Gosh. Good catch. The film posits that he
staged his own death by accidental drowning in 1997.
Edit: ... which apparently (sorry) may be wrong (from
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12518580/searchers_find_man_missing_for_a_week/)
Edit (2). Oh, never mind, dated 1993.
EDITED: 27 Oct 2019 13:01 by DSMITHHFX