Body of missing actor Andrew Koenig found in Vancouver's Stanley Park

VANCOUVER -- The body of missing actor Andrew Koenig was found by friends and family at noon Thursday in Stanley Park.

A group of Koenig’s friends spent the morning scouring the park for any sign of him. Just before noon, a group of friends along with Koenig’s father, Walter, found Koenig’s body just off of the park’s popular Bridle Path. Koenig had been missing since Valentine’s Day.

“Our son took his own life,” a shaken Walter Koenig said at a press conference Thursday.

Andrew Koenig had a long history of depression. The actor’s parents and friends had expressed concern about Andrew, who has not taken anti-depressant medication for more than a year.

During the search for his son, Walter Koenig said he received hundreds of e-mails from people with depression and their friends and family. Koenig and his wife had a message for these people after their son’s death.

“If you know or are one of those people who feel like you can’t handle it any more. If you can learn anything from this, it is that there are people out there who care. You may not think so, and ultimately it may not be enough, but there are people that care. Before you make that final decision, check it out again, talk to somebody,” Koenig said.

“For the families of people suffering from depression, they don’t realize there is help and they need help. Connect with each other if there is something is bothering you because there is love out there. All the people from the police to his friends up here have shown signs of love, which in his pain he didn’t realize was available to him. That’s the hardest part,” added Judy Levitt Koenig as she held her husband’s hand.

Police said they are not disclosing any details about the cause or time of death due to sensitivities around the investigation and out of respect for the family. Foul play is not suspected and weapons were not involved, said Vancouver police Const. Jana McGuinness.

The B.C. Coroners Service said Thursday it is investigating the death.

A prior search of the park on Feb. 23 by police and three different search and rescue teams did not turn up any evidence that Koenig was in the park including the area where Koenig was eventually found.

“This was a path where if you just stepped off of it you would be in a treed area with marshland nearby. He was unseen from the path,” McGuinness said. “ ... Bridle Path is one of 150 miles of trails in this park. It’s a wide open popular trail often used by joggers and walkers and again densely wooded on both sides.”

Koenig, 41, played the character Richard (Boner) Stabone in the 1980s TV series Growing Pains.

He came to Vancouver on Feb. 10 to visit friends and see the city he called home for about three years in the early ‘90s. Koenig was scheduled to return to his Venice, Calif. home on Feb. 16, but never boarded the return flight.

rlindell@vancouversun.com

With files from Vancouver Sun