Brayden Sidebotham-Farmer has been “hurting really bad” since his mother Jill Sidebotham, 28, and half-sister Lydia Hansen disappeared while camping in Phillips, Maine, on June 27, his grandfather Ron Sidebotham, 61, told the DailyMail.com. Saturday.
Ron claims Jill’s ex-partner Nick Hansen, believed to be 39, is a domestic abuser and now fears he could harm or even kill his ex-partner and their daughter if cornered .
“He’s trying so hard to hold it in,” the grandfather said of Brayden’s anguish over his missing loved ones. “I think it’s just one step away from collapse.”
“He tries not to let it go [to] him, but I can tell,” added Ron. He gets scary every now and then and is never like that, never rough.
“He’s such a good kid, pulling like he did the other day is out of character for him.”
Brayden has been very close to his little half-sister and struggles to keep it together as more days pass and the family continues to hear nothing but radio silence.
Brayden Sidebotham-Farmer, 10, of Springville, (pictured) is on the brink of collapse after his mother Jill Sidebotham, 28, and sister Lydia, two, disappeared on June 27, said his grandfather.
Jill and Lydia (pictured with Brayden) went on a Fourth of July camping trip with Lydia’s father and Jill’s ex-boyfriend, Nick Hansen, who is believed to be 39. Jill’s phone hasn’t been on since July 28th and Nick’s phone hasn’t had a signal since June 29th
Jill’s father, Ron Seidebotham, believes she was taken “against her will” and that Nick had kidnapped them because he is “obsessed with Jill)
The hurt grandfather also believed that Nick planned to disappear along with Jill and Lydia during the camping trip.
And he says he fears there are many very remote areas where any bodies could be dumped.
The family was expected to return on June 30 after spending a 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 took off for a camping trip in the woods. Nick’s phone has also had no signal since June 29th.
‘[Brayden] he 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 mad at her.
“My God, he loves the ground he walks on. He’s a big brother and that’s all,’ Ron told DailyMail.com.
Jill’s mother Cottie, who suffers from hepatitis-C and neuropathy – nerve damage – has lost 10kg in the last week due to stress. Ron himself 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 for domestic disputes where he ‘punched’ Jill in the head and chased her fiance Corey Alexander with a ‘plasterboard hammer’, Ron recalled.
Ron also said that Nick had “little to do with the baby”. Ron said, “She could care less about the baby. She is obsessed with Jill and is using the baby against her or as a pawn for her.”
“The whiplash effect is just amazing, I just can’t believe what it’s doing to us,” Ron told DailyMail.com. “I’ll lay on the couch and wait for the phone to ring and wait, wait, wait. I’ll lay there and fall asleep and as soon as I hear a car pull up, my eyes are wide open.”
Ron was at work when Jill took off with Nick almost two weeks ago, and when he returned home to the apartment he shares with his wife, daughter and two children, he was told that Jill had taken off.
“When I got home, my wife said, ‘You went camping with Nick,’ and I said, ‘Are you serious?’ he said. Ron also told DailyMail.com that Cottie tried to talk her out of going, but failed to persuade her.
“My daughter, of course, ends everything with ‘she’ll be fine,’” she said. “She has a fiancé [Corey Alexander]which is another thing that makes me wonder why and makes me believe 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 due to fears that Nick will disappear. However, she said they are aware of the family strife and violence that Nick has perpetuated in recent 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 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 his wife Coty has lost 10kg in a week and is barely sleeping
Two weeks before the camping trip, Nick shared a poem by Rachel Byram that contains lyrics like, “I’m done playing your game. Did you ever care? Why do you act like I was never there. I’m not just some toy.’
It also read: “You should be ashamed. I could have been anything you wanted. Because you were everything I wanted. But you made your choice. Your mind might be thinking of one thing. But your actions are the only thing that speaks.’
She also posted another photo on June 16, writing, “If you want me in your life, find 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 [the Facebook page]and oh my god, if I’d only seen these things before, I might have had an idea,” Ron told DailyMail.com.
When asked if the Facebook posts and the decision to camp in the woods versus a campsite indicated that Nick planned to kidnap the two, Ron said he has “reason to believe so.”
Another reason Ron thinks this was intentional was after he found out that Nick had texted his boss to “piss off” and quit his job about three weeks ago.
“He’s not a very smart guy. It sounds like something he was planning, trying to put together,” Ron told DailyMail.com. “I truly believe she is being held against her will.”
She said Nick was possessive and “wouldn’t let her out of his sight.” She also said Nick accused her of cheating on him with her long-term boyfriends and even went through her phone before destroying it at one point.
Ron is worried that Nick could hurt Lydia and Jill and fears that the further north they go, the less likely they will be discovered. Although he didn’t know if Nick would kill them, he said that northern Maine was an area where “bodies can be hidden up there and never be found again.”
Ron is now worried that he’s messed up Jill’s phone again and that’s why they can’t get in touch with her.
His eldest daughter Reta, 34, recently changed her Netflix ID to someone “only she and Jill would know” in the hope that it would log into the shared account to give them a sign that she was alive. Ron said he has played shows for her daughter Lydia many times and hopes Jill will pick up on the “cryptic message”.
However, they have not been linked since their disappearance.
Reta, who declined to speak to DailyMail.com because she was not in the “best emotional state”, and her sister Heather, 31, have headed north to search for their beloved sister.
Jill, Nick and Lydia were last seen at a Walmart in Mexico, Maine on July 2, where they were seen on security footage buying food and appeared to be out of danger.
“They were buying food and there didn’t appear to be anything malicious or criminal,” Sanford Police Lt. Matthew Gagne told the Boston Globe. ‘[However]we cannot verify their condition 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 to find his daughter or at least contact them so he can at least say she’s okay.
The pair were last seen heading north and Ron worries for her safety the further north they go.
In the more northerly parts of Maine, towns because of the “lands” and it’s very “woods” with very few people crossing the area.
While he doesn’t think Nick plans to take them out of the country since neither had passports, he admitted there were plenty of “woods” areas up there that could potentially lead to secret crossings.
He also didn’t know if Nick would end up killing Jill or Lydia, but admitted that he “didn’t know what [Nick] he would if backed into a corner.’
“The worst case scenario is…the bodies can be hidden up there and never be found again,” Ron told DailyMail.com. “There are so many places people can hide that they’ve never seen.
Ron said it’s a big, big worry of mine’ that Nick will kill them and he’s ‘praying’ it doesn’t happen
Jill’s father also said he was “overwhelmed” by the amount of support the family has received since his daughter and granddaughter went missing
“That’s a big, big concern of mine. I hope it doesn’t go that far – I pray it doesn’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 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 hit 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 accidentally elbowed Jill in the head and she asked him “not to hit me like that”. Nick then “punched”…
