Authorities confirmed on Wednesday that the missing Missouri ER doctor whose body was found in Arkansas on Tuesday died from an apparent gunshot wound, the Associated Press reported.
Dr. John Forsyth’s unlocked vehicle, containing two phones, his wallet, and a laptop, had been discovered on Sunday, May 21 near a public pool in Cassville, Missouri.
Surveillance footage from the public pool shows Forsyth’s vehicle pulling into the parking lot followed by a white SUV a few minutes later.
His body was found 9 days later by a kayaker on Beaver Lake in northwestern Arkansas, twenty miles away from where he was last seen.
In a statement Wednesday evening, his brother Richard Forsyth said the police had not given the family any new details aside from saying the investigations into his disappearance and death are continuing in both Missouri and Arkansas.
Just days before he disappeared, Dr. Forsyth got engaged. According to his brother, Forsyth’s fiancee was the last person known to communicate with him in a text message exchange on the morning he disappeared.
Forsyth was later reported missing when he failed to show up for work at Mercy Hospital.
Richard Forsyth rejected the notion that his brother might have taken his own life. He told the Associated Press that his brother was the father of eight children and was such a dedicated doctor that he never missed a day of work, even opting to stay in an RV near the hospital when he was on call.
Forsyth’s brother-in-law Jason Musgrave also dismissed the idea that his death was a suicide, telling the Associated Press that the doctor was “funny and engaging,” and the news that his body was found hit the family hard.
When Forsyth’s vehicle was found, law enforcement searched a 9-mile radius around the park, using dogs and drones.
