ER Doctor Goes Missing

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Birdstrike

Birdstrike

Full Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2010
Messages
10,325
Reaction score
13,769
Points
7,231
This is scary so no one knows where he is? It seems he was into crypto I wonder if that will provide any leads
 
Brigade4Radiant said:
This is scary so no one knows where he is? It seems he was into crypto I wonder if that will provide any leads
Click to expand...
Crypto bros seem to go missing/meet nefarious endings fairly regularly....
 
It's hard for me to imagine starting my own form of currency. Yet still working shifts in the pit. 🤔

That being said, I hope he's found soon and makes it home safely.
 
Birdstrike said:
“Missouri ER doctor who vanished 3 days after proposing to fiancée found dead as brother suspects foul play”

nypost.com

Missing Missouri doctor John Forsyth found dead as brother suspects foul play

Dr. John Forsyth, 49, was reported missing May 21 after he didn’t report for his 7 p.m. shift at Mercy Hospital in Cassville, a town of about 3,000 deep in the Ozarks.
nypost.com nypost.com
Click to expand...
Sad ending to story. Child support plus alimony was leveled at $19k/mo around a week before he vanished, I have to imagine that put some sort of financial strain on things.
 
Birdstrike said:
“Missouri ER doctor who vanished 3 days after proposing to fiancée found dead as brother suspects foul play”

nypost.com

Missing Missouri doctor John Forsyth found dead as brother suspects foul play

Dr. John Forsyth, 49, was reported missing May 21 after he didn’t report for his 7 p.m. shift at Mercy Hospital in Cassville, a town of about 3,000 deep in the Ozarks.
nypost.com nypost.com
Click to expand...
www.foxnews.com

Missing Missouri doctor found dead in lake from gunshot after previous kidnapping revealed

A missing Missouri ER doctor and father of eight who turned up dead in an Arkansas lake Tuesday died of a gunshot wound, as it was revealed he was kidnapped last year.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com

Found with a GSW. Was kidnapped and released a year ago. Wild
 
Kidnapped, zip tied, taken to a bridge, threatened, then released in the past. Yet, never filed a police report because he knew he was in continued danger. Never told his brother about it but “found out from a friend,” who did know about it. Who was that friend and what did he know?

This is some serious Godfather-BreakingBad-type stuff.
 
Birdstrike said:
Kidnapped, zip tied, taken to a bridge, threatened, then released in the past. Yet, never filed a police report because he knew he was in continued danger. Never told his brother about it but “found out from a friend,” who did know about it. Who was that friend and what did he know?

This is some serious Godfather-BreakingBad-type stuff.
Click to expand...
Oddly comforting to me that he clearly has more going on than go to work, go home

when you see stuff like this it’s kind of scary like was it a disgruntled narcotic seeker? Will this happen to me? It doesn’t seem like that in this case.

May he rest in peace.
 
CoolDoc1729 said:
Oddly comforting to me that he clearly has more going on than go to work, go home

when you see stuff like this it’s kind of scary like was it a disgruntled narcotic seeker? Will this happen to me? It doesn’t seem like that in this case.

May he rest in peace.
Click to expand...
My guess is, there’s quite a wild back story to be uncovered. It reminds me of the recent case of the neurosurgeon in Detroit, that was recently found shot and rolled up plastic in the attic of his own mansion.
 
Wow I think half of that is child support for 7 kids then the alimony
 
Birdstrike said:
Kidnapped, zip tied, taken to a bridge, threatened, then released in the past. Yet, never filed a police report because he knew he was in continued danger. Never told his brother about it but “found out from a friend,” who did know about it. Who was that friend and what did he know?

This is some serious Godfather-BreakingBad-type stuff.
Click to expand...

yea there is crazy shiit in that story, and no way was that ER doc innocent. He was engaging in some shady stuff.
 
BoardingDoc said:

From the article: "To the family, this was a sign that something was terribly wrong. Forsyth never went anywhere without his phones in case he got calls about his patients, his brother said."

What? If someone is routinely calling me about patients I saw in the ER I'm blocking their goddamned number. One perk of the job.
Click to expand...
Here is a small list of things that don’t make sense.

1.) Got “kidnapped” a year ago. Didn’t report it to the police because he thought he was still in danger. However, his brother found out from an unknown third party.

