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📅 2026-10-28 ⏱ 39 min episode · ~2 min read 📝 Transcript · 5,660 words

A Private Matter, Episode 3

Bear Brook · · Transcript & summary by WhipScribe

It turns a missing-person case into a portrait of the man himself, and tests a private investigator's murder theory against the paper trail of a suspiciously cheap farm sale.

In this episodeJay HickeyIsabel "Izzy" HickeyPatty (Jay Hickey's wife)Joe MurphyAmy ShapiroJason MoonEmily HickeyEpsom, New HampshireHarmony Hill, Nottingham, New HampshireBoston UniversityTurn to the Stars (Manchester public-access TV)Nevermind (book)

▸Chapters

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▸Notable quotes

“I would describe her as a cosmic master.” Joe Murphy · at 4:32 — open in the transcript →
“In astrology, every one of us that are counselors are karmically responsible for everything we say.” Isabel Hickey · at 5:45 — open in the transcript →

▸What this episode covers

This chapter of NHPR reporter Jason Moon's investigation sets the police work aside to ask a character question: who was Jay Hickey, the gentle, mustached Christmas tree farmer from Epsom, New Hampshire, before he vanished? The answer runs through his grandmother, Isabel "Izzy" Hickey, a well-known Boston astrologer of the 1960s and 70s who wrote books on astrology, lectured at Boston University and raised Jay at her Nottingham retreat, Harmony Hill. Moon draws on two 2013 public-access TV appearances, the only recordings of Jay he has, plus the 2012 book Jay co-wrote about her, to show how her teachings shaped his life, from his conscientious objector status in the Vietnam era to the inner voice he credited with landing him the farm.

Izzy's circle also explains who is still asking questions. Joe Murphy, a former cop and retired social worker who studied under her, launched his own private inquiry after Amy Shapiro, Jay's co-author and another Izzy protege, told him Jay was missing. Shapiro brought her own red flags: a reassuring email from Patty, Jay's wife, written when Jay was likely already gone, a royalty check deposited without his signature, and texts sent from his phone.

The weightiest material concerns the September 2022 sale of the 119-acre farm to a neighbor's adult children at a low recorded price, with a life estate for the couple. Moon lays out evidence of Jay's cognitive decline, a 911 call two months earlier and an unusually weak signature on the deed, then weighs how hard it is to judge capacity in dementia. He concludes the sale raises real doubts, but that Murphy's conspiracy theory has no evidence behind it, a view Epsom police share.

▸Key takeaways

01Jay Hickey, the missing Epsom, New Hampshire tree farmer, was largely raised by his grandmother Isabel Hickey, a famous Boston astrologer.
02Isabel Hickey's former students drive the private side of the case: Amy Shapiro alerted Joe Murphy, who began investigating Jay's disappearance himself.
03Jay and Patty sold the 119-acre farm in September 2022 for a recorded $268,700, keeping a life estate that lets them live there until they die.
04Two months before the deed was signed, Patty called 911 on July 25, 2022 to report Jay suicidal, and his signature on it lacks his usual loopy J.
05Jason Moon finds the sale doubtful but Joe Murphy's murder-conspiracy theory unconvincing, and Epsom police noted Murphy offered no evidence.

▸Questions this episode answers

Q1Who was Isabel Hickey, the grandmother of missing farmer Jay Hickey on Bear Brook?

Isabel "Izzy" Hickey was a prominent astrologer in the New Age movement of the 1960s and 70s, known as Boston's spiritual spark plug. Jason Moon reports she wrote books including Astrology, a Cosmic Science and It Is All Right, gave readings and lectures, and ran a weekly Boston University talk called the Friday Night Fix. She died in 1980 and raised her first grandson, Jay, largely as a son.

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Q2How did Jay Hickey come to own the Christmas tree farm in Epsom, New Hampshire?

Jay Hickey said in a 2013 TV interview that, after military service, he drove unfamiliar roads, found the Epsom farm and felt it was home. The owner put him on a waiting list of eight or ten buyers. About a year later an inner voice told him to call; everyone ahead had backed out, and he agreed to buy without knowing the price. Hours later an earlier buyer called back, too late.

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Q3Who is Joe Murphy and why did he investigate Jay Hickey's disappearance?

