The story takes place in Britain, where John Darwin and his wife Anne lived. John had previously been a teacher and a prison officer. From the outside, it looked like the Darwins were living well. Unfortunately the reality was that John and Anne were heavily in debt and needed to find a way out. That is when the story starts to get interesting. In 2000, John went on a canoe trip by himself. Anne then reported him missing and the search was on. Authorities searched by air and sea, and all that they found was the wreckage of John’s canoe. They never found John. Reportedly the search cost approximately £70,000.

Thirteen months later at an inquest, John Darwin was legally declared dead. Anne was now clear to claim the insurance money from multiple policies that John Darwin had taken out on his life. One policy was held by the Unat Direct Insurance Management Company. The face value of the policy was £50,000 but only £25,000 was paid to Anne Darwin because a body was never found. Norwich Union also paid £130,000, which was the remaining mortgage balance they owed on their home.

Apparently John Darwin was the mastermind behind the plan. He had even left Anne a spreadsheet with detailed instructions of what to do once he had gone missing. She would not have to be alone for long; only weeks after he went missing, John Darwin was reported to have moved back into the home that he shared with Anne. When people came to the house he went through a secret entrance to a hideout. He had chosen a disguise with a beard and was limping, despite not being injured. Over time he was able to obtain a passport under the name John Jones.

The Darwins had seemingly been successful with their plan. Anne had collected the insurance money, sold the properties that they owned and had moved their money to offshore bank accounts. Oddly, it was only then that John Darwin decided to show up at a West London police station and claimed to have had amnesia for the seven years following his canoe accident. It seems incredible that he would decide to do this, but his thinking was that he was tired of life as a fugitive, and he imagined that he could convince the police that he had really been missing and that his wife had collected the insurance money in good faith. He planned to pay back the insurance money and be on his way.

The problem was that the Darwins did not cover their tracks well enough and photos of them on vacation together surfaced. This on top of eyewitness accounts and a tip from a colleague of Mrs. Darwin added up to too much evidence against them.

The story ends with the Darwins being disowned by their sons, and serving six years each in jail. To top it off, they have greater monetary problems than they ever did. As enticing as it might be to commit insurance fraud, the results can be disastrous.