Stanley Kotowski, 60, abruptly left his family’s vacation home on Hilton Head Island on Friday and has been missing ever since.
The search is underway for a Massachusetts man who disappeared Friday while vacationing with his family in South Carolina.
The family of 60-year-old Stanley Kotowski has told several media outlets that the man suddenly left their vacation home on Hilton Head Island and has since disappeared. His disappearance may have been due to a mental health crisis, his wife said.
Police in Beaufort County, where the island is located, have since searched for Kotowski for days, but have been unable to find or contact him, according to the sheriff’s office.
Kotowski left the holiday home without shoes and telephone
According to a Facebook post from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, Kotowski was last seen on the morning of August 16, when he left the family’s vacation home barefoot and without his phone or wallet.
In interviews with other media, his family members, who are from Methuen near Boston, said that Kotowski had been struggling with anxiety recently.
“He suffered from really severe insomnia for about a month,” his wife, Jackie Kotowski, told ABC affiliate WJCL in Savannah, Georgia. “His anxiety got worse and worse. And he became a little paranoid. He thought someone was following him.”
Kotowski’s son Zak told WJCL that his father was otherwise healthy.
“He’s a strong person, he’s athletic,” Zak Kotowski told the outlet. “He could, even in a state of delirium, barefoot, outrun a couple of towns.”
Sheriff’s office continues search for Kotowski
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office conducted extensive searches over several days, using dogs, drones and helicopters to find Kotowski.
According to the agency’s latest update on Facebook, the search was still ongoing on Tuesday afternoon.
Since then, firefighters have joined the search, combing residential and wooded areas. Kotowski’s information has also been entered into national databases and sent to agencies across the state, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office said Kotowski was last seen wearing a dark Coors Light T-shirt, dark blue or black shorts and no shoes. Kotowski is described as 6 feet tall, weighing about 200 pounds, with short brown hair and brown eyes. His family told media he has a strong Boston accent.
Since the last sign of Kotowski appeared via a local resident’s Ring camera, investigators are hoping people in the area will search their home security cameras for clues to his whereabouts.
Anyone with information about Kotowski can call the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line at 843-524-2777.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
