Radar tracked the plane 70 miles off the coast of Watsonville at 2:45 a.m., heading southwest. A brief signal from the plane’s emergency beacon was received a few hours later, but it was too short to pinpoint its location. The plane could fly about 500 miles.

McAdams was facing serious domestic violence charges in Florida (aggravated battery, false imprisonment, and battery) stemming from an incident involving a woman at an Orlando hotel. He’d been released on bail but was due in court in June. His family said these charges were out of character.

McAdams had a successful career in aviation, including writing training manuals, instructing in Florida, running an aviation supply company, and founding a flight school in California. The plane he took wasn’t his; it belonged to a flying club he worked for.

The Coast Guard searched for him and the plane but stopped because the search area was too vast (around 120,000 square miles). No one knows for sure what happened to McAdams – whether he fled, took his own life, or met with some other misfortune. His disappearance remains a mystery.