BACK FROM THE DEAD

A new TV drama will tell the true story of a man who faked his own death – with the help of his wife and a canoe

- BESS BROWNING

CANOEIST BACK FROM DEAD AS WIFE VANISHES

CANOE CONMAN How did John Darwin fake his death?

On a typical December day in 2007, a man walked into a London police station claiming to have lost his memory. 'I think I am a missing person, he told officers.

When he revealed his name - John Darwin - the police were bewildered, as the same man had disappeared five years earlier, presumed dead.

New ITV drama, The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, starts this month, and will explore the mystery and crime which unravelled after Darwin walked into the police station that day - the same crime that kept the country captivated and newspaper column inches full.

In March 2002, John, then 51, vanished after apparently paddling out to sea in a red canoe in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool. His wife Anne and their two sons Mark and Anthony were left grief-stricken after a widespread search found nothing but a single paddle.

'All I want is to bury his body,' Anne told a local newspaper. 'It would enable me to move on. It's difficult to grieve without bringing things to a close, but as it is, I'm in limbo.' Then, in March 2003, a year after her husband's disappearance, presenting herself as a bereft wife, she laid flowers on the beach where the wreckage of his canoe had just been found.

The following month, a coroner officially declared John Darwin dead and released his death certificate. Meanwhile, Anne had just collected his £670,000 life insurance and pension fund. With the death certificate filed and the police, coroner, financial institutions and family convinced John had drowned, the case was closed and the family was left to grieve.