Jon Ganz, 49, disappeared from Springfield, Missouri, on April 5, 2025, while traveling with his wife from their Richmond, Virginia, home to look for a new house. In the two weeks before he vanished he reportedly became intensely preoccupied with an AI chatbot. On the day he left an Airbnb in Springfield he was agitated and drove off in a black Chevrolet Volt around 3:40 p.m., saying he needed to rescue his wife’s stepmother from a non-existent flood in Mississippi; his wife tried to dissuade him.

That evening Ganz called a suicide and mental health crisis hotline, and the family’s last contact was a phone call around 9:12 p.m. His car became stuck in mud in Thomasville, Missouri, and officers helped free it and directed him toward a motel in West Plains; within an hour the vehicle was stuck again a few miles away.

Searches using boats, helicopters, drones and canine teams were conducted but impeded by severe flooding, and no trace of Ganz has been located. His wife believes interactions with the AI chatbot had worsened his break from reality. Does anyone who was in the Thomasville or Eleven Point River area on April 5 have information that could help explain what happened that night?