WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: John Forsyth 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:15.085 School of Humans. On May twenty first, twenty twenty three, 0:00:15.645 --> 0:00:18.925 doctor John Forsyth, a forty nine year old er doctor, 0:00:19.325 --> 0:00:22.045 was due to work the evening shift at Mercy Hospital 0:00:22.125 --> 0:00:26.165 in Casville, Missouri. John had already worked the overnight shift 0:00:26.205 --> 0:00:29.525 the day before and finished up at seven am. After that, 0:00:30.085 --> 0:00:32.525 he went to crash for a few hours before starting 0:00:32.525 --> 0:00:36.005 his next shift that night twelve hours later. This was 0:00:36.045 --> 0:00:38.885 a normal day for John. He had a habit of 0:00:38.925 --> 0:00:41.845 pulling long shifts and working between eighty and one hundred 0:00:41.845 --> 0:00:45.205 hours per week. But John never showed up for work 0:00:45.205 --> 0:00:48.045 that night, and it wasn't long before his family and 0:00:48.085 --> 0:00:54.125 colleagues realized he had disappeared. Doctor John Forsyth was a 0:00:54.165 --> 0:00:57.685 hard working, well respected doctor and a father of eight children. 0:00:58.325 --> 0:01:01.645 But he also had a complicated personal life, one that 0:01:01.725 --> 0:01:07.325 he kept compartmentalized, one that involved an expensive a new fiancee, 0:01:07.845 --> 0:01:10.245 and a crypto company he had co founded with his 0:01:10.285 --> 0:01:14.165 brother Richard that had been involved in some questionable dealings. 0:01:14.885 --> 0:01:18.685 What happened to doctor John Forsyth? Was he kidnapped by 0:01:18.685 --> 0:01:21.845 someone with bad intentions? Did he walk away on his own? 0:01:22.205 --> 0:01:24.965 Could he have been living a double life and been 0:01:25.045 --> 0:01:29.485 lured out and murdered by one of his enemies. I'm 0:01:29.525 --> 0:01:32.845 Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making my 0:01:32.925 --> 0:01:36.325 true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there's no 0:01:36.445 --> 0:01:39.405 such thing as a small town where murder never happens. 0:01:40.085 --> 0:01:43.325 I have received hundreds of messages from people all around 0:01:43.325 --> 0:01:46.565 the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's 0:01:46.565 --> 0:01:50.965 affected them, their families, and their communities. If you have 0:01:51.085 --> 0:01:53.245 a case you'd like me and my team to look into, 0:01:53.765 --> 0:01:55.765 you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone 0:01:55.845 --> 0:01:59.045 Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six ' 0:01:59.125 --> 0:02:02.725 one four five that six seven eight seven four four 0:02:03.085 --> 0:02:04.405 six ' one four or five. 0:02:04.925 --> 0:02:42.245 This is Helen Gone Murder Line now. 0:02:42.325 --> 0:02:45.565 Early media reports said the last time that John was 0:02:45.605 --> 0:02:48.485 heard from was on May twenty first, twenty twenty three. 0:02:49.525 --> 0:02:52.685 After his shift at the emergency room at Mercy Hospital 0:02:52.685 --> 0:02:56.445 in Cassville, Missouri, he went back to his luxury RV trailer. 0:02:57.005 --> 0:02:59.525 He kept the trailer parked outside the hospital when he 0:02:59.565 --> 0:03:01.805 was working back to back shifts and needed to sleep 0:03:01.805 --> 0:03:04.845 in between them. As we said before, he went to 0:03:04.845 --> 0:03:07.405 get some rest before his second shift that started that night. 0:03:08.485 --> 0:03:11.285 John was divorced and was in a serious relationship with 0:03:11.325 --> 0:03:15.245 his girlfriend. According to a family member, John sent some 0:03:15.285 --> 0:03:18.325 text messages to his girlfriend, who was a nurse, saying 0:03:18.325 --> 0:03:21.445 that he would see her later. Now it doesn't say 0:03:21.525 --> 0:03:25.005 in media reports whether his girlfriend worked at the same 0:03:25.085 --> 0:03:27.525 hospital as he did or not, but either way, he 0:03:27.605 --> 0:03:30.645 did appear to have plans to see her. When he 0:03:30.685 --> 0:03:34.085 didn't arrive for a shift and never