Pmerle00, the following is going to take a long winded path but in dealing with some problems my parents have had recently it has made me think of your Papaw.
My parents are elderly and live in a very rural setting and still trust everybody that shows up at their door, everybody that calls on their phone etc....despite my constant harping to trust no one ever, ever, ever!
My father had a man show up a few weeks ago asking if they needed anything done around their farm as he was looking for work and needed money as his family was in a bad situation and they were all starving. My dad is a kind man so he thought of several things the stranger could do like cutting down some dead trees for firewood. He paid the guy upfront for the trees (the amount the man asked for to complete the job since he had his very own chainsaws and tools with him) and took him to the back forty to the trees he wanted cut down and was surprised to check later to find the man was gone and no trees were cut. My dad's belief in humanity was dented but not destroyed yet. He thought surely the man had an emergency and got called on a cell phone and would be back.
A few weeks later the man showed up again and asked if there was anything else he could do for money and my dad promptly told him he could actually do what he paid him to do a few weeks ago. The man said well I did that so do you have anything else I could do. Dad said hmmm you did it already? Well then fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me so just go on and get out of here or go cut down those trees I already paid you for. The man left.
That night the doorbell rang at midnight and my mother who walks with a walker or rides in a wheelchair depending on how she feels couldn't wake my dad so she got up and went to the door. No one was there so she tried to go out into the yard calling is someone there but she couldn't get far with her walker and no one answered so she went inside and went back to bed. Thank God.
The next morning my father's truck was gone. They live in the middle of nowhere and he leaves the keys on the floorboard. It was found days later, many miles away, missing the tires, his tool box and a few other things from the cab, the transmission was blown and it was out of gas.
When the sheriff came that morning to write a report on the stolen truck he asked if anything strange had happened recently and dad said no. Dad called to tell me about the stolen truck and I said what about that guy that took your money weeks ago and then showed up again that morning. Dad said oh I forgot about him. Then I asked did anything strange happen that night and Dad said no. And then Mom said oh there was a knock on the door at midnight and I went outside and called but no one ever answered and Dad and I both said WHAT?
I can not tell you how upset I was to hear my invalid mother went to the door at midnight and tried to get off the porch into the yard with her walker because she was concerned someone was in trouble and needed help.
I am hopeful my parents are a bit less innocent at this point in time because when my father called the sheriff back with the guy's name he found out there are multiple warrants out for this man's arrest with several involving meth houses and an attempted murder and the guys wife has warrants too and those two are completely and totally bad news in many many ways. That guy's prints turned out to be all over their stolen truck.
My parents bad experience made me think of Papaw. I could easily see a stranger approaching him and asking for money for odd jobs and the situation going south from that point on. My dad has a workshop where he builds custom furniture and other handmade wood items as a hobby. He said that at one point he thought he would invite him in to help him run some lumber thru a planer but decided he didn't want the stranger in his private space but yet he showed him around and took him all over his property to the back end where the dead trees were. It can be foolhardy to be a big-hearted, decent person in this day and age.
I don't know if this will help in any way but I just wonder if someone stopped by with a "sad story" for Papaw and perhaps came back later or did something bad that first day. I still wonder why that creep knocked on my folks front door at midnight before stealing the truck. And I am thankful it took my mom a long time to reach the door. I think they were very lucky even though the truck was pretty much destroyed. I think they are very lucky to be alive.
So my question would be did anything strange happen in the days or weeks leading up to his disappearance. It may not have had any significance then as my father sure didn't think his experience had significance until much later and that was aided by my pointing it out. I thought my parents knew better but never truly realized they still see everyone...even total strangers as good people that mean them no harm.
God bless Papaw and I truly hope he is found safe and sound. Prayers for your entire family. I can not imagine how you all feel. I try to imagine it and I freeze up with dread and fear so I know what you feel must be 10,000 times worse. God bless you all.
Oh my goodness, sassy, a chill ran down my spine as I read your story. Something very similar happened to my late grandmother about 20 years ago. She lived in a 100 -year-old farmhouse she grew up in, alone as a widow in southwestern Indiana. It is in a very remote area, with the nearest "town" of about 100 people five miles away, closest neighbor a couple of miles, at the end of a half-mile-long gravel road. The area was already raveged by meth.
One day a young man showed up at her door, asking for work. She had been having a family of farmers farm her land for years, so she declined. That same evening, she heard a noise coming out of her detached garage, while she read in her recliner (good thing she didn't have the TV turned on). She stayed in the chair, terrified.
The next morning, she went to look inside the garage, and her riding mower was gone (she always left her key in ignition, too). She didn't hear anything, other than the noise coming from the garage, so her theory was that someone -most likely the man who had come to the door- parked his truck down the gravel road, pushed the mower back to the truck and took it.
The thing about PaPaw's case, though, is that it appears nothing was taken, except for perhaps a modest amount of cash.
When desperate, people will do anything, even for a few dollars. However, why take PaPaw with them and not his wallet, when it was right there in the garage? Plus, there were no signs of struggle, except for blood, which was found inside the garage only, with the man door locked and garage door down?
Maybe the perp realized PaPaw recognized him, prompting him to take PaPaw with them? But then why is there no trail of blood outside the garage? After attacking PaPaw, perhaps he panicked and just wanted out of there, thus not taking anything, by which point PaPaw was incapacitated, giving the perp time to at least close the door (he might have wanted to do that, so if anyone was to stop by, they wouldn't see the blood)?
Was anyone seen with at least some signs of injury -in case there was an altercation between the perp and PaPaw- around the time of his disappearance (but then again, no signs of struggle were found at the scene)? Anyone selling his car soon thereafter?