Beloved Father's Tragic Cause of Death Confirmed After He Disappeared from Hilton Head Vacation Rental
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
A Boston-area man who disappeared on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island on Aug. 16 was found dead.
The massive search for Stanley Kotowski ended after his body was found on Aug. 26 under a villa in the Sea Pines area of the island, not far from where his family had been vacationing at the time of his disappearance, according to The Island Packet.
Beaufort County coroner David Ott ruled the death a suicide.
”We estimate the day of death is the day he went missing,” Ott said, according to the New York Post.
The manner of death was “asphyxiation by hanging” Ott said, according to the Island Packet.
BREAKING: Missing man in Sea Pines Stanley Kotowski found dead, 4 units down, outside under the house according to his family. Thoughts and Prayers go out to them🙏 pic.twitter.com/LnapJwHv3y
— Riley Miller (@RileyWJCL) August 26, 2024
Ott said an “apparatus” was involved, but did not provide details.
“It’s definitely asphyxiation, but there’s no other word other than hanging. Unfortunately, people believe that hanging means you rope up to a ceiling and you drop. It’s definitely not like that. … It’s mainly cutting off the flow [of oxygen],” he said.
A security officer from Sea Pines found evidence that sent searchers to the villa where Kotowski’s body was found underneath.
Sheriff P.J. Tanner said Kotowski had suffered from paranoia before he disappeared and sought treatment both before and during his family’s vacation to the resort island.
The search involved multiple police agencies and included the use of dogs to track Kotowski, but they had found no trace of him after he left the villa his family was renting.
Sheriff Tanner said searchers initially tried to search in the area where Kotowski’s body was found but were unable to gain access.
They later discovered a hatch that provided a way to enter the space, he said.
60-year-old Stanley Kotowski and his family were over a thousand miles away from their home in Boston when he stepped out barefoot from his family’s rental and disappeared.https://t.co/emnQqGX7d2
— ABC 13 News – WSET (@ABC13News) August 28, 2024
During the search, Jackie Kotowski, Kotowski’s wife, said her husband suffered recently from insomnia.
“His anxiety just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And he started to get a little paranoid. He thought someone was chasing him,” Jackie Kotowski said, according to WFXV.
During the search, the couple’s son, Zak, had pleaded with his father to come home.
“And you’re not in trouble, Dad. Like, we love you. Yeah. Come home. We just want you home,” he said.
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