2.) 4 cell phones. Nobody is calling him about his ER patients and you certainly don’t need 4 phones. One article said his brother said he never went anywhere without his phones but then was surprised he had 4 phones.

3. He’d stay in a luxury RV that he parked at the hospital. I can see someone doing that if they’re locums or something but it said he’d worked there for 2 decades so I suspect he lived close by. Doesn’t make sense.

In short, he was probably murdered by his brother who seems to be the only family member talking and doing interviews.
 
A father of 8 kids.

How the hell did he have time to create a cryptocurrency with 8 kids?

This is judgemental but I question the mental stability of anyone with that many kids. Plus dude got engaged right after the alimony/child support judgement.

This dude lived a different lifestyle for sure.
 
anonperson said:
A father of 8 kids.

How the hell did he have time to create a cryptocurrency with 8 kids?

This is judgemental but I question the mental stability of anyone with that many kids. Plus dude got engaged right after the alimony/child support judgement.

This dude lived a different lifestyle for sure.
Click to expand...

yea 100% he was shady
 
Everyone seems to be beloved until the truth comes out. Not saying it never happens, but if its not a family member then they were dipping their toes in shady stuff.

I would in no way live in an RV at the hospital Parking lot not matter what. Get an apt close if you want, but an RV parked at work?
 
emergentmd said:
Everyone seems to be beloved until the truth comes out. Not saying it never happens, but if its not a family member then they were dipping their toes in shady stuff.

I would in no way live in an RV at the hospital Parking lot not matter what. Get an apt close if you want, but an RV parked at work?
Click to expand...
This may come off as sappy or naive, so you've been warned.

Being an EM doc for a significant length of time means that you have to really work hard in the other areas of your life to land in the bastard category when you're being remembered. Maybe this guy sucked and hurt a lot of people with whatever he was doing to have an income that allowed that level of alimony/child support (my guess, using crypto to launder money). But when one of our own's death makes the news, my first thought is the thousands of people they helped. So I think it's ok to feel that loss, even if he was killed doing something we consider wrong.

As a side note, I hope someday we can get to a place where we figure out how to reckon with complex legacies. We end up canonizing some people that did truly terrible things because we don't have a common language to talk about a good people that did bad things or bad people that did some truly good things without collapsing the person into a hero or villain that can be understood by a kindergartener.
 
Arcan57 said:
As a side note, I hope someday we can get to a place where we figure out how to reckon with complex legacies. We end up canonizing some people that did truly terrible things because we don't have a common language to talk about a good people that did bad things or bad people that did some truly good things without collapsing the person into a hero or villain that can be understood by a kindergartener.
Click to expand...
"I am not gay. I am not straight. I am Siegfried." - Siegfried
 
JacobMcCandles said:
Here is a small list of things that don’t make sense.

1.) Got “kidnapped” a year ago. Didn’t report it to the police because he thought he was still in danger. However, his brother found out from an unknown third party.

2.) 4 cell phones. Nobody is calling him about his ER patients and you certainly don’t need 4 phones. One article said his brother said he never went anywhere without his phones but then was surprised he had 4 phones.

3. He’d stay in a luxury RV that he parked at the hospital. I can see someone doing that if they’re locums or something but it said he’d worked there for 2 decades so I suspect he lived close by. Doesn’t make sense.

In short, he was probably murdered by his brother who seems to be the only family member talking and doing interviews.
Click to expand...
My money is on a former investor in his crypto or something similar. I don't think it was the brother, but it seems he had his hands in a lot of dubious ventures that could make enemies
 
Birdstrike said:
My guess is, there’s quite a wild back story to be uncovered. It reminds me of the recent case of the neurosurgeon in Detroit, that was recently found shot and rolled up plastic in the attic of his own mansion.
Click to expand...

Yes that neurosurgeon in detroit, being from here I did not know him but have some friends that knew him well. I know he was as they say here "on the downlow " but not sure how open that was in the community
 
Last edited:
DetroitERDO said:
Yes that neurosurgeon in detroit, being from here I did not know him but have some friends that knew him well. I know he was as they say here "on the downlow " but not sure how open that was in the community
Click to expand...
Do you mean homosexual? I only heard "on the downlow" from an episode of SVU.
 
Apollyon said:
Do you mean homosexual? I only heard "on the downlow" from an episode of SVU.
Click to expand...
It specifically refers to gay men who are sexually active with other men but do so secretly and have not publicly come out. I have also only ever heard it used to refer to black men in particular, though I don't know that that's strictly a requirement.
 
