Man dies in car crash, forty years after his death.

[bilby]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/late-qld-tourism-stalwarts-secret-life-20150623-ghv46h.html

A well-respected far north Queensland tourism operator who died last month in a car crash has been unveiled as an American drug fugitive who faked his own death more than 40 years ago.

Crocodile cruise operator Dennis "Lee" Lafferty was mourned by the Daintree community after dying in a car accident in May.

US newspaper The Tampa Bay Times now says his real name was Raymond Grady Stansel Jr, an alleged drug smuggler who supposedly died in a scuba diving accident in 1974.

The way this is being reported, it seems that his lawyer told the court that he died, and they just took his word for it - but presumably there is more to it than that.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

If you wanted to fake your death scuba diving in the open ocean with a bunch of tourists would probably be about the best way to do it. Ocean currents would likely dispose of your body so the lack of a body won't be a problem. Have witnesses observe something go wrong (say, something breaks your buoyancy compensator and you sink into the depths) while in reality you have a confederate with lots of extra air out of sight. Everyone sees you in trouble and you don't come back up--once you're past the maximum time your tanks could last and there's no sign of you you're obviously dead.