UPDATE: Autopsy Confirms Fairfield Boater Died of Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound

Update, 3 p.m.:

The chief state’s medical examiner’s office ruled the death of Fairfield’s William Sapone, 61, as a suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Fairfield Citizen.

The Citizen reports that police recovered a handgun during a daylight search on Wednesday in the area where Sapone’s body was found.

Read the full story here.

Update:

Fairfield’s William Sapone, whose body was found just after midnight Wednesday in the mud flats off Cockenoe Island, died of a head injury caused by an apparent gunshot, but police had not recovered a gun at the scene as of midday, according to the Connecticut Post.

The cause of death will be investigated during an autopsy at the chief state medical examiner’s office on Wednesday, according to the Post. He was 61.

Sapone, a patent and trademark attorney who served on several building committees in town, had been rescued from Southport Harbor last April when his kayak overturned, according to the Post.

Read more here.

Original story

The report of a missing Fairfield man whose vehicle was found in Westport sparked a search Tuesday and past midnight Wednesday, when the man’s body was found in the mud flats off of Cockenoe Island, according to various reports, including one from WFSB-TV.

Westport police said the man’s name was William Supone, age 61, although the WestportNow news website said a public records search turned up only a ”William J. Sapone,” 63, of 143 Hulls Hwy. in Fairfield, a man described by the website as a prominent intellectual property attorney. Westport News is reporting the missing man was Sapone.

The missing man’s car was found in the parking lot of Burying Hill Beach in Westport, and his rowing scull was found at about 11 p.m., Tuesday, beached on Cockenoe Island, according to WestportNow. The contents of the boat, including the man’s cell phone, were in the boat, and the cell phone helped police located the boat, the website reported.

Fairfield and Norwalk police departments, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard, participated in the search. At least four police officers from Westport and Fairfield were on the island, which is owned by the town of Westport.