BoardingDoc said:
It specifically refers to gay men who are sexually active with other men but do so secretly and have not publicly come out. I have also only ever heard it used to refer to black men in particular, though I don't know that that's strictly a requirement.
Click to expand...
On SVU, that was the thing - specifically black men.
 
Yes it is commonly used among black community but we in Detroit use it I guess because we are a majority black city?
 
alphaholic06 said:
How does an ER doc have to pay 19k a month in child support and alimony?
Click to expand...
He was also apparently a cofounder of some cryptocurrency. The income that the alimony is based off of was likely largely that income and not his medical income.
 
alphaholic06 said:
How does an ER doc have to pay 19k a month in child support and alimony?
Click to expand...

This is the biggest news story to me and it's absolutely absurd that this is possible in our legal/justice system.

How can one expect to pay that much on an ER doc's salary, especially if it's a job with such a high attrition rate? If a judge somehow decides you're on the hook for lifetime alimony how is that not some form of modern-day slavery?

I wonder if this is why he's dead - suicide due to staring down a lifetime of having to shell that out every month til he dies.
 
HemorrhagicShock said:
If a judge somehow decides you're on the hook for lifetime alimony how is that not some form of modern-day slavery?
Click to expand...
Depending on the state you live in, pretty standard for lifetime alimony if marriage is ten years or more in duration. Amount predicated on worth and earning potential of each party.
 
Brigade4Radiant said:
Wait what?!? So the wife gets 15 K and 7-8 kids get 4k?
Click to expand...
Likely standard calculation:

To calculate it by long hand, take the Combined Parental Income (but only up to $141,000) and multiply it by the applicable Child Support Percentages (1 child in the care of the custodial parent: 17%, 2 children: 25%, 3 children: 29%, 4 children: 31%, 5 or more children: 35% or more).
 
According to Forbes magazine he was a "bitcoin millionaire." That might explain the high divorce-settlement amounts. But according to his business partner and brother, "He wouldn't miss a shift even if his eyeballs were hanging out of their sockets."

If independently wealthy, why work EM shifts at all?

Did it all crash? Was he in massive debt?
 
Last edited:
Birdstrike said:
According to Forbes magazine he was a "bitcoin millionaire." That might explain the high divorce-settlement amounts. But according to his business partner and brother, "He wouldn't miss a shift even if his eyeballs were hanging out of their sockets."

If independently wealthy, why work EM shifts at all?

Did it all crash? Was he in massive debt?
Click to expand...
It’s sad that we and the job are so broken that the idea of doing it without being forced to by economic circumstances is a cause for puzzlement.
 
He had "made some enemies in the crypto space," according to his business partner brother.

What kind of "enemies"?
 
Despite all that, police are saying, "No foul play is suspected."

Really?

How can they rule out foul play, so quickly and easily?

Is there obvious evidence of suicide, or natural death, that they're not sharing?

Why would someone independently wealthy, in the prime of their life, newly in love and engaged for only a few short days, suddenly end up dead in a lake, but "no foul play" is suspected?
 
And what kind of independently wealthy crypto-millionaire not only lives in an RV, but in a parking lot? At work?

For a job a 'crypto-millionaire' certainly wouldn't need?
 
Birdstrike said:
Despite all that, police are saying, "No foul play is suspected."

Really?

How can they rule out foul play, so quickly and easily?

Is there obvious evidence of suicide, or natural death, that they're not sharing?

Why would someone independently wealthy, in the prime of their life, newly in love and engaged for only a few short days, suddenly end up dead in a lake, but "no foul play" is suspected?
Click to expand...
My first thought was honestly suicide.
 
Birdstrike said:
Despite all that, police are saying, "No foul play is suspected."

Really?

How can they rule out foul play, so quickly and easily?

Is there obvious evidence of suicide, or natural death, that they're not sharing?

Why would someone independently wealthy, in the prime of their life, newly in love and engaged for only a few short days, suddenly end up dead in a lake, but "no foul play" is suspected?
Click to expand...

It depends we don’t know all the facts but it looks like suicide his stuff was all in his car and he drove to the area
 
HemorrhagicShock said:
This is the biggest news story to me and it's absolutely absurd that this is possible in our legal/justice system.