Joe Murphy is a retired social worker and former cop from Deerfield, New Hampshire, with stints in military police, the NYPD and the VA's police force. He barely knew Jay Hickey, but as a Boston University graduate student in the 1970s he studied under Jay's grandmother Isabel Hickey and stayed loyal to her. Amy Shapiro told him Jay was missing, and, doubting the local police, he started his own inquiry.

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Q4What red flags did Amy Shapiro find after Jay Hickey went missing?

Amy Shapiro, who co-wrote the book Nevermind with Jay Hickey and sent him yearly royalties, found three things. Patty emailed her in October 2023 that Jay had memory trouble and was visiting high school friends in Massachusetts, when he was likely already missing. Her January 2024 royalty check for $134 was deposited with no signature on the back. Months later, near Christmas, she got casual texts from Jay's phone that she believed Patty wrote.

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Q5How much did Jay Hickey's 119-acre Christmas tree farm sell for, and to whom?

Public documents show Jay Hickey and Patty sold the 119-acre farm and its three-bed, one-bath house in September 2022 to a neighbor's adult children for $268,700, with a life estate letting the couple live there until death. Patty told police the buyers also paid off the mortgage and made monthly payments, putting the total nearer $450,000. Jay's daughter Emily Hickey said he had planned to leave the farm to his children.

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Q6Was Jay Hickey of sound mind when he signed the deed to sell his farm?

Jason Moon says it cannot be proven either way but serious doubt is reasonable. A town employee and daughter Emily Hickey noticed memory problems by 2020. Patty called 911 on July 25, 2022, two months before the deed signing, saying Jay was suicidal. Jay's notarized signature on the deed is faint, missing the big J and middle initial F seen in six other samples. Patty insists he was of sound mind.

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Q7What is Joe Murphy's theory about Jay Hickey's disappearance, and does it hold up?

Joe Murphy suspects Patty and the neighbors who bought the farm conspired to get rid of Jay Hickey so they could split up and sell the land, involving tax valuations and water runoff. Jason Moon finds it unconvincing: Jay had already signed the sale while alive, Patty still lives there under the life estate, and the deal did not need Jay gone. Epsom police wrote that Murphy offered no supporting evidence.

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▸Transcript

Our own transcript of the public episode, with a timestamp about every 90 seconds. Tap a timestamp or the link button on a paragraph to copy a link that opens this page there.

0:00You can get an ad-free version of this season for just $20. Go to patreon.com slash bearbrook or follow the link in the show notes. Prize Picks Packs are here. Rip digital packs and get real basketball, football, and Pokemon cards. Sell cards instantly for cash or ship them home. Prize Picks Packs gives everyone the opportunity to pull the one-of-one Cooper flag rookie card worth $8 million and a Pikachu illustrator card worth $2. million dollars and packs as low as just one dollar download prize picks and use code spotify to get 25 instantly and bonus packs when you buy your first five dollar pack prize picks run your game 18 plus eligible areas terms apply collect We're all here, it's family Presents for the ones you love

0:49And run Starting a business can seem like a daunting task Unless you have a partner like Shopify They have the tools you need to start and grow your business From designing a website, to marketing, to selling and beyond Shopify can have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash special offer. Who was Jay Hickey? This missing man I was spending so much time thinking about.

1:41The question had been nagging at me. Civic-minded Christmas tree farmer, kind and gentle to a fault, hell of a mustache. That much I had gotten. But who was he really? And was there something about his past that could help me understand his disappearance? As it turned out, yeah, there was. But getting there, that was a strange journey that took me places I truly could not have imagined. So we're going to leave the police investigation for a minute while I take you down another rabbit hole. By the end of it, you're going to understand something really important about Jay. Something that will cast a new light on this whole situation. It all started in a Jeep. I'm in the passenger seat. Lots of woods up here, Jason. Bear Brook State Park is over that rise down that way.

2:49That's Joe Murphy driving. He's wearing a Newsboy cap and leather driving gloves. Joe is a retired social worker and a former cop. Military police, a brief stint at the NYPD, and then a long one at the VA. Turns out they have their own police force. He lives in Deerfield, just a few towns over from Epsom. Like a lot of people, Joe found Jay's disappearance strange and suspicious. Unlike a lot of people, he decided he was going to investigate it himself. He wasn't convinced the local police were up to the task. So Joe wanted to bring me by the Christmas tree farm and pitch me on his theory of what happened to Jay. More on that later, because I kept getting hung up on why Joe would here not because of Jay exactly.

