Curtis Pishon Vanished Without a Trace

Curtis Pishon was a military brat

For as long as he could remember, Curtis Pishon wanted to be a police officer. He grew up in a military family, and he and his three siblings moved around a lot—according to their father, Nicholas Pishon, Sr., 26 times in 20 years: from overseas countries like Germany to a dozen states in the U.S… Texas to New Jersey... Michigan to Louisiana. And Curtis grew up wanting to follow in his footsteps as an investigator.

In the mid 1970’s, as the three boys were wrapping up highschool, Nicholas Sr. retired from the military and moved from Hawaii back to his childhood home of New Hampshire. Curtis, the middle brother, who had just graduated, decided to stay for college at the University of Hawaii.

Leaving college to pursue his dream

After his first semester, Curtis realized that college wasn’t a good fit for him. Curtis told his father that he “majored in television watching”. With nothing keeping him in Hawaii, he moved back to the east coast to be with his family in Hopkinton, NH. His father thought that he was too young to join the police academy, so in 1978 he took a job as an emergency dispatcher, a job that his dad helped line up for him. It gave him a taste for police work and some good work experience, and it only stoked his ambition to be a cop.

In 1984, when Curtis was 25, he finished his military tour, and moved home to New Hampshire. And because of his military experience (and his good performance on the entrance exam) he had no trouble getting accepted to the Concord Police Academy. After graduation, he was hired as a patrol officer by the Concord police department, realizing his lifelong dream of becoming a cop.

Curtis’ dream is taken away

In 1990, after 6 great years on the force, Curtis was given some devastating news. He was having some vision trouble—bouts of double vision—and after a series of doctor’s appointments, each one more worrisome than the last, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a painful autoimmune disease where your body mysteriously attacks its own nervous system, dissolving the protective coating around your nerves.

Despite the diagnosis, he remained positive and continued working for the Concord PD. As the disease progressed, however, Curtis couldn’t hide it anymore. Sadly, in 1994, at age 35, after 10 successful years on the force, he could no longer fire his gun accurately, and was forced to give up his life-long dream. Curtis turned in his badge and was medically retired.

Struggle with depression and alcohol

Curtis had a hard time finding another job and had a bout of unemployment. The force had given him a couple of years of full salary and benefits, and he wasn’t too motivated to find new work. The jobs he did manage to get didn’t give him much fulfillment, and he fell into a deep depression. He drank a lot and kept to himself, spending most of his free time at his 2 story walk-up apartment, the “Highland Inn,” in the small beach town of Hampton, NH. He was no longer able to enjoy some of the activities he used to love like baseball and basketball.

Curtis started to come to terms with his disability, and was trying to beat his drinking problem, but not before the habit impacted his life in a significant way: he was fired from one of his jobs for showing up to his shift with alcohol on his breath.

A new start…

In December of 1998, 4 years after his medical retirement, Curtis got a job with a private security company, Reliable Security Guard Agency, and they assigned him to night guard duty at the now defunct Venture Corp, which had a plant in Seabrook, NH that manufactured plastic parts for the big Midwest automobile manufacturers.

Working as a security guard, Curtis was using some of the skills that he had developed in his career with the police, and the reduced physical requirements made it a pretty good fit.

An unexplained fire

On the night of Tue, July 4th, 2000, Curtis arrived for work around 9:30 pm, parked his car, an early 90’s-model green Mercury Topaz, in his usual spot close to his booth and took his position. But by 2:00am, this quiet holiday night was disrupted. Curtis made a phone call to the Seabrook Fire Dept to report that his car was engulfed in flames, burning just 8 feet from the booth. And it was filled with many of his most valued personal possessions.

How it started is anyone’s guess. It’s possible that he dropped a cigarette in his car by accident and its smoldering eventually stoked into a blaze. It’s possible that someone else started the fire, perhaps while he was on patrol. The family said that the fire department used a scent dog to determine that there were no accelerants present.

Curtis’ mysterious disappearance

After the fire department left, Curtis made an entry in the log book regarding the incident at 2:00AM. An hour or so later, around 3:15AM, a security supervisor spoke with Curtis over the phone about the fire, and reported that he seemed relatively normal—nothing noteworthy about his behavior. Coworkers also noticed Curtis walking around the building shortly after, something he didn’t do often as walking long distances often caused pain from his MS.

At 3:45AM, one of his colleagues showed up to the guard booth to start their shift, and they found it empty. Curtis was nowhere to be found.

