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We occasionally use remote contract developers for specific types of projects that occasionally come our way. We have one in particular that has always done outstanding work for us. On top of the top-notch coding, he's always been great to work with and is always very responsive... responding to emails and messages in a very timely fashion. He recently finished a large project for us, but had some follow up tweaks to do as the client tested the finished product.

In August, the project manager hadn't heard back from him in way too long (a couple of weeks). She sent out an email, but two weeks went by with no reply. I emailed him myself to see what was up and get a status update and he replied shortly after that he'd have an update for us by the next day. Two weeks go by... no response. We try contacting him again... another two weeks go by with no response again. We contact the company we use (where he's technically employed through) that supplies these contract developers for us about the situation. We're assured that they'll contact him and get back to us because he's never gone more than one day without responding to them.

They email him... no reply for a couple of days. They call him... no reply, so they leave a voicemail. After a couple of days with no callback, they message him via text, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn... days go by with no response from him on any platform. Nobody knows what's going on with him. Is he dead?? Did he die in his home office and nobody has discovered it yet?? It's not like we can stop by his place and check things out, he lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada! (although I'd volunteer to go so I can spend some more time in Canmore)

At this point things have progressed to his emergency contacts, but so far there's been no response from an of them, either, so we're even more concerned than before! WTF?