Darwins Were Planning Panama Canoe Resort

'Dead' boater and wife were working on a Panama paradise
By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 8, 2007 8:56 AM CST
Darwins Were Planning Panama Canoe Resort
In this undated image released by Britain's Cleveland police Monday Dec. 3, 2007, John Darwin, who was reported missing more than five years ago, is seen at an unknown location. The last trace of Darwin was the wreckage of his canoe, which washed up on a beach in northern England. He turned up in London...   (Associated Press)

The British man who faked his own death in a boating accident had been planning with his wife to open an eco-tourism resort offering idyllic canoeing holidays, the Times of London has discovered. John and Anne Darwin spent almost half a million dollars on property in Panama, including $390,000 on a swath of virgin forest on the banks of Lake Gatun, home to tapirs and toucans.

"We were really happy they bought the land and with their plan to create the eco-tourism resort because it meant jobs for the town," said the magistrate of the village of Escobal. Though the Darwins protected their identities with a front company and paper trail, Anne signed her name to a letter of complaint to local authorities. She faces arrest upon her return to England. (More John Darwin stories.)

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