Local News

Authorities release cause of death for Mass. man found dead in South Carolina

Stanley Kotowski was on vacation with his family in South Carolina when he went missing and was found dead 10 days later, authorities day.

August 27, 2024

1 minute to read

Authorities released new information about the disappearance and death of Stanley Kotowski in a press conference on Tuesday.

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

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

“Obviously, it’s not the outcome we want,” Lieutenant Eric Calendine of the Southern Enforcement Branch Criminal Investigations Section said during the conference. “But we did find closure for the family.”

Kotowski was last seen leaving his family’s vacation rental home in Sea Pines, a resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina, authorities said. Ring camera 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 health crisis when he went missing.

It took ten days and a “widespread” search to find Kotowski, Calendine said in the press conference. The search included a canine unit, drones, helicopters, and canvassers going 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 high under the house.

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

Tanner stressed the need to take mental health seriously.

“If there is a message in all of this, it’s that we have to be more attentive to mental illness,” he said during the conference.