Stanley Kotowski, missing Boston husband and father found dead underneath home 4 doors down from rented Hilton Head family with released autopsy describing death by hanging confirmed suicide.
A missing Massachusetts husband and father has been found dead after he vanished while on a trip with his family and friends to the well to do enclave of Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
‘He just walked out the door,’
Stanley Kotowski, 60, of Boston, according to a press release was found deceased underneath a house on the same street he was last seen leaving from more than a week ago in Sea Pines.
Kotowski was last seen on August 16 at around 10.30am leaving a condo the family had paid for with friends, The Island Packet previously reported.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office received a call to a nearby residence at around 11.30am on Monday in connection to ‘suspicious activity’.
According to a published release, officers found Kotowski’s body underneath the building and recovered him at around 3.30pm.
Kotowski was last seen 10 days earlier leaving the family rental, with door bell camera capturing his leaving without his shoes or any personal items, including his phone or wallet.
‘He just walked out the door,’ Kotowski’s wife, Jackie, told Boston 25 News, adding that she was already concerned about his mental state before her husband mysteriously disappeared.
Autopsy determine cause and manner of death as suicide by hanging
‘He had really bad insomnia for about a month,’ she said. ‘This is a brand new thing. He doesn’t have dementia.
Nevertheless there had been a perceptible change in her husband’s mood and behavior in the weeks and months prior.
Added Jackie, ‘his anxiety just kept getting worse and worse, and he started to get a little paranoid. He thought someone was chasing him.’
She added that he started to believe Sea Pines was some sort of ‘set up’ and made multiple statements claiming people in the area were ‘watching him’, according to WJCL.
Before he left, Jackie said that her husband told her: ‘Promise me you will go on without me’.
Boston husband and dad kills self
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office eventually grew their search efforts to include helicopters, boats, drones and canines.
Officials were searching wood lines and unoccupied buildings and placed Kotowski’s information on a national database for missing persons, as they increased their presence throughout the island.
His son Zak, had previously stated he could be anywhere in the area.
‘He’s a strong person,’ Zak said. ‘He’s athletic. He could, even in a delirious state, shoeless, he could get a few towns over, especially in 72 hours.’
Family members were hoping someone spotted the missing man on their security camera and could help with the search.
The family has yet to publicly comment since Kotowski’s body has been found but confirmed the death Monday afternoon to WJCL saying Stanley’s body was found four houses down from their rental.
Stanley Kotowski’s body is scheduled to undergo an autopsy by the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office on Tuesday, Aug. 27, to ‘determine the manner of death, as well as positively identify the decedent,’ according to a release.
Come Tuesday, County Coroner David Ott told a press conference that Kotowski died by hanging and ruled the incident a suicide.
It remained unclear what led to the father and husband seeking to take his own life.
