Grandpa Guy Monroe Pyke Just Simple Disappeared. Why?

In April 1999, 70-year-old Guy Pyke pulled into his cousin's driveway in Evans Mills, New York — and never got out of the car. A barking dog kept him away. He backed out, drove north, and was never seen again.

No body. No crash site. No trace of his midnight blue Chevy Blazer. Just silence — for 26 years and counting.

We sit down with Jennifer Wood, Guy's granddaughter, who has spent decades fighting to correct the record, coordinating underwater search teams, and refusing to let her grandfather become a forgotten file. She shares what Guy told his brothers before he vanished — words that take on a chilling new meaning in hindsight.

This is the cold case that has no peaks, no valleys. Just an empty space on a gravestone where a date of death should be.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. If you have information on Guy Pyke or his 1989 Chevrolet Blazer (VIN: 1GNEV18K7KF176294, plate NY FMS-867), contact the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office at (315) 435-5434.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We're here with Jennifer Wood, who is the granddaughter of Guy Pike, who went missing uh in nineteen ninety nine. And we're gonna ask some questions about what what the investigation is showing and what all has happened since the Tommy went missing. Um so Jennifer, what was Guy like?

SPEAKER_00 0:23

He was a very quiet, laid back, would take the shirt off his back for anybody if he had to. Um I was very close with, you know, both him and my grandmother. Um I spent I think more time with them as a child than I did at home. Um he was just he would do anything for anybody.

unknown 0:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

He was a family man, he you know, we had horses that he took care of when I was younger. Um it just everything was family.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

That's great. Um now there's a lot of water around where he went missing. Do you think he's in the water or what what do you think has happened a as far as that?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

My strong belief is that he's in the water somewhere. Um my thoughts with that is a vehicle of his size um doesn't just disappear. If it was in the woods or something like that at this point, I would think between developing and an influx in outdoor activities, that if it was in the woods somewhere somebody would have come across it by now. Um there's been, you know, no no VIN traces, nothing no activity on the VIN number, the plate, nothing like that. Um which is why I strongly believe that his vehicle is in the water with him in it somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yeah. And um so let me ask you, um, there's been mentions online that maybe he had dementia or something like that, and I know you're against those theories. Um, what do you say to people who think he may have had dementia?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

It's not so much that we're against those theories. Um, it's more so the way that it was put out to the public when he went missing. Um there was um early signs of dementia. Um nothing was ever officially diagnosed. Um he actually my grandmother had an appointment scheduled for him for later in April of that year. Um, I believe it was only like a week after he disappeared, um to go through the dementia testing. Um, but obviously he disappeared and that was never done. So when it was first put out to the media, it immediately went to he had Alzheimer's, he had dementia. That wasn't the case at all. Um, and that really upset my grandmother. Um, and she fought for years, for years to get them to correct that. Um, and she never had any success with that. Um it was approximately three years ago that I finally got them to go in and make corrections on flyers and edit things and to word it that there may have been possible dementia, but nothing official.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

So it's not so much that you know I don't agree with it because he was showing early signs of it, but just because there may be some early signs doesn't necessarily mean that's what it is.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

So for them to just speculate and assume that was not okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Yeah. Do you think he may have uh been having some type of mental health crisis?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Um I'm not sure that I can say like a mental health crisis. Um there was comments made to his brothers um a couple of times and we, you know, found out after the fact that he had told them that if he got to a certain point that he was gonna be a burden on people, not be able to take care of himself, that he would disappear and nobody would find him.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Um but there had never been any any attempts of anything.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah, and when when he went to um I forget the city, but he drove like seventy miles away.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Yeah, he went to Watertown.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

And he went to visit his cousin. Why do you think he didn't get out when he visited his cousin?

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Well, I know they had a dog, um, and I know in the past when he had gone there, the dog had actually tried to bite him. So from our understanding, when he pulled in the driveway, the dog came out barking, and he just never got out of the car, backed out of the driveway and left. So all these years we've just kind of assumed that it was because of the dog that he didn't you know, he had a fear of their dog. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah. Um I'm I'm just gonna ask an open-ended question. Um so I'm pretty sure you don't think it's foul play, but uh what what exactly lo let's just lay it out there for the listeners. Like, what do you think happened?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Um quite honestly, it i in my in my heart, in my mind the only two things that I possibly think well kinda two and a half, you know, it he could have had some type of medical emergency and went off the road. It's always a possibility. Um there's the possibility that you know, he he knew he was gonna be going for this dementia testing. He knew there was a probability of them taking his license, him not being able to drive, him losing his independence, um and just decided that that was it.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Um so he was a very independent person, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

For the most part, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah. Yeah, I think I think we've got uh a good amount of uh things to put out there and um I'm gonna let you go and I'll call you right back.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

All right. Bye.