CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -- A Coral Springs community is in shock after finding out that a neighbor, a former FBI agent, is missing in Iran.

Neighbors describe 59-year-old Robert Levinson as a family man and said he has seven children.

"I did hear the news yesterday about the missing person but I didn't realize it was the husband," said neighbor Olinda Azinheria.

Azinheria said she knows Levinson's wife, who was president of the community's homeowner's association.

Levinson's family last heard from him in early March.

NBC 6's Hetal Gandhi reported that Levinson was in the Kish Island of Iran on private business to conduct an interview for an author or producer.

He retired from the Miami FBI office about 10 years ago.

"It's an American private citizen who is in Iran on private business about whom we are pursuing welfare and whereabouts (information)," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Monday. "We have been monitoring this situation for a couple of weeks now."

"I hope they find him, that he comes home," Azinheria said.

McCormack said that the United States saw no connection between Levinson and the current crisis between Iran and Britain over 15 British sailors and marines seized last month by Iranian forces.

"We don't see any linkage whatsoever between this case and any other ongoing cases that may have been in the news recently," he said.