09/03/2026
It’s been nearly four months since Jacqueline McCarey was last seen around Depot Street in Pittsfield.
The 43-year-old woman was reported missing on Thursday, but no one has heard from her since May 11, according to the Pittsfield Police Department.
She had been staying with a friend on Depot Street for months prior to that, according to her older sister, Kathleen “Katie” McCarey, who also lives in Pittsfield.
Katie last saw her sister at a family game night in January and didn’t hear from her for a while. But that wasn’t out of the ordinary at first, especially since Jacqueline didn’t have a cellphone for some time and has switched between different wifi-reliant texting apps. Katie said she messaged her sister a couple times throughout the spring but didn’t want to be “overbearing.”
Her concern continued to grow. She said she messaged the friend on Depot Street multiple times with no response. Finally, she knocked on the door of the friend’s house.
“She said that she left her a note and left her house and told her that she was coming to my house to ask me to bring her to the hospital,” said Katie. “I never saw her. She never came to my house. It felt like a very strange situation, so I went to the police station.”
According to police, McCarey is 4’8“ tall, weighs around 110 pounds and has hazel eyes and brown hair.
Her sister said she moves with a walker that has a seat attached to it or sometimes uses a cane with feet at the bottom. Jacqueline has a prosthetic leg with no knee, she said, so she has “a distinct gait.” She was born with a disability and has navigated mobility challenges her whole life.
Police Chief Joseph Collins said the department is worried about her health and well-being. He said the situation definitely falls in the category of “suspicious.”
“The concern is that she doesn’t really have a means of traveling anywhere, and she’s disabled so she can’t walk long distances and she doesn’t have a vehicle,” he said.
The police could find no trace of the note mentioned by the friend Jacqueline was staying with.
“She supposedly left a note, but we haven’t seen it,” he said. “The people she was living with said there was a note, but it hasn’t been produced.”
Jacqueline grew up in Massachusetts and moved to Pittsfield around a decade and a half ago to live with a cousin. She’s moved residences several times, living independently and then with multiple friends
