TEN years ago today, an insignificant-looking middle-aged man walked into a police station in London and declared: "I think I'm a missing person."

Those six words were to be the start of one of the most incredible stories – and put a place called Seaton Carew at the centre of the media world.

Seaton Carew – or Seaton Canoe as it became known – had journalists from all over the country and beyond camped outside of an end-terraced sea-front house.

The balding man who sparked the frenzy was a prison officer called John Darwin, who five years earlier was declared dead after an "accident" at sea.

Darwin, then aged 51, had apparently gone out into the water in his red canoe on the morning of March 21, 2002 – but the father-of-two never returned...

There was a huge air and sea search for the "missing person", and the kayak he had supposedly gone out in was found washed up on rocks a few miles away.

Darwin's wife, Anne, would not speak to reporters, and, instead, issued a statement through a Cleveland Police press officer in a carefully-constructed interview.

She told the story of her husband going out to sea that morning, and not coming home. A coroner later recorded an "open" verdict on his death.

The truth began to come out years later when Darwin walked into that police station and uttered those words – and a picture emerged of the couple in Panama.

The photograph showed the smiling couple sealing a deal to buy a property in the Central America country – and it proved to be their downfall in the end.

The man who was tasked to investigate the mystery, a now-retired Detective Superintendent Tony Hutchinson, takes up the story for The Northern Echo.

"It was, without doubt, the most incredible case I've ever had to investigate," said the then-head of the major incident crime team last night.

"It was an extraordinary series of events. We had a missing person who had suddenly reappeared, and we had to work out why and how this came about.

"But within a day or two, that picture turned up, and it was a game-changer. They had nowhere to go after that. But Anne still denied any knowledge."

She was found guilty after a trial, and was sentenced to six-and-half years for fraud and money laundering. Her husband got got six years and three months.

During the trial, it came out that the couple were deeply in debt and Darwin had had insurance and pension policies which meant he was worth more dead.

Most people living nearby simply shrug their shoulders now, and pass it off as a moment in the limelight that is best forgotten – but not all of them do.

Neighbour Bruce Caswell said: “We used to let the media in and we would ask them what they knew because we didn’t know anything. As far as we knew they were quite a private family and they just kept themselves to themselves

"We didn’t actually know Mr and Mrs Darwin at all and wouldn’t recognise them at all although, I did recognise John Darwin subsequently when I saw him in the street where I would pass the time of day with him.

“I did hear rumours that it had been reported to the police that someone had seen him, and the police hadn’t taken much notice and weren’t very interested.

“A lot of people consider it to be a victimless crime and I was probably on the same page until I spoke to someone involved in the lifeboat rescue.

"I think they were on the lifeboat for about 24 hours but I’m not sure of the exact details. They made me realise that actually it was a lot more serious than how I first imagined because for those people it was far from a victimless crime.

"It was a hazard for hours, for nothing.

"The news travelled all around the world because a colleague of mine was at Kuala Lumpur airport and he saw the reports from Seaton Carew that John Darwin had been found.

“It blew up into a global sensation because now there aren’t many people who haven’t heard about it.”

  • Tomorrow: He had got away with an extraordinary crime, so just why did John Darwin come back from the dead?