3:46He barely knew him. But Joe did know and has a deep loyalty to Jay's grandmother, a woman who died in 1980. To think that something like this has happened to her grandson, who she raised as a son. That's why it's so important. From the driver's seat, Joe told me he'd been a kind of student of Jay's grandmother back in the 70s. He kept trying to explain to me who she was, but I wasn't quite getting it. She was some kind of spiritual leader? A mystic? Is that too strong a word? I would describe her as a cosmic master. She used to refer to astrology as a cosmic science. Jay Hickey's grandmother was a famous astrologer. And as I would come to learn, if I wanted to understand Jay, I needed to understand her. Jay's grandmother was Isabel Hickey.

5:08Many people called her Izzy. She was a force in the New Age movement of the 60s and 70s. She published books on astrology with titles like It Is All Right and Astrology, a Cosmic Science. She gave astrological readings and public lectures, like this one from 1975. There's been just as much damage as there has been good done in the astrological field, because if you don't know the real understanding of astrology, you can make mistakes. And in astrology, every one of us that are counselors are karmically responsible for everything we say. Izzy was known as Boston's spiritual spark plug. Online, people are still talking about her today. Astrology, a cosmic science. This has been one of my favorite books.

6:07I kid you not, I read the entire thing in one sitting. She was really notorious for being just such a gifted astrologer. She really wanted to help people. The grand dame of American astrologers, Isabel M. Hickey. As you might know, astrology draws meaning from the positions of the planets and other objects in space. Maybe you know your astrological sign, which is based on the position of the sun during the time of year you were born. I'm a Pisces, which is supposed to mean I'm sensitive, moody, and introspective. Izzy's particular brand of astrology was especially expansive, or maybe inclusive is the word. She mixed in other spiritual concepts like a Christian God, reincarnation, earthbound spirits, karma,

7:13and psychic realms. She liked to use a kind of spiritual wordplay. Her students called them izzyisms, little turns of phrase that often broke words apart into smaller pieces. Things like disease is dis-ease or discipline is disciple in. You get the idea. At Boston University, Izzy gave a weekly talk called the Friday Night Fix. A young Joe Murphy was a graduate student at BU at the time. And he found himself enthralled by Izzy. I would compare her as a healer to Mother Teresa. Very much so. It's not exactly what I had expected when I first climbed into Joe's Jeep, but now I had to know more. Jay Hickey was grandson to the Mother Teresa of astrology? What? This is the intro to a show formerly on Manchester, New Hampshire, Public Access TV.

8:29It was called Turn to the Stars. Hi, thanks for tuning in to Turn to the Stars. My name is Andrea Klim, and I'm an astrological counselor and shamanic practitioner from the local area. And today we are going to... Ten years before he disappeared, back in 2013, Jay Hickey was a guest on Turn to the Stars. Jay is Isabel Hickey's first grandson. Yes. Jay is Isabel Hickey's first grandson. At the time, it turns out, Jay had just co-authored a book about Izzy and his life growing up with her. It's called Nevermind. Two words, another Izzyism. And what, I'm sure everybody's saying, what is Nevermind about? Could you give us a brief overview of Nevermind? For me, Nevermind started very early in my life. Izzy had a place in Nottingham that we used to go

9:32to for summers. And as she was fixing it up, one of the first things she did was build a chapel. And I was five when she had the house and the chapel was done, and she used to take me along with her for the weekends. I was the oldest of five boys. I was closely followed by two brothers that basically my mother was happy to have me going with Izzy to have some space. This interview and another appearance on Turn to the Stars that same year are the only recordings I have of Jay. He was in his mid-60s at the time, wearing a checkered button-down, hands folded in his lap, his voice emanating from somewhere behind his feathery mustache. In the chapel, she taught me how to meditate and how to pray.

10:27And I remember asking what the difference was, and she said, praying is praising God and talking to God, and meditating is listening. And when she was teaching me to meditate, she would tell me, don't use your mind, come from your heart center. I found listening to Jay kind of mesmerizing. His voice is so soft, like a spiritual Bob Ross. And the stories he tells are so wholesome. What was nice growing up was the people in her astrology and meditation groups would come there for weekends and work like crazy starting Friday night and Saturday. But on Sundays, we would have meditations in the chapel and have fun. Saturday nights for me as a young boy were great. There was no bedtime for me. I could stay up as late as I want. a young boy, were great. There was no bedtime for me.

