EXCLUSIVE: Boy, 10, is distraught after his mom vanished with her daughter, 2, and ‘abusive’ ex during camping trip: Missing woman’s dad fears her life is in danger and that bodies could be dumped in remote area
- Brayden Sidebotham-Farmer, 10, of Springville, is just ‘one step from breaking down’ after his mother Jill Sidebotham, 28, and his sister Lydia, two, disappeared
- Jill, Lydia and Nick Hansen went missing on June 27 and Jill’s phone has been off since June 28 and Nick’s since June 29
- They were last spotted at a Mexico, Maine, Walmart buying food and have not been spotted since
- Jill’s father and Brayden’s grandfather, Ron Sidebotham, 61, said the two children were close and that Brayden ‘worshipped the ground [Lydia] walked on’
- Ron also said that Nick had been arrested twice over domestic disputes in the couple’s two-year relationship and had ‘punch’ Jill in the face
- He also said Nick broke into his house one day and went after Jill’s fiancé Corey Alexander with a ‘drywall hammer’
- He worries Nick will harm them, but said he does not know if the alleged abuser would kill them. He also said he believes she was ‘taken against her will’
A 10-year-old boy is distraught after his mother and his two-year-old sister vanished after they went on a camping trip with her alleged abuser ex-boyfriend.
Brayden Sidebotham-Farmer has been ‘hurting pretty bad’ since his mother Jill Sidebotham, 28, and his half-sister Lydia Hansen disappeared while camping in Phillips, Maine, on June 27, his grandfather Ron Sidebotham, 61, told DailyMail.com on Saturday.
Ron claims Jill’s former 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 in,’ the grandfather said of Brayden’s anguish at his missing loved-ones. ‘I think he’s just that one step from breaking down.’
‘He’s trying to not let it get [to] him, but I can tell,’ Ron added. ‘He’s gets snappy once and a while and he’s never like that, never snappy.
‘He’s such a good boy, for him to be snapping like he has the past couple of days is out of character for him.’
Brayden was really close to his little half-sister and is struggling to hold it together as more days past and the family continues to hear nothing but radio silence.
Brayden Sidebotham-Farmer, 10, of Springville, (pictured) is just ‘one step from breaking down’ after his mother Jill Sidebotham, 28, and his sister Lydia, two, disappeared on June 27, his grandfather said
Jill and Lydia (pictured with Brayden) went on a camping trip with Lydia’s father and Jill’s ex-boyfriend Nick Hansen, believed to be 39, for the Fourth of July. Jill’s phone has not been on since July 28 and Nick’s has not had a signal since June 29
Jill’s father Ron Sidebotham believes she was ‘taken against her will’ and that Nick had kidnapped them because he has an ‘obsession with Jill)
The stricken grandpa also believed Nick planned to disappear with Jill and Lydia during the camping trip.
And he says he fears there are lots of very remote areas in which to dispose of any bodies.
The family was expected to return on June 30 after spending a weekend celebrating the Fourth of July, but never returned.
Jill’s phone has been turned off since June 28, a day after she and her ex-boyfriend took off on a camping trip in the woods. Nick’s phone has also not had signal since June 29.
‘[Brayden] loves his little sister so much and she loves him. Oh my god, [they’re] inseparable,’ Ron said of Jill’s two children. ‘They’ll just laugh and laugh and laugh…he never gets upset with her.
‘Oh my god, he worships the ground she walks on. He’s big brother and that’s all there is too it,’ Ron told DailyMail.com.
Jill’s mother Cottie, who suffers from Hepatitis-C and neuropathy – nerve damage – has dropped 10 pounds in the last week from the stress. Ron, himself, even broke down a few times on the phone and said he had trouble sleeping.
Nick (pictured) has been arrested twice during the couple’s two year relationship over domestic disputes where he ‘punched’ Jill in the head and went after her fiancé Corey Alexander with a ‘drywall hammer,’ Ron recalled
Ron also said that Nick had ‘very little to do with the baby.’ Ron said: ‘He could care less about the baby. It’s an obsession with Jill, and he’s using the baby against her or as a pawn for it’
‘The whip-lash effect 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 lay there and doze off and as soon as I hear a car coming up, my eyes are wide awake.’
Ron was at work when Jill took off with Nick nearly two weeks ago and when he returned home to the apartment he shares with his wife, daughter, and her two children, he was informed Jill had taken off.
‘When I came home, my wife said: “She went camping with Nick,” and I was like: “Are you serious?”‘ he said. Ron also told DailyMail.com that Cottie tried to stop her from going, but was unable to convince her.
‘My daughter, of course, ends everything with “it will be fine,”‘ he said. ‘She has a fiancé [Corey Alexander], which is another thing that makes me wonder why and makes me think that she was taken against her will.’
Although the Sanford Police Department said they do not suspect foul play, Ron believes they are downplaying the situation over fears that Nick will disappear. However, he said they are aware of the domestic disputes and violence Nick has perpetuated over the past few years.
Many people have directed Ron to Nick’s Facebook, which DailyMail.com has previously reported on. Jill’s father said he had ‘never followed’ the alleged abuser and didn’t want too. But after looking at it, he noticed the weird posts and said it showed his obsession with Jill.
Ron (pictured with Lydia) said the whole family’s health has been effected by Jill and Lydia’s disappearance and that his wife Cottie has lost 10 pounds in a week and he is barely sleeping
Two weeks prior to the camping trip, Nick shared a Rachel Byram poem that features lines such as: ‘I’m done playing you game. Did you ever even care? Cause you act like I was never there. I’m not just some game.’
It also featured: ‘You should be ashamed. I could have been everything you wanted. Cause you were everything I ever wanted. But you made your choice. Your mind maybe thinking one thing. But your actions are the only thing that’s speaking.’
