RIVERBEND — Dale Pruitt, 44, was officially declared legally lost to another dimension Friday, ending a four-day period in which he remained physically seated on a living room couch but could not be reached by voice, touch, or the smell of dinner.

According to his family, Pruitt last made eye contact with another human being at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, when he said, “Hang on, I’m just going to check one thing.” He has not been observed blinking at a normal rate since.

“He said it would take ten seconds,” said his wife, Marcy Pruitt, who has since held two birthday dinners, a minor surgery, and a brief but sincere funeral for the family’s ficus without his participation. “I said ‘okay.’ That was my mistake. I said ‘okay.’”

Riverbend County Clerk Ronald Ostrowski-Bell confirmed that the designation, which falls under a little-used statute governing “persons present in body only,” was approved after a panel observed Pruitt for 40 minutes. During that time, the panel said, he scrolled past three of his own children, a smoke detector chirp, and a direct question about whether he wanted to be declared lost.

“He said ‘mm-hm,’” Ostrowski-Bell said. “We’re treating that as consent.”

Family members report that Pruitt has aged noticeably since Tuesday. His beard, previously described as “a Thursday beard,” is now a full Sunday beard, and his posture has settled into what one relative called “the shape of a question mark that gave up.”

Dr. Priyanka Vandermolen-Achebe, a senior fellow in Interdimensional Thumb Studies at the Institute for Applied Rabbit Holes in Dayton, said the case is textbook.

“It always begins with one thing,” she said. “Then the one thing links to a second thing, which cites a third thing, which is a video of a man restoring a tractor, and suddenly it is Friday and you are emotionally invested in the tractor. The tractor is the dimension. You never leave the tractor.”

Pruitt’s family has attempted standard retrieval methods, including calling his name, waving a hand in front of his face, and holding up a sandwich. The sandwich, they said, was accepted without eye contact and eaten in what witnesses described as “a distant, almost ceremonial manner.”

“He’s fine. He’s just somewhere else, and also there’s a sandwich crumb in his beard.”

Under the declaration, Pruitt’s side of the couch has been legally reassigned to the family dog, who has reportedly been “more present” in recent days. His spot at the dinner table will remain open for 30 days in case he returns, at which point it will be given to a guest who makes eye contact.

At press time, Pruitt was seen briefly looking up, appearing to sense the room around him, and announcing to no one in particular, “Okay, one more thing.”