11:26I could stay up as late as I want. Jay's book, Nevermind, is part Izzy's biography, part her final unpublished manuscripts. Jay co-authored the book with a woman named Amy Shapiro, who was a student of Izzy's. Jay's section of the book is largely autobiographical. He describes his childhood, growing up at that summer home and spiritual retreat Izzy had in Nottingham, New Hampshire. She called it Harmony Hill. Reading the book, it's clear that Jay revered his grandmother. One of Jay's brothers told me Jay was closer to Izzy than he was with his own parents. Izzy was an awesome teacher. She was patient. She wasn't strict, but she was encouraging to get you over the hump of something that you just weren't understanding.

12:20And the meditations and the spiritual awareness that she gave me has lasted my whole life and protected me my whole life. Jay says Izzy told him once his astrological chart showed he was protected in this life. And from Jay's perspective, that was proven true again and again. Like when Jay turned 18 in 1965 and had to register for the draft during the Vietnam War. Jay writes in the book that everything he'd learned up to that point had taught him that life was precious. He was willing to serve, but not to kill. He applied for status as a conscientious objector. Thanks to a letter on his behalf, written by one of Izzy's astrology friends, his application was granted. Jay trained as a medic and was stationed in Germany, not Vietnam.

13:22And maybe because of moments like that, Jay took Izzy's teachings to heart. And they shaped his own spirituality. Jay believed that through meditation, he could hear what he called the voice of the high self. It was a voice that seemed to point him in the right direction in life. Jay finished his military service and returned to New Hampshire. One day, he decided to take a meandering drive down unfamiliar roads. And somehow, Jay found himself in Epsom, driving up a mountain and then coming upon a beautiful farm. And as soon as I saw it, I felt like I wanted to be there, that it was my home. So I called up the owner, and he said, he was grouchy. I've got eight or ten people on a list, and I'll put you on, but don't expect anything.

14:25So 12 or 13 months later, I woke up on a Saturday morning, and the voice told me to call him. I hired a cell. Jay calls the owner and learns that the people ahead of him on the list to buy the farm had all backed out. Jay says he'll take it, not even knowing the asking price. Then, just a few hours later, someone ahead of Jay on the list changes their mind and calls back. But it was too late. The farm was now promised to Jay. As Jay tells it, if he'd called at any other time, he might never have run a Christmas tree farm in Epsom. Just from listening to the higher self, that happened. And it was meant to happen, I know that. Yeah, well, obviously, you've been there a long time. It was meant to happen.

15:11Now that I knew to look for it, I kept seeing Izzy's influence, dare I say her spirit, everywhere in this story. It was even, I realized, in Patty's interrogations. When state police ask Patty why she wasn't concerned about Jay's prolonged absence, she invokes Izzy. So, I'm not really worried about him because he told me a long time ago not to worry about stuff. Because worry doesn't help it. Sure. And his grandmother, who was his favorite relative, she wrote a book called It Is Alright. And he just tried to kind of teach me. Okay. It doesn't help to worry about stuff. It doesn't make it better. It makes you worse. It doesn't help to worry about stuff. It doesn't make it better. It makes you worse.

16:06It wears you out. Jay is gone, but it is all right. The book's title is another bit of wordplay from Izzy. All right is two words, A-L-L in all caps, and then the word right. It is all right. I'm not sure Patty's interpretation of the text is quite doing it justice. What to do when your spouse goes missing is not a subject Izzy covers. Believe me, I've read it. Still, it was just one more example of Izzy's influence. Her teachings had indirectly led Jay to the Christmas tree farm in the first place. And now, her legacy had brought Joe Murphy into the picture as a private investigator. This episode is sponsored by Mint Mobile. Remember being a kid around the holidays and anytime you'd ask for something, your parents would say, the holidays are coming.

