The mystery of the “missing” James Talarico may have just been solved.

A breaking news report now threatens to derail the Texas Democrat’s senate campaign.

Independent journalist Nick Sortor, who earlier Sunday gave Talarico a deadline to explain his whereabouts, now reports that a hospital employee confirmed that the candidate had been treated at an Ohio mental health facility.

In a post on X, Sortor announced:

"BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Ohio mental hospital CONFIRMS James Talarico was discharged from the facility earlier this week."

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Here is what Sortor reported:

Ohio mental hospital CONFIRMS James Talarico was discharged from the facility earlier this week The “flu” thing was a BIG FAT LIE Following reporting by 

@SaraGonzalesTX and  @CarolineWren, a hospital employee told @RheinAmacher and I that Talarico had in fact been a patient at the Lindner Center of Hope near Cincinnati, Ohio, which specializes in around-the-clock mental health treatment. 

While I sympathize with those dealing with mental health crises, this man is CLEARLY not suited to become a US Senator representing over 30 MILLION TEXANS. 

The job doesn’t get easier after being elected — it only gets MORE stressful. And Talarico clearly can’t handle it. 

I pray he gets the help he needs, but Texans need a real representative they can rely on.

Sortor said he and fellow journalist Rhein Amacher obtained the information after earlier reporting by Sara Gonzales and Republican strategist Caroline Wren.

According to Sortor, an employee at the Lindner Center of Hope near Cincinnati told the pair that Talarico had been a patient at the facility, which provides residential psychiatric treatment.

This report is a significant escalation from the anonymous-source claims and private-aircraft tracking information that circulated over the weekend. 

Sortor has attributed the new information to a hospital employee, although the employee has not been publicly identified and the facility has not issued an independently verifiable statement confirming this account.

As RedState previously reported, Talarico had been absent from in-person campaigning in Texas since September 26, apart from a subsequent New York fundraiser. During a September 30 virtual appearance, he said he had visited an urgent care clinic in Dallas after developing flu symptoms.

His campaign continued attributing his absence to illness as questions mounted about why a U.S. Senate candidate had effectively disappeared from the campaign trail during the final weeks before Election Day.

Talarico finally reappeared Friday at the Austin City Limits music festival, briefly greeting attendees and posing for photographs.

Meanwhile, Wren had pointed to flight-tracking records showing what she described as a private aircraft traveling from Austin to Hamilton, Ohio, near the Lindner Center of Hope, before returning to Texas shortly before Talarico resurfaced.

Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt also claimed to have sources placing Talarico at a mental health facility.

Sortor's latest report goes further by claiming direct confirmation from someone employed at the facility.

President Donald Trump had already mocked Talarico's extended absence during a Saturday rally in Clarksville, Tennessee.

"He had the longest flu ever recorded," Trump joked. "He was away for, like, almost 14 days. He was missing in action! I don't think it was the flu either, that it was a new strain of flu."

Now the controversy has moved from a missing candidate and an unusual campaign explanation to a journalist publicly alleging that he has confirmed a previously undisclosed hospital stay.

For a Senate campaign already facing days of questions about its candidate's whereabouts, the “missing” Talarico story has taken a very serious turn.