Roommate Ran Off & Left Me With The Bill. More Or Less Completely Disappeared. Any Recourse?

Location: Atlanta

About a year ago I needed a new roommate so I met a guy off FB Marketplace from an ad I put up. He mostly seemed like a decent guy, paid his bills on time, seemed to be clean enough, and kept to himself. I never learned much about his personal life and I wasn't interested in being friends with him.

About 9 days ago he sent me a vague text telling me he's flying home, on the way to the airport, said he had bad mental health, he got rid of most of his stuff and he's "sorry for the short notice". At first I think he's just going on a trip. Then it hits me. I try seeing if he's in his room. Locked, but it horribly smells. I try calling him, texting him, same for all his references from a year ago. Blocked on everything. I also notice he hasn't paid his half of the rent yet, even though it's the third. I have to take care of it.

Eventually I'm forced to use a screwdriver to get his lock open because the odor is becoming a health hazard. I open the door, and HOLY SHIT. The worst mess I've ever seen in my life in a domestic setting. A literal mountain of trash in his room, crazy amounts of alcohol, fast food, bugs, etc. (the smell alone makes me want to kill myself). He's not there (and it's a Schlage lock, not the kind with a key), and I shut the door in terror. Bathroom is just as bad.

I'm forced to clean all his shit up myself over the next several days. It takes me forever. Between his trash and his stuff, I bring out 55 garbage bags to my complex's compactor. I keep investigating. His job says he quit the day before he left. I'm more or less convinced now he has fully intended to leave me with the responsibility of paying for the rest of our lease. Through one of his jobs I get a hold of an email that I get a response from, from someone claiming to be his Mom.

According to her he's in some kind of mental hospital in Oklahoma. She claims that she'll pay me back once his final checks come in but asks me to stop calling everyone trying to find him. I say alright and wait, keeping track of the receipts for the bills I'm forced to cover. I send her another email and unlike her first two replies, she doesn't get back to me after several days of waiting. I'm still waiting.

I use my work's Facebook to look at his profile (since mine is blocked) and the asshole is posting on his story a picture of a pair of keys with the subtitle "new apartment". Okay, now I'm starting to think he either was pretending to be her or just got to her and now she's on his side even though he basically stole over a thousand dollars from me.

Our lease ends in December so I'm planning to leave anyway, but I have run out of ways to pursue this. I tried calling his credit card companies (since the dumbass left like 10 behind) but they wouldn't cooperate with me. I've talked to a few lawyers and they said small claims probably wouldn't even be worth it because I'd have to find wherever the hell he is in the first place to serve him and I wouldn't be able to force him to pay me, assuming he even had the money in the first place.

I can afford this, it's just a considerable setback financially and want to know if there's ANYTHING I can do to offset this or get any of my money back, or if there's no way to amend this and I ought to just get over it and move on. Why is it this easy to screw somebody over financially? All you have to do is just sign a joint lease with someone you know is actually financially responsible then run off so long as they never discover your location. If you know they'll pay it apparently there are no repercussions whatsoever to what basically amounts to theft! Sorry for venting, I'm just at the end of my rope.