'Bitcoin Millionaire' Found Dead a Week After Going Missing

Dr. John Forsyth was a father of seven who worked in a Missouri emergency room—but concerns were raised after he didn't turn up for a shift.

by Connor Sephton

Image: Shutterstock

An ER doctor and crypto entrepreneur has been found dead in Arkansas—more than a week after he went missing in Missouri.

Dr. John Forsyth was the founder of Onfo, which promised to offer users decentralized cryptocurrency that could be earned through network mining.

And back in 2020, a Forbes profile named him as a "Bitcoin millionaire" who had found fortune as an early adopter during his math degree—holding on to his crypto through multiple halvings.

Dr. Forsyth's day job was working in the emergency room of Mercy Hospital in Cassville, Mo., but loved ones raised the alarm after he had failed to turn up for a shift on May 21.

His younger brother Richard—who was also involved in Onfo—told The Daily Beast: "He wouldn't miss a shift even if his eyeballs were hanging out of their sockets. It was an immediate red flag."

Fears grew for the welfare of the 49-year-old, a father of seven, when his wallet, passport, and briefcase were found in his unlocked car near a 90-acre aquatic park. Dr. Forsyth's cell phones were also abandoned inside an RV he often parked outside the hospital so he could be close to his patients.

Searches by law enforcement had spanned a nine-mile radius—with loved ones desperately appealing for information on his whereabouts.

"My brother has now been missing for a week. I'm grieving, I'm afraid, and it feels like the world has tipped into sheer chaos," his sister Tiffany Andelin Forsyth wrote on Facebook on 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."

Dr. Forsyth's brother said his divorce had recently been finalized and he was newly engaged. On Facebook, his fiancée described him as the love of her life.

Richard added that—while he and his brother had "made some enemies" in the crypto space—nothing had seemed unusual in the run-up to his disappearance.

Local media has reported that Forsyth's body was discovered with an apparent gunshot wound in a lake in northwest Arkansas. The police are yet to provide further details on the circumstances surrounding Dr. Forsyth's death—but say foul play does not appear to be a factor.