Oct 21, 2026 · 27 min · 17 segments
A Christmas tree farmer with dementia named Jay Hickey vanishes from his small town in rural New Hampshire. Jay's wife Patty never reports him missing. A tipster claims "a lot of strangeness is…
Jason MoonHostKatie BartocciGuestMeadow WysockiGuestKathy O'MaraGuestColby KalmanGuestI mean, I think that was probably the first thing that I saw, was that when you were around him, he was very... hesitant to say things to people, like he wasn't quite sure if he was following what was being discussed or that what he was going to say was going to be appropriate.
Patty becomes his caretaker, which she now has to juggle alongside her role as the town welfare officer.
The job involves helping out residents who've fallen on hard times with loans or other assistance programs.
If you suddenly can't afford to pay your heating bill in the dead of winter, Patty was the person to call.
She would put her office hours around times that she could bring him in with her so that she could keep track of him and stuff.
And I know when we were doing our move project, from the former office's location to the current office location that he had attended with her to help with pack or when she was packing her office.
But she had to leave because he kind of wandered off because she couldn't keep track of him, you know, really closely.
Scientists don't know exactly why it happens, but inside the brain of a dementia patient, the nerve cells are dying, taking memories, motor skills, even parts of personality with them.
Another time, a landscaping worker finds him standing at an intersection more than a mile from the farm wearing pajamas and slippers.
Being the town's welfare officer and a caretaker for someone with dementia, it's a lot.
I mean, I think that was probably the first thing that I saw, was that when you were around him, he was very... hesitant to say things to people, like he wasn't quite sure if he was following what was being discussed or that what he was going to say was going to be appropriate.
Patty becomes his caretaker, which she now has to juggle alongside her role as the town welfare officer.
The job involves helping out residents who've fallen on hard times with loans or other assistance programs.
If you suddenly can't afford to pay your heating bill in the dead of winter, Patty was the person to call.
She would put her office hours around times that she could bring him in with her so that she could keep track of him and stuff.
And I know when we were doing our move project, from the former office's location to the current office location that he had attended with her to help with pack or when she was packing her office.
But she had to leave because he kind of wandered off because she couldn't keep track of him, you know, really closely.
Scientists don't know exactly why it happens, but inside the brain of a dementia patient, the nerve cells are dying, taking memories, motor skills, even parts of personality with them.
Another time, a landscaping worker finds him standing at an intersection more than a mile from the farm wearing pajamas and slippers.
Being the town's welfare officer and a caretaker for someone with dementia, it's a lot.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
