Lynda Canaday is sure somebody stole her wedding and engagement rings.

“They were soldered together, so instead of two rings there was just one,” she said, lying in a hospital bed that takes up most of the front room in the modest home she shares with her husband, James, in east Lawrence.

“When I didn’t have it on, I always kept it in the same place — and then it wasn’t there,” she said. “We’ve looked everywhere for it. It’s not here; it’s gone. But we did find the holder I kept it on; it was in a drawer clear in the back bedroom. I know I didn’t put it there. It’s gone.”

Stealing someone’s wedding ring is a despicable deed. But in the Canadays’ case the theft was particularly despicable.

Both of the Canadays are blind and disabled.

Lynda, 49, has bad knees and a bad back. She can barely walk. James, 43, can walk, but he has a defective heart.

To get by, the Canadays depend on hired caregivers who come two or three times a day to help with meals and chores.

They suspect one of the caregivers took the ring. A $20 bill is missing, too.

“She was here only a couple times, and then she didn’t come back,” James Canaday said. “That was the same time the rings disappeared.”

The Canadays hire their caregivers through Assist LLC, a small business run by Mitch Drucker.

Drucker fired the caregiver, a 30-year-old woman, as soon as he heard the ring and money were missing.

James and Lynda Canaday believe their former home health worker stole 0 and possibly Mrs. Canaday's wedding ring. The Canadays are both physically disabled, blind and dependent on home health care. The couple, who will soon celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, sat outside their home Wednesday in east Lawrence. The Canadays' guide dogs Silk, left, and MC, right, wait at their feet.

“Oh yeah, she was canned, absolutely,” Drucker said. “The fact that this kind of thing goes on just breaks your heart. It’s disgusting.”

Before hiring the caregiver, Drucker ran her name through the state-run registries for persons convicted of child and elder abuse. The caregiver did not show up on either registry.

Drucker paid for a KBI background check as well. It, too, came back negative.

But when the Journal-World checked Douglas County District Court records, it found the caregiver, then 23, had been charged with felony theft in March 1996.

The stolen item? A diamond ring.

The charge didn’t show up in either the state-run registries or the KBI check because the case was dismissed after the woman completed a diversionary agreement with the District Attorney’s Office.

“Nonconviction data is not included in a background check; it’s not available to the public,” said Kyle Smith, spokesman for the KBI.

“You can get it by going to the courthouse; it’s public record,” he said. “But the decision was made — and the statutes and regulations read — that it’s not included in a background check because sometimes a person is wrongly charged. It’s a civil liberties issue.”

Drucker said that from now on he’ll check the courthouse computer before hiring a caregiver.

“My reputation is that I go above and beyond what I’m required to do,” he said. “So, yeah, I’ll check it.”

Both Drucker and the Canadays called police upon realizing the ring was missing. Police are investigating.

The Canadays do not hold Drucker responsible for the caregiver’s actions.

“He did everything he could do,” Lynda Canaday said, “and other than this, we’re very happy with him and Assist LLC and the service we get.”

Their other caregivers, she said, are “wonderful.”

Mary Transue, adult protection supervisor at the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services office in Lawrence, said she noticed an increase in complaints about caregivers.

“I hate to say this, but as more and more people with disabilities are able to live in the community, there’s going to be an increased dependence on caregivers,” Transue said.

“And while most of these caregivers are very caring, hard-working people with hearts of gold, there are some — just a few, I should say — who lack high character and who have low ethics,” she said. “They’re the ones we try to watch out for.”

The Canadays, whose 10th wedding anniversary is March 5, don’t expect to get the ring back.

“When I realized what had happened, I was crushed,” Lynda Canaday said. “All the memories of our years together flashed before me. I always knew it had sentimental value, but I never knew how much. Now I do.”