Two weeks ago, the Daintree community gathered to farewell an adopted son.
A pioneer of the north Queensland tourism industry, Dennis "Lee" Lafferty was remembered as a "great conservationist" and "really lovely man".
But Lafferty went to his grave with a remarkable story.
Lee, as he was known to his friends, ran a crocodile cruise company, ferrying tourists from Cairns to Cape Tribulation for 28 years.
He lived a quiet, unassuming life, plying his trade as a boat skipper along the Daintree River, pointing out crocodiles, unique birds and other delights of the rainforest to tourists.
Lafferty died suddenly in a car accident on May 26. He lost control of his ute as he rounded a bend on Mossman Daintree Road and crashed into a tree.
There was an outpouring of grief in the local community, said local Douglas Shire mayor Julia Leu.
"We were all devastated," Cr Leu said.
"My husband and I have been friends with Lee for nearly 20 years … but the whole community was devastated when Lee passed away as a result of the accident. There was a very large memorial service a couple of weeks ago.
"He was a really lovely man, a true gentleman. He was a pioneer in the Daintree tourism industry, a great conservationist and dearly loved by his staff and friends and family."
However, an email landed in Cr Leu's inbox at the weekend with a link to an article from the Tampa Bay Times in Florida.
"Traffic accident in Australia ends 40-year-old mystery in Florida," the headline read.
"It went through the community like wildfire," Cr Leu said of the email.
Lafferty, the article claimed, was in fact Raymond Grady Stansel jr, who had been presumed dead in the US for 40 years.
According to the article, Stansel was arrested in 1974 for smuggling more than 12 tonnes of marijuana into Florida.
When arrested the then 37-year-old "fisherman and charter boat captain" allegedly had $25,000 in cash, receipts for two $25,000 Rolex watches, unused checks on a Swiss bank account, flags from six countries and a passport indicating he had been in a dozen different countries in the preceding 30 days.
Stansel posted bail with a $500,000 cashier's check, surrendered his US passport and left Hillsborough County Jail to await trial.
But the trial never proceeded.
On January 5, 1975, Stansel's lawyer announced that his client had disappeared while scuba diving in Honduras on New Year's Eve.
An aerial search of the coastline failed to find his body.
Many in Florida doubted the story. There were reported sightings of the rumoured fugitive in South America, but no trace of Stansel was found.
At least, not in the Americas. By the end of that year, Stansel had arrived in north Queensland.
He arrived with his then-wife Janet Wood, who he married while on the run.
They lived on a 53-foot boat that Stansel built, and their first daughter was born in 1976. Another daughter was born four years later.
"We lived very simply," Wood told the Tampa Bay Times last week. "We fished and made cast nets."
In 1987, the couple started the Daintree River Cruise Centre and began offering tourist boat trips. Stansel became known as Lee Lafferty, and gained a reputation as a passionate marine biologist and expert boat captain.
His heavy American accent was the only vestige of his former life.
"Our challenge was to make a living and keep a low profile," Wood said.
Stansel's former life, including a first wife and four children in the US, was history. He reportedly never had contact with them again. Two children from his first marriage followed in their father's footsteps, but did not escape the clutches of the law. Ronald and Raymond Stansel pleaded guilty to importing cocaine and were indicted in 1991, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Despite the revelations of the well-known local's alleged double life, Cr Leu said her opinion of him would not change.
"It hasn't changed my opinion of Lee and I very much doubt anyone else's. We will always remember him as a lovely man … who did an enormous amount for this community in terms of pioneering his business," she said.
"He was a very knowledgeable conservationist, who enjoyed taking people out on the Daintree River, and describing and celebrating our unique wildlife and environment."
North Queensland, with its lush rainforest and relative remoteness, has long been a haven for fugitives.
A Californian drug kingpin lived a double life under an assumed identity with his wife and daughter in the tiny rainforest hamlet of Julatten, 40 kilometres inland from Port Douglas, for 20 years.
Peyton Eidson and his wife Sonja adopted the names Mike and Anita McGoldrick after fleeing the US in 1986. With their daughter Mia, they operated a popular health retreat, renowned for its mud baths.
Their real identities were only revealed in 2011 when the US embassy told Australian authorities that two people by the Eidsons' adopted names had died.
Cr Leu said far north Queensland had been a frontier of sorts, particularly in the 1980s.
"It's a fascinating and amazing story, certainly the stuff of movies," she said of the tour boat skipper's journey.
"These days, with technology, I think of course it's much much harder for people to leave a former life and start a new one."
However, she said the story of "Lee" was one of redemption.
"It does say that people can turn their lives around. I think it is possible for people to turn their lives around if given the opportunity."
