I work in the personal services industry and I had 2 clients in their mid to late 80s, both female, both lived alone. One was of sound mind, one had dementia. There were several people in and out of their homes each day. It may not have been safe but nobody could convince them to move to assisted living. They both ended up in hospital and passed away pretty quickly in the end.
You can’t just throw someone over your shoulder and take them to assisted living even though it makes sense.
Agree 100% as this hits very close to home. My mom is about the same age, physically in good shape but she has “moderate” dementia. She lives in the 4-5 BR suburban house we grew up in, alone with a few cats (after burying two husbands) and refuses to leave her home. I live less than 10 minutes away and she has professionals come in a few days a week for a couple of hours to help with things, run light errands, etc. home. (Thank God for decent long-term care insurance!) We tried to buy the rancher next to our home and she still refused to leave her home.
Right now, at least as far as the general public knows, the circumstances, perpetrator(s), etc is pretty wide-open. Who was it? What was their relationship to Nancy? Why was their motive? Why/how was she removed from the home?…
Something happened to my mom almost two years ago that makes me think of Nancy’s disappearance. We had some snow and the grandson of a neighbor of my mom’s (about 1 1/2 blocks away and that we didn’t know - son or grandparents) knocked on my mom’s door and asked if she wanted him to shovel her driveway and sidewalk (for pay). She said yes, he did the work, got paid and that seemed to be the end of it. Then several months later he stopped by and offered to do some yard work (for pay). She said no because she had had the same lawn guy for several years. He walked away but came back a couple of weeks later, knocked on her door and asked for money (not for work this time). When she refused he started to argue with her, saying he and his mom were hungry and needed money. She closed/locked the door and he stood in her driveway yelling at her and accusing her of being against him, etc. She didn’t tell me about this incident for months and he hadn’t had any contact either her since so I wasn’t all that concerned.
Then several months after that someone was knocking on her door around 2 AM. She went downstairs and saw a man had opened her screened door and was trying to open the regular door. She had left the phone in the Living Room & would have to walk by the front window to get to it and he would see her so she didn’t call the police. He eventually left after being unable to get the door open.
She told me two days later and I immediately called the police. They immediately knew who it was & said he was a drug addict with a long history with the police. They couldn’t charge him with anything because of dementia made her an unreliable witness & the door handles had been touched by other people that they couldn’t get prints.
This is why we immediately installed Ring cameras and have the app set-up to alert me every time someone approaches the doors. I know it doesn’t “watch” the windows & it won’t keep someone from coming in if they are intent on doing so, but it’s something.
I can’t help but wonder if the perpetrator could be a relative of a neighbor or “help”.