SEATON CAREW, England — Was he a victim of amnesia or a con artist who tried to fake his death to collect life insurance?

Whatever the answer, Britain is captivated by the tale of how John Darwin vanished after paddling into the North Sea in a canoe, was declared dead when its wreckage washed ashore, then turned up five years later at a police station claiming to have lost his memory. Investigators suspect fraud: They arrested the 57-year-old former prison officer yesterday on suspicion he faked his death so his wife could cash in on his insurance policy and move to Panama.

The story has become frontpage news. The Daily Mirror claimed Mr. Darwin and his wife, Anne, were seen together after his disappearance and printed a photograph it said shows the couple standing in a Panama City apartment they rented last year. Mr. Darwin resurfaced Saturday when he walked into a London police station looking tanned and in good health and claiming to have lost his memory. His sons said in a statement he couldn’t remember anything since June 2000 — two years before he vanished.

Police arrested him yesterday at the home of his 29-year-old son Anthony in southern England, and took him to the northeast, where Mr. Darwin and his wife had lived before he disappeared.

Police Detective Superintendent Tony Hutchinson, who is leading the investigation in the northern city of Cleveland, said Mr. Darwin’s sudden reappearance has “raised a lot of questions and created worldwide interest.” “Without doubt, this is an unusual case,” Mr. Hutchinson said in a nationally televised news conference in which he issued a public appeal for information on Mr. Darwin’s whereabouts over the past five years.

“There will be people out there who will know exactly where he has been, what he has been doing and where he has been living,” Mr. Hutchinson said.

He said police received financial information three months ago linked to Mr. Darwin’s disappearance, but maintained he was surprised to learn the missing man was alive.

A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, told the Associated Press that acquaintances of Mr. Darwin’s wife had been in contact with detectives for the last few months after claiming to have overheard her speaking on the phone to her husband.

That, along with a sudden transfer of funds by Anne Darwin to Panama and to her son, as well as suspicious activity involving credit cards, led authorities to reopen the case.

Police believe that Mr. Darwin turned himself in after being tipped off that the net was closing in on him, possibly by his wife, who became suspicious that her bank accounts were being monitored, or by someone within the investigation.

The Sun quoted Anne Darwin, 55, as saying she claimed the insurance benefits “in good faith when I believed I had lost my husband.”