Missouri ER doctor who vanished 3 days after proposing to fiancée found dead

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A Missouri ER doctor and father of eight who vanished last week after texting his new fiancée he'd see her in "a little bit" was found dead Tuesday, his brother said.

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.

His brother Richard Forsyth said authorities located his body Tuesday in northwest Arkansas.

"We're in shock. I suspect foul play," said Richard, who is expecting more details from a detective on Wednesday.

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Missouri Dr. John Forsyth was found dead Tuesday more than a week after he went missing. (Cassville Police Department/Facebook)

"He wouldn’t miss a shift even if his eyeballs were hanging out of their sockets. He's punctual in the extreme," Richard told Fox News Digital. "It was an immediate red flag."

Forsyth has worked at the same hospital for 15 years and has never missed a day of work or been late, Richard added.

The last person known to hear from Forsyth, who created a cryptocurrency with his brother, may have been his fiancée, Cassville Police Det. Stuart Lombard told Fox News Digital. 

"We were too late,"

— Dr. John Forsyth's brother, Richard, told Fox News Digital

They were texting at around 7 a.m., and he told her his shift was over, and he'd see her "a little bit later." Then he suddenly stopped responding, Lombard said.

Video surveillance captured the doctor walking to his luxury RV, where he stayed in the hospital parking lot during his shifts.

Police located Forsyth's Infiniti about 700 feet from the Cassville Aquatic Center entrance at a yard waste site.

Dr. John Forsyth failed to show up to work for his 7 p.m. shift at Mercy Hospital in Cassville, Mo., May 21.  (Google Maps)

Richard Forsyth said John Forsyth's passport, wallet and two phones, along with his RV and car keys, were still inside the Infiniti.

Forsyth had also left the RV unlocked with his laptop and two additional cellphones behind when he left, which Richard called "very uncharacteristic."  

Lombard said police, with the assistance of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and other agencies, had conducted a canine and ground search of the 90-acre park around the recreation facility but turned up nothing. 

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Richard said his brother got engaged three days before he disappeared and days after finalizing his divorce from his first wife.

An uncontested divorce settlement was issued May 11 that awarded his ex-wife about $19,000 a month in alimony and child support, Richard added.

Dr. John Forsyth, right, and a map of the Cassville Aquatic Center, where police located his black Infiniti sedan Sunday. (Google Maps I Facebook)

He reportedly had a trip planned to see several family members and friends in Idaho and Utah beginning May 22, including his second-oldest daughter who had just completed her Mormon mission. 

The doctor's family had been distraught over the baffling disappearance and launched a Facebook page to try to track him down.

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"I’m grieving, I’m afraid, and it feels like the world has tipped into sheer chaos," his sister, Tiffany Andelin, wrote on Facebook Monday. "I'm so afraid he's just gone. Please don't let this be how this ends. The hole that will leave in my life will be empty forever. Please help us find him."

After the family got the devastating news late Tuesday, Richard told Fox News Digital, "We were too late."

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Cassville Police Department at 417-847-4700 or 417-847-4911.