Five days after members of an Interior Alaska militia group were arrested in connection with plots to kill Alaska State Troopers, judges and others, Anchorage businessman William Fulton -- a man once identified as the "supply sergeant" for the Alaska Citizens Militia -- went missing. He has not been seen since.

Fulton was the owner of Drop Zone, a military surplus store on Spenard Road. He gained some notoriety during the 2010 U.S. Senate race when, acting as security for failed candidate Joe Miller, he handcuffed and detained Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger at a public meeting.

On March 15, a Drop Zone employee arrived at work to find Anchorage attorney Wayne Anthony Ross waiting for him in the parking lot. Ross had documents, signed by Fulton, handing over the shop with all its debts and assets to the employee.

The militia's email lists, websites and Internet chat groups where Fulton was an active participant under the names "Drop Zone Bill," "DZ" and "Bob Bob" started buzzing. "Anybody know what happened to DZ?" queried a poster named ironartist.

Others began to theorize that Fulton had gone underground to ready a “safe room” for the “fallout that could possibly be coming.”

"He just dropped off the map,'' said Norm Olson of Nikiski, head of the Alaska Citizens Militia, in a recent interview. "I have no idea what happened to him. I couldn't figure out why Bill had gone underground.''

Now, as more details emerge as to the arrests of six Fairbanks-area militia members, including references in criminal indictments to unnamed militia members who appear to have helped state and federal authorities, some are beginning to wonder whether Fulton is connected to the investigation.

"That would be a good question to ask and a good question to get answered," said Ross, who also holds a power of attorney signed by Fulton giving him control of the two houses Fulton owns in Anchorage.

"You're not just off on a folly of your own here," said Ross, a well-known defense attorney and Alaska's attorney general for the briefest of periods.

Ross will say little else about his client's mysterious and sudden disappearance. He did say he'd heard the rumors that Fulton is either wanted by authorities in connection with the Fairbanks case or that he is being protected as a witness.

"If that was true,'' Ross said, "that would answer the question as to why he disappeared. I think the FBI would be the one to answer.''

Anyone involved as a federal undercover operative monitoring Alaska militias -- or even suspected of being an informant -- might do well to disappear, Ross further suggested.

There are no charges pending against Fulton, according to both FBI spokesman Eric Gonzales in Anchorage and Lt. Dave Parker of the Anchorage Police Department.

As to questions about witness protection, Gonzales said, "if he were (there), we wouldn't be allowed to comment on that.''

Fulton, who had shut down his security agency in December and was just operating the surplus store, did not respond to e-mails sent to two accounts he's used in the fairly recent past to send notes and comments to Alaska Dispatch. Those e-mails also did not bounce back as undeliverable.

But Fulton's ties to several state militia groups and Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox are evident in the Internet chatter going back months. While there is no evidence publicly linking Fulton to a role in the state and federal cases currently playing out against Cox and his militia associates, Fulton appears to have been well aware that Cox was headed for serious trouble for some time. A web-based forum hosted by Google for the Alaska Citizens Militia chronicles some of the discussions Fulton and others have had regarding Cox’s escalating brushes with the justice system.

Cox, Lonnie Vernon and his wife Karen Vernon, Coleman Barney and his wife Rachel Barney, and Michael Anderson face various state and federal charges in connection with an alleged conspiracy that included plotting to kill judges, an IRS agent and Alaska State Troopers. The group allegedly amassed a large weapons cache that contained automatic weapons, silencers and hand grenades, all of which are illegal, and numerous other high-powered weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.