State Police Conclude Lake Lillinonah Death Was Suicide by Drowning

By Andrew Gorosko

BRIDGEWATER — Based on the results of an autopsy, state police have concluded that the death of a college student, whose body was recovered by divers from Lake Lillinonah last week, was a drowning by suicide.

In statement issued January 18, state police spokesman Lieutenant J. Paul Vance said, “Investigators have been actively working the investigation into the untimely death of Joseph Zahornacky, 22, of Shelton…During this investigation Connecticut state troopers conducted numerous interviews, recovered physical evidence and other investigative information.”

“On Thursday, January 18…the Office of the Chief State’s Medical Examiner conducted a post mortem examination of the deceased. The medical examination determined the cause of death to be drowning and the death has been ruled a suicide,’ he added.

The untimely death contains no criminal aspect and the investigation has concluded, Lt Vance said.

Lt Vance this week declined to provide additional details about the death, but said that the evidence indicated the death was clearly a suicide. 

A spokeswoman for the Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office this week confirmed that the results of an autopsy showed that the death was a suicide caused by drowning.

Mr Zahornacky’s body was pulled from Lake Lillinonah by divers on the morning of January 17, following a search of the lake that came after Brookfield police spotted the student’s sport-utility vehicle in the lake waters early on the morning of January 16.

Before the autopsy, state police had termed the death “suspicious.”

While on patrol early on the morning of January 16, near the Brookfield-Bridgewater town line, a Brookfield police officer spotted the white 2000 Jeep Cherokee near the end of the state boat launch on Route 133 in Bridgewater. Considering it unusual, the officer went to investigate and found the vehicle to be rolling into the lake and sinking.

Brookfield police divers were called to the scene to investigate, after which divers from Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue (NUSAR) were called in at 4:45 am January 16.

NUSAR divers found the unoccupied Jeep about 125 feet off shore, submerged in about 35 feet of water, according to Mike McCarthy, NUSAR’s chief diver.

NUSAR divers floated the Jeep up the lake’s surface, after which it was transported to state police’s Troop A barracks in Southbury to be held as evidence.

State police later sent their divers and helicopter crew to the area to search for a body but found none on January 16.

After resuming diving on January 17, divers located Mr Zahornacky’s body in the lake at about 11 am. Relatives identified the body.

Lake Lillinonah is a hydroelectric impoundment on the Housatonic River behind Shepaug Dam.