How Did a New York Father Vanish From a Connecticut Highway?

June 12, 2009— -- The last time Casey King talked to her husband was around 6:30 p.m. on April 20. He was out of town on a construction job and while she cared for their 20-day-old baby and two older daughters.

Less than four hours later, she was on the phone with police. Jody King, her husband of six years, had disappeared after a minor car crash in Enfield, Conn.

His wallet, cell phone and clothes were found nearby, but no one has seen or heard from Jody King, 28, since and his wife said she fears that he's dead or suffering from a mental illness.

"Our whole life has been turned upside down," Casey King said. She has hired a private investigator to help find her husband.

The Kings lived with their three young children in Ticonderoga, N.Y., about a four hour drive from New Haven where King lived during the week in a rented room while working on a construction job.

Connecticut State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance told ABCNews.com that King's vehicle crashed shortly before 9 p.m. on a major highway a few miles from the Massachusetts state line. He's called King's disapperance "one of the weirdest missing person cases we've had in a long time."

King and another man, Joseph Crudup, 35, were headed north on Interstate 91, according to a police report on the crash and King's mysterious disappearance.

Vance would not comment on what Crudup said during questioning, but Casey King said her private investigator also interviewed Crudup who said that King, who was driving, abruptly stopped speaking to him. When Crudup insisted that King turn the car around, King ignored him, Casey King told ABCNews.com.

According to Casey King, Crudup grabbed the wheel in an attempt to pull the car over, causing the car to crash. Casey King said Crudup told her investigator that King had tried to continue driving after the accident, but the truck would no longer run.

Vance said Crudup left the vehicle and was found near the highway's exit ramp leading into Enfield, but King was nowhere to be found. A search that night turned up no clues, but subsequent searches turned up King's wallet and the clothes he was wearing in the wooded area between the highway and local businesses.

Vance said Crudup had and has continued to be intereviewed by police and that's he's cooperating.

Crudup could not be reached for comment. A public records search showed several pages of criminal convictions for a wide range of offenses including third-degree assault and criminal impersonation.

'It's Very Difficult to Hide From Us'

The search for Jody King has included helicopters, cadaver and search dogs and monitoring of surveillance videos from nearby businesses. Police have been in contact with local media, Vance said, but have not gotten any tips.

Casey King said her husband's cell phone was left in the truck and there has been no activity on their bank accounts.

"It's very strange," Vance said. "It's very difficult to hide from us, if you will."

Casey King said her husband has never left for any length of time without someone knowing where he was.

"He's very proud of his children," she said, adding that the two had even begun discussing the possibility of a fourth child.

And while she described her husband as a "normally very happy-go-lucky person," Casey King said she's concerned, just from Crudup's description of events, that her husband may have been suffering from some kind of mental crisis.

"We don't really know what was going on with Jody's head," she said.

Casey King said she has since moved into her parents house with their three children and is struggling financially since the family depended solely on King's income.

She's gone to Enfield every weekend since King disappeared to help with the search and hang up fliers. The family, she said, has also begun sending out fliers and notices to police stations in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Their next target is Texas, where most of King's family lives, just in case.

Casey King said the disappearance has also been very hard for their older children to understand. Her 4-year-old turned to her at the dinner table Wednesday night and said "We don't have a daddy anymore. We just have a mommy."