McDermott, 48, a cameraman, languished as an obscure missing persons case until Aug. 19, when Olivia Newton-John released a statement expressing her concern for "my treasured friend." Though described in news reports as a couple, the two didn't live together, and Newton-John—who was in Australia when he disappeared—didn't report him missing.
In fact no one reported McDermott missing until 11 days after his fishing boat returned. A dock worker cleaning the boat found his belongings, including his passport, driver's license and credit cards, shortly after the ship docked July 1. A passenger aboard Freedom says the boat company phoned him about McDermott just two days after the trip. "They asked me if I remembered the guy," says Hal Roman, 72. But the company didn't contact the authorities and denies calling passengers.
According to a family friend, a call was made to the boat company asking about McDermott after the Freedom's return; the caller was told his car wasn't in the parking lot. McDermott's s family became more concerned on July 6, the day he was due to pick up his 13-year-old son, Chance, for his weekly visit. On July 11 McDermott's ex-wife, Yvette Nipar, called the boat company crying with his license number and this time was told his car was still at the marina Liversedge says that this was the first inquiry he got about McDermott. Then the Coast Guard and police were contacted.
Investigators ruled that a water search over such a large area so many days after the disappearance would be fruitless. But they have interviewed Freedom passengers. Hal Roman, who made the trip but was not interviewed by the Coast Guard, didn't recall seeing McDermott onboard. Still, he wonders, "how can he disappear? It's very difficult. He would either have to commit suicide or he lost his balance and fell overboard." Roman says the 85-ft.-long commercial fishing boat hit a rough patch of water during the last two hours of the trip.
"It's more like he wanted to disappear, and he disappeared," says Liversedge, who is acting as spokesman for the Freedom. (The boat's owners, Mike Frank and Tommy Lee, declined to speak to PEOPLE.) One source close to the investigation says a passenger reported McDermott was in good spirits, "joking onboard." But Liversedge says another passenger told him McDermott was downcast on the journey, complaining about his ex-wife.
Several residents of McDermott's working-class Van Nuys, Calif., neighborhood say he struggled financially. "It appeared he was always short of money," says Scott Gurican, who has lived across the street from McDermott s blue stucco house for nine years. "But he didn't seem like someone who would bail out." Neighbors also say McDermott, who filed for bankruptcy in 2000, was a devoted father who doted on Chance. "He took his son fishing a lot, they played tennis together and went bicycling," says a neighbor who didn't want his name used. "They were always doing things together."
People who live nearby say they almost never saw Newton-John, 56, at his house. She and McDermott met in 1996 while filming a commercial, shortly after Newton-John was divorced from her husband of 11 years, Matt Lattanzi. They have been sporadically linked ever since, making their most recent public appearance at a black-tie ball in January. Newton-John was at a health retreat she owns in Australia when she learned of McDermott's disappearance and returned to the U.S. at the end of July. Her friend Nancy Chuda says the singer is "totally devastated by the loss of a man whom she loves very much." Newton-John has asked pal Gavin de Becker, a security expert, to consult on the investigation.
For now, McDermott's loved ones are left with unanswered questions. "All we know is that he was last seen on a fishing boat...that he was doing something he loved," says a family friend. "It's terrible not to know."
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