Robert David Schultze was 63 years old when he disappeared from the seacoast region between Maine and New Hampshire on September 3, 2010. NamUs lists him as missing from Eliot, in York County, Maine, with his last known contact on that date, and identifies the investigating agency as the Maine Marine Patrol in Augusta. He is described as a White male, approximately 6 feet 5 inches to 6 feet 6 inches tall and about 210 to 220 pounds, with gray or partially gray hair and brown eyes.
NamUs also notes a distinctive physical feature: scars from hip surgery. His case remains publicly listed in NamUs as Missing Person case MP53234, a record used to preserve identifying details and investigative information for unresolved missing-person matters.
The day Robert vanished began as a familiar coastal outing. Press Herald reporting described him as leaving for the waters off Portsmouth Harbor during a heat wave, after telling friends that it was a good day for spearfish diving and rod fishing for stripers and bluefish. He had left from his home in Shapleigh and went out in his 20-foot Aquasport boat, The Cat’s Meow. What followed was deeply unsettling: Robert did not return, and later that afternoon his boat was seen anchored outside the harbor, empty. The same reporting emphasized the painful uncertainty his children faced almost immediately afterward, as they wanted to celebrate his life while still being left with no clear explanation for what had happened.
Official case information states that Robert’s outboard boat was found anchored in the middle of the Piscataqua River between Kittery, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The boat was unmanned, and his personal possessions were still inside. That detail has remained one of the central facts of the case because it left investigators and loved ones with a quiet but haunting scene: a vessel still present, belongings still aboard, and Robert gone. The location also placed the case in a busy and powerful tidal waterway connecting the Maine and New Hampshire seacoast, a setting where a disappearance on the water can become difficult to reconstruct with certainty.
Family memorial information later described Robert as having been lost at sea on September 3, 2010. His obituary, published through the Portland Press Herald and also reflected in Foster’s Daily Democrat memorial listings, said he had gone out fishing early on a sunny summer day before an approaching storm. It stated that the Coast Guard found The Cat’s Meow anchored and empty at the mouth of Portsmouth Harbor near Whaleback Light, and that the Coast Guard searched for three days and nights without success. Those accounts convey the gravity of the search and the anguish of a disappearance where responders acted quickly, yet the sea yielded no clear answer.
Robert’s case is remembered through the sparse but important details that remain: a 63-year-old man who went out on the water on September 3, 2010; a fishing boat found anchored and empty; personal possessions left behind; a search that continued for days; and a family left to carry both love and uncertainty. NamUs continues to preserve his identifying information and case record, while Maine State Police note that the Office of Chief Medical Examiner is the official state clearinghouse for missing people in Maine and uses NamUs to help track and manage missing-person case files. In overview, Robert David Schultze’s disappearance began as a day on familiar coastal waters near Eliot, Kittery, and Portsmouth, became an urgent water search after The Cat’s Meow was found without him, and remains a sorrowful case defined by unanswered questions, enduring family loss, and the hope that even a small piece of information could one day help explain what happened.Last Seen: Sep 3, 2010
