By Kelsey Givens

The sixth anniversary of a Pahrump woman’s disappearance came and went on Wednesday.

A sheriff’s press release and a few brief television news reports marked the occasion. New leads in the case haven’t emerged since the beginning.

Maureen Fields disappeared the day after Valentine’s Day in 2006.

Her 2004 green Hyundai was found the next day, on Feb. 16, left in the desert on the other side of the California state line near Pahrump.

Nye County Sheriff’s officers found Fields’ keys left in the ignition, her purse with wallet and credit cards sat on the seat. A pair of eyeglasses and slippers were found under the gas pedal of the car.

They also discovered a pair of knotted pantyhose, an empty bottle of tranquilizers and several religious pamphlets fanned out next to her purse.

Next to the car lay a blanket, stained with a small spot of her blood and vomit.

Fields, however, was nowhere to be found.

According to the sheriff’s press release sent out Tuesday, “Investigators with the Nye County Sheriff’s Office continue to review this case daily. There is not a day Nye County Sheriff’s Office detectives don’t think about Maureen and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. They are working relentlessly to close this case and provide closure to Maureen’s friends and family.”

Despite those efforts, developments in the case have been scant, to say the least.

“There have been none, none at all,” Sheriff Tony DeMeo said.

Since her disappearance, Nye County detectives have been reviewing the case and reminding the public about her disappearance each year. They hope someone will remember something about the days leading up to her disappearance.

“Maybe sometimes thinking back to that day, someone might remember some detail they had forgotten about and can come forward with it,” DeMeo said. “We want to let people know, so if they know anything they can come forward with it.”

Fields’ husband, Paul Fields, has remained uncooperative with authorities since shortly after his wife went missing.

Throughout the investigation, Paul has remained the main suspect in Maureen’s disappearance, though police are quick to point out that they don’t really exclude any suspect.

“We look at everybody as a suspect,” Capt. Bill Becht said. “We never focused solely on Paul, but he’s never been excluded either.”

The day Maureen turned up missing, Paul told authorities they had gotten into an argument that morning and he hadn’t seen her since she left for work.

When Maureen, described as a dependable employee, was 20 minutes late for her shift at Wells Fargo bank Feb. 15, co-workers reportedly called Paul to see if she was OK.

The last time authorities believe Maureen was seen alive was on Feb. 14 as she left work for home.

She hasn’t been heard from since.

After Maureen’s disappearance, Paul was initially cooperative with detectives, but soon began refusing to work with them.

Paul refused to take a polygraph test to prove his innocence or guilt, Maureen’s father Jim Fitzgerald, a former Newark, New Jersey police officer said this week.

“I confronted him about it and he refused to take it because he said he didn’t trust the police,” Fitzgerald said. “Then he said ‘my lawyer told me I could take a private test’ and I said OK let’s do that. But he said it cost $500, and when I said I would pay for it, he still wouldn’t take it.”

More suspicions about Paul’s involvement began to arise when three months after Maureen’s disappearance, he went to the court to have her name removed from the deed to their land, claiming abandonment.

That’s when Fitzgerald stepped in, legally becoming Maureen’s guardian to protect her assets.

In July of 2009, the court legally declared Maureen deceased, transferring property she had back to Paul.

The couple’s marriage had been reportedly rocky before her disappearance.

According to news accounts at the time, soon after Maureen disappeared, Paul told people he believed she may have skipped town.

However, one of the more telling signs that something more sinister had befallen Maureen, friends and family say, was that she left behind her beloved pit bull, Wolfie.

Though no case has been brought against Paul in the disappearance of Maureen, her family still believes he knows more than he will admit.

“We’re convinced he’s to some degree responsible,” Fitzgerald said. “Right now the evidence is circumstantial, but it points toward him being responsible.”

Paul was was not available for comment.

Authorities await the day when someone will stumble across Maureen’s remains.

Texas-based search group EquuSearch, came to Pahrump in October 2009 to aid investigators in their search for Maureen’s body.

Using high-tech equipment, the group searched the desert area around where Maureen’s car was discovered by hikers as well as Paul’s property. They were looking for any signs of a grave or remains.

Fitzgerald said the group visited twice, but the searches yielded no results.

What the family doesn’t understand is why a case was never brought against Paul for Maureen’s disappearance.

Fitzgerald said Nye County’s former district attorney, Bob Beckett, told him there wasn’t enough evidence for a case.

“There is a tremendous amount of circumstantial evidence against Paul, much more than usually necessary,” Fitzgerald said.

The family’s attempts to reach the current district attorney, Brian Kunzi have been unsuccessful, Fitzgerald said.

Kunzi told the Pahrump Valley Times on Thursday that he has never been brought anything or provided any evidence from sheriff’s investigators with which to move forward toward a prosecution. Even a cursory search for a rudimentary case file in the DA’s office yielded nothing.

Fitzgerald said his daughter was a kind-hearted girl. She was the kind of person who brought doughnuts into work for her co-workers and would rescue a stray dog off the street.

Fitzgerald said the family came to the realization that Maureen was gone a while ago, and now they are just looking for closure.

“It would certainly be nice to have it resolved and bring her back here if we could,” he said. “We’d like to have some kind of closure.”