called, his colleagues 0:03:34.125 --> 0:03:38.045 were immediately alarmed because John was very dependable. This was 0:03:38.125 --> 0:03:40.125 not the type of guy to not show up for 0:03:40.165 --> 0:03:43.045 a shift. In fact, it had never happened in his 0:03:43.165 --> 0:03:46.125 fifteen years on the job. He had never just not 0:03:46.245 --> 0:03:49.605 shown up and not called. He had never, even, according 0:03:49.605 --> 0:03:53.165 to his family, taken a sick day. His colleagues at 0:03:53.165 --> 0:03:56.045 the hospital reported him missing, and by the next day, Monday, 0:03:56.445 --> 0:03:59.725 his entire family, the community, the sheriff's department, and some 0:03:59.805 --> 0:04:03.285 other agencies, including the Highway Patrol, were looking for John. 0:04:04.285 --> 0:04:07.285 They searched an area that spanned several miles. They brought 0:04:07.325 --> 0:04:10.205 in drones, they brought in canine dogs, but they found 0:04:10.205 --> 0:04:14.005 no sign of John Forsyth. Now, because his personal life 0:04:14.125 --> 0:04:17.805 was complicated, which we'll get into in a minute, of course, 0:04:18.045 --> 0:04:21.125 law enforcement has to consider the possibility that John might 0:04:21.125 --> 0:04:25.285 have gone missing voluntarily, and at first it didn't seem 0:04:25.325 --> 0:04:28.205 like police thought that John had been taken against his 0:04:28.285 --> 0:04:31.245 will or been the victim of foul play. They didn't 0:04:31.245 --> 0:04:35.525 find any obvious signs of foul play. John's family seemed 0:04:35.525 --> 0:04:38.165 like they weren't sure what to think. On the one hand, 0:04:38.725 --> 0:04:41.165 they said there was no apparent reason for John to 0:04:41.205 --> 0:04:43.645 go missing. He'd had some stresses in his life, but 0:04:43.685 --> 0:04:46.205 he was dealing well with them. But on the other hand, 0:04:46.685 --> 0:04:49.845 John did have a reputation as kind of this eccentric genius. 0:04:50.885 --> 0:04:54.205 His brother now Forsyth, said that John had been and 0:04:54.245 --> 0:04:57.005 this was the way that now put it. Always looking 0:04:57.045 --> 0:05:01.525 for adventure, as I said. In addition to being a doctor, 0:05:01.765 --> 0:05:05.165 John ran a cryptocurrency business with his other brother, Richard. 0:05:06.085 --> 0:05:10.765 The business was called Onfoe. John had started mining bitcoin 0:05:10.845 --> 0:05:13.685 and light coin, another digital currency, back in the very 0:05:13.685 --> 0:05:17.085 early days around two thousand and nine twenty ten. He 0:05:17.165 --> 0:05:19.525 made a big profit off of this, and after a 0:05:19.525 --> 0:05:22.285 couple of years he funneled these earnings into building some 0:05:22.405 --> 0:05:27.205 new businesses. This business on Foe appeared to be successful. 0:05:27.605 --> 0:05:33.325 In twenty twenty, Forbes called John a bitcoin millionaire. Back 0:05:33.365 --> 0:05:36.405 to twenty twenty three, police are searching for John, and 0:05:36.485 --> 0:05:39.565 things got even more bizarre once police found his car. 0:05:40.405 --> 0:05:43.365 This actually happened pretty quickly. There was an area that 0:05:43.445 --> 0:05:46.365 was fairly near the hospital called the Cassville Aquatic Center 0:05:46.405 --> 0:05:49.805 that had a public swimming pool. Now at that location, 0:05:50.165 --> 0:05:54.685 police were already looking for a missing child. The child, 0:05:54.725 --> 0:05:57.405 by the way, was eventually found and had nothing to 0:05:57.485 --> 0:06:02.045 do with John Forsyth, but by coincidence, this child had 0:06:02.085 --> 0:06:05.725 gone missing from the same general area. Police knew the 0:06:05.765 --> 0:06:08.245 aquatic center was the last place that this child had 0:06:08.245 --> 0:06:12.125 been seen, So by the time John went missing, they 0:06:12.125 --> 0:06:15.005 were already looking at that parking lot, going through all 0:06:15.085 --> 0:06:18.565 the security camera footage, trying to see license plates, and 0:06:18.645 --> 0:06:21.805 basically trying to id every single car in that parking 0:06:21.845 --> 0:06:25.925 lot any way that they could. They saw one vehicle 0:06:25.965 --> 0:06:30.085 that looked like it could be John's car, a black Infinity. Apparently, 0:06:30.525 --> 0:06:32.885 they looked at the video and saw that this black 0:06:32.965 --> 0:06:36.165 car came into the parking lot and then didn't ever leave. 