The murder suspect who was at the centre of a massive 18-day manhunt in the forests and wetlands near the coastal city of Gdynia drowned, an autopsy has revealed, according to the Gdansk Prosecutor’s Office.

Grzegorz Borys, 44, had been hunted by the police, Military Police, divers and fire fighters, following the death of his 6-year-old son in Gdynia’s Fikakowo district.

On Monday, the police retrieved a body from a pond not far from where the incident took place, and later confirmed that it was that of Borys.

Grazyna Wawryniuk, a spokesperson of the Gdansk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, told PAP on Tuesday that while the immediate cause of death of Borys was drowning, the examination also discovered signs of an attempted suicide.

“Two gunshot wounds from an air gun were found on the temples,” Wawryniuk said, adding that they were “unrelated to the death.”

According to investigators, the man had been dead for roughly two weeks.