James Dallas Egbert III

Background Egbert was born in Dayton, Ohio, and grew up in Huber Heights, a Dayton suburb, attending Wayne High School.

Disappearance Egbert left his dormitory room at Case Hall on August 15, 1979, after writing a suicide note, and entered the university's steam tunnels. Gen Con XII, a convention dedicated to tabletop role-playing games, began that day in Wisconsin, and some attendees reported that they had seen him there. Meanwhile, a police search for Egbert began.

On August 22, Egbert's parents hired William Dear, a private investigator who was an acquaintance of Egbert's uncle, to help locate their son. According to Dear, in their first conversation, Egbert's mother raised the possibility that her son had died by suicide. She complained that Michigan State had not notified them that their son was missing until August 20, five days after he was last seen.

On August 24, Michael Stuart, a journalist for the university's newspaper, The State News, published details of the case, including the assertion by an anonymous friend of Egbert's that the missing student was "known to leave campus before for destinations unknown". Stuart's article prompted growing media interest in Egbert's disappearance.

After Dear learned that Egbert had played Dungeons & Dragons, he publicly amplified police theories that Egbert's disappearance was linked to the game. Students were said to play live-action sessions of the game in the steam maintenance tunnels below the campus, and it was speculated that Egbert had entered the tunnels and had either been injured or lost his way. This alleged connection of the role-playing game to Egbert's disappearance prompted what some Michigan State University students and faculty thought was sensationalist coverage of both Egbert and the game in media outlets throughout the United States. Dungeons & Dragons was described by some journalists as a "bizarre and secretive cult" that players could only join "by invitation".

The search for Egbert continued unsuccessfully for several weeks. It was later learned that, during this time, Egbert moved between two other houses in East Lansing, and then finally left the city via bus for New Orleans. After only four days on the job, Egbert, aware that Dear was searching for him, telephoned Dear and gave him his location. Dear traveled to Louisiana (other sources reported Texas) and recovered Egbert. Upon meeting the investigator, Egbert asked him not to disclose what he had learned about his whereabouts in the preceding weeks. Dear agreed and released Egbert, who was still legally a juvenile, into the custody of his uncle Marvin Gross on September 13, 1979.

On August 11, 1980, almost a year after his story garnered national attention, Egbert, age 17, was admitted to Grandview Hospital in Dayton with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to The New York Times, during the five days that followed, his parents were informed that he had no chance of survival, and they "gave the hospital permission to make various organs available for transplants. The hospital used a computer network to find recipients.... the hospital spokesman said that organs would go to patients in several states, including New Jersey." Egbert died on August 16, 1980. "The youth's death came in mid-afternoon," The New York Times continued, "but the hospital did not confirm it until 10:30 P.M. Max Peterson, a spokesman for the hospital, said that the confirmation had been delayed for notification of family members." However, it also increased the sales of D&D game manuals considerably, adding to the game's success. For example, "sales of the Basic Set rose dramatically. Right before the steam tunnel incident, the Basic Set might have sold 5,000 copies a month. By the end of 1979, it was trading over 30,000 copies per month, and only going up from there".