On December 3, John Darwin’s ninety-year-old father, Ronald Darwin, told the Evening Standard that he had always suspected there was more to the disappearance than it seemed. His daughter’s aunt, Margaret Burns, eighty years old, told reporters she had never believed John had got wet. These statements, from people who had lived with their own doubts for years, suggested that the performance had not been entirely convincing to everyone in the family.
On December 4, the police and Darwin’s representatives were presenting the amnesia story to the public. Darwin apparently could not remember anything after 2000—two years before the canoe incident.
On December 5, the Daily Mirror published a photograph on its front page under the headline “Canoe’s This in Panama?” The headline was a tabloid pun. The photograph was not.
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## The Photograph
The image showed John Darwin, identifiable, standing beside Anne Darwin in what was clearly an estate agent’s office. Between them was a man who was later identified as Mario Vilar, the head of the property firm Move To Panama. The three of them were posed for the camera—a routine documentation shot of potential buyers with their agent. The photograph had been taken in July 2006, according to the dating available from the Move To Panama website.
A member of the public had found it. The method was simple: a Google Images search combining the names “John,” “Anne,” and “Panama.” The website movetopanama.com had hosted the image. The person who found it passed it to the Daily Mirror and to Cleveland Police.