His absence is more about fear than work ethic. What bothers me though is that he's been a bit resistant to handing off his files. Everyone else who has ever worked on this project has handed off their files once they left the project. I've asked him three times now and each time he says he'll give them to me, but then he never does. Now he is unreachable via Skype (he is invisible on there now for weeks). I don't think he likes the idea of anyone else picking up his work and continuing without him. I'd be shocked and amazed if he were just on vacation or something. I think he plans to disappear altogether. I wish I could reach him but he never responds to emails. The only way I could ever reach him was via skype and I've left him a bunch of messages there. I normally would not make any of this knowledge public but I'm hoping perhaps he reads this one day and will respond with a definitive, "sorry I've been busy, here are the files" or "no I don't owe you anything and I'm not cool with the project going on without me."