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19:54Taxes and fees apply. You can get an ad-free version of this season for just $20. Go to patreon.com slash bearbrook or follow the link in the show notes. Private investigator Joe Murphy might never have entered the picture, if not for a call from this woman. But your son, this little circle with a dot in it, in Pisces, the sign of service, happens to be in your third house, which emphasizes the role of communicating and being able to ask questions and pursue information all the more. I mean, it's central. That's Amy Shapiro reading my astrological chart. Amy co-wrote the book about Izzy with Jay, Nevermind, the one that landed the both of them on Turn to the Stars. You have what I would call

20:58a grand trine, and I'm not saying this just to flatter you. We'll go ahead anyways. We'll go ahead anyway. So you see the degree. Your son is 21 Pisces. Like Joe Murphy, Amy was a student of Izzy's, a protege who followed directly in her footsteps. She publishes her own books on astrology and does astrological counseling for people at her home office. On her desk sits a portrait of Izzy, positioned behind some crystals. I'm not sure I ever fully grasped the nuances of astrology. I'm a skeptic at heart. But I got the appeal. As I told Amy, something about it was fun. I find it fun too. It makes you introspective in a way that is sort of flattering. It's like, oh, you get to think about yourself.

21:53Who doesn't like to be seen? I mean, that's really at the heart of it. But I wasn't here only to be seen. I wanted to talk with Amy about a few strange encounters she had with Patty. After Amy and Jay published their book on Izzy in 2012, they stayed in touch sporadically. Amy would send Jay a check for his share of the royalties from the book sales every year. In 2024, Amy was shocked to learn from a mutual friend that Jay was missing. And then, as word spread about the strange circumstances, she became concerned. Amy had been in touch with Patty not long before Jay was reported missing. And now she looked back on their conversations with suspicion. Take an email Patty sent her in October 2023. And remember, according to Patty,

22:48that's the last month she saw Jay. In the email, Patty tells Amy that Jay is, quote, off and on with his memory. He's not driving anymore and has gone to Massachusetts to visit some old high school buddies. It seems like a variation on the gone-to-visit-his-brother story. But by this point, Amy realizes Jay was likely already missing when she received this email. Her antennae go up. She checks her bank statements. She finds the most recent royalty check she sent to Jay. It's from January 2024, the month before Jay is finally reported missing. The check for $134 is made out to Jay and was deposited. But on the back, there's no signature. It seems Patty has deposited the check. Amy decides to forward this information to the police, but she doesn't contact Patty. I decided it was better that I not

23:46talk with her because I felt, you know, I wasn't sure how much more I wanted to know, frankly. But then, several months later, just before Christmas, something else really weird happens. Amy gets a few texts from Jay's phone. The messages are a little manic. Good news, one message reads. Four degrees. Burr. I still have heat. Bad news. My computer got hacked by someone claiming he was looking for a scammer. The message goes on to explain that they are opening a new bank account and taking their computer to the Geek Squad. Amy realizes it must be Patty texting from Jay's phone. But it's odd, because Patty and Amy had never spoken about Jay's disappearance. It was... It seemed to be somebody pretending to be Jay,

24:49talking in a very casual tone about this and that. That's pretty weird. Yeah. Yeah. It was exceedingly weird. Obviously, it was in anticipation of the fact that the time was coming up for my annual royalty payment to come due. But the fact that it was a message using Jay's cell number, it really, I can't even describe the feeling that it gave me. Amy types back a curt reply. She points out that Patty had never discussed Jay's disappearance with her. And she tells her she'd need to see a will to know what Jay wanted for his royalties going forward. Patty doesn't respond. Amy was unsettled by the whole thing. Actually, even before these texts with Patty, Amy felt like something was off. Not long after she heard about Jay's disappearance,

25:53she mentioned it to another person from Izzy's orbit, someone she thought might be able to help, an ex-cop who's now a retired social worker. Well, last year, I got a call from a woman who lives in Gloucester. Her name is Amy Shapiro. And she called me to tell me that Jay had been reported missing. Joe was frustrated by what he saw as a lack of progress from the local police. So he pokes around, and he develops his own theory of the case. And it's a bold one. More than a mere suspicion, we got a reasonable suspicion based on all the lies of conspiracy to commit a homicide. To understand this theory, you have to know about something big that happened not long before Jay went missing. Something that surprised some people.

