A Grandma and Daughter Vanished on Their Way to the Neighborhood Store. Now One Is Dead and the Other Can’t Remember What Happened

An Alabama grandma and her adult daughter went to a neighborhood store to buy some cigarettes. Three days later, the grandmother was found dead inside their car, and her daughter was hospitalized leaving police to figure out what happened.

At about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Patricia Gardner Dennis, 78, and her daughter Teresa Lynne Fisher, 59, are believed to have left their home to head to a gas station to buy cigarettes. The pair disappeared and were not heard from for three days until they were found parked on the side of Interstate 65, as reported by WAKA.

Keith Hughes, Dennis’ grandson and Fisher’s son, said that his grandma suffered from dementia while his mother has short-term memory loss. Both women lived with Hughes’ grandpa, who is physically disabled and blind.

Hughes told AL.com that he believes that his mother got lost on their way back home from the gas station. He told the outlet, "The way I believe my mom’s mind was working, she may have remembered she was pulling out of the gas station heading home five minutes ago, but every five minutes she’s thinking she just pulled out of the gas station."

He added, "In reality, she could have been driving for three or four hours thinking she just left the gas station five minutes ago."

The women’s journey started from their house in Deatsville, but license plate readers showed the family’s Toyota Avalon all the way up in Vestavia Hills at 2 a.m. Sunday — about 68 miles north of home.

From there, the women disappeared again until Chilton County Sheriff John Shearon said they received a 911 call requesting medical assistance on Tuesday on Interstate 65 southbound near mile marker 214. Dennis was pronounced dead at the scene while Fisher was taken to the hospital.

Officials said that there was no evidence of an accident or foul play. Dennis’ autopsy results are still pending to determine how she died.

While investigators continue trying to figure out what happened during those three days, Hughes is working on keeping his family afloat. He said he had to break the news to his grandpa, who had been married to Dennis for more than 60 years, that she had died.

“He passed out, and busted his head, so now he’s in the hospital too,’’ Hughes told AL.com. Meanwhile, Hughes said that his mom is aware that Dennis is gone, but said “it’s so much harder on her because she’s finding out her mom has died every five minutes.”

Hughes noted that his grandma’s health had been declining before the incident. Now, he is trying to get his grandfather into some sort of assisted living facility and is working to get his mother into a longer-term care facility.

“I don’t know how to take all of it,’’ he told AL.com, “but God’s given me peace in my soul.”