0:06:36.685 --> 0:06:39.765 So police went to that location and they found the 0:06:39.765 --> 0:06:42.805 car parked in a back area behind a dumpster, and 0:06:42.845 --> 0:06:46.885 they did verify that this was John's car. John's car 0:06:46.965 --> 0:06:50.645 was unlocked. When police opened it, they found John's keys, 0:06:50.845 --> 0:06:55.285 his passport, his wallet, a cracked cell phone, and a laptop, 0:06:55.965 --> 0:06:59.685 all left pretty much untouched inside that car. Back at 0:06:59.765 --> 0:07:03.525 John's RV, police found two more phones. Apparently John had 0:07:03.565 --> 0:07:07.445 three phones in all. Some people online have made comments 0:07:07.485 --> 0:07:11.045 about this being a little odd, like several phones meant 0:07:11.045 --> 0:07:13.565 that he had some kind of a double life, but honestly, 0:07:14.165 --> 0:07:18.205 I don't find that strange. We know that one screen 0:07:18.445 --> 0:07:21.245 was cracked, which means that John might have only had 0:07:21.245 --> 0:07:24.805 two phones that were functional, and a lot of people, 0:07:24.805 --> 0:07:27.325 including doctors, often have more than one phone if they're 0:07:27.365 --> 0:07:31.565 on call. He also had that crypto side business. But 0:07:31.845 --> 0:07:34.565 the fact that his valuable stuff and his passport were 0:07:34.645 --> 0:07:37.685 left behind caused the local rumor bil to go into 0:07:37.725 --> 0:07:40.965 overdrive and again cause people to wonder if this was 0:07:41.005 --> 0:07:44.605 someone who voluntarily or not, had made a decision to 0:07:44.685 --> 0:07:49.325 walk away from his life. Police said publicly they did 0:07:49.325 --> 0:07:53.805 not immediately suspect foul play, and what they said was 0:07:53.885 --> 0:07:56.325 basically the reason they felt this way was because there 0:07:56.325 --> 0:07:59.205 were no signs of violence, no signs of a struggle 0:07:59.285 --> 0:08:02.565 either in the car or in the RV, no obvious blood, 0:08:03.125 --> 0:08:05.485 and again This was a grown man with a complish 0:08:05.845 --> 0:08:09.365 personal life. He had just gone through a divorce, and 0:08:09.485 --> 0:08:12.285 in the past he had been known to have some secrets. 0:08:12.925 --> 0:08:16.845 Donald Privett, the interim police chief at the Casville Police Department, 0:08:17.405 --> 0:08:20.525 told the media quote, there are numerous things to look for. 0:08:20.605 --> 0:08:25.125 Foul play, items discarded inappropriately, property damage to the vehicle, 0:08:25.205 --> 0:08:28.485 to the residents, different types of scuff marks on the ground, 0:08:28.645 --> 0:08:32.525 signs of bodily fluids, blood. There was none, none of 0:08:32.565 --> 0:08:37.565 that end quote. Apparently police canine dogs did alert in 0:08:37.645 --> 0:08:41.565 one spot close to John's car, but police found nothing there. 0:08:42.325 --> 0:08:45.725 And remember, the police did look at the surveillance cameras 0:08:45.725 --> 0:08:49.885 from that parking lot, but there has been conflicting information 0:08:50.245 --> 0:08:54.365 as to what exactly they saw in those tapes. John's brother, 0:08:54.525 --> 0:08:57.605 Richard Forsyth, started talking to the media fairly soon after 0:08:57.645 --> 0:09:01.885 his brother disappeared. At first, Richard told journalists that the 0:09:01.925 --> 0:09:05.685 security cameras did show John on that footage. Richard Yard 0:09:05.765 --> 0:09:09.205 said the camera had captured John walking away from his 0:09:09.285 --> 0:09:13.245 car and appearing to get into another car. Richard told 0:09:13.285 --> 0:09:16.645 the Daily Beast quote, it leaves a few minutes later 0:09:17.525 --> 0:09:20.485 and John is seen walking around maybe ten to fifteen 0:09:20.565 --> 0:09:23.725 minutes after that, and then he walks away from his 0:09:23.765 --> 0:09:28.325 car end quote. Richard later seemed to be a little 0:09:28.325 --> 0:09:31.925 more specific with reporters. He said the camera footage had 0:09:31.965 --> 0:09:34.285 showed John parked his car there, and that a few 0:09:34.325 --> 0:09:37.965 minutes later a white SUV drove into that parking lot, 0:09:38.205 --> 0:09:41.645 and that the suv left shortly after that. But it 0:09:41.725 --> 0:09:45.325 turned out that John had never been seen getting into 0:09:45.365 --> 0:09:49.085 a car at all. Later, law enforcement said something different 0:09:49.085 --> 0:09:52.845 to Richard. They said the video had been very bad quality. 