As a police search for a missing local man moved through its fifth week, the man’s wife said his disappearance presents a situation that is “very scary, tricky, bad, mysterious.”

Lori Hoagland of Glen Road in Sandy Hook said this week that she and others are “perplexed” by her husband Robert “Hoagy” Hoagland’s disappearance. Mr Hoagland, 50, was last seen on Sunday, July 28, at his home.

Mr Hoagland is a real estate appraiser, who is self-employed and also works for an attorney in Bridgeport.

Newtown police have provided only basic information on Mr Hoagland in publicizing his disappearance and in seeking information from the public on his possible whereabouts.

Mr Hoagland was last publicly seen inside the convenience store at the Mobil gas station at 62 Church Hill Road at about 6:45 am on Sunday, July 28.

Mr Hoagland is white, 6 feet tall, and weighs 175 pounds. He is bald and has blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and khaki shorts.

Earlier this month Police Chief Michael Kehoe said, “We’re looking at all angles…We’re covering all investigative angles on this.”

Mrs Hoagland, who is a culinary arts instructor at Newtown High School, said that she has had much support from friends as she finds herself in the distressing situation of simply not knowing her husband’s whereabouts.

“People have gone out of their way to help,” she said.

“A lot of people are working on my behalf,” she added, stressing the need to publicize her husband’s disappearance in the hope that he be located.

Of the police’s efforts to locate Mr Hoagland, she said, “I think they’re as perplexed as we are … We want to find him.”

No one really foresaw her husband’s sudden disappearance, she said, adding, “Where he was in his life, there was no reason for it.”

“There’s only so many possibilities … We’re working on eliminating possibilities,” she said.

The various investigatory leads that police have pursued have turned into dead ends, Mrs Hoagland said.

Mrs Hoagland said that she and her friends are planning to distribute handbills bearing her husband’s likeness, plus identifying information, at the heavily attended Labor Day Parade on Monday, September 2, in the hope that someone can provide police with information on his whereabouts.

Those who want to find Mr Hoagland have created a Facebook page on the Internet, www.facebook.com/HelpUsFindHoagie?fref=ts. There is also a Twitter feed at HelpUsFindHoagie.

Mrs Hoagland's Statement

In a statement, Mrs Hoagland wrote that on Monday, July 29, she returned from a 17-day trip abroad.

She had expected that her husband would meet her at Kennedy Airport in New York City, but he did not show up there, as they had planned. Although she texted and phoned him, she could not reach him.

Through a friend she learned that her husband had not shown up for work in Bridgeport that day.

Also, Mrs Hoagland had a friend check her Sandy Hook home and her husband was not there.

From New York City, Mrs Hoagland called Newtown police to tell them that her husband was missing.

Based on what she has learned, Ms Hoagland estimates that her husband disappeared from their property either the late morning or early afternoon on July 28, after having mowed the lawn and having had breakfast with their son, Max, 23. After breakfast, Max told his father that he was going out for a few hours and then left the house.   

Mrs Hoagland noted that her husband left his home without his auto, cellphone, wallet, passport, and medication, and apparently without any shoes or packed clothing.

A $600 cash withdrawal that her husband made at a local bank several days before his disappearance remains unaccounted for, Mrs Hoagland said.

Mrs Hoagland said in seeking advice on finding her husband, she has spoken with people involved in the ongoing search for William “Billy” Smolinski, Jr, a 31-year-old man who went missing from Waterbury in August 2004, and has not been found.

Newtown police said that anyone with knowledge of Mr Hoagland’s whereabouts should contact their detective unit at the Newtown Police Department at 3 Main Street, telephone 203-426-5841.

People outside the Newtown area who have information on Mr Hoagland’s whereabouts should contact the law enforcement agencies in their respective areas.