That leaves a window of time of just 30 minutes where Curtis was unaccounted for.

Suicide considered

Almost immediately police suspected suicide. Frankly, the family suspected suicide initially as well. The fact that Curt had retrieved his handgun haunted their thoughts. It seemed plausible that somebody suffering from depression and substance abuse who was struggling to find their way after a drastic life change would choose to end their life.

Shortly after his disappearance, his family was invited by the Seabrook PD to join them for a walkthrough of his home, the Highland Inn. They eagerly accepted, hoping to find some clues. His mother, Astrid, found the fridge stocked with food. Underneath weeks of clutter, the family discovered something that completely dispelled the idea that Curt had died by suicide…

Foul play suspected

"A couple things happened that night," Chief Michael Gallagher said. "One was that the car was caught on fire. No. 2, which we discovered later, was that there were vending machines and a change machine that was broken into using a forklift that was on the property."

Police believed that there was a strong possibility that Curtis’s car could have been set on fire to create a diversion, while the forklifts were being used to attempt to break into the vending machines.

Police also believed it was possible that Curtis could have come across illegal activity on the Venture premises which may have factored into his disappearance. In the weeks leading up to this night, he had told his brother, Nicholas, about what he suspected was happening at Venture. Nicholas theorized, “He did mention that he thought there were drug deals going on down in the parking lot. He probably saw something that night, the person knew it and knocked him out, put him in the truck and dropped him off somewhere.”

One name keeps emerging

One of the people who had worked there that evening was a man by the name of Robert E. April. In 2005, Robert April was named as a public person of interest. Gallagher said there was also a second person of interest, but that name has never been released.

According to an arrest affidavit filed by Seabrook Police, the boy claimed that he was cornered by April and asked about the money that his brother allegedly owed him. When the 17-year-old Horvitz didn’t have an answer, April grabbed him and threatened him, saying "(When) I see your brother, boy, I'm gonna slice his throat and nobody will find his body, just like the missing person from Seabrook. Yeah, that’s right. I killed him, and your brother is next, and nobody will find him. I buried him in my yard and your brother’s next.”

Chief Gallagher said that he has spoken with Robert April over the years about Curtis, and that he hasn’t provided any relevant information about the case. When asked to take a polygraph test, April refused.

Family’s search for answers, $10,000 reward

In 2008 the Pishon family launched the “Find Curt” campaign, offering a $5k reward and opening up a tip line for information. Tips came flooding in, a lot of which were remarkably similar and darkly detailed. Informants didn’t hold back names, and the names that kept popping up were consistent with other tipsters and with what police already had.

As of right now, most of the information police have comes through third party accounts, and without anything more substantial, police are unable to get search warrants to bring formal charges against the people they believe are responsible, and Curtis’s killers continue to walk free.

The reward for information leading to discovery or a conviction has grown over the years, thanks to contributions from organizations like The National Association of Private Officers, and it now sits at $10k, but despite publicity, like a segment on Unsolved Mysteries shortly after his disappearance, Curtis’s case still remains unsolved.

Tune in on your favorite podcast platform to Murder, She Told to listen to more of Curtis’s story.

Special thanks to the Pishon family—Nicholas Sr., Astrid, Nicholas Jr., and Crystle—for sharing their personal stories with me for this episode.

If you’re holding onto any information or think you might know something about the disappearance and murder of Curtis Pishon or where his remains can be found, I urge you to SUBMIT A TIP to the Seabrook, NH police department.

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Venture Corp manufacturing facility in Seabrook, NH (where Curtis was stationed)

Highland Inn, where Curtis Pishon lived (9 Highland Ave, Hampton, NH)

Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from Associated Press News Service, Burlington Free Press, Concord Monitor, Hampton Union, Portsmouth Hampton Union, Portsmouth Herald, The Providence Journal, and The Union Leader, here.

Online written sources

Seacoast Online

Owner blamed for plant closing - May 14th, 2004 by Susan Morse

Burglary, threatening charges dropped after witness doesn’t show - June 29th, 2012, by Patrick Cronin

Curtis Pishon’s family seeks answers 15 years after death - July 9th, 2015, by Max Sullivan

The Daily News of Newburyport by Angeljean Chiaramida

Tips pour in on missing guard case - December 5th, 2008

The search goes on for Pishon - July 10th, 2009

Decade goes by in Pishon mystery - July 2nd, 2010

15 years later, Pishon family still hopeful case will be solved July 3rd, 2015

Additional Sources

FindCurt.com - Curtis Pishon family website