Missing man found dead in his CA home, but investigator doesn’t know how he got there
.jpeg "Christopher Woitel, 50, was found dead by San Francisco police in his apartment after he was last seen returning home on surveillance footage in January.")
A missing San Francisco man was discovered dead in his apartment more than a month after he was captured on surveillance footage returning home, his family said.
Christopher Woitel, 50, was found in a crawl space in his apartment on Monday, the San Francisco Police Department said in a news release.
Police said investigators found a three-foot-tall crawl space above the bathroom in Woitel’s home and cut a hole in the ceiling to find his body. They said Woitel “likely accessed the crawl space from the roof of the building and not from inside the apartment.”
The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating Woitel’s death and foul play isn’t suspected, police said.
Woitel was first reported missing by his mother on Jan. 13 and he last contacted her on Jan. 9, but wasn’t heard from after that, the police said. Woitel lived on Guerrero Street and frequented Emeryville and Sonora, police said.
Police said they searched Woitel’s apartment on Feb. 12 but didn’t find “signs of forced entry into the home or evidence of a crime.”
Woitel’s family hired a private investigator, Scott Williams, who said he searched Woitel’s apartment but didn’t find him inside. Williams also said there was surveillance footage of Woitel entering his home on Jan. 8 but he never left, Mission Local reported.
His family said that Woitel sent “paranoid” messages to family and friends in the days before his disappearance about the U.S. Capitol attacks and escaping to the mountains, according to the publication.
Woitel’s family also said that they believe a homeless man, who Woitel had helped in the past, was connected to his disappearance, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
On Feb. 2, Williams interviewed the man, who was found with Woitel’s cell phone, according to the publication. The man also said that Woitel had been murdered.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 12:23 PM with the headline "Missing man found dead in his CA home, but investigator doesn’t know how he got there."