Charges filed in nursing home resident’s disappearance case

On September 22, 2020 at 10 p.m., 81-year-old Carol Nutt was reported missing by staff at the Discovery Care Centre in Hamilton. She showed up a day later at the emergency room of a Missoula hospital. Her son, Randall Scott Vadnais, has been charged with accountability for kidnapping and accountability for custodial interference in relation to the disappearance. Both are felony charges. He is facing up to 20 years in prison and up to $100,000 in fines if convicted on both charges. 

According to the information and affidavits filed on October 9 by the Ravalli County Attorney’s office, “Ms. Nutt has severe dementia and according to a letter from her physician dated September 8, 2020, is ‘not mentally competent to make legal, medical or financial decisions on her own behalf’.” It also states that Ms. Nutt’s daughter, Cindy Thayer, has legal power of attorney.

It states in the filing document that the Hamilton police had already begun investigating the missing person report when dispatch received a phone call from Vadnais saying that his mother was fine, but that she was not with him. Thayer told the police that her brother “was not happy with Ms. Nutt being at Discovery Care Centre and that he had told her on numerous occasions that he was going to take Ms. Nutt to Utah, where he resides.” 

Based on information that her son could potentially be in the area, the investigating officer made contact with him. But Vadnais continued to refuse to give any information about his mother’s whereabouts.

“Defendant repeatedly said that he knew where she was, but would not tell officers,” it states in the documents. “Defendant also tried to present a handwritten piece of paper, dated September 22, 2020, that stated, ‘I Carol Nutt, do hereby revoke Cindy Thayer from having medical power of attorney that I signed on the 20th day of February, 2020’.” Vadnais is reported to have said that he had met with his mother and had her sign that piece of paper earlier the same day, but still refused to give the address or say where Nutt could be located.

The documents state simply that “Ms. Nutt was later found at the emergency room of a Missoula hospital, accompanied by the defendant’s wife.” 

The charges of accountability to kidnapping and accountability to custodial interference against Vadnais were filed on October 13, alleging that he “purposely or knowingly, either before or during the commission of an offense, with the purpose to promote or facilitate the commission, aided, abetted, agreed or attempted to aid another person in the planning or commission of the offense of custodial interference…”  

Vadnais doesn’t believe his mother suffers from severe dementia. He said he couldn’t tell the police where his mother was on the day she “escaped” from the nursing home because she needed time to do the things that she wanted to do. One was to write a statement revoking her daughter’s power of attorney over her and filing it with the county clerk and recorder. The second was to prepare a statement designating Vadnais with power of attorney and filing notarized copies of the documents at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital and with Dr. Heath. 

“She got all this done,” said Vadnais.

Vadnais said that the night his mom escaped the nursing home his sister, Cindy Thayer, called him and told him that they were going to have him arrested for kidnapping. So he called the police and told them that his mom was OK but he couldn’t tell them where she was.

Vadnais said that his mom’s actions in “breaking out” of the nursing home are just more evidence that she is not incompetent. He said he heard from someone at Adult Protective Services who had interviewed his mom that she got dressed and waited for just the right time, opened the locked door by entering the pass code that was posted above the door, then hid in the bushes and then called family for help.

Vadnais said he was prohibited from communicating with his mother for two weeks following the incident. Since then he has been allowed to make phone calls from 9 to 5 on the week-days. He believes it is so that the calls can be monitored.  

Vadnais said that when he took his mom’s note conveying power of attorney to him to file in the appropriate places he discovered that there was no record of any power of attorney on file at the hospital, at the doctor’s office or at the county clerk and recorder’s office. He said using his power of attorney he was able to get access to his mother’s medical records, even though the nursing home had flagged the information as not available. He said he and others have reviewed those records and he does not believe there is any evidence of severe dementia or that she was even properly tested for it.

Vadnais said that his mother was getting along fine in her own apartment when there was a case of bed bugs in the building last February and some got into her apartment. He said his sister, Cindy Thayer, did not notify him but just stuck their mother in the nursing home, telling her that it was only temporary.  

Vadnais said that when he does talk to his mother on the phone now she says every time that she wants out of the nursing home and cries.

He said the nursing home was using her dog as a tool for punishment for not being good and also took away her phone. 

“If she’s not good then she can’t see her dog. If she’s not good she can’t have her phone. They are treating her like an 8-year-old, not like an 81-year-old,” he said. 

Vadnais said that they have gotten Adult Services involved and they are investigating.

“When they lock somebody up for getting bed bugs that’s terrible,” said Vadnais. “They took all her rights away from her. It’s just a mess. If they are doing it to her, are they doing it to anybody else?”

Director of the Discovery Care Centre Rick Bucheit declined to comment on the case and suggested the Star contact the family. 

Cindy Thayer, who lives in Nevada, did not respond to a request for comment.