Cause of death released for Mass. man found dead in S.C.

Authorities released new information about The Disappearance and Death of Stanley Kotowski at a press conference on Tuesday.

Kotowski, of Methuen, disappeared Aug. 16 while on vacation with his family in South Carolina.

Beaumont County officials found a body Aug. 26 they believed to be Kotowski, Sheriff PJ Tanner confirmed during the conference call. Coroner David Ott said an Aug. 27 autopsy confirmed the body was Kotowski’s. He died by suicide, Ott said. He was 60.

“Obviously, that’s not the outcome we want,” Lt. Eric Calendine of the Southern Enforcement Branch Criminal Investigations Section said during the conference call. “But we found closure for the family.”

Kotowski was last seen leaving his family’s vacation home in Sea Pines, a resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina, authorities said. Dashcam footage shows him leaving the home and turning right, toward the direction where authorities later found his body. According to Calendine, Kotowski’s family said he was “paranoid” and experiencing a mental crisis when he disappeared.

It took 10 days and an “extensive” search to find Kotowski, Calendine said at the news conference. The search included a dog unit, drones, helicopters and gunfire that went door-to-door, Calendine said.

A Sea Pines security officer was searching the area on Aug. 26 when he smelled a foul odor, Calendine said. Ott said Kotowski’s body was in a crawl space about three feet under the house.

“When I had an opportunity to review where Stanley was found, where the body was recovered, I fully understood how he was not found until evidence and clues pointed us in that direction,” Tanner said during the conference.

Tanner emphasized the need to take mental health seriously.

“If there’s a message in all of this, it’s that we need to pay more attention to mental illness,” he told the conference.