Mr Darwin was arrested on suspicion of fraud

A former neighbour, Bill Rodriguez, seemed to corroborate her story, telling The Times: "I'm still convinced that she was genuinely shattered when her husband went missing. ... My wife spent hours comforting her in the days and weeks after it happened. She was a woman in mourning. If not, she was one of the greatest actresses in the world." Mr. Darwin resurfaced when he walked into a London police station looking tanned and in good health and claiming to have lost his memory. Police arrested him yesterday at the home of his 29-year-old son, Anthony, in southern England, and took him to the northeast, where Mr. Darwin and his wife had lived before he disappeared.

The story became front-page news. The Daily Mirror said Mr. Darwin and his wife, Anne, were seen together after his disappearance and printed a photograph it said shows the couple standing in a Panama City apartment they rented last year. Ms. Darwin said her husband had not spent all his time in Panama but the two had spent a few short holidays there. Authorities are considering extraditing Ms. Darwin, 55, from Panama to be questioned in Britain. Police said officers were likely to begin questioning Mr. Darwin today. Police Detective Superintendent Tony Hutchinson, who is leading the investigation in the northern city of Cleveland, said Mr. Darwin's sudden reappearance has "raised a lot of questions and created worldwide interest."

He said police received information three months ago linked to Mr. Darwin's disappearance. A police official said that acquaintances of Mr. Darwin's wife had been in contact with detectives for the past few months after claiming to have overheard her speaking on the phone to her husband. That, along with a sudden transfer of funds by Ms. Darwin to Panama and to her son, as well as suspicious activity involving credit cards, led authorities to reopen the case. Police believe Mr. Darwin turned himself in after being tipped off that the net was closing on him, possibly by his wife, who became suspicious that her bank accounts were being monitored, or by someone within the investigation, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The Daily Mirror said its photo of the Darwins was taken in July of 2006, in an apartment in Panama City they rented through the company Move to Panama Corp. It shows them standing with the firm's boss, Mario Vilar.

Mr. Vilar said they had not used the surname Darwin. "They said they were starting a new life in Panama and we helped them get their feet on the ground," the paper quoted Mr. Vilar as saying. "It's breathtaking to think they were happy to have their picture on the site when they knew they might get caught." Globe and Mail