Lucan's disappearance has captivated the public's imagination for decades, with thousands of sightings reported around the world. One of the earliest such sightings occurred shortly after the murder, but it turned out to be British politician John Stonehouse who had attempted to fake his own death. The police travelled to France in June the following year to hunt another lead, to no avail. A sighting in Colombia turned out to be an American businessman. John Miller was a bounty hunter who kidnapped fugitive train robber Ronnie Biggs, and he claimed to have captured the earl in 1982, but he was later exposed by the "News of the World" as a hoaxer. In 2003, a former Scotland Yard detective thought that he had tracked the earl to Goa, India, but the man whom he traced was actually Barry Halpin, a folk singer from St Helens, Merseyside. In 2007, reporters in New Zealand interviewed a homeless British expatriate who neighbours claimed was the missing earl.