CANON CITY -- Friends and family of a former Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent who has been missing since 2004 are still plagued by unanswered questions.

Eugene "Gene" Francis Fish was 54 when he reportedly left his rural Fremont County residence on June 21, 2004. The former Nuclear Regulatory Commission special agent and U.S. Air Force veteran was living with his wife, Lynn, on a 35-acre homesite in the South Bar T Ranch gated community in the Tallahassee area, off Colorado 9 west of Canon City.

At the time, Lynn Fish told Fremont County Sheriff's Office detectives that Fish -- who was unhappy with his life -- had gathered an estimated $10,000 to $25,000 in cash and was leaving to start over, possibly in South America. She reported he left in his truck. However, the truck turned up three days later -- parked at the end of the driveway.

Lynn Fish did not report him missing. It wasn't until a friend and family members reported him missing on Sept. 3, 2004, that Fremont County Sheriff officials began looking into the case.

An investigation at the time revealed Fish had not accessed his bank accounts, retirement fund or used his cellphone service, a detective told The Pueblo Chieftain.

Family members said they believed Fish had become a victim of foul play because he was very religious about making weekly phone calls to his parents in New York.

"I still have some questions because of some of that stuff found later in the locker," said Frank Hernigle of Fultonville, N.Y., Fish's cousin, referring to the evidence from a cold-case homicide found in a storage unit that once belonged to former Fremont County Sheriff Det. Lt. Robert Dodd. "CBI agents told me that stuff didn't fit the time frame -- it was from 2006 -- but (reported) evidence found later at the landfill did go back to 2003."

The landfill items -- discovered in May when they arrived at the dump for disposal in a roll-off dumpster that had been placed at Dodd's former home -- included sheriff's office reports as old as 2003. That discovery piqued Hernigle's interest because he recognized Dodd's name as being one of the investigators who had worked his cousin's case.

Former NCIS co-worker Fred Kroll recalls getting a call from Fish shortly after he retired from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Magna, Utah. Fish's job was to be a point of contact for the Soviets when they came to the U.S. for inspections as part of SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty functions between the U.S. and Russia.

"He told me he was moving to Colorado and had bought a place off of Highway 9 and he was real excited about retiring to Colorado. He did tell me things were not going well with his wife at that time," Kroll said.

"We talked about getting together," Kroll said, but that didn't happen.

When he learned of his former co-worker's disappearance, Kroll was told that Dodd had a theory that Fish could have been killed or kidnapped by agents with the KGB, the infamous Russian special police unit.

"I reached out to Dodd once or twice because what Gene was doing had nothing to do with covert operations. He (Dodd) never returned my call," Kroll said.

Hernigle, who wanted to cover all the bases, said he "bought radar imagery from up there and found new disturbances on the (Fish) property that could have been viable places to look" for a body, but authorities were unable to open the files at the time and were unable to search the property after Lynn Fish retained an attorney to protect her rights.

Fremont County Sheriff's Office Det. Dale King, who today works the case, said investigators have since been able to look at the radar imagery Hernigle provided. Lynn Fish has since sold the property and moved away.

"I am still actively working on this, and I remain in contact with Gene's family," King said.

Fish's parents, the late William and Agnes Fish of Fultonville, N.Y., filed a civil lawsuit in 2007 claiming their daughter-in-law, Lynn Fish, killed her husband. According to current Fremont County Clerk of the Court Mandy Allen, the Fishes later filed a motion to dismiss the case in January 2008, and the judge granted the motion. No reason was stated for the action.

"I want the people responsible held responsible for it. I always hold out hope we'll find an answer," Hernigle said.

Anyone with information about the case can call King at 719-276-5553.

tharmon@chieftain.com