0:09:53.085 --> 0:09:56.325 It was super blurry, so the black car they saw 0:09:56.325 --> 0:10:00.125 on video was basically a black blur. It could not 0:10:00.325 --> 0:10:03.885 even definitively be proven to be John's car. Police thought 0:10:03.925 --> 0:10:06.325 it was because of the timing and because the car 0:10:06.525 --> 0:10:10.725 was found there later, but this was not proof. Remember, 0:10:10.845 --> 0:10:13.485 Richard had said that John could be seen on video 0:10:13.565 --> 0:10:17.645 walking around, but later police said there was no definite 0:10:17.645 --> 0:10:20.685 footage of John Forsyth in that parking lot, and there 0:10:20.765 --> 0:10:23.965 was absolutely no proof that John Forsyth left the scene 0:10:24.325 --> 0:10:28.045 in that white suv or in any other car. All 0:10:28.125 --> 0:10:31.325 the police had was this black blur. They said that 0:10:31.365 --> 0:10:34.085 they saw a car pull in at seven twelve, the 0:10:34.125 --> 0:10:36.645 one that they thought might be John's car and they 0:10:36.685 --> 0:10:39.605 never saw it leave. They did not see that they 0:10:39.605 --> 0:10:42.725 had seen John get out of that car. Of course, 0:10:43.165 --> 0:10:45.885 anytime someone goes missing, there is a lot of public 0:10:45.925 --> 0:10:48.685 attention on their lives, and if they have any secrets, 0:10:48.725 --> 0:10:53.885 they often become public. Richard revealed something else he said. 0:10:54.085 --> 0:10:57.685 Shortly after John went missing, Richard was contacted by a 0:10:57.805 --> 0:11:01.125 mutual acquaintance of theirs who had a story about John 0:11:01.205 --> 0:11:03.525 going through a life threatening situation the year before. 0:11:04.685 --> 0:11:04.965 Now. 0:11:05.005 --> 0:11:08.405 Apparently, according to Richard, John had told his friend he 0:11:08.445 --> 0:11:12.725 had been kidnapped in twenty twenty two. John apparently told 0:11:12.725 --> 0:11:15.645 the friend he had been bound with zip ties, blackmailed, 0:11:15.685 --> 0:11:18.925 taken to a bridge, and threatened. I guess he eventually 0:11:18.925 --> 0:11:20.885 paid the money or came to some sort of resolution 0:11:20.965 --> 0:11:24.885 with these alleged kidnappers and was returned unharmed. But Richard 0:11:25.005 --> 0:11:28.565 said that John never reported anything to the police, so 0:11:28.685 --> 0:11:31.205 this fueled the theory that John could have been kidnapped 0:11:31.205 --> 0:11:34.925 by business associates, or maybe that his life had been 0:11:34.925 --> 0:11:37.965 threatened and he had to leave for some reason. Referring 0:11:37.965 --> 0:11:41.365 to the kidnapping, Richard also said, quote it should be 0:11:41.445 --> 0:11:44.165 said that he was kidnapped in twenty twenty two, and 0:11:44.205 --> 0:11:47.125 that was crypto related. A lot of people are connecting 0:11:47.125 --> 0:11:50.925 that dot with recent events. End quote. Richard had no 0:11:51.045 --> 0:11:54.405 real details about the alleged kidnappers, except to say that 0:11:54.445 --> 0:11:57.965 they had had Eastern European accents. He did say, however, 0:11:58.165 --> 0:12:02.765 he didn't necessarily believe that John's previous kidnappers were responsible 0:12:02.805 --> 0:12:05.405 for his disappearance. He didn't believe they would have been 0:12:05.365 --> 0:12:07.845 motivated to come all the way to Missouri to kidnap 0:12:07.925 --> 0:12:12.365 him again. I have a lot of questions about this story. 