Man faked his death and went on the run for 20 years mistakenly thinking the police were after him on drugs charges...



A man faked his own death because he thought police were after him on drugs charges- only to discover 20 years later that they weren't.

Bennie Wint lived a secret life for two decades after staging his own drowning on a Florida beach, believing that he was about to be arrested.

His heartbroken fianceé, ex-wife and daughter, who was aged four when he disappeared, all believed he was dead until this week.

Wint was pulled over by traffic officers in South Carolina for having a faulty number plate. He first gave a false name but confessed all after an officer ran a check.

Caught out: Bennie Wint's police mugshot after he was pulled over in South Carolina

He was amazed when the policeman told him he wasn't wanted for anything.

'He believed he was wanted when he really wasn't,' said police sergeant Stacy Wyatt.

'He told me he had been running for 20 years.... he had destroyed every bit of identity he had.'

Wint, 49, staged his own disappearance while on holiday in Daytona Beach, Florida, in September 1989, during which he was meant to be getting married.

His distraught bride-to-be Patricia Hollingsworth saw him go into the surf for a swim before vanishing, but a search by lifeguards, boats and helicopters never turned up a body and he was presumed drowned.

'His fiancee was running up and down the beach frantically looking for him,' recalled Volusia County Beach Patrol captain Scott Petersohn.

But Wint was already on his way to Alabama, 400 miles away, where he set up a new life under the false name of William Sweet, met a new wife Sonja Jones and had a son - also named William James Sweet, now 17.

His new family were unaware of his past.

'He told me he swam to the shore in knee-deep water, walked off and never looked back,' said Sgt Wyatt.

Bennie Wint walked off a Florida beach and vanished... spending 20 years under an unnecessary assumed identity

Wint's story finally unravelled this week after he was stopped by police in Asheville, North Carolina, for not having a $1.50 light bulb on his car licence plate.

He should have escaped with just a traffic ticket, but the name he gave to police failed to register on police computers.



Realising he was in trouble, he admitted his past, telling officers that he had been involved with a narcotic drugs ring in 1989 and believed that police had been closing in on him.

'He became very emotional because it was like he was tired of running and knew that his identity was found and it was time just to get this over with,' said Sgt Wyatt.

Wint has been charged with driving without a licence and giving a false name to police.



But his story took a further twist today amid reports that he had been hit by a car outside his home. It was unclear who was beind the wheel.

Police have confirmed that neither Wint's ex-wife, fiancee or new wife appeared to have been aware of his double life.

It also appeared Hollingsworth does not yet know he is alive.



Wint, who earns a living running a flea market stall in Weaverville, North Carolina, is said to be demanding money for media interviews.

In 2007, his daughter Christi McKnight - who was just four years old when he vanished - posted an entry on a website saying that her 83-year-old grandmother was very sick but still praying that her son may still be found alive somewhere.

'It would be fabulous if anybody knew anything about him, so my granny can see her son, her youngest child, who she is still holding on to dearly,' she wrote.