declares an open verdict at his inquest , but he is later declared dead , allowing his ‘ bereaved ’ wife Anne , to claim £ 250,000 in life insurance money . She later collects a further payment , taking the total to £ 679,000 .

However , unbeknown to even his children , Darwin was far from dead . He was , in fact , safely back in Seaton , living in a bedsit next door to his house , with an adjoining door . For three years , he entered the family home from the bedsit through a secret hole in the wall that was hidden behind a wardrobe with a false back .

14 January 2022