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Patrick McDermott, Patrick McDermott was not a name most people recognized. But he was closely connected to someone whose name everyone knew. He had been in a long-term relationship with Olivia Newton-John for nearly a decade. He worked as a cameraman and gaffer in Hollywood. He was 48 years old. He had a son from a previous marriage. In June 2005, McDermott joined a group of eleven people on an overnight fishing excursion aboard a vessel called the Freedom. The boat departed from San Pedro, California and traveled into open water off the coast. The trip was meant to last one night.The Freedom returned to port. Patrick McDermott did not. A head count after docking revealed that he was missing. No one on board could account for when or how he had left the vessel. There was no distress signal at any point during the trip. No one reported seeing him go overboard. No splash, no cry, no commotion. Eleven people were on that boat, and not one of them could explain his absence. Investigators quickly uncovered details that complicated the picture. McDermott had filed for personal bankruptcy in the months before the trip. He owed significant debt. His life insurance policy carried a payout that would have been meaningful to his dependents. The combination of financial motive and the absence of any body led investigators to seriously consider that he had staged his own disappearance.But no fraud was ever proven. The Coast Guard conducted a search. The water was examined. Nothing was found. McDermott's name entered a quiet legal limbo. In 2009, a private investigator working for a tabloid publication claimed to have located him living in a coastal town in Mexico. He was allegedly using a different name and living with a new romantic partner. The claim was widely reported. It was never officially confirmed by American authorities. No government agency was able to verify it. He was never formally declared dead. The case, by every legal standard, remains unresolved.