‘Please put out the word’: The subject of the true crime documentary that became a breakout sensation reported missing by its director

True crime has become so popular across so many different forms of media that breaking out from the pack is becoming an increasingly more difficult task, but HBO’s Telemarketers managed it with aplomb.

The three-part series follows two office workers at a New Jersey call center who uncover the shocking truth behind the work they’ve been doing. Operating under the assumption their task was to raise money for firefighting and policing charities, it transpires that their employers are the ones reaping the financial rewards.

Once the company gets shut down, an expose begins to dig deeper into the entire industry of telemarketing, with revelatory results. Acclaimed by critics to the tune of a 95 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, things have taken an unfortunate return after co-director Adam Bhala Lough took to social media and shared the news that Pat Pespas has been reported as a missing person.

Described as the glue that held the entire project together by both Bhala Lough and co-director, executive producer, and star Sam Lipman-Stern – the one who brought the walls tumbling down in the first place after recording the inner workings of what eventually snowballed into the largest penalty ever handed down in a consumer protection case – Pespas became something of an online darling for his colorful personality during Telemarketers‘ run on TV earlier this summer.

Having formerly struggled with heroin addiction, Pespas is now clean and continues fighting the good fight against the industry he once called home, so we can only hope he’s found safe and well sooner rather than later.