Beyond the sea

Philip Klein: You know in every runner case, I do, I finally have enough.  And I've had enough of this guy.

Philip Klein's investigation into the disappearance of Patrick McDermott is back to square one.  He is not happy about it.

Philip Klein: I just had enough of Patrick McDermott.  I'm tired of messing with him.

Klein has long been convinced that McDermott staged his own disappearance from the fishing boat "Freedom."

Philip Klein: This entire friggin case is gonna come down to a guy that had had enough of life, who just dropped out of society.

Klein sees ample motive in what he's learned from McDermott's neighbors and associates about McDermott's money troubles, his tense relationship with his ex-wife, actress Yvette Nipar, and his recent break-up with his longtime girlfriend, pop star Olivia Newton-John.

Philip Klein: Everything was bad in this guy's life. Everything.  There was nothing good. Why stage your own disappearance?  Well, maybe in his mind if he stages his death, the insurance policy will pay off all his debts  and he can leave his child a gift by pretending he's dead.

Our investigator is convinced McDermott fled to Mexico, and he says he has evidence to prove it: eyewitness sightings in Mexico, and hits to his website that seem to come from a boat traveling up and down the Mexican coast.  Klein's hunch is that they come from McDermott himself.

Philip Klein: And when I find him I don't know if i'm gonna punch the guy or say, what in the hell.

Except ... Philip Klein has not found him.  And there's reason to doubt whether Patrick McDermott is alive at all.

After months of requests, and pleas, and heated arguments, Philip Klein has finally convinced the U.S. coast guard to turn over its file on the disappearance of McDermott. Hundreds of pages of documents.

Philip Klein: It's rather in depth.  It's very deep.  It has given us some really specific information that we've been looking for.

But, it turns out, some of the specific information in the coast guard report contradicts Klein's own claims and theories about the case.

We went with our investigator to the marina where the mystery began, and we asked some tough questions, starting at the very beginning.

Keith Morrison: How do you know he   didn't fall off?

Phillip Klein: Well, number one, let's set it up. He went up there and paid his tab.

Remember, the galley tab is paid late in the trip. Near the harbor.  If McDermott paid his tab, it would be powerful evidence he was alive.  But…

Keith Morrison: How do you know that?

Phillip Klein: Because of the witnesses that-- the-- the gentleman that took the-- the galley tab and the galley tab itself.  He paid it.

Keith Morrison: Well, we know the galley tab was paid, but we don't know he paid it do we?

Phillip Klein: We do know he paid it.

Keith Morrison: How do we know?

Philip Klein: Because we had a young man, tell me, personally, "That's my X.  He paid the tab."

Keith Morrison: Now, he--

Philip Klein:  He looked me right in the eyes.

Keith Morrison: --wouldn't go on camera. But he told you--

Philip Klein: Didn't want to be on TV.

Keith Morrison: You looked at him, and heard him?

Philip Klein: Right in the eyes.

Keith Morrison: Saw that?

Philip Klein: Heard him; saw him; looked him right in the eyes.

Keith Morrison: Totally believable?

Philip Klein: My-- I'm-- yes, I believe him.

But, unfortunately, that interview is not on tape. And, when the coast guard interviewed the boat's cook, shortly after McDermott's  disappearance, he said he didn't remember McDermott paying the tab. And that it's possible someone else paid it. Because that happens frequently. 

The cook also told the coast guard the food McDermott ordered, hot dogs, were only served at night, as the boat was heading out - not during the day, when it returned.

In other words, the galley tab does not prove McDermott was on the boat as it neared the harbor- and may in fact point to the opposite conclusion. But Philip says he has more, much more.

Philip Klein: Second-- second, you had two independent witnesses that saw him step off that boat.  Now, they didn't-- they don't know where he went past that gate right-- sitting right there to our left, but they know he went through that gate.

The problem is, our tapes of Philip's interviews with these witnesses do not bear out his claims.

Here's one witness:

Philip Klein: And so you guys get out there but you don't remember him fishing with y'all, is that correct?  OK. Did you ever hook up or see him again during the entire fishing trip? Never saw him ever again?  OK.

Here's the other:

Philip Klein: There was a gentleman that came up missing from that ship.  A Patrick McDermott, do you remember?  You don't have any idea of him? Right. Yeah. But you don't remember seeing that man Patrick McDermott at all? OK, all right.

Philip tells us that he had additional, off the record conversations with the witnesses, in which they recounted seeing McDermott get off the boat.

But, according to its report, the coast guard interviewed all but one fisherman on the "Freedom" and found that while several recalled seeing McDermott the night the boat departed. No one remembered seeing McDermott on the day the boat returned to shore.

You'll remember, Philip's people talked to one man who said he did see McDermott that day.

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

But the coast guard cross-checked his story with other witnesses, and concluded he'd mistaken another man for McDermott.

The bottom line is: coast guard investigators were unable to reach any conclusion themselves about what happened to McDermott. It seems that, for every indication that he staged his death, there was another indication that maybe, he really was --is-- dead.

Philip Klein: I'll look you in the eyes and I'll say, it's 99.9 to .01.  This guy's alive, there's no doubt in my mind.  There's no doubt in my mind this guy's alive.

But could it be that Philip Klein misread the evidence?  Could it be that, for months and months, he really has been chasing a ghost?

Keith Morrison: If this guy is still alive, he's well and truly hidden.

Philip Klein: He's-- he's done a good job. You know what?  we can sit here all day long.   You and me can sit here all day long and play the what if game.  But the bottom line to the what-if game is the-- the evidence leads us where we go.  

The evidence Klein points to, is those web hits, still coming in from the coast of mexico.  If he can trace them to their source, what will he find?

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