Scottish Man May Have Faked His Own Death in California to Evade Rape Charges

A Scottish man facing rape charges back home may have faked his death last week off the California coast, the Los Angeles Times reports. Divers began searching for Scottish tourist Kim Gordon last week after his 17-year-old son told authorities his father vanished into the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 25 at around 7:15 p.m. near Carmel’s Monastery Beach—dubbed “Mortuary Beach” for the area’s treacherous and often deadly waves. Yet after days of searching, divers, drones, and helicopters circling above the coastal waters could not find any trace of a body. It was then that Monterey County Sheriff’s Department investigators began to dig into Gordon’s background, and found he was due to be tried on two dozen counts of rape. Sheriff’s Capt. John Thornburg said that, upon further questioning, the son could not provide a detailed account of the supposed drowning. “The story we were given by the son can’t answer those questions, and that’s where it all started to fall apart,” Thornburg was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times. Investigators from the U.S. Marshals Service have also been deployed to track down the Edinburgh man. Gordon’s son could face charges for filing a false police report.