Book: French explorer may have faked death

HELSINKI, Finland, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Reports of a French adventurer's death may be -- indeed most likely are -- exaggerated, a book about the mysterious woman says.

Dominick Arduin, attempting last March to become the first woman to ski alone to the North Pole, disappeared just 15 miles from her departure point in northern Siberia, the Times of London reported Friday.

In the weeks that followed, supporters bankrolled an expensive but futile helicopter search for the 43-year-old.

By April, France was mourning the loss of a national treasure. At the same time colleagues in France and Finland, where she had lived for 15 years, began learning she had lied extensively about her past, her Alpine childhood, her parents' tragic death in a car wreck and her life as an only child -- all of which turned out to be fabrications.

Now a Finnish journalist, Sven Pahajoki, who helped raise money to search for her, has written "The Secrets of the Adventurer," in which he quotes an uncle as saying Arduin may have faked her death to escape huge personal debts.

Henri Hirvenoja, who helped research the book, noted Arduin spent more than a year before her departure studying how to read and speak Russian.