Back in May of 2015, when reports of Josh Duggar molesting his sisters first became public, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were criticized for their handling of the situation and their failure to report their son’s crimes to the authorities.
It may be for that reason that when the world learned about Josh using an Ashley Madison account to help him cheat on his wife, Jim Bob and Michelle made the swift decision to ship him off to rehab.
Now, more than six months later, the Duggars are giving fans the impression that Josh is still in rehab, but there’s reason to believe he may have returned home several weeks ago.
Last week, the Duggars celebrated Josh’s 28th birthday by posting the following message to their troubled son on Facebook:
“Today is our son Josh’s birthday. The heartache of the past year cannot surpass the joy 28 years ago on this day when we first became parents! We love you Josh and believe your best days can be ahead of you. We continue to pray for you every day.”
The fact that Jim Bob and Michelle made no mention of Josh’s whereabouts and addressed him on social media rather than face-to-face led many to believe he’s still receiving in-patient treatment in rural Illinois.
However, he was scheduled to return after six months (a milestone he would’ve reached about two weeks ago), and the Duggars never explicitly stated that they wouldn’t be celebrating Josh’s birthday with him.
Add to that this photo of daughters Jennifer and Johannah that was posted the same day, and it’s not hard to see why many believe Josh has quietly returned home, and the Duggars are keeping it under wraps:
It’s not exactly conclusive evidence, but it seems a bit unusual to make a birthday cake for someone who’s several hundred miles away.
It’s hard to imagine that Josh has been tooling around his tiny hometown of Tontitown, Arkansas for the past two weeks with no one noticing, but it certainly seems that he’s no longer in Illinois.
Maybe he’s been relocated to a different facility closer to his family. Maybe he’s under the Christian labor camp work release program equivalent of house arrest.
Whatever the case, it seems the Duggars are once again guilty of misleading the public on the topic of their eldest son.
