In early October 2026, posts on Facebook and Instagram claimed that Matthew Ingalls, one of seven current or former Cornell University students accused in a civil lawsuit of drugging and raping a fellow student in 2024, had fled the United States for Dubai. The available evidence does not establish this. It shows that Ingalls has real ties to Dubai, but not where he is now, and not that he left to escape legal consequences.

Where the claim comes from

According to Snopes, the rumor began with a report in the Daily Mail, a British tabloid. That report quoted an unnamed neighbor of Ingalls' uncle in Connecticut, where court records listed an address for Ingalls. The neighbor reportedly said Ingalls had not been seen at the house for some time and that they believed he was in Dubai.

That is the whole basis of the claim: one anonymous person's belief. Social media posts and follow-up coverage, including pieces in the International Business Times UK, repeated the Daily Mail's account without adding independent confirmation. Along the way, "a neighbor believes he is in Dubai" hardened into "he fled to Dubai".

What is confirmed

Snopes used yearbook photographs and public records to establish that Matthew Ingalls also went by the name Umar Matthew Ingalls and that he lived in Dubai earlier in his life:

• The 2022-23 yearbook of Dubai International Academy lists an Umar Ingalls in the class of 2023, and the person pictured appears to match a verified photograph of Ingalls in a Cornell rugby shirt.
• A 2022 story in the Khaleej Times, a Dubai newspaper, names an Umar Ingalls among students who built a model lunar rover.
• A 2020 article on the student news site of Annie Wright Schools in Tacoma, Washington, describes Umar Ingalls as a former pupil who was living in Dubai at the time.

The Daily Mail also reported that Ingalls' father teaches at a university in Dubai. Snopes found a faculty member whose name matches, but said it had not yet confirmed the family relationship.

What is not confirmed

No one has verified where Ingalls currently is. Snopes left the claim unrated and said it had contacted Ingalls, the man identified as his father, and both schools, without receiving answers by the time of publication on October 9.

The word "fled" adds a second, separate assertion: that he left in order to avoid the legal process. Nothing in the reporting supports that. The seven men are defendants in a civil lawsuit filed in mid-September by a plaintiff identified as Jane Doe. Local prosecutors declined to bring charges in 2024, reopened the investigation on September 28, and New York's governor appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor on October 1, as Snopes describes in its related reporting. No criminal charges have been filed against Ingalls, he has denied wrongdoing, and no public reporting indicates that he is under any travel restriction. A person who returns to a family home abroad after being expelled from university is not, on those facts alone, a fugitive.

Why caution matters here

Rumors about this case have already hurt people who had nothing to do with it. The Free Press reported that the lawsuit was initially served on a different man named Matthew Ingalls, a Marine who never attended Cornell, and that his family was then harassed. Snopes also found that one widely shared image said to show Ingalls carried markers of AI editing.

Conclusion

Ingalls' past in Dubai is well documented, which makes the claim plausible, but plausibility is not confirmation. The assertion that he is in Dubai now rests on a single anonymous, secondhand source, and the assertion that he fled has no support at all in the available record. We rate the claim as unproven and leaning misleading, and will revise the rating if his whereabouts are confirmed.