Robert Hoagland

Robert Hoagland and his wife Lori, a culinary arts teacher at Newtown High School, lived on Glen Road in the Sandy Hook neighborhood of Newtown, Connecticut,[8] where they had raised their three sons to young adulthood. The couple had at one point separated for two years, but later reconciled. Lori stated they had begun planning their retirements.[9]

Robert and Lori's 24-year-old son, Max Hoagland,[9] had a history of problems with drug addiction and had been in rehab earlier in 2013. Robert left his restaurant job for a position in a friend's law firm to better help his son with his recovery; he also worked as a real estate appraiser.[10] Robert and Lori had talked about going on a hiking trip with Max on the Appalachian Trail that summer[11] as part of that effort.[5] In July, Lori went on a two-week trip to Turkey with some friends; she and Robert regularly exchanged email messages while she was away.[8]

In the week before Lori's return, two of the family's laptop computers were stolen. Robert came to believe that Max had taken them to either sell or exchange in order to obtain drugs, and sent an email to Lori apologizing for having let it happen.[6] Investigators later learned that Robert had traveled to an abandoned industrial building in Bridgeport to confront some men they described as Max's "associates" over the theft, which Max had said they were responsible for.[5] On July 25, $600 was withdrawn from one of the family's bank accounts.[11]

Robert and Lori spoke briefly by phone on the evening of July 27, confirming his plan to pick her up upon her return from Turkey at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City two days later. Early the next morning, he went out in his wife's Volkswagen Golf to buy bagels for breakfast at a local bakery, then stopped at a Mobil station on Church Hill Road (U.S. Route 6 and Connecticut Route 34) near Interstate 84 to get gas. Security cameras inside recorded him paying for the fuel and also buying a map of the eastern United States at 6:45 a.m. It would be his last documented public sighting as Robert Hoagland.[9]

Upon Robert's return home, he and Max had breakfast. After the meal, Max said later, his father paid some bills and played Scrabble online for a while. Around 10 or 11 a.m., Robert went out to mow the lawn. While he was doing so, Max went out in the Volkswagen, telling his father he expected to be back a few hours later. A neighbor also told police he saw the two talking on the lawn.[8]

The next day, Robert was not at the airport when Lori arrived around 4 p.m. She tried calling both their home and his cell phone, but got no answer at either. She assumed that he was in traffic on his way there and his phone's battery was dead. "This happens with him frequently," she later said.[12]

Lori did not initially return to Newtown, instead going to a relative's home nearby. She learned from another phone call, to Robert's boss's wife, that he had not shown up for work that morning.[13] When Lori finally arrived home on July 30, Robert was not in the house. Instead she found his phone, keys, passport and prescription high blood pressure medications,[5] as well as his dirty clothes in the laundry.[11] The mower Robert had been using had been returned to its usual storage location, and the loafers he had been wearing when he went on his morning shopping trip – his preferred summertime footwear – were also in the house, as was his other pair.[13] His Mini Cooper was still parked in the driveway.[8]

With the Volkswagen still absent, Lori presumed her husband might have had some other reason to leave for a short term. But then she heard from police in Bridgeport that they had arrested Max the night before, near the same building where his father had gone a few days before to confront the men Max had told him took the laptops, a location known to the police for drug sales and prostitution. Since the area is clearly posted, Max was charged with third-degree criminal trespass, a misdemeanor.[8]

Max told police he had gone there in the Volkswagen to buy drugs, and that he had his mother's permission to use it. She told the Bridgeport police that he did not, and they held him on $2,500 bond. However, Max did not know where Robert might have gone.[8]

The Hoagland family informed the National Park Service that Robert might have gone on his own to hike the Appalachian Trail. Along with friends of the family, the Park Service printed and distributed flyers with Hoagland's picture, and worked to bring media attention to the case.[12] The Newtown police looked into the case as well, and soon learned of the events before Robert's disappearance such as the confrontation in Bridgeport and the cash withdrawal.[11] A week after his disappearance, Robert's personal information was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database.[2]

About August 6, Lori found Robert's wallet and car keys hidden under a doll on a chair in their bedroom. She said later that this led her to change her original theory that her husband had left voluntarily to include the possibility that he might have been abducted.[13] Around that time, Max pled guilty to the trespassing charge and was released from jail. Police questioned the two men he said had stolen the laptops, but could not establish any link to Robert's disappearance. Max also denied any knowledge of his father's whereabouts.[8] Lori later said his arrest was unconnected to the disappearance.[14]

