It's hard to imagine losing a loved one, a wife, a husband, a child.

For many, it's their biggest fear.

Amarissa Jones, host of The Vanished.

A podcast that tells the stories of often overlooked and unsolved missing persons cases,

in an effort to uncover the truth.

Follow The Vanished on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

On March 23rd, 1963, at 1am, Jerald Lynn Hilliman woke up with a sore throat.

Five years old, with penetrating blue eyes and an adorable pixie haircut,

Jerald quietly tipped toad into her father's bedroom and stood at the foot of his bed.

Daddy, she whispered, Hilliman shook himself awake, rose to his full height of six feet one inch,

bent down, and gently touched the side of his daughter's face.

There, at the angle of her jaw, he felt a lump.

Jerald winced in pain.

At the time of his daughter's illness, Hilliman was a single father.

Four months earlier, his wife, Thelma, had died of breast cancer.

Although he wasn't sure what was happening to Jerald, Hilliman had a pretty good idea.

Near his bed was a book titled The Merc Manual, a simply written compendium of medical information.

Thoming through it, he soon found what he was looking for.

Oh my God, he said, you've got the mumps.

Then Hilliman did something that few fathers would have done.

He walked down the hallway, knocked on the housekeeper's door, and told her that he'd be gone for a while.

Then he went back to his bedroom, picked up his daughter, and put her back to bed.

...