For months, the internet has been buzzing with theories, whispers, and flat-out speculation about one of Elon Musk’s Neuralink trial volunteers.
And at the center of it all sits 44-year-old Mike Melgarejo — a quiet, soft-spoken survey technician from San Diego who has suddenly become the subject of a digital wildfire.
When his social media presence vanished and a GoFundMe with alarming language appeared online, people began assuming the worst.
Some even claimed he’d been hidden away by Neuralink.
But his family says the truth is far more heartbreaking — and nowhere near the conspiracy people imagined.
A Family Watching ALS Steal Their Future
Mike’s wife, Dalila, has spent the last two years watching ALS slowly lock her husband inside his own body.
The disease took his speech, his mobility, and eventually his ability to keep working.
According to her, all the family ever wanted was a little privacy while they faced the kind of reality no one is ever prepared for.
“He’s going to die in a year or two,” she said softly, explaining that they were simply trying to cope while also raising their young son.
The last thing she expected was to spend those months batting away strangers online insisting something sinister was happening.
The GoFundMe That Ignited an Online Frenzy
A family friend, Ryan Biggs, created a fundraiser in June describing just how dire things had become.
His urgent tone — and one line saying Mike was “not in a good place” — gave fuel to online sleuths already looking for drama in Neuralink’s high-stakes pilot program.
Suddenly, anonymous accounts were insisting Neuralink had harmed Mike or whisked him out of public view.
The story accelerated when a video journalist published a Substack post demanding to know “Where TF is Patient Four?” — a title that all but guaranteed virality.
When Conspiracy Meets Reality
From Dalila’s perspective, the rumors were not only wrong — they were cruel.
She says her husband stepped back from social media on his own long before getting the implant, partly because he never wanted to become a public figure in the first place.
She also pushed back on accusations that Neuralink was hiding problems with its trial.
According to her, the company checks on Mike every few months and has been “kind” and “helpful” during one of the bleakest periods of their lives.
“They’ve been a godsend,” she said, noting that engineers helped set up equipment in their home and offered support whenever they needed it.
How the Disappearance Theory Took Off
The speculation didn’t come from nowhere.
Neuralink has publicly showcased several patients, giving them X accounts and encouraging them to share their progress.
Mike didn’t participate in that initiative.
Independent journalist Audrey Henson noticed the contrast and pointed out the timing: a Neuralink video showing Mike working remotely aired around the same time the GoFundMe described him as emotionally exhausted.
She argued those mixed signals raised questions about transparency in the company’s human trials.
But Dalila says the explanation is painfully simple — ALS worsened between the filming and the fundraising effort. And the worsening happened quickly.
The Toll of a Disease That Never Lets Up
By early summer, Mike’s disease had progressed enough that he could no longer work, even with Neuralink’s assistance.
Their two incomes quickly shrank to one, and they began struggling to pay for rent on their second-floor apartment — which was barely accessible now that Mike needed a wheelchair.
Friends were scrambling to help them relocate to a ground-floor home.
The GoFundMe was supposed to help them get through the year.
Instead, the conspiracy chatter that followed scared off potential donors.
“It hurts,” Dalila admitted. “People think there’s something hidden, when really what’s happening to him is real and awful.”
The Journalist Behind the Claims Defends Her Investigation
The Daily Mail also spoke with Henson, who insisted her reporting was justified.
She said the timeline of events, the missing social media presence, and even a $3,000 donation from a Neuralink executive all suggested a need for more oversight in clinical trials.
She stood by her work, saying, “We shouldn’t need viral investigations to ensure trial participants are supported.”
But to Mike’s family, the online attention only made their suffering harder.
Neuralink Quietly Continues Its Check-Ins
While the public frenzy built its own storyline, Neuralink continued its scheduled follow-ups, visiting Mike regularly to monitor his implant and helping the family adapt as his ALS progressed.
Dalila says the employees have been compassionate and consistent — nothing like the shadowy figures they’ve been painted as online.
A Plea for People to Stop Inventing Theories
In the end, Dalila hopes people will take a breath and remember there is a real person at the center of this.
A husband, a father, a man who volunteered for an experimental device not to be famous, but to stay useful for a little longer in a body that’s slowly shutting down.
“People need to stop making stuff up,” she said.
“This is a family trying to survive something very real.”
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