I’ve been fascinated by the ongoing mystery of fitness guru and titan Richard Simmons and his disappearance from the public eye. He’s be the subject of much curiosity in the last few years after he suddenly disappeared — no note, no call, no warning to anyone he was even remotely close to — and has not been heard from since. Interestingly, we have have reason to believe he’s genuinely fine after the LAPD did a wellness check on Simmons sometime Thursday March 9.
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What we can safely confirm is that he is living in his home in Los Angeles. It would also appear that he or someone who has access is tweeting from Simmons’ verified Twitter account regularly and recently enough that it wouldn’t raise suspicion. Aside from these two pieces of evidence, though, we (the public) have no key insight into Simmons’ life in 2017 and that’s a killer. What happened? Why did he disappear? Or are the reasons more sinister?
According to People Magazine, LAPD’s Detective Kevin Baker told the press about the Simmons visit, “There was something about his housekeeper holding him hostage and not allowing people to see him and preventing him from making phone calls and it was all garbage and that’s why we went out to see him. None of it is true. The fact of the matter is we went out and talked to him. He is fine, nobody is holding him hostage. He is doing exactly what he wants to do. If he wants to go out in public or see anybody he will do that.”
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Baker appeared to have been adamant that absolutely nothing was wrong with Simmons in the way of his health, demeanor or appearance. “He is perfectly fine and he is very happy. I don’t know what he is going to do, but right now he is doing what he wants to do and it is his business. […] He was very nice. He was very cordial. He couldn’t have been nicer to us.”
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This is all the stranger to me, though. I can absolutely understand a person’s desire to take a big step back and really focus on themselves. I do that regularly. But Simmons’ alleged immediate retreat from the public eye — to the point where coining it a “disappearance” wouldn’t be a mischaracterization — doesn’t seem to scan with this behavior. From the testimonies the press has received from those closest to Simmons as well as the facts slowly being revealed in the podcast Missing Richard Simmons, this behavior is so not the norm for the fitness king.
If Simmons is so well the LAPD is telling the public to back off, calm down and let the man live, why can’t Simmons release a statement backing this up? Why were the LAPD called to Simmons’ house to do a wellness check to begin with? It’s been close to a year since his health scare, for which he was hospitalized, and back in 2015, authorities were called to Simmons’ house over allegations of elder abuse toward Simmons.
The plot gets thicker and the twists get twistier, but I’m not sure where this is all leading. My gut, along with apparently dozens upon dozens of others, feels like something is up. Despite the claims of the LAPD and the statements released from Simmons’ camp, something stranger and bigger is afoot here.
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