ADDISON, Texas -- When Donald Sims walked out of his home with his wife last May, he was just planning on saying good-bye to his stepdaughter and her husband.
Instead, Sims said, he was bound with duct tape, driven hundreds of miles and admitted against his will to a Veterans Administration hospital in Pennsylvania by his own family. Now, at age 71, the Korean War veteran is living alone in a two-bedroom apartment, virtually penniless."I'm so bewildered," he said, wringing his hands. "To me it seems nutty, a form of insanity. Why didn't they just kill me and dump me in a ravine?"
Last month, Sims' son-in-law, Melvin Turner, was indicted in Pennsylvania on charges of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
The indictment also names two unidentified co-conspirators who also may face charges, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Goldberg. Sims' wife of 40 years -- Diana -- and her daughter, Sharon Turner, have not been charged.
Diana Sims' lawyer disputes Sims' version of events, saying he agreed to treatment.
Sims said his life fell apart May 19 when he and his wife walked out of their suburban Dallas home to see the Turners off to Fleetwood, Pa., where they were returning after a short visit.
Sims said the younger man ended a handshake by grabbing his forearm and twisting him to the ground. Then the Turners and Diana Sims allegedly bound him with duct tape and rope and forced him into the Turners' van.
He found himself weak and unable to think clearly. The indictment alleges that one of the participants had slipped a sedative into Sims' drink a day earlier. Sims said the Turners drove to Pennsylvania, giving him more sedatives along the way.
In a daze, Sims was admitted to the VA Hospital in Coatesville, about 35 miles south of Fleetwood. The indictment says one of Sims' abductors told a doctor he wanted to be admitted -- and so he was.
"They checked me into a ward there," Sims said. "I told them I didn't know what I was doing there. The next day they gave me all kinds of tests."
But hospital staff told the family that Sims was not ill and couldn't be held there. The trio allegedly said Sims could not return to his home in Texas and was not welcome at Turners' home in Fleetwood.
With no money and only a paper bag of clothes, Sims contacted the FBI. With the help of hospital workers, he managed to get enough money from Social Security to fly to Dallas.
By the time he returned in June, he said, his wife had transferred the interest in their home and the title to his car to her name and drained a $20,000 bank account.
Diana Sims' attorney, Jim Johnston, said family members were acting in Sims' best interests because he is an alcoholic. He said Sims went willingly.
"It was only when he got to the hospital that he started claiming he was there against his will," Johnston said. "Any action that family members took was taken on his behalf."
He also said Diana Sims was within her rights to take their assets, "She never took any money from him that wasn't hers."