26:56Jay and Patty sold the Christmas tree farm. The sale happened in September 2022, about seven months before the last credible sighting of Jay and a year and a half before he was reported missing. The deal itself contained an interesting provision. Even though Jay and Patty were selling the property, they could continue to live on the farm until they died. In real estate parlance, it's called a life estate. Emily Hickey had told me her dad had always planned to pass the farm down to the kids. But that's not what happened. Jay and Patty sold the farm to one of their neighbor's adult children. And what's more, the Hickeys sold it to the neighbors for a surprisingly low price. According to public documents, for 119 acres and a three-bed, one-bath house,

27:56the neighbors paid $268,700. You can't buy an acre for that today. This was, what, three years ago? Joe has a point. The average home price in New Hampshire is over half a million dollars, much less a home with 119 acres. Patty maintains it was Jay's decision to sell the farm to the neighbors. She tells police he did consider leaving it to the kids, but with all the estrangement in the family, he didn't want them fighting over the property. And it's true that Jay signed the deed transfer document himself, along with Patty. But given everything we know about Jay's condition during this time, I can't help but wonder if he truly understood what he was signing. Jay's decline had already begun by the time he sold the farm. Andrea Novotny, the town employee who bought the wrong toilet paper, she noticed Jay began to have memory issues before he retired

29:01two years before the sale in 2020. That's the year Emily Hickey says she started noticing it too. I've seen two photos of Jay post-retirement. Patty gave them to police when they asked for a recent photo of Jay for the missing persons report. The photos don't give the impression of a man with all his faculties. In one of them, taken from about selfie distance, Jay looks right into the camera with a blank expression. He has a full gray beard. His hair is long and spectacularly unkempt. Think mad scientist, but sadder. The other photo is even less reassuring. It shows Jay slumped forward in a chair, apparently asleep. His hair is combed this time, but his beard is even less reassuring. It shows Jay slumped forward in a chair, apparently asleep.

29:46His hair is combed this time, but his beard is even longer. One wonders why Patty even took the photo. Even Jay's signature itself on the deed transfer document is cause for concern. It was witnessed by a notary public, so I don't think it was forged. But it looks weak, like Jay just managed to scratch the suggestion of his initials, followed by a squiggle. I've compared it to six other examples of Jay's signature. In those, Jay always draws a big, loopy J at the beginning of his name and includes his middle initial F. On the deed transfer, the J looks more like a jagged backward seven, and there is no middle initial. But there was something else that was maybe even more startling. Just two months before J signed the deed transfer, he had threatened to kill himself.

30:52It was documented in Epsom police records. They show that on July 25, 2022, Patty called 911 to report that Jay was suicidal. Patty describes the episode during one of her interrogations. Maybe that was the beginning of his dementia, but I didn't realize it. He was going out the door, and he was halfway across the lawn, and not toward the car, just like straight toward the woods. And he said, I'm just just gonna, we weren't fighting or anything. He just turned around, I said, where are you going? And he said, I'm just gonna go kill myself. I said, no, honey, please. And he didn't have his gun with him or any, you know, I walked over to him to try to talk to him. Sure. Or try to get him to talk to me.

31:49Right. And I don't, one of the things I remember was he said, I'm not going to kill myself. I just need to go for a walk. I said, okay. Do you promise? And he said yes. So then he just went for a walk and he came back later. What to make of all of this? What was Jay's state of mind in those final years? Did he truly decide of his own will to sell the Christmas tree farm that his higher voice had led him to? The Epsom police chief actually raised this point with Patty during one of her interrogations. And Patty gives an interesting response. If we can't prove that he has passed, there's going to be all kinds of issues. There's going to be issues with the way you and Jay sold that house. Yeah.

32:52Why would that be an issue? It's probably going to call into question whether Jay was in his right mind to sell the house. Well, I was. Well, I was. Was it a tacit admission by Patty that Jay was not in his right mind to sell the house? Later, Patty says unequivocally that Jay was of sound mind when he signed the paper. The truth may be impossible to find. Dementia can be a years-long process, and identifying exactly when someone has crossed a certain threshold can be impossibly messy. When is it time to retire, time to stop driving, time to stop making financial decisions? Answering those questions isn't easy. It can even tear families apart. Sometimes the person with dementia is adamant that they

33:46don't need to give up their autonomy. Other times, loved ones can disagree on whether a certain threshold has even been crossed. Dementia can also change someone's personality. They might act in ways their old self never would have. One study also found older adults diagnosed with dementia are more than twice as likely to die by suicide. But does all of this mean they shouldn't make their own choices anymore? What if there is a conflict between what a person said they wanted before the dementia and what they're absolutely sure they want now that it's happening. Like I said, impossibly messy. I don't see any way to definitively declare that Jay wasn't of sound mind to sell his Christmas tree farm.

