Police: Missing Newtown man found dead in N.Y.
Robert Hoagland found to have lived under new name since disappearing in 2013
NEWTOWN — A man who disappeared from Newtown more than nine years ago was found dead Monday in upstate New York after living under a new name, police said.
Robert Hoagland was found dead in a home in Rock Hill, N.Y., Newtown police said Wednesday. Members of the Sullivan County Sheriff ’s Office said he had paperwork with the name Robert Hoagland on it.
“The detectives learned that Robert Hoagland had been living in Sullivan County since around November 2013 and was using the name, Richard King,”
Newtown Police Detective Lt. Liam Seabrook said.
There were no signs of foul play.
Hoagland’s mysterious disappearance gained national attention. The case was featured in Investigation Discovery’s “Disappeared: A Family Man.”
Newtown police first learned of his disappearance on July 29, 2013, when they were asked to check on him. Hoagland had failed to pick up his wife and mother of his children at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
He left his medication, wallet and cellphone at home, police said.
Police determined he was last seen on July 28, 2013 at a gas station at 11 Church Road in Newtown. They released surveillance camera stills of him smiling in the store.
A month later, police said there was no indication that he had used a credit card since that day.
Tips about possible sight
ings have come in from across the country, including one that he was spotted in Rhode Island, which could not be verified, and that he was seen leaving a Brookfield business in a car with New York plates, police said.
Police investigated the tips but couldn’t find him.
“He could literally be anywhere,” a police lieutenant working on the missing persons case said six months after he disappeared.
Seabrook said Wednesday that the Newtown Police Department sends its condolences to Hoagland’s family and friends. Hoagland left behind a wife and three sons in their 20s.
“The family requests that their privacy be respected during this difficult time,” he said Wednesday. “The police department does not plan to release any further information as there was no criminal aspect to Robert Hoagland’s disappearance.”