Woman Overboard - Episode 1

Boulot Sioux Mer Saturday 11th February 1984. A chilly breeze is sweeping over the deck of the P&O ferry, Lyon. It's been a wintry crossing from Dover with temperatures scarcely rising above seven degrees. It's still morning, the passengers have long since disembarked, moving in noisy clusters back to their vehicles and down off the rampant into northern France. On the car deck, a rented Ford Siara lies abandoned. Concerned port staff are making an announcement for the vehicle owner to return immediately. But the driver, an elegant of stern looking women in her sixties, has disappeared. The lady's passport and an urn containing her late mother's funeral ashes have been left in the backseat of the car. Police are called and the search for Sheila Warwick Elias begins. But, after door to door inquiries among her friends in France, England and Scotland, they conclude she's been tragically lost at sea. Sheila, if she could hear them, would be clapping her hands in glee. She has successfully faked her own death. What's more, she's gotten away with it. My name is Catherine Sutherland, I'm a freelance journalist from the north of Scotland. You may have come to this podcast after hearing about Sheila's story in the news. I wrote that article based on the interview that I, and my friend and colleague Richard Baines, recorded with Sheila's lifelong pal Pat McKenzie. And also her daughter Sylvia McKenzie, at their home in Inverness back in 2023. It's a bit of a personal one for me. I went to high school with Sylvia and I was often invited to stay at her house overnight. And I have to say, I had no idea at that time what a big secret her mum was keeping. Are you ready? Let's go. So I'm Sylvia McKenzie. I'm Pat McKenzie. Sylvia's fam. Is that talking to Catherine? Yeah. Right, I'm sorry. I was going to be hilarious. So Pat, how old are you? How old are you? 84. Yeah, and how did you meet Auntie Shone? We were nursing together way back. And we did our psychiatric, and we went on to do our ordinary nursing, which was completely wrong because we were back to square one. So we decided that we weren't going to continue. And her mum had bought a house in Glenarkert, from Mary's house. And we decided we'd open a bed and breakfast, which we did. Basically that's where I'd been in with her. And one of the girls that came to help us, she loved it so much. She asked if she could stay on, so there were the three of us running it. Until when? Oh, I can't believe it. The early 80s. Yeah. Yeah. And basically that's it. And then we had one or two problems. We had a small fire and we got over that and started up again. And then I left and had enough. Had no life. It was 24/7. And I thought, well, I'm getting nowhere. I'm not meeting people. I'm going to be, I know, made before I know it. So I left. But we still kept in touch. We were friends at that. And when you were young, you used to come to call me early. To call me early. And then shown that was my friend's pet me. I'm from Veronica, their girl that came with us, stayed with us. They sold up and went down to England. And they had like a health food shop or something down there. Yes, they had one of those health food shops where you went in and everything was in barrels. And I don't know what happened to that. I think they went bust. And what really did not do, really did not do. So obviously it would be that they had moved down south. And then they came up to stay with us, didn't they? They stayed with Andy Schoendeder. Yes. As I say, they stayed for a while and then they left. And the next thing I knew, there was a policeman at the door telling me that Schoen had gone on a ferry to France. But disappeared. She never got off it. The car was there. Her passport, everything. She just vanished. So they assumed she'd gone overboard. How did you feel when I told you that? Were you upset when you told you that? I was. Yes, I was because they'd been up on holiday before that and she'd been a bit off, hadn't she? Yes, she kept in her room and she just wasn't herself. So I said to Veronica I managed to get to speak to her. What happened? She said I don't know. I have no idea. She just went on the ferry and that was the last anybody saw her. So then of course Veronica and I came to touch. And the next, well it wasn't the next thing, but he's off, August, sorry, about a couple of years later. We appeared at the door, the two of them. I watched, you know, but I just always tell you all about it. She said I was so when her father died, he left all the money and everything in trusts. And when her mother died, the trust continued and she would try to get this trust broken. But no, they said you could have children and it has to pass on to your children and she said no, not having children. I'll go and have a little strength to me if you want. No, you could still adopt because shown was an adopted child. And how did you react when she told you this before? Did you know anything about this? That she was going to disappear? No, no, not a thing. What about her trust and things with trust? I still, yes, I knew all about the trust. So we were sitting and talking and I said what the devil would you do? Two years I've been thinking you're dead and you turned up on the doorstep. Were you angry or what were your feelings? No, I wasn't really angry. I was more hurt that they hadn't let me end on it. But she hadn't even told Veronica the full story. She just said I'm going to disappear for a while. And then she said it's all to do with the trust. This is the only way I could get the trust broken was to be dead and she did it. She got the trust broken but Veronica got the bunny because of course she wasn't alive she was dead. So then they went back down to England. And that was what the whole thing was all about to break this trust so she could get her hands on the muddy because there's a considerable amount of very rich people. Her adopted father was an army surgeon. Yeah, high up. And what was going through your mind when she was telling you this? I thought only you could do that. Only you could dream up I think like that and pull it off. She was a very intelligent woman. I was going to ask you yeah, What sort of person, what was she like in nursing school and when she was lovely? She was a nice person, she could be pretty mean at times, couldn't she? But basically she was a lovely person, a very kind person. What's a fan? Yeah, she was a lot of fan, a lot of fan. And didn't like to conform, like she was one of the things she would write. She learned to ride and she would ride normal, like Western, not sidesaddle. And she would drive fancy cars, she drove all around Switzerland and everything. At a time where women didn't really kind of do these things. They were driven around in that, especially in the kind of circle she was in. And did she stay here in the house with you guys before she disappeared? Was it this house? Yeah, no, it was before she disappeared it was Mackay Road. I could have lived in a flat there, but when she turned up after dying it was here. OK, well thanks very much for joining us and next episode we'll be hearing about how they're going to do it. Women overboard, all rights reserved. Content, including the audio and script of this podcast, is the property of Catherine Sutherland and Richard Baines. No reproduction or commercial use is permitted without express written consent. 2026.