34:37But I also think it's reasonable to have serious doubts that he was. And this brings us back to Joe's theory. Joe's theory is complicated. It involves property tax valuations, water runoff issues, and the economic interests of local plumbers. I'm going to spare you the details. The upshot is that Joe suspects Patty and the economic interests of local plumbers. I'm going to spare you the details. The upshot is that Joe suspects Patty and the neighbors got together and cooked up a scheme to get rid of Jay. Then they could all get rich from splitting up the Christmas tree farm and selling it off, something he thinks Jay would never have agreed to. Honey, let's take a walk. Let's go take a walk up into the woods.

35:26Let's see what we can find and get hit over the head with a shovel and buried. And that's what my gut tells me. It's a bold opinion. Dramatic, sensational, and ultimately, I think, unconvincing. I agree, the timing of the property sale and Jay's questionable ability to understand it raises an eyebrow, maybe two. But I've seen nothing that would suggest any foul play by the neighbors who purchased the property, and for that reason I haven't named them. I did reach out to them for their take on all this, but they politely declined to speak with me. Maybe more to the point, I just don't see a motive related to the property sale. Jay signed off on the deal while he was alive, so I'm not sure how getting rid of him benefits the neighbors.

36:25And Patty still lives at the farmhouse to this day, so the life estate is still in effect. Patty also offers the police some interesting context on the low sale price. She says the neighbors paid off the existing mortgage on the house all at once, But then, Patty says the neighbors were also making monthly payments to her and Jay for the remaining value of the property, suggesting the total sale price may have been closer to $450,000. Still a good deal, and the whole arrangement is unusual, but none of it required Jay being out of the picture. So I don't think the neighbors were involved in some scheme to kill Jay, and neither do the Epsom police. Joe also laid his theory out for them. They didn't seem impressed. Lieutenant James Keir writes in a report that Joe was, quote,

37:22unable to provide any evidence to back up his claims. With my intuition and my spiritual higher self, and I remember being four and five and six, and she'd work with me and spend the time meditating and teaching. Joe's private investigation doesn't end up going anywhere. But thanks to Joe, I now had a much better sense of Jay. Watching him on old episodes of Turn to the Stars, I could see the gentle, earnest man that so many people missed. And how his grandma, Izzy, always seemed to be right there with him. The chapel was awesome. In the spring it was filled with lilacs and lilies of the valley. And if I think about her in those times, I can still smell the flowers. It was special. Yeah. That's really nice.

38:20Is the chapel at her? Joe wasn't able to solve the mystery of what happened to Jay. But back on the police side of the investigation, that mystery was getting even weirder. You know, and I wrote down, she said, you know, I found him. That's coming up on A Private Matter. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. A Private Matter is written and reported by me, Jason Moon. It's edited by Katie Culinary. Additional editing and production by Lauren Chulgin. More editing support came from Dan Barrick, Rebecca Lavoie, Taylor Quimby, Anne-Marie Timmons, and Marina Henke. I learned a whole bunch about astrology by reading Astrology, the Cosmic Science by Isabel Hickey.

39:47Nevermind by Isabel Hickey, Jay Hickey, and Amy Shapiro, and What Science Says About Astrology, by Carlos Orsi. Photos and video by Elena Eberwein and Raquel Zaldivar with the New England News Collaborative. Fact-checking by Dania Suleiman. Legal review by Jeremy Eggleton. Our website, barebrookpodcast.com, was created by Sarah Plord and Matt Tobin. There you'll find photos, videos, and more. Original artwork by Judith Poitras-Renaud, and original music and scoring by me, Jason Moon. If you have more information or story tips, get in touch with us at bearbrook at nhpr.org. A Private Matter and Bear Brook are productions of the Document Team at New Hampshire Public Radio. design. Check out More Like Us, the new podcast from More Equitable Democracy, the award-winning

40:45racial justice organization focused on election reform, hosted by me, Colin Cole. Each episode, More Like Us provides smart, accessible conversations at the intersection of policy, culture, and democracy. Hear from the people reimagining our political future without the jargon or the lecture. So follow More Like Us wherever you get your podcasts. The best holiday finds aren't always the ones you went looking for. At Ross, discover unexpected gifts, fashion, decor, and plenty of reasons to keep looking. Ross, expect Pokemon cards. Sell cards instantly for cash or ship them home. PrizePix packs gives everyone the opportunity to pull the one-of-one Cooper flag rookie card worth $8 million and a Pikachu

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Bear BrookA Private Matter, Episode 42026-11-04 · 45 min
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