Timofey Gavrilyuk reported found dead after month-long Westfield search

More than a month after Timofey Gavrilyuk disappeared in Westfield, Massachusetts, the search for the 26-year-old has reached a reported fatal outcome—but not a public explanation. Western Mass News reported on October 29 that Gavrilyuk had been found dead. He had last been seen on September 24 in woods near Service Star Industrial Way and Egleston Road. Where he went after that remains unexplained. ¹

The station said the death had been confirmed to it, but did not identify who provided that confirmation. Its report was published at 4:39 p.m. EDT on October 29, 2026. That timestamp establishes when the news was published, not when Gavrilyuk was discovered or when authorities first determined that he had died. ¹

The publicly reported police statement was narrower. WWLP reported a Westfield Police update saying, “Timofey has been located.” Police said they would not release additional details and directed press inquiries to the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office. That wording does not itself confirm a death or explain how Gavrilyuk was identified. ¹¹

Gavrilyuk was autistic and nonverbal. The initial missing-person report placed his last known sighting at around 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 24, in woods just north of Service Star Industrial Way and Egleston Road. Massachusetts State Police and the Westfield Police Department announced the search the following day, according to Western Mass News’s September 25 report. ³

At that early stage, police believed Gavrilyuk might be traveling near Route 202, also known as Southampton Road. It was an area investigators were looking into—not an established later sighting in that report. The distinction matters now: an early search lead cannot be used to fill the gap between his disappearance and the report that he was found. ³

The wooded area near Service Star Industrial Way and Egleston Road likewise remains his documented last-seen location. Western Mass News’s October 29 account did not identify a recovery location. There is no basis in that account to say Gavrilyuk was found in the same woods where he was last seen. ¹

Western Mass News reported that local and state investigators resumed searching on Thursday, October 29. But its account does not establish whether that renewed effort led to the discovery. The search activity and the death report belong to the same day’s public account; that alone does not establish a sequence between them. ¹

Several basic details therefore remain unresolved publicly: when Gavrilyuk was found, where he was found, and how his identity was established. A verified public police or prosecutor statement explicitly confirming his death and explaining the identification is still missing from the available reporting. The station’s report should be attributed to the station, rather than recast as a death announcement by the district attorney. ^{1 11}

No cause or manner of death has been disclosed in the available account. It does not establish foul play, an accident or any other circumstances of death. Gavrilyuk’s autism and the fact that he was nonverbal were part of the information released during the search; they do not, on their own, explain what happened to him. ^{1 3}

The referral to the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office identifies where police directed questions, not what the answers are. It should not be read as evidence of a particular cause of death or as a substitute for a case-specific statement from that office. ¹¹

The news changes the reported outcome of a search that began in September. It does not yet account for the intervening weeks. The essential next clarification is a discovery and identification chronology, followed by whatever authorities can establish about his death—not an assumption that the date of a news report supplies those answers.