Deadbeat Dad Ghosted His Pregnant Wife & Baby A Year Ago — Internet Sleuths Found Him In Under 12 Hours
Turns out he abandoned more than just his family.
baranq / Shutterstock After a woman’s husband vanished out of the blue, she turned to the internet to track down his whereabouts — and they did not disappoint.
A year after the man disappeared, internet sleuths were able to find him in less than 12 hours.
Ashley McGuire shared on Facebook that her husband, Charles Withers, ghosted her last year when she was pregnant with their second child.
McGuire, who lives in Massachusetts, took to the popular Facebook group “Are We Dating The Same Guy?" to ask for help tracking down her husband who disappeared without a trace.
Charles Withers, a rising star in the culinary world who appeared on an episode of Food Network’s “Chopped” in 2022, has a wife and child he hasn’t seen or reached out to in over a year and a second child whom he’s never met.
A year ago, Withers disappeared, leaving behind his pregnant wife and their child. He failed to tell them where he was going, changed his number, and was not heard from again.
After a year of unanswered questions, McGuire asked members of the Facebook group if anyone knew her husband’s whereabouts and provided them with the little information she still had on him.
“He loves to be the center of attention, but I'm not sure how much he's going to like this,” McGuire wrote in her post.
“Last year, when I was pregnant with our youngest baby, he decided being a husband and a dad wasn't the lifestyle he wanted anymore, and he ghosted, like gone without a trace. He has one baby he hasn't seen in over a year and one he's never met. He's moved somewhere out of state and changed his phone number.”
McGuire's hope was to get in contact with Withers, not so they could get back together and raise their children, but so she could serve him with divorce papers.
“Divorcing someone who's completely unreachable is really tough and drawn out, so I'm trying to track him down to get his signature on a few papers so I can finally close this chapter and move on with my life,” McGuire shared.
She added that she heard that Withers now goes by “Charlie” instead of Charles and is a British chef. “If you know him, if you're working with him, if you're dating him or friends with him, can you please have him get in touch with me or let me know where I can find him?”
McGuire could not have fathomed what might happen next.
Internet sleuths who had seen McGuire’s post got to work and did some digging on Charles Withers.
Creator Jay Megan was able to contact women in the Fort Worth and Dallas area and learned that they had matched with Withers on the online dating platform Bumble.
“He specifically in his Bumble profile says that he’s British and a chef, so we’re pretty sure we found the right guy!” Megan said in a TikTok video.
Not only were internet sleuths able to pinpoint Withers’ current location and share it with his estranged wife, but they also uncovered more disturbing details about his character.
In addition to abandoning his family, Withers allegedly abandoned his business, staff, and customers.
He owned the Boston seafood restaurant, C Salt Wine Bar and Grille. The restaurant is listed as “permanently closed” on Google.
According to another armchair detective named Mary Katherine, before closing the restaurant, Withers reportedly “sold a crap ton of gift cards and then just took the money,” which left his customers and employees “in the dark with unpaid wages and unusable gift cards.”
Additionally, Jay Megan was contacted by “several people” who previously worked for Withers, claiming that he had fallen into a problematic drug habit, which caused staff to stage an intervention.
“Then, after the restaurant boarded up, all the employees found out that their last paychecks bounced,” Megan reported.
Withers allegedly has a wealthy family back in the U.K., who often "bail him out when he gets in trouble."
The family promised Withers’ employees that they would be paid. However, Withers’ family reportedly filed for bankruptcy for him, and his workers still have yet to receive their final paychecks.
McGuire followed up on her original Facebook post, thanking everyone for their information on her husband and their support.
“I've gotten more than enough information to locate him. I have literally hundreds of messages to sort through, some with information and some with support, and I appreciate all of them,” she wrote. “Single moms are a special breed, and I know a lot of you have gone through the same situation I have.”
Despite all of the hardships she endured, McGuire said that she does not “wish him any type of ill will.” She went on to say, “I sincerely appreciate all of your support, but please do not make threats, spread hate, or try to go out and locate him,” she urged her supporters. “Truly, I only want to see this situation resolved so me and my children can restart our lives and fix the damage done.”
If this astonishing story, complete with twists and turns, teaches us anything, it’s two significant life lessons:
Never underestimate the detective skills of internet sleuths.
Women will always support each other unwaveringly when it comes to deadbeat partners and take decisive action to hold accountable those who have caused harm.
Bravo, internet. This is proof that social media is a community that cares and can affect change.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.