Missing Newtown Man Spotted in Midwest

A parking ticket led police in the Midwest to a nearby hotel where a clerk identified a missing Newtown man as having been a guest at the establishment for four days, Newtown police said Monday.

 on March 21, remains missing although authorities now know he appeared to have left the area willingly and made his way to the Midwest shortly afterward, said Police Chief Michael Kehoe, who declined to identify the area where Fitzgibbons’ Jeep was located.

“It seems to be that he was there of his own free will,” Kehoe said of Fitzgibbons. “We don’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing.”

Police, working in conjunction with police in the Midwest, are now looking to make contact with Fitzgibbons to verify his health and safety, Kehoe said, adding authorities have a “hypothesis” on why Fitzgibbons may have been there, although he declined to identify what that hypothesis was.

“We need to talk to him,” Kehoe said. “At least we have a sighting.”

Fitzgibbons, who operates a home-based consulting firm bearing his name and whom police said also worked as a day trader, after he failed to return from running an errand. He was last seen buying cream for his elbow at the Big Y supermarket on Queen Street in Newtown.

Fitzgibbons, who had left his cell phone at home, reportedly called his wife from the service phone to tell her he was running late due to car problems, saying the Jeep was making a “funny noise,” his wife said.

Police aren’t sure exactly where he went from the Big Y, but last week, police hundreds of miles away discovered that a Jeep that had been issued a parking ticket was registered to Fitzgibbons and Newtown police were looking for him, Kehoe said.

Based on where the parking ticket was issued, police in that jurisdiction went to a nearby hotel where they talked to a clerk who identified Fitzgibbons as a guest who had stayed there for four days before leaving, Kehoe said. A check of the room revealed no items that were left behind from the stay, police said.

Fitzgibbons had used his own name to register for a room at the hotel, but likely paid for it using cash because police had been monitoring his financial transactions and had not seen the activity, Kehoe said.

Newtown police received news of the sighting on Friday and had hoped to make contact with Fitzgibbons sometime during the weekend – which did not happen although authorities are still trying to track him, Kehoe said.

“Our hope was there would be an intervention with a police officer,” he said.