Beyond the sea

Investigator Philip Klein and his team descend on Los Angeles, looking for clues to the disappearance of Patrick McDermott. They soon confirm he was very familiar with the freedom-- the fishing boat where he was last seen.

Gil Martinez: Our sources said that Patrick- he was a regular on this thing.

Frank: Yes.

Gil Martinez: I mean, this guy came, what is it, once a month? twice a month?

Frank: Probably at least that much. He's been on boats for a long time, you know, he really liked to fish. 

They find one fisherman who remembers seeing McDermott the day he vanished.

Tobar:  Last time I saw him we were getting very close to the 22nd Street landing.

Kristen: You saw him come up right before you all were fixing to dock, use the restroom and go back down.

Tobar: Yes.

So McDermott was apparently seen late in the fishing trip. And, records show, apparently paid for food and drink from the ship's galley. Investigator Gil Martinez, working undercover, verified that's also done late in the trip-- in sight of land.

Philip Klein: Gil, do you see anything that would indicate Patrick McDermott fell off the boat accidentally? 

Gil Martinez: No. 

Philip Klein: Do you see any way that Patrick McDermott committed suicide and jumped off the boat?

Gil Martinez: No.

Philip Klein: Do you see any opportunity for homicide?

Gil Martinez: No.

Philip Klein: OK.

Philip Klein: Are you all willing signing off on dead? 

Inga: yeah.

Philip Klein: Before we even go home--

Inga: Yes! Please get dead off the table. I'm tired of talking about dead.  Dead is done.

Gil Martinez: Dead is done.

But if McDermott is not dead, if he ran away, what was he running from?

Philip Klein: We're headed out to Van Nuys, McDermott's old neigborhood, we're going to talk to his neighbors. We're going to develop a profile on this guy today.

Philip Klein: Hi, how are you? My name's Phil Klein-- I'm an investigator out of Texas. We're investigating the disappearance of Patrick McDermott.  Used to be a neighbor of yours, lived down the street?

Wendy: He was quiet but he had like an attitude...

Philip Klein:  Oh, he did have an attitude?

McDermott was a sometime lighting technician, frequently out of work, receiving disability checks.

Guy: I mean, I know he was struggling financially.

Philip Klein: How do you know that?

Guy: Well, just from the things that he would tell me. 

Mcdermott owed his ex-wife, actress Yvette Nipar, thousands of dollars in child support for their 13-year-old son.

Scott: He loved his son...

Philip Klein: He loved his son? 

Scott: Yeah, he thought the he was his world.

Philip Klein: How did he portray Yvette to you?  What was relationship? 

Scott: Well, it was strained, it was definitely strained.  She was trying to get so either there was no visitation here, or somebody had to supervise it.  So I do know they were battling about that.

Philip Klein: They were battling it out? 

Scott: Yeah.

It's an odd mismatch: A man with a world famous, millionaire girlfriend-- Olivia Newton-John-- living in a blue collar neighborhood and feuding with his ex-wife over money.

Gil Martinez: He said just before disappearing, he was very depressed, and even at times very nervous. 

Philip Klein: Depressed and nervous?

Gil Martinez: Nervous.

Philip Klein: Would you say he was depressed or happy?

Philip Klein: Could Patrick kill himself? 

KP: No!  not even!

Philip Klein: Really?  You pretty strong about that.

KP: No, he would never—

Philip Klein: Patrick could never kill himself? 

KP: No. he thought too much of himself.

Philip Klein: What do you think happened? 

KP: I think he bailed.  And it was just that he figured that the insurance was gonna pay off, it's the one thing i can give my son.

Yes.  The insurance.  Mcdermott had about $100,000 in life insurance-- payable to his son.

Klein's mental wheels start spinning ... And kick into overdrive when investigator Kristin Richard speaks to another passenger on the freedom who tells quite a story about Patrick McDermott.

Kristin: OK, so who said this joke? Oh -- He made that joke? No kiddin’ about insurance fraud.

Philip Klein: Holy Moses.  Yeah, we need to go talk to him.

Philip Klein: Apparently there was some jokes being made by Patrick McDermott which he referenced insurance fraud or jokingly said insurance fraud. 

Casey: He like spit out some joke and it had to do with like --

Philip Klein: in front of everybody? 

Casey: Yeah, kind of just made everybody laugh and get up and mosey on out of there.

He says he told the Coast Guard about it.

Philip Klein: OK, what was the gist of the joke? Was it like if somebody fell off, or somebody slipped and fall and hurt themselves or somebody--

Casey: Yeah, he spit out something about that had to do with, like, scamming on insurance and you know jumping overboard.

Philip Klein: It's a morbid curiosity that the big boss comes down to the place where it all happened...

Perhaps Patrick McDermott staged his disappearance.  Perhaps his messy divorce, his financial troubles, his insurance policy provided the motive. 

Philip Klein: He's alive, there's no doubt in my mind, this guy's alive.

Klein wants to speak to the women in McDermott's life. But Yvette Nipar and Olivia Newton-John both decline his requests.

Philip Klein: if you guys change your mind, you have my cell number, bye bye.

That doesn't mean, however, they're not interested.  Klein says he believes that as soon as the women found out about his website—FindPatrickMcDermott.com-- both of them began to visit.

Philip Klein: The most unusual hits we've gotten were Olivia Newton-John when she was on tour, in Asia, every hotel she was registered at and staying at there were hits from that hotel on that night where she was staying.  So it's quite obvious to us that the Olivia Newton-John camp is following it.

If it's true, it's remarkable... But not as remarkable as this: hits to the website from the last place that witnesses say they spotted Patrick McDermott.

Philip Klein: The most interesting hits have come directly from Cabo San Lucas.  The green one is the last place anybody saw Patrick McDermott.

Klein set up the website in hopes of smoking out Patrick McDermott.  Has he?

Philip Klein: I'm gonna have a Jack Daniels and water, but I'm not able to smoke my cigar because we haven't found him yet,  but when we find him I'm gonna have a Jack Daniels and water and smoke a cigar.  Hopefully with him.

If, that is, he's out there at all.

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