Police also searched Robert's work computer, where he was found to have searched several times on an address in Rhode Island; no connection was found to his disappearance when it was investigated. A similar search on his home computer was frustrated due to a program, which he had apparently downloaded and installed a month before his disappearance, that allowed the user to delete all records of searches and results.[5]

In the fall, Lori and volunteers searched wooded areas in and around Sandy Hook; police brought in search dogs as well. The Newtown police used sonar to search Lake Zoar along the Housatonic River on the edge of town in September. None of these efforts turned up any trace of Robert. Lori said these searches were about "eliminating possibilities."[14] The next month, Chris Hoagland, the couple's eldest son, left his job in the tourism industry in Hilton Head, South Carolina, to take over his father's responsibilities around the house.[13]

In September 2013, the Hoagland family began the court process necessary to appoint a trustee to represent Robert's interests, although they hoped it would not be necessary.[10]

Later in 2013, Hoagland, using the name "Richard King", began working on a contract basis as a property appraiser for a small firm in the Town of Wallkill, New York, outside Middletown. By the end of the year, he had found housing through Craigslist. He moved into a rented home in Rock Hill, New York, roughly a hundred miles (160 km) west of Newtown, with a local high school music teacher and musician named David.[17]

David, who had recently moved out of his home following a divorce, told the Albany Times-Union that "Rich" had at the time he moved in told him that he, too, had just separated from his wife and was new to the area. Asked for identification, he had none. "I asked him, and he said that he had left it behind ... He said he left everything behind ... He said he was divorced, his children were adults, and he just was looking to start a new life."[17]

Hoagland brought a few possessions with him: some clothing, accessories and a small bed. He drove a car that his employer loaned to him. Since David's lease barred him from subletting to anyone, Hoagland did not have to be added to it, negating the need for a background check; the landlord never learned Hoagland had lived there until after the two moved out. Hoagland paid his share of the rent, and later the utilities, in cash. David later put him on his cellphone plan.[17]

The two remained roommates even after David bought his own house nearby in 2020. They exchanged Christmas gifts and developed a routine of eating Sunday dinner, which Hoagland usually cooked, and watching sports, particularly football, together. David says Hoagland told him a few details about his former life in Connecticut, including that one of his sons had struggled with drug addiction.[17]

Outside of home and work, Hoagland often volunteered at a soup kitchen in nearby Monticello. He would frequently be there to cook on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. "[He] knew his way around a kitchen," recalled the head cook.[17]

In mid-2022, David says Hoagland went to see a doctor, who advised him to change his diet. Hoagland began cooking seafood and grilled vegetables for Sunday dinner instead of the steaks and barbecued ribs they had customarily enjoyed. David noticed that Hoagland was "slowing down" as his health seemed to be declining. Late in the year, Hoagland told him he would soon be receiving some mail under another name. David did not inquire as to why, out of respect for his roommate's privacy, but he believed Hoagland was trying to address his neglected health as he was not sure Hoagland had insurance.[17]

On December 4, David returned home after a weekend performing with his band in New York City. He saw the car Hoagland drove, which had uncharacteristically been present in the driveway when he left the day before, a Saturday when Hoagland usually left for work early, was still there that evening. He reviewed security-camera footage that showed Hoagland had been holding his back as he entered the house the night of December 3. After Hoagland did not come out of his room to make Sunday dinner or go to work the next morning, David grew concerned.[17]

At David's request, a friend stopped by the house during the day to check, but no one answered the door. Texts he sent his roommate were not answered. Finally, after work, he went into Hoagland's room and found him unresponsive and not breathing. David attempted CPR, but to no avail.[17] Police who responded to David's 9-1-1 calls had difficulty ascertaining the dead man's identity, since he had nothing with "Richard King" on it. They found some of the letters Hoagland had advised David he would be receiving, with Hoagland's name on them. Sullivan County officials worked in conjunction with Newtown police to confirm that identity.[7][18]

Robert Hoagland was 59 years old. In an interview, David said: "I just want people to know there was nothing strange about his life... Other than the fact that he was able to disappear for nine years."[17]

• List of solved missing person cases

• Help Us Find Hoagy on Facebook, page set up by family