0:12:12.405 --> 0:12:15.765 First of all, I'm wondering who was this friend who 0:12:15.845 --> 0:12:18.605 talked about the kidnapping, Who was the source of this story, 0:12:19.005 --> 0:12:22.205 because the only person we're hearing this from was Richard. 0:12:23.005 --> 0:12:25.965 I have questions about the alleged kidnapping because, to be honest, 0:12:26.605 --> 0:12:29.085 it sounds like it could be a made up story. 0:12:30.205 --> 0:12:32.565 It did seem like some of John's friends and family 0:12:32.645 --> 0:12:35.445 considered the possibility that John could have come up with 0:12:35.485 --> 0:12:38.685 a way to disappear for a while. I can't blame 0:12:38.725 --> 0:12:41.925 them for hoping that that might happen, that John might resurface. 0:12:42.925 --> 0:12:45.965 John's sister, Tiffany wrote a post on the Facebook page 0:12:45.965 --> 0:12:49.645 in memory of doctor John Forsyth. It read quote, I 0:12:49.685 --> 0:12:52.765 think Johnny was a bit of an antihero, mischievous, flawed 0:12:52.805 --> 0:12:55.925 in many ways, but kinder and more generous than some 0:12:56.085 --> 0:12:59.125 might give him credit for. He was fond of hyperbole, 0:12:59.565 --> 0:13:01.965 effusive in his praise of other people, and a natural 0:13:02.005 --> 0:13:05.365 storyteller with a comedian sense of timing. He could bring 0:13:05.565 --> 0:13:08.925 a whole room to tears with laughter. His persona was 0:13:08.965 --> 0:13:13.005 a contradictory mix of easygoing charm and sharp, focused intensity, 0:13:13.925 --> 0:13:16.805 unflinchingly outspoken but hard to really know. 0:13:17.285 --> 0:13:17.725 End quote. 0:13:18.565 --> 0:13:21.565 So this picture was emerging of John as this person 0:13:21.605 --> 0:13:26.405 who was super smart but also somewhat mysterious. A lot 0:13:26.445 --> 0:13:30.005 of people, including former patients, posted nice things about John. 0:13:30.525 --> 0:13:32.965 They said how much John had help them and help 0:13:33.005 --> 0:13:36.405 their children, how caring he was with his patients, and 0:13:36.645 --> 0:13:40.605 how kind he was. His sister Gina thought maybe he 0:13:40.765 --> 0:13:44.045 had wanted to leave, maybe bail out for a few weeks, 0:13:44.085 --> 0:13:47.085 to hide from something. She said, quote, he is the 0:13:47.125 --> 0:13:50.165 smartest person I know. He planned something. It's going to 0:13:50.205 --> 0:13:53.125 be this mission impossible escape plan. He's going to come 0:13:53.165 --> 0:13:54.805 back and everything is going to be okay. 0:13:55.045 --> 0:13:56.285 End quote. 0:13:57.045 --> 0:14:01.285 But if John did plan this, he seemed to take 0:14:01.405 --> 0:14:04.365 nothing with him. If he had left town, it seemed 0:14:04.365 --> 0:14:06.325 like he did it with no money and no activity 0:14:06.365 --> 0:14:09.405 on his credit cards. But we know that he had 0:14:09.445 --> 0:14:13.885 invested in cryptocurrency, so conceivably he could have had another 0:14:13.965 --> 0:14:16.045 source of funds out there that no one knew about, 0:14:16.085 --> 0:14:20.845 maybe in a digital wallet. This fueled the conspiracy theories 0:14:20.885 --> 0:14:24.485 and the idea, sometimes the hope that John might be 0:14:24.525 --> 0:14:27.885 alive somewhere else, living his best life. But that hope 0:14:27.885 --> 0:14:31.805 did not last long because on May thirtieth, twenty twenty three, 0:14:32.325 --> 0:14:36.045 two kayakers were paddling through Beaver Lake on the Arkansas 0:14:36.085 --> 0:14:39.325 side of the Ozarks when they saw something they thought 0:14:39.365 --> 0:14:42.685 looked like a dead animal. According to the news station 0:14:42.885 --> 0:14:46.805 KY three, they started paddling to take a closer look. 0:14:48.085 --> 0:14:51.085 That's when they realized this was a human body. They 0:14:51.125 --> 0:14:55.165 called nine one one. Soon word got around this was 0:14:55.245 --> 0:15:06.845 the body of doctor John Forsyth. Days after doctor John 0:15:06.885 --> 0:15:11.005 Forsyth went missing, his body was found across the Arkansas 0:15:11.005 --> 0:15:14.725 border in beaver Lake. This was about twenty five miles 0:15:14.765 --> 0:15:18.725 away from Cassville, where he disappeared. From Authorities said that 0:15:18.765 --> 0:15:22.205 the body had sustained a gunshot wound, but they gave 0:15:22.285 --> 0:15:25.765 no further information about where the bullet hit. They said 0:15:25.765 --> 0:15:27.485 they were waiting on autopsy results. 