She asked the internet to find husband who 'ghosted' her and their kids. He was tracked down within hours

Ashley McGuire of Massachusetts asked for help on Facebook finding her husband, saying he had ghosted her while she was pregnant with their second child more than a year ago.

The internet rallied, and within 24 hours, she said she'd received "hundreds" of tips — enough to finally track him down in hopes of getting him to sign the divorce papers she had been waiting on.

The post took off online — an IRL saga with followers from all over becoming invested and flexing their amateur detective chops.

"This is my husband, Charles Withers," McGuire wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post over the weekend. "He loves to be the center of attention, but I'm not sure how much he's going to like this."

McGuire, an aesthetician and makeup artist, went on to claim that Withers disappeared "without a trace" sometime last year and had never met their youngest child. In a radio interview Monday, McGuire said she drove herself to the hospital where she delivered their baby alone.

"He's moved somewhere out of state and changed his phone number," McGuire wrote. "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."

The post, which circulated through the popular "Are We Dating the Same Guy?" Facebook group and beyond, was seen millions of times, sparking additional conversation — and sleuthing — on X, TikTok, and Reddit. One repost on X has been viewed nearly 50 million times. A TikTok detailing the drama was viewed 5 million times.

Neither McGuire nor Withers could be reached for comment.

McGuire warned that Withers — a rising chef in the Boston food scene and former Chopped contestant — was "British and charming," likely working in hospitality, and probably never mentioned having a wife or kids back home.

She described the Facebook post as a last-ditch effort for answers, writing that "a friend of a friend of a friend has got to know where he is." What the mom didn't expect was thousands of strangers to assist.

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