The authorities in Arkansas have officially ruled the death of a respected emergency room doctor from Missouri as a suicide. The doctor’s body was discovered in a lake in northwest Arkansas nearly a year ago. This case had sparked widespread speculation on social media regarding the possibility of his disappearance being linked to his involvement in cryptocurrency.
Dr. John Forsyth, a 49-year-old father of eight who was engaged to be married, disappeared nearly a year ago near the RV he parked at Mercy Hospital in Cassville, Missouri. He was scheduled to work on May 21, 2023, but failed to show up, triggering a search. After days of uncertainty, his body was discovered by a kayaker on May 30 in Arkansas’ Beaver Lake, approximately 20 miles south of the hospital.
Detectives from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas confirmed on Thursday that Forsyth’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. The chief medical examiner at the Arkansas State Crime Lab conducted an autopsy, which determined that the death was a suicide.
According to the sheriff’s statement, detectives have been unable to uncover any information or evidence that would challenge the findings of the medical examiner. However, they remain open to investigating any objective and relevant physical evidence that may arise in the future.
The circumstances surrounding Forsyth’s death, along with the limited information available to the public, captured widespread attention. Prior to his passing, Forsyth had recently gotten engaged and was looking forward to starting a new chapter in his life. His brother, Richard, revealed that Forsyth was filled with excitement about his upcoming marriage and the arrival of a new child with his fiancรฉe. Additionally, Forsyth had made plans to visit one of his daughters and had already purchased a plane ticket for the trip.
Online publications that focus on cryptocurrency were quick to report on the death of John Forsyth. According to his brother, Forsyth had made mysterious statements suggesting that he was in some sort of danger prior to his passing.
Richard Forsyth informed OzarksFirst that they suspected one individual who may have been upset with his brother. However, he clarified that this person was currently overseas and expressed confidence that their involvement is unrelated to the ongoing investigation.
Richard Forsyth stated that the individual in question had expressed intense emotions towards them, claiming that he would seek revenge. However, despite these threats, the individual’s campaign ultimately failed, and they did not hear from him again. Forsyth does not believe that this would be a sufficient motivation for someone to travel across the Atlantic and cause trouble.
Richard Forsyth did not respond to a phone call asking for his comment on the Benton County sheriff’s announcement.
John and Richard Forsyth established Onfo LLC, which they referred to as a “network mining” venture, in 2018. During that period, Onfo’s website stated that users could earn credits without making any financial contributions by simply referring others to the company.
According to Richard Forsyth, he and his brother had a shared vision of empowering a wide range of individuals, including those in impoverished communities in developing countries, to participate in the decentralized world of digital currency. They believed that the crypto industry had lost its original purpose and had become overly focused on materialistic desires like owning luxury cars and facilitating tax evasion for the wealthy.
The case gained attention not only because of the brothers’ involvement in the crypto business but also due to the rapid growth of a Facebook discussion group with over 1,000 members.
John Forsyth’s sudden disappearance left his sister Tiffany Andelin perplexed and deeply concerned. In a heartfelt Facebook post, she expressed her bewilderment as her brother seemed to have vanished into thin air.
According to the sheriff’s department, the doctor was last spotted heading towards his RV in the parking lot of Mercy Hospital in Cassville. This hospital is located 40 miles west of Branson, Missouri, which is a popular tourist destination in the Ozark Mountains.
According to reports, he vanished from the parking lot of a public swimming pool in Cassville, located about a mile away from the hospital where he was employed. It’s worth noting that the pool had not yet opened for the summer season. Richard Forsyth, the brother of the missing individual, has shared that his car was discovered unlocked at the pool’s parking lot. Inside the vehicle were two cellphones, a laptop, and crucial documents.