0:15:28.165 --> 0:15:28.325 Now. 0:15:28.325 --> 0:15:30.445 Of course, because there was a body found with a 0:15:30.445 --> 0:15:33.565 gunshot wound, and because of the way that John went missing, 0:15:34.245 --> 0:15:37.285 this had some people wondering whether there was a chance 0:15:37.365 --> 0:15:41.125 that John could have taken his own life, especially once 0:15:41.285 --> 0:15:44.405 Richard revealed that John had been killed by a single 0:15:44.485 --> 0:15:48.045 gunshot wound to the head. But Richard and the rest 0:15:48.045 --> 0:15:50.365 of John's family were adamant. They said they could not 0:15:50.485 --> 0:15:53.165 believe that this had been a suicide. They said, yes, 0:15:53.325 --> 0:15:56.805 John had been going through a divorce, but they said 0:15:56.845 --> 0:16:00.125 after a tumultuous time, he was in a good place financially. 0:16:00.205 --> 0:16:04.605 The divorce was settled. Now that investigators had a body, 0:16:04.965 --> 0:16:08.285 they started looking even further into John's personal life and 0:16:08.365 --> 0:16:12.965 his business dealings. John Forsyth was born in nineteen seventy four. 0:16:13.405 --> 0:16:16.085 He grew up in a Mormon family. He was one 0:16:16.085 --> 0:16:18.605 of six children and was close to all of his siblings. 0:16:19.285 --> 0:16:21.845 John was a good doctor. He went to medical school 0:16:21.845 --> 0:16:24.365 in Barbados and had been working at Mercy Hospital for 0:16:24.405 --> 0:16:27.765 fifteen years. And as we said, he was well liked 0:16:27.805 --> 0:16:32.165 by his patients and his colleagues. And the community. According 0:16:32.205 --> 0:16:35.245 to court records, John did have a wrongful death lawsuit 0:16:35.325 --> 0:16:38.765 filed against him in twenty twenty two. It was later settled. 0:16:38.765 --> 0:16:41.565 The settlement was confidential, so we don't know exactly how 0:16:41.645 --> 0:16:45.085 much it was settled for. But this isn't unusual for 0:16:45.125 --> 0:16:49.165 a doctor. One lawsuit in fifteen years is completely normal. 0:16:49.605 --> 0:16:52.045 First of all, we live in a very litigious country, 0:16:52.245 --> 0:16:55.805 so anyone can be sued at any time. Secondly, even 0:16:55.845 --> 0:16:59.125 if lawsuits do have merit, doctors are human just like 0:16:59.165 --> 0:17:02.925 anyone else. They do make mistakes. That's actually what malpractice 0:17:02.925 --> 0:17:05.325 insurance is for. So I don't see anything out of 0:17:05.325 --> 0:17:09.405 the ordinary in that lawsuit. John met his first wife 0:17:09.445 --> 0:17:12.285 in high school. They started dating when they were teenagers, 0:17:12.325 --> 0:17:14.605 and they got married in Nevada in the mid nineties. 0:17:15.085 --> 0:17:18.245 They had seven children together, and then they filed for 0:17:18.285 --> 0:17:22.405 divorce in April twenty nineteen. But John and his wife 0:17:22.405 --> 0:17:25.965 got back together and they remarried in twenty twenty. Then 0:17:26.325 --> 0:17:30.125 in twenty twenty two, they started divorce proceedings again in Missouri. 0:17:31.005 --> 0:17:34.125 In fact, their second divorce had been settled just ten 0:17:34.205 --> 0:17:39.085 days before John disappeared. Now John also has an eighth 0:17:39.165 --> 0:17:41.685 child with another woman who was not his wife or 0:17:41.685 --> 0:17:45.485 his girlfriend. It's not clear what the exact timeline was 0:17:45.525 --> 0:17:48.365 in that relationship, but we know that John and his 0:17:48.405 --> 0:17:52.285 wife split up for a period of time. Apparently, even 0:17:52.365 --> 0:17:55.885 with the romantic complications, John was a good father and 0:17:56.005 --> 0:18:00.565 active in all of his kids' lives. So let's take 0:18:00.605 --> 0:18:04.285 a closer look at those divorce filings. What was John's 0:18:04.285 --> 0:18:07.885 net worth? Divorce have played any role in his disappearance. 