He also posted another photo on June 16, reading: ‘If you want me in your life, figure out a way to put me there. I’m done trying.’
It is unclear if these posts were made with the intention of Jill seeing them.
‘I looked into [the Facebook page], and oh my god, if I had only seen this stuff before I may have had an idea,’ Ron told DailyMail.com.
When asked if the Facebook posts and the decision to camp in the woods versus on a campground indicated the Nick was planning on kidnapping the two, Ron said he has ‘reasons to believe so.’
Another reason Ron believes this was deliberate was after he found out that Nick had texted his boss to ‘piss off’ and had quit his job around three weeks ago.
‘He’s not a really smart guy. It sounds like something he was planning, trying to put together,’ Ron told DailyMail.com. ‘I actually do believe that she is being held against her will.’
He said Nick was possessive and ‘wouldn’t let her out of her sight.’ He also said Nick accused her of cheating on him with her longtime friends and had even gone through her phone before destroying it at one point.
Ron worries that Nick could harm Lydia and Jill and fears the farther north they go, the less likely they’ll be discovered. Although he didn’t know if Nick would kill them, he said northern Maine was an area where ‘bodies can be hidden up there and never found again’
Ron is now worried he has destroyed Jill’s phone again and that’s why they are unable to get in contact with her.
His oldest daughter Reta, 34, has recently changed the Netflix ID to someone ‘only her and Jill would know’ in hope that she will login into the shared account to give them a sign that she is alive. Ron said she oftentimes played shows for her daughter Lydia and is hoping Jill will notice the ‘cryptic message.’
However, they have not logged on since their disappearance.
Reta, who declined to speak with DailyMail.com because she wasn’t in the ‘best emotional state,’ and her sister Heather, 31, have headed up north to look 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 not be in distress.
‘They were buying food items and there did not appear to be anything nefarious or criminal,’ Sanford police Lieutenant Matthew Gagne told the Boston Globe. ‘[However], we cannot verify their state without seeing them.’
They were last seen in a silver 2005 Volkswagen Jetta with a black rear bumper sticker and a Maine license plate, according to the wanted poster.
Ron now just wants his daughter to be found or at least contact them so she can at least say she’s alright.
The couple was last seen heading north and Ron worries about her safety the farther north they go.
In the farther northern points of Maine, towns because ‘territories’ and it’s very ‘woodland country’ with very little people traversing the area.
Although he doesn’t believe Nick plans on taking them out of the country, as neither had passports, he did admit there was a lot of ‘woodland’ areas up there that could potentially lead to a secret crossings.
He also didn’t know if Nick would ultimately kill Jill or Lydia, but admitted he ‘didn’t know what [Nick] would if he was backed into a corner.’
‘Worst case scenario is…bodies can be hidden up there and never found again,’ Ron told DailyMail.com. ‘There are just so many places that people can hide and never been seen.
Ron said it’s a big, big worry of mine’ that Nick will kill them and he’s ‘praying’ it will not be the case
Jill’s father also said he was ‘blown away’ by the amount of support the family has received since his daughter and granddaughter disappeared
‘That’s a big, big worry of mine. I hope he wouldn’t go that far – I’m praying that he wouldn’t go that far – but it’s something you can’t get out of the back of your mind.’
Throughout Jill and Nick’s relationship – which only lasted around 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 forcibly told her ‘no,’ Ron recalled. When he tried to intervene between the two after they started arguing, Nick became more aggressive and Ron realized Nick was ‘drunk.’
‘He tried to lunge at me and I took him down and put him in a headlock,’ Ron told DailyMail.com.
The first time Nick was arrested was after he had accidently hit Jill in the head with his elbow and she asked him ‘not to hit me like that.’ Afterward, Nick ‘punched’ Jill in the head and he was arrested, it is claimed.
The second time, Nick waited outside the family’s residence until Ron left for work before he ‘busted through the door and went after her fiancé with a drywall hammer.’
The family said they are extremely worried about her disappearance Nick is ‘not a stable person’
DailyMail.com has requested the arrests records from the Sanford Police Department.
Nick also has two children with another woman and does not have custody over them and is not allowed to see them, Jill’s family alleged. His sister currently has fully custody and has not heard from Nick in more than three years, Ron told DailyMail.com.
‘He is court ordered to stay away from them,’ the grandfather said. Jill has custody of Lydia.
Ron also told DailyMail.com that he believes Jill and Lydia’s disappearance has nothing to do with the two-year-old and everything to do with Jill.
‘This has very little to do with the baby, he could care less about the baby,’ Ron told DailyMail.com. ‘It’s an obsession with Jill, and he’s using the baby against her or as a pawn for it.
‘I know him, I know how he is.’
Two weeks before their camping trip, Nick made weird Facebook posts, including a poem and photo that indicated he was ‘done trying’ to keep someone in his life. It is unclear who these posts were directed toward
Despite the terrifying 12 days so far, Ron has been ‘blown away’ by the amount of support the family has received.
‘The support has been unbelievable,’ he told DailyMail.com.
Jill’s ex-boyfriend and Brayden’s father’s fiancée has even helped Ron by ‘making phone calls and calling campgrounds.’
A Facebook page has also been set up for the family of three, called Missing: Lydia, Nick Hansen, and Jill Sidebotham. The public group is dedicated to finding Jill and Lydia, mainly, and people can list potential sightings.
‘It just blew me away when I saw that, when I got an invite out of nowhere, because I’ve been glued to Facebook,’ Ron told DailyMail.com.
‘People not only that I’ve never met [and] will probably never meet in my life are just doing everything they can to help me and my wife and [Jill’s] son.’
Sanford Police are urging anyone who thinks they spotted the family to call local law enforcement.
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