A Wife Said She Found Her Missing Husband, but Police Found Nothing

Kathy O'Mara grabbed the nearest scrap of mail and started writing. On the phone was Patty Hickey, the wife of a missing man, saying she had found her husband and that he was dead.

Her husband was Jay Hickey, who lived with Patty on their Christmas tree farm and had dementia. He had been reported missing almost two years earlier.

O'Mara had looked after Patty and Jay's children for years, starting when she was a schoolgirl. By the time Jay was reported missing, the two women had little contact beyond holiday cards, so a rambling voicemail from Patty on February 2nd was unexpected.

Patty seemed unsure she had even reached the right Kathy. When O'Mara called back, Patty said Jay had wandered away and was near the old stone ruins. O'Mara recalled her saying, "I found him, but he was dead."

The old foundation was the remains of a house not far from the Hickey home, stone walls in the earth where a cellar had been. Jay's daughter, Kay Danko, had played there as a child, digging for artifacts.

O'Mara said Patty kept returning to the rocks there and insisted the information was private, telling her, "Now you know, and I know." O'Mara answered that Jay's children deserved to know where their father was, but Patty changed the subject.

Shaken, O'Mara called her husband, and at his urging she called police. The next day, officers obtained a warrant and brought two cadaver dogs, dogs trained to detect human remains, to the foundation area.

The farm was covered in several feet of snow, so officers stopped the search until spring. When they returned in April, local and state police searched the foundation area with a cadaver dog and found nothing.

Confronted about the call, Patty told police the foundation was among the final places she had seen Jay alive. She said he had greeted her with a wave from that spot, leaving family and friends confused and disappointed.