A 10-year-old boy is distraught after his mother and two-year-old sister disappeared after going camping with her alleged abusive ex-boyfriend.
Brayden Sidebottom-Farmer has been “hurting pretty bad” since his mother Jill Sidebottom, 28, and half-sister Lydia Hansen disappeared while camping in Phillips, Maine, on June 27, his grandfather Ron Sidebottom, 61, told DailyMail.com on Saturday.
Ron claims Jill’s ex-partner Nick Hansen, believed to be 39, is a domestic abuser and now fears he could hurt or even kill his ex-partner and their daughter if cornered .
“He’s trying so hard to keep it,” the grandfather said of Brayden’s grief over his missing loved ones. “I think he’s just one step away from collapsing.”
“He’s trying not to let it go [to] him, but I can tell,” added Ron. “He gets quick every now and then and he’s never like that, never quick.
“He’s such a good boy, snapping like he’s done the last few days is uncharacteristic of him.”
Brayden was very close to his little half-sister and is struggling to keep it together as more days have passed and the family continues to hear nothing but radio silence.
Brayden Sidebotham-Farmer, 10, of Springville (pictured) is just “one step away from falling apart” after his mother Jill Sidebotham, 28, and sister Lydia, two, disappeared on June 27, his grandfather said
Jill and Lydia (pictured with Brayden) went camping with Lydia’s father and Jill’s ex-boyfriend Nick Hansen, who is believed to be 39, for the Fourth of July. Jill’s phone has been off since July 28th, and Nick’s has had no signal since June 29th
Jill’s father, Ron Sidebottom, believes that she was “taken against her will” and that Nick kidnapped them because he had an “obsession with Jill)
The distraught grandfather also believed that Nick planned to disappear with Jill and Lydia during the camping trip.
And he says he fears there are many very remote areas to dump all kinds of bodies.
The family was expected to return on June 30 after spending the weekend celebrating the Fourth of July, but never did.
Jill’s phone has been off since June 28, the day after she and her ex-boyfriend went camping in the woods. Nick’s phone has also been off since June 29th.
‘[Brayden] he loves his little sister so much and she loves him. My God, [they’re] inseparable,” Ron said of Jill’s two children. “They’ll just laugh and laugh and laugh … he never gets mad at her.
“Oh my god, he loves the ground she walks on. He’s a big brother and that’s it,’ Ron told DailyMail.com.
Jill’s mother, Coty, who suffers from hepatitis C and neuropathy – nerve damage – has lost 10 pounds in the past week from the stress. Ron himself even broke off several times on the phone and said he was having trouble sleeping.
Nick (pictured) was arrested twice during the couple’s two-year relationship for domestic disputes, where he ‘smashed’ Jill in the head and chased her fiance Cory Alexander with a ‘plasterboard hammer’, Ron recalls
Ron also said that Nick had “very little to do with the baby”. Ron said, “He could care less about the baby. This is an obsession for Jill and he uses the baby against her or as a pawn for it.
“The whiplash is just amazing, I just can’t believe what it’s doing to us,” Ron told DailyMail.com. “I’ll just lay on the couch and wait for the phone to ring and wait, wait, wait. I’ll be laying there dozing and as soon as I hear a car coming, my eyes are wide awake.
Ron was at work when Jill left with Nick almost two weeks ago, and when he returned home to the apartment he shared with his wife, daughter and two children, he was informed that Jill had left.
“When I got home, my wife said, ‘She went camping with Nick,’ and I said, ‘Are you serious?'” he said. Ron also told DailyMail.com that Coty tried to stop her from going, but failed to convince her.
“My daughter, of course, ends everything with ‘she’ll be fine,'” he said. “She has a fiance.” [Corey Alexander]which is another thing that makes me wonder why and makes me think she was taken against her will.’
Although the Sanford Police Department said they do not suspect foul play, Ron believes they are playing down the situation because of fears that Nick will disappear. However, he said they were aware of the domestic disputes and violence that Nick had perpetuated over the past few years.
Many people have pointed Ron to Nick’s Facebook, which DailyMail.com previously reported. Jill’s father said he “never followed” the alleged abuser and doesn’t want to either. But after looking into it, he noticed the strange posts and said it showed his obsession with Jill.
