John Forsyth, Missouri ER doctor found dead in lake after disappearing, was expecting baby with new fiancée
The Missouri ER doctor whose body was found in a lake more than a week after he went missing under mysterious circumstances had just gotten engaged to a nurse who was eight-months pregnant with his baby, according to a report.
Dr. John Forsyth, a 49-year-old newly divorced father of eight, was last seen alive on May 21, when security cameras in the parking lot of a public pool in Cassville showed him getting into someone’s vehicle.
Three days earlier, Forsyth had proposed to a nurse who worked with him — and whom his family had not met until after his disappearance. Most of his relatives were unaware of the engagement.
The ER doctor’s bride-to-be is eight-months pregnant with the couple’s first child, a source anonymously told Fox News Digital.
“I have never cried and prayed so much as the last two weeks,” Forsyth’s father, Robert, told the outlet while discussing his late son’s plans for the future with his fiancée.
“It’s just been wrenching. They were planning their wedding.”
The 76-year-old added that he learned of the proposal and pregnancy only after his son’s death.
Forsyth’s engagement came a short time after he finalized his divorce from his wife — a woman whom he had married twice between 1995 and 2022.
On May 10, a judge ordered Forsyth to pay his ex-wife $3,999 in child support a month, plus another $15,000 a month, which the doctor — who had created a cryptocurrency with his brother and was reportedly a millionaire — did not contest. By all accounts, the split was amicable.
Forsyth’s brother, Richard, complained to Fox News Digital that he and his family have been kept “in the dark” by the authorities about the investigation.
“The Missouri state police told us, ‘We know more than you think we do,’” he said. “We are mad we are being kept so in the dark.”
Authorities, who have been equally tightlipped with the press about the investigation, have not said whether they believe Forsyth was killed or died by suicide.
His brother and other family members have dismissed any suggestion that he took his own life, saying that he was devoted to the eight children he has with his ex-wife and seemed happier than he had been in a long time.
On the day he vanished, Forsyth had just finished a 12-hour shift at Mercy Hospital in Cassville.
He texted his fiancée that he would see her in “a little bit,” but then stopped responding to her messages, Cassville Police Detective Stuart Lombard previously told Fox News Digital.
Security footage showed the doctor heading to his luxury RV, where he stayed while on call.
Cameras later captured Forsyth in the parking of the aquatic center in Cassville, about a mile from the hospital, where he was seen entering someone’s vehicle, after leaving his own car unlocked with his wallet, two phones, a laptop and other items inside.
Forsyth then apparently emerged from the unknown car and was seen walking around the parking lot for “10 to 15 minutes.”
The medic was due back in the hospital for his night shift at 7 p.m. but never made it, which was extremely out of character for him, according to those who knew him.
Forsyth’s Acura was found that night near a waste treatment facility located 700 feet from the public pool, with his stethoscope dangling from the rearview mirror.
Nine days later, a kayaker found Forsyth’s body floating in Beaver Lake in neighboring Arkansas, about 25 miles from Cassville, with a gunshot wound.
Police have not explained how Forsyth got from Cassville to Beaver Lake and have not said when or where he died.
“So he goes down to Beaver Lake when he hasn’t slept all night, he doesn’t have a car, and he doesn’t have a cellphone,” his brother Richard said. “It doesn’t make any sense. There’s no way he went of his own accord.”
Forsyth has previously been involved in dangerous situations and was kidnapped and released in February 2022, his brother said.
“It was cold. He was zip-tied. He was made to feel very unsafe and taken on a car ride with some people to a bridge and he was threatened.”
Richard Forsyth learned about the kidnapping from a friend and said that it was somehow related to the cryptocurrency, Onfo, which the brothers had created together.
Dr. Forsyth never reported the first kidnapping because he wanted to protect those close to him from danger, according to the friend.
“Many times he mentioned he might be in danger,” his brother said. “But it was always really vague.”
The slain doctor’s father, Robert, said that his son told him he had “made some enemies” and hinted that “there are people who don’t like what I’m doing,” but he did not get into details.
Although Benton County Coroner Daniel Oxford said an autopsy on Forsyth’s body was completed a week ago, the results won’t be released until the investigation is complete.