How can one expect to pay that much on an ER doc's salary, especially if it's a job with such a high attrition rate? If a judge somehow decides you're on the hook for lifetime alimony how is that not some form of modern-day slavery?

I wonder if this is why he's dead - suicide due to staring down a lifetime of having to shell that out every month til he dies.
Click to expand...
I'm not convinced of the suicide, but I agree with you that this judgement seems ridiculous. Another poster speculated that the $19k figure was based on his side hustle crypto income. But alimony is set, whereas the income from something like crypto is highly likely to fluctuate (and possibly go away all together).

I don't think the non-breadwinning spouse should be left financially destitute by divorce, but it doesn't seem right that one should expect to be able to divorce a high earning spouse and expect to continue living an extravagant life (and I would classify a $19k/mo lifestyle as extravagant).

I support divorce law that is intended to give the non-breadwinner a reasonable quality of life while working on a chance to develop their own earning potential. This has to take into account things like age at divorce - if you get divorced at 75, you can't really develop earning potential, so lifelong alimony is probably warranted. Get divorced at 40? You should get alimony enough to maintain a decent standard of living while you develop your skills, but not be set up for life on the back of your ex spouse.
 
WilcoWorld said:
I support divorce law that is intended to give the non-breadwinner a reasonable quality of life while working on a chance to develop their own earning potential. This has to take into account things like age at divorce - if you get divorced at 75, you can't really develop earning potential, so lifelong alimony is probably warranted. Get divorced at 40? You should get alimony enough to maintain a decent standard of living while you develop your skills, but not be set up for life on the back of your ex spouse.
Click to expand...
Concur. I think the problem is these divorce laws were implemented in the 50s, when a lot more women were homemakers/stay at home moms, and not so much in the workforce. Made more sense back then, but seems crazy now.

I mean, Jeff Bezos gets divorced, and his wife gets half?! They didn't have kids as far as I know. What was his wife's contribution to amazon, someone who's a writer by profession?
 
DetroitERDO said:
Yes that neurosurgeon in detroit, being from here I did not know him but have some friends that knew him well. I know he was as they say here "on the downlow " but not sure how open that was in the community
Click to expand...
Yeah, I met him a couple times. He was a nice guy, really involved with his community and charitable stuff. I think he came from a pretty conservative religious background so I don’t think he was out but it was pretty well known and obvious that he was gay. I hope they find his killer, seems like they at least have some clear suspects.
 
The problem with getting married is that your joint and tethered it’s no longer your money. It’s our money and the court just simply has to divide that.
 
benem said:
Yeah, I met him a couple times. He was a nice guy, really involved with his community and charitable stuff. I think he came from a pretty conservative religious background so I don’t think he was out but it was pretty well known and obvious that he was gay. I hope they find his killer, seems like they at least have some clear suspects.
Click to expand...
Yes you are right on with all these things. Originally he’s from Indiana brought up Catholic so not comfortable with being out
 
bravotwozero said:
Concur. I think the problem is these divorce laws were implemented in the 50s, when a lot more women were homemakers/stay at home moms, and not so much in the workforce. Made more sense back then, but seems crazy now.

I mean, Jeff Bezos gets divorced, and his wife gets half?! They didn't have kids as far as I know. What was his wife's contribution to amazon, someone who's a writer by profession?
Click to expand...

They had 4 kids together and I’m sure that Jeff wouldn’t have been as successful had he not had a good partner at home. That being said yes her getting however many billions is eye popping even if it isn’t half.
 
Birdstrike said:
According to Forbes magazine he was a "bitcoin millionaire." That might explain the high divorce-settlement amounts. But according to his business partner and brother, "He wouldn't miss a shift even if his eyeballs were hanging out of their sockets."

If independently wealthy, why work EM shifts at all?

Did it all crash? Was he in massive debt?
Click to expand...
Some people actually like their job and continue to work no matter how wealthy they are. 🙂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
WANTED: ER Paper Chart Templates
Replies
9
Views
1K
emergentmd
E
cyanide12345678
Any VA ER docs out there?
Replies
25
Views
2K
Mtbk
M
thegenius
AI Tech for the ER
2
Replies
70
Views
6K
EctopicFetus
EctopicFetus
H
Life lessons as an ER doc?
Replies
21
Views
4K
Birdstrike
Birdstrike
valianteffort
ER Provider Efficiency
Replies
25
Views
4K
DocEspana
DocEspana
Top Bottom