Joseph Matthew Johnson, 44, vanished from Carolina Beach, North Carolina after leaving the Federal Point Yacht Club on November 22, 2021. Surveillance shows him piloting his 19-foot 2006 Marine Clearwater center console at about 11:00 AM, wearing a black t-shirt, black shorts and a black ball cap. The last electronic trace was a cell phone ping at 5:17 PM that day off the coast of Bald Head Island; after that, all communication and signs of his whereabouts stopped.

Seven months later, on June 21, 2022, authorities on São Jorge Island in the Azores contacted the Carolina Beach Police Department after finding his boat. The vessel was heavily encrusted with barnacles and algae and appeared to have been capsized or ashore for an extended, unknown period. Portuguese investigators found no sign of Johnson and uncovered no information to explain what happened after he left North Carolina.

The recovery of the boat far from the mainland deepens the mystery rather than resolving it. Does anyone have information about Johnson’s movements on November 22, 2021, or about the boat between that date and its discovery in the Azores?