Man Turns Up Alive and Well Nearly 20 Years After Fake Drowning

Jan. 29, 2009— -- It's been nearly 20 years since a frantic bride-to-be rushed to the lifeguard station at a Florida beach, saying her fiance had disappeared in the surf.

His body was never found. Until recently.

Bennie Harden Wint, now 49, was found alive and well in North Carolina during a routine traffic stop Saturday. He's got a common-law wife and a teenage son named William James Sweet -- the same name that Wint had been using for nearly two decades.

Wint finally came clean after being stopped by police because the light over his license plate was out. When he was unable to produce anything to identify himself as Sweet, Wint was arrested for not having a license. At some point while the police were interviewing him, he confessed that his real name was Bennie Harden Wint.

Weaverville Police Sgt. Stacy Wyatt, who interviewed Wint, said the entire story was "kind of like a movie."

Because he had destroyed all of his Wint identification and whatever records he could find after his "death," there was no one listed under that name whom police could find either. He had a hard time even convincing officers he was actually Bennie Wint.

So the police booked him under the name "John Doe" until they could find out who he really was. He was charged with giving police a fake name.

Wyatt said Wint told him that the day he disappeared into the ocean off the coast of Daytona Beach, he was trying to escape both the authorities and anyone who may be trying to kill him.

Wint told police he was convinced that he was wanted in South Carolina on drug charges because of his involvement in a large drug ring.

"It was merely paranoia," Wyatt said. "He was running because of the prior life he lived."

Wyatt said the information he found on Wint's drug involvement was not public record and could not be released, but he said that Wyatt is not wanted on any charges anywhere in the country.

When reached for comment today Wint said he was only interested in doing interviews he would be paid for and anything else was a waste of his time.

"I can live in my seclusion forever," he said, adding that he's outfitted his property with "No Trespassing" signs.

Wint now lives in Marshall, N.C., with Sonya Tull Jones, whom Wyatt identified as the mother of his son. She likewise declined to comment today.