0:18:08.885 --> 0:18:12.245 In cases like this, we do have to follow the money. 0:18:13.045 --> 0:18:17.005 According to court documents, the judge valued John's bitcoin holdings 0:18:17.085 --> 0:18:20.805 at over eight hundred thousand dollars. The judge ordered him 0:18:20.805 --> 0:18:23.485 to pay a total of nineteen thousand dollars per month 0:18:23.525 --> 0:18:26.645 to his ex wife, four thousand dollars in child support 0:18:26.765 --> 0:18:30.565 fifteen thousand per month in alimony. It seemed like John 0:18:30.685 --> 0:18:33.965 and his ex wife's financial dealings were pretty amicable. Yes, 0:18:34.085 --> 0:18:37.645 this is a lot of money, but John disclosed his 0:18:37.725 --> 0:18:40.125 finances to the court and the judge set what they 0:18:40.125 --> 0:18:43.965 deemed to be an appropriate amount of child support. John's 0:18:44.005 --> 0:18:47.685 family said that for John, money was not an issue. 0:18:47.965 --> 0:18:51.885 They said he did not have money worries. And side 0:18:51.965 --> 0:18:56.125 note here, I come from a family of medical professionals. 0:18:56.165 --> 0:18:59.565 Almost everyone is a doctor or nurse, including a lot 0:18:59.565 --> 0:19:03.845 of er doctors, and some people were questioning John's salary. 0:19:03.925 --> 0:19:06.725 I will say EO, our doctors and these type of 0:19:06.725 --> 0:19:11.845 communities who work a lot can easily earn between three 0:19:11.925 --> 0:19:14.605 and four hundred thousand dollars a year, and that would 0:19:14.605 --> 0:19:16.965 have been in addition to any crypto holdings that he had. 0:19:18.565 --> 0:19:21.285 John's payments to his ex wife had just started on 0:19:21.365 --> 0:19:24.405 May fifteenth of twenty twenty three. They were set to 0:19:24.445 --> 0:19:29.285 continue until John's death or until his ex wife remarried. Tiffany, 0:19:29.365 --> 0:19:33.445 John's sister, said that John's main priority, above his work, 0:19:33.525 --> 0:19:37.925 above everything, was being a good father. She said, quote 0:19:38.645 --> 0:19:41.685 Johnny said, that is how I measure men. That is 0:19:41.725 --> 0:19:44.285 the most important quality that a man can have is 0:19:44.325 --> 0:19:45.285 to be a good dad. 0:19:45.565 --> 0:19:46.045 End quote. 0:19:47.245 --> 0:19:49.925 After John and his wife divorced for the second time, 0:19:50.285 --> 0:19:53.365 he started a relationship with someone new, a thirty nine 0:19:53.405 --> 0:19:56.085 year old nurse who referred to John as the love 0:19:56.125 --> 0:20:00.085 of her life. It turned out that they were actually engaged. 0:20:00.605 --> 0:20:03.685 John had proposed to his girlfriend just seventy two hours 0:20:03.685 --> 0:20:08.365 before he disappeared. And then there was another bombshell dropped, 0:20:08.845 --> 0:20:11.325 one that no one in John's family appeared to know 0:20:12.365 --> 0:20:19.205 at the time when John went missing his fiancee was pregnant. 0:20:19.525 --> 0:20:22.965 A few weeks after John's body was found, John's fiance 0:20:23.165 --> 0:20:25.445 gave birth to their child, and they are both reportedly 0:20:25.445 --> 0:20:28.765 doing well. John's family seemed to be a little bit 0:20:28.805 --> 0:20:31.525 shocked by the news that John and his girlfriend were 0:20:31.525 --> 0:20:34.965 engaged in having a baby, but his brother now said 0:20:35.365 --> 0:20:39.005 he believed that John was waiting until the divorce was final, which, 0:20:39.045 --> 0:20:41.885 as we said, had just happened, before introducing his family 0:20:41.925 --> 0:20:46.445 to his fiance. John's ex wife's attorney, Ryan Ricketts, talked 0:20:46.445 --> 0:20:50.405 to the media. He said John's ex wife was devastated 0:20:50.605 --> 0:20:53.845 by what happened to John. Apparently, she lives in Idaho 0:20:54.045 --> 0:20:58.165 and is keeping her grief private. Even with everything going 0:20:58.245 --> 0:21:01.645 on in his life, John's family remained convinced that he 0:21:01.685 --> 0:21:05.205 did not take his own life. Richard Forsyth said that 0:21:05.805 --> 0:21:08.725 before John went missing, they had dinner together. He said 0:21:08.805 --> 0:21:11.685 John showed