By Annmarie Timmins
The Concord Monitor
CONCORD, N.H. — Curtis Pishon, a former Concord police officer, went missing from a Seabrook job site eight years ago to this month. Pishon’s family and the Seabrook police are certain Pishon was murdered - by locals. The police think they know who’s responsible.
But so far, the police haven’t cracked what one detective calls Seabrook’s “code of silence” - a fear or unwillingness among residents that keeps them from talking to the police. Still, the police and Pishon’s family are determined to find Pishon’s remains and the truth about his disappearance.
“There are two killers out there who are walking around people every day,” said Detective Sgt. Michael Gallagher of the Seabrook police. “There are members of the community who can put them away. We need someone to stand up and say, ‘I’m going to do the right thing.’ ”
Late last month the Pishon family members launched the “Bring Curt Home” campaign to renew interest - and hopefully tips -about Pishon’s disappearance. They’ve created a website with information, findcurt.com, and established a tip hotline, 866-97-FIND-CURT. They are offering a $6,000 reward for information that leads to the return of Pishon’s remains.
The family put all that information and more on postcards mailed to homes in Seabrook.
Pishon’s brother, Nicholas Pishon Jr., 48, of Jaffrey, said the family stepped up its publicity efforts to coincide with the eighth anniversary of Pishon’s disappearance, which the family marked on July 5. Nicholas Pishon hopes to find his brother’s remains before his parents, Nicholas and Astrid of Hopkinton, die.
They are in their 70s. “Time is running out,” he said.
His dream job
Curtis Pishon’s story became a sad one even before he disappeared in 2000.
Pishon, who would be 49 tomorrow, started his police career in 1978 as an emergency dispatcher. Pishon would have become a police officer then, his brother said, had he been old enough. He followed dispatching with a stint in the Army, as a military police officer, and eventually came to Concord to join the police force.
“It was his dream job,” Nicholas Pishon said. But he kept it for only 10 years, from 1984 to 1994.
Pishon learned he had multiple sclerosis and was forced to retire early because he was losing strength and dexterity, his brother said. He was 35. According to an Associated Press story written in 2001, Pishon became depressed and had trouble finding another job. He struggled with heavy drinking and lost work because of it, the story said.
In 1998, Pishon found a job as a security guard with a Salem security company. Pishon was assigned as a night guard at Venture Corp., a Seabrook manufacturing plant that no longer exists. He was living at the Hampton Inn, a residential motel on the Seacoast.
It was at that Seabrook job site that Pishon was last seen, the police said.
Burning car
Pishon arrived for work about 9:30 p.m. July 4. A supervisor checked on him about midnight and found him in good spirits, the Associated Press reported in 2001. But by 2 a.m., something had gone wrong. Pishon called the fire department to report that his car was burning.
When the fire department arrived, the car was engulfed in flames. The car was a total loss, and the fire was later ruled an arson by the insurance company, the Associated Press reported. Yet news accounts since have consistently reported that Pishon seemed oddly calm even though many of his favorite personal items were in the car and lost to the flames.
Pishon was last seen again about 3:15 a.m. by several co-workers who said Pishon was on duty, walking around the Seabrook plant. When another colleague reported for work at 3:45 a.m., Pishon was gone, according to news accounts. His cigarettes, lunch and contact lens solution was still in the guard hut, where he’d left it.
He’s not been seen since, his brother said. Since that day, there’s been no activity on Pishon’s bank accounts. Nor has he collected his police pension. Pishon’s family had him declared dead in 2008. Neither they nor the police believe that Pishon, who had at times been depressed by his medical condition, committed suicide.
A safety concern
They believe Pishon stumbled upon or interrupted some illegal activity at the Seabrook plant. Before his disappearance, Pishon had confided to his family that he was concerned for his safety at work and suspected that drug deals were going down in the parking lot at night. He was nervous, his family has said, about being unarmed at work.
Nicholas Pishon put it this way: “There is no doubt in my mind that Curt was murdered that night because he caught somebody or multiple people in the act of doing something wrong. We are not sure they intended to kill Curt, but they did. And we just want to bring him home.”
Gallagher, the Seabrook detective leading the investigation in Pishon’s disappearance, agrees but is not ready to make the specifics of his theory public. “He met with foul play while on the job,” Gallagher said.
The police and the Pishons have received some information and some anonymous tips in the past eight years. They tend to corroborate what they already suspect happened, Gallagher said. He’s glad for the help, but he is waiting for someone with first-hand knowledge to come forward.
Some of the people with that information have died, Gallagher said. Others have denied being involved or knowing details, claims that Gallagher doesn’t believe. He’s not sure the $6,000 reward will turn up the information he needs. But he’s hopeful.
“Curt is in the Seacoast area, I feel that he is here,” Gallagher said. “It would be good to have some hard evidence. We have some information but not as much as we’d like to have.”
Copyright 2008 The Concord Monitor