Geoffrey Spangler, 33, left his Las Cruces, New Mexico home on the morning of November 8, 2021, saying he was headed for a rented cabin in Ruidoso. He never arrived and was reported missing the next day. Instead of driving to Ruidoso, Geoffrey spent much of his last known day at White Sands Missile Range, where witnesses described his movements as erratic; he left and re-entered the base several times and obtained a visitor pass around noon to visit the on-base bowling alley. A receipt from the alley shows two beers purchased at about 6:15 p.m., and he is believed to have exited the base around 7:30 p.m.

A later confirmed sighting placed him at the Pit Stop gas station in Oro Grande, where he bought beverages—the last known sighting of him alive. On December 6, 2021, a hiker found his 2000 Dodge Avenger abandoned at the base of the Franklin Mountains in Franklin Mountain State Park, north of El Paso. The vehicle, parked off a rough, less-traveled road, contained many personal items—laptop, cell phone, Nintendo Switch, medications and clothing—and was noted to look unusually clean for a car left in the desert for a month.

Anyone with information about his movements after leaving White Sands Missile Range or who may have seen his Avenger near the Franklin Mountains is asked to come forward.