no signs of distress. In fact, he said 0:21:11.725 --> 0:21:15.125 John was excited about his life. John had plans to 0:21:15.165 --> 0:21:17.445 go visit one of his older daughters in Utah the 0:21:17.525 --> 0:21:19.485 day after he went missing. He had already bought his 0:21:19.485 --> 0:21:23.245 plane tickets, and John was super excited about his new 0:21:23.285 --> 0:21:26.685 life with his girlfriend. Richard said that his brother had 0:21:26.685 --> 0:21:29.645 told him quote I can't wait to introduce her to you. 0:21:29.845 --> 0:21:32.165 We're going to have a wonderful life together. We're all 0:21:32.165 --> 0:21:33.805 going to spend a lot of time together. 0:21:33.965 --> 0:21:35.165 End quote. 0:21:35.245 --> 0:21:39.325 The news station Kyfe III and the program Ozark Unsolved 0:21:39.365 --> 0:21:41.725 has done a lot of investigative work on this case. 0:21:42.445 --> 0:21:44.845 They did an interview with John's sister, Tiffany, and she 0:21:45.085 --> 0:21:48.965 told Ozark's Unsolved that John kept parts of his life 0:21:49.005 --> 0:21:51.245 separate and that he'd always kind of been that way. 0:21:52.125 --> 0:21:55.165 She said something that I thought was very revealing. She said, 0:21:55.245 --> 0:21:57.405 quote I think that he had buckets that he put 0:21:57.445 --> 0:21:59.885 stuff in. You know, this is what you get to 0:21:59.885 --> 0:22:05.005 know about me. End quote. So this case is very 0:22:05.045 --> 0:22:08.165 strange because you have all these pieces of evidence that 0:22:08.165 --> 0:22:11.125 seem to conflict with each other. You have the car 0:22:11.205 --> 0:22:14.925 left in a remote location with John's belongings inside that 0:22:15.125 --> 0:22:18.605 makes it seem like someone who may have gone missing voluntarily, 0:22:19.045 --> 0:22:21.765 which we now know did not happen, or if he 0:22:21.885 --> 0:22:25.005 did go missing voluntarily, it appears that something went horribly 0:22:25.045 --> 0:22:28.725 wrong with his plan, which leaves a couple of possibilities. 0:22:29.325 --> 0:22:32.805 One that John left his stuff there, then went to 0:22:32.885 --> 0:22:35.445 Beaver Lake and took his own life. 0:22:35.485 --> 0:22:35.925 I think this. 0:22:35.965 --> 0:22:40.605 Seems extremely unlikely. First of all, if that was his plan, 0:22:40.765 --> 0:22:42.605 how did he get there? How did he get to 0:22:42.685 --> 0:22:46.485 Beaver Lake from that parking lot? Walking there would be 0:22:46.565 --> 0:22:50.125 next to impossible given that terrain. This is the Ozarks 0:22:50.445 --> 0:22:54.845 with a skinny highway that winds through mountains. While it's 0:22:54.925 --> 0:22:57.565 theoretically possible that he could have waded out into a 0:22:57.605 --> 0:23:00.405 body of water and shot himself in the head, I 0:23:00.445 --> 0:23:04.205 think the evidence does not seem to point in that direction. Again, 0:23:04.405 --> 0:23:07.565 Beaver Lake is several miles away from where John's car 0:23:07.645 --> 0:23:10.925 was parked. You have to go through single lane highways 0:23:10.965 --> 0:23:14.045 through the Ozark Mountains. This is not somewhere where John 0:23:14.045 --> 0:23:16.285 could have walked. He would have had to walk for 0:23:16.405 --> 0:23:19.445 hours through some very rough terrain. And also, if he 0:23:19.485 --> 0:23:22.285 had been walking along that narrow highway with no shoulder, 0:23:22.885 --> 0:23:26.165 someone would have seen him. Could someone have picked him 0:23:26.205 --> 0:23:29.085 up in that parking lot, maybe lured him there, set 0:23:29.125 --> 0:23:32.485 a meeting with him under false pretenses, then taken him 0:23:32.525 --> 0:23:37.285 to Beaver Lake and shot him. I think that is possible. Again, 0:23:37.485 --> 0:23:40.325 the cameras did not see John, but it is possible 0:23:40.325 --> 0:23:41.925 that he did get out of his car and walk 0:23:41.965 --> 0:23:45.365 away on his own. I do think that it's possible 0:23:45.405 --> 0:23:47.445 that John was meeting someone in that parking lot and 0:23:47.485 --> 0:23:50.885 then he was picked up there. But there's another possibility 0:23:50.885 --> 0:23:53.485