The Missing Curtis Pishon

The Missing
Curtis Pishon
Seabrook, New Hampshire

🚨🕯️ Vanished During His Shift: The Unsolved Disappearance of Curtis “Curt” Pishon 🕯️🚨

On July 5, 2000, 40-year-old Curtis Edward Pishon, known to loved ones as Curt, disappeared while working an overnight security shift at Venture Corporation in Seabrook, New Hampshire. What began as an ordinary night at work took a disturbing turn when his car suddenly caught fire. Within hours, Curtis was gone, leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions that investigators have struggled to resolve for more than two decades.

Curtis had spent ten years serving as a police officer with the Concord Police Department, fulfilling a lifelong dream. After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he was forced to retire in 1994 when his condition made it difficult for him to perform his duties safely. The diagnosis took a tremendous emotional toll on him, and he struggled to adjust to a life that looked very different from the future he had imagined. Eventually, he found a new opportunity working as a security guard for Reliable Security at Venture Corporation, where he had been employed since 1998.

Despite his personal struggles and ongoing health challenges, Curtis still had things to look forward to. He had spoken about plans to purchase a new vehicle and was looking forward to taking a family vacation that summer. His disappearance would leave those plans unfinished and the people who loved him searching for answers.

On the evening of July 4, Curtis arrived at work around 9:30 p.m. Coworkers reportedly said he seemed to be in good spirits, and his supervisor checked on him around midnight without any apparent problems.

Then, sometime during the early-morning hours of July 5, Curtis’s car caught fire in the factory parking lot. At approximately 2 a.m., he contacted the fire department for help. Responding firefighters extinguished the blaze, but they reportedly found Curtis unusually calm despite the destruction of his vehicle. Many of his personal belongings had been stored inside the car, making his reaction all the more puzzling to those who knew him.

Curtis documented the incident in his work logbook. It would be his final entry.

Around 3:15 a.m., coworkers reportedly saw him walking around the factory building. By approximately 3:45 a.m., he had disappeared from his post. When another employee arrived, Curtis was nowhere to be found. His cigarettes, lighter, packed lunch and contact lens solution remained inside the guard shack, along with other belongings he had left behind.

Curtis had significant difficulty walking because of his multiple sclerosis, making the possibility that he simply wandered away particularly troubling. No clear explanation emerged for how he could have left the property without being noticed, and an extensive search of the area failed to locate him.

As investigators examined the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, they uncovered other suspicious incidents from that same night. Vending machines and a change machine had reportedly been broken into using a forklift, and a padlocked door had been damaged. A witness also reported seeing two unidentified vehicles speeding away from the factory around the time Curtis vanished. Whether those vehicles were connected to his disappearance has never been established.

Before he disappeared, Curtis had reportedly expressed concerns about his safety at work. He told family members that he suspected illegal activity, including possible drug deals, was taking place in the parking lot. He had also expressed concern about certain individuals at the plant and reportedly felt uneasy about working without backup if something went wrong.

These details led investigators to consider whether Curtis might have witnessed something that placed him in danger. One theory is that the car fire may have been deliberately started to distract him while other activity was taking place at the factory. However, the precise cause of the fire and its connection, if any, to his disappearance remain unresolved.

Suicide was considered early in the investigation, particularly because Curtis had struggled emotionally following his medical retirement. However, the handgun he had recently repurchased from his father was later found inside his room at the Hampton Inn, still wrapped in the original brown paper bag. His family also pointed to his plans for the future and the personal belongings he left behind as reasons they questioned the possibility that he had voluntarily disappeared.

Investigators increasingly came to believe that foul play was involved.

In 2005, an anonymous tip directed attention toward employees who had been working at the factory that night. Robert E. April, a former coworker, subsequently became a person of interest in the case. In 2008, April was arrested in an unrelated matter involving alleged threats against another person. According to reports about that incident, he allegedly claimed to have killed Curtis and buried his body. These were allegations, not a conviction or proof of involvement in Curtis’s disappearance.

In 2010, authorities searched a property in Seabrook after receiving information that Curtis’s remains might be buried there. The search produced no evidence locating him. April has not been charged in connection with Curtis’s disappearance, and no one has been convicted in the case.

The years have passed without the discovery of Curtis’s remains or a definitive explanation of what happened during those critical minutes in July 2000. His bank accounts, credit cards and Social Security records have shown no reported activity since he vanished, and he has never collected his pension checks.

In 2008, Curtis’s family had him declared legally dead, but that legal designation did not answer the questions surrounding his fate. His loved ones have continued to seek information, and a $10,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the recovery of his remains and the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for his death.

Curtis was more than a former police officer who disappeared during a night shift. He was a son, a brother and a man whose life had already been changed by a devastating diagnosis. His disappearance took away the chance for his family to learn what happened to him, lay him to rest and finally find some peace.

More than 26 years later, the mystery of what happened to Curtis “Curt” Pishon remains unsolved. Someone may know what happened inside or around Venture Corporation that night. Someone may remember a conversation, a suspicious vehicle or a detail that once seemed insignificant but could now help investigators piece together the truth.

🕊️ If you have information about the disappearance of Curtis Pishon, please contact the Seabrook Police Department at 603-474-5200 or the New Hampshire State Police. Information can also be provided to the New Hampshire State Police Missing Persons Unit at missingpersons@dos.nh.gov.

Curtis’s family deserves answers. After all these years, even the smallest piece of information could make a difference in bringing them closer to the truth. 🧡

Sources:
Pishon, Curtis | Homeland Security and Emergency Management
Curtis Pishon | Unsolved Mysteries Wiki | Fandom
The Disappearance of Curtis Pishon
Curtis Pishon Vanished Without a Trace — Murder, She Told: Maine & New England True Crime
Curtis Pishon – The Charley Project