A San Francisco radio host who has been missing for a week is not coming back, according to his wife.
Jeffrey Vandergrift, a host on KYLD-FM, which markets itself as WiLD 94.9 FM, was reported missing on Feb. 23, according to KTVU.
Early Thursday, his wife, Natasha Yi, released an update on her husband, known on his show as JV, that was posted on the radio station’s website,
“Thank you to our friends and the entire iHeartRadio family and listeners for your love, support and prayers. I can feel your love and energy for JV, and I am so grateful for it. The amount of compassion for the physical torture JV has been going through for the past 2 years has been overwhelming,” she said.
The station noted that her husband has been battling Lyme Disease.
A message directly from Natasha, about JV: https://t.co/CUb6TIvaGt pic.twitter.com/ze51NBlZrR
— WiLD 94.9 (@Wild949) March 2, 2023
“I have been in so much pain and fear and I know all of you have been so scared and concerned for JV as well. JV and I have always considered this community part of our family, so I want to let you know that personal information has recently been discovered that leads us to believe JV will not be coming back. I tell you this with incredible pain and sadness in my heart,” she wrote.
“At this time, JV officially remains missing according to the SFPD, but no foul play is suspected in his disappearance,” she wrote.
She said the San Francisco police, who she praised for their efforts since her husband went missing, “have asked us to keep the details to immediate family only.”
“Please forgive my silence during this time – my heart is utterly broken, and the pain feels unbearable. I will do my best to provide updates and I ask for you to please keep JV in your thoughts and prayers,” she wrote.
Last week, Vandergrift made on-air allusions to health problems, according to the Daily Mail.
“The body and the pain and all that stuff, I can handle. What it’s doing to my brain I could never describe to you,” he said then.
“The stuff I’ve been going through in my brain that they’re trying to figure out. Ugh.”
Last year, Vandergrift posted about his struggle with Lyme Disease in a series of posts on the radio station’s website.
This is just tragic. @abc7newsbayarea reported he suffered from debilitating #LymeDisease. https://t.co/DninvwnRAV
— SueHallTraffic (@SueHallTraffic) March 2, 2023
“I started to get strange surges in my head,” he wrote as he outlined the beginning of his struggle in March 2021. “Not a ‘brain zap’ that some people experience when discontinuing medications, this was different. Every hour or so I would get a surge of energy in the center of my brain. I began to get pretty bad brain fog. I found myself having trouble keeping up with conversations we were having on the JV Show. I also was seeing black splotches throughout the day,” he wrote.
The posts noted that after his symptoms grew worse, he was eventually diagnosed with Lyme Disease, an illness spread by tick bites, in November 2021.
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