Ron (pictured with Lydia) said the whole family’s health has been affected by Jill and Lydia’s disappearance, and that his wife, Coty, has lost 10 pounds in a week and he barely sleeps
Two weeks before the camp, Nick shared a poem by Rachel Byram that contained lines like, “I’m done with your game. Have you ever been fired? Because you act like I’ve never been there. I’m not just some game.
It also included: “You should be ashamed. I could be anything you want. Because you were all I ever wanted. But you made your choice. Your mind might be thinking one thing. But your actions are the only thing that speaks.
He also posted another photo on June 16 that read, “If you want me in your life, figure out a way to put me there. I’m done trying.
It is unclear whether these posts were made with the intention of Jill seeing them.
— I looked [the Facebook page]and oh my god, if only I had seen these things before, maybe I would have had an idea,” Ron told DailyMail.com.
When asked if the Facebook posts and the decision to camp in the woods rather than a campsite indicated Nick planned to kidnap the two, Ron said he had “reason to believe so.”
Another reason Ron believed it was intentional was after he found out that Nick had texted his boss to “piss off” him and quit his job about three weeks ago.
“He’s not a really smart guy. It sounds like something he planned, trying to put together,” Ron told DailyMail.com. “In fact, I believe she is being held against her will.”
He said Nick was possessive and “wouldn’t let her out of his sight.” He also said that Nick accused her of cheating on him with her longtime friends and even went through her phone before destroying it at one point.
Ron worries that Nick might hurt Lydia and Jill, and fears that the further north they go, the less likely they will be found. Although he didn’t know if Nick would kill them, he said that northern Maine was an area where “bodies could be hidden there and never be found again.”
Now Ron is worried that he destroyed Jill’s phone again and that’s why they can’t contact her.
His eldest daughter Reta, 34, recently changed her Netflix ID to someone “only she and Jill would know” in the hope that she would log into the shared account to signal to them that she was alive. Ron said she often plays shows for her daughter Lydia and hopes Jill will notice the “cryptic message”.
However, they have not logged in since their disappearance.
Retta, who declined to speak to DailyMail.com because she was not in the “best emotional state”, and her sister Heather, 31, headed north to search for their beloved sister.
Jill, Nick and Lydia were last seen at a Mexico, Maine, Walmart on July 2, where they were seen on security footage buying food and appeared to be unharmed.
“They were buying food items and there didn’t appear to be anything criminal or criminal going on,” Sanford Police Lt. Matthew Gagne told the Boston Globe. ‘[However]we cannot check their condition without seeing them.’
They were last seen in a silver 2005 Volkswagen Jetta with a black sticker on the rear bumper and a Maine license plate, according to the wanted poster.
Now Ron just wants his daughter found or at least contacted so he can at least say she’s okay.
The pair are last seen heading north and Ron worries for her safety the further north they go.
In the farther northern points of Maine, the towns are “territories” and it is very much “backwoods” with very few people traversing the area.
While he doesn’t believe Nick plans to take them out of the country, as neither of them had passports, he admitted there are many “wooded” areas there that could potentially lead to clandestine crossings.
He also didn’t know if Nick would end up killing Jill or Lydia, but admitted that he “doesn’t know what [Nick] would if cornered.
“The worst case scenario is … the bodies could be hidden there and never be found again,” Ron told DailyMail.com. “There are so many places people can hide and never be seen.
Ron said it’s a big, big worry for me that Nick is going to kill them and he’s “praying” that’s not the case
Jill’s father also said he was “blown away” by the amount of support the family had received since his daughter and granddaughter went missing
“It’s a big, big concern for me. I hope it doesn’t go that far – I pray it doesn’t – but it’s something you can’t get out of your mind.
During Jill and Nick’s relationship — which only lasted about two years — Nick was arrested twice for domestic disputes.
About a year and a half ago, Lydia was crying in the bedroom, and when Jill got up to go check on her, Nick forcefully told her no, Ron recalled. When he tried to intervene between the two after they started arguing, Nick became more aggressive and Ron realized that Nick was “drunk”.
“He tried to lunge at me and I took him down and hit him,” Ron told DailyMail.com.
The first time Nick was arrested was after he accidentally elbowed Jill in the head and she begged him “not to hit me like that.” Then Nick…
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