John Darwin: Man Who Faked His Death In Canoe

John Darwin was born on 14 August 1950, in Hartlepool, County Durham. John Darwin plotted with his first wife, Anne, to swindle nearly £700,000 through life insurance and pensions by faking his own death in a canoe in the North Sea.

Man Who Faked His Death In Canoe

He was seen paddling out from Seaton Carew beach near Hartlepool before Anne reported him missing while he hid in a tent down the coast.

He then moved to a bedsit next door to the family home, making a door behind a wardrobe into Anne’s bedroom and growing a bushy beard as a disguise for trips into town. The couple’s grieving two sons were never aware of what had really happened.

During the years that Darwin was presumed dead, a death certificate was issued stating that Darwin had died on 21 March 2002.