Detectives pursuing leads in slaying of man

Preliminary autopsy results have confirmed that the death of a 20-year-old Bradenton man found in his car after he was reported missing by his mother was a homicide.

Cory Iwanski was found dead at 12:21 a.m. Tuesday inside a car behind a business in a strip mall at 3126 53rd Ave E., Bradenton. Trauma to his body launched a homicide investigation into his death.

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office was tight-lipped on Wednesday about progress in the investigation as detectives with Homicide Investigative Unit pursued leads in the case. The preliminary autopsy report did confirm the manner of death as homicide, spokesman Dave Bristow said, but the manner of death is not being released.

At 5 p.m. Monday, Iwanski was reported missing by his mother after she had not heard from him for two days.

His mother told the deputy who took the missing person’s report that this was “not ordinary behavior for Cory and she is concerned due to the amount of flooding and weather in the area that night that something happened to him.”

Before reporting him missing, she had checked with local hospitals for his possible whereabouts.

Iwanski’s mother had last seen him at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday at their home less than two miles from where his body was later found. She had last heard from him at about 6 p.m. Saturday when she got a text from him asking if she’d be home soon, according to the report. But when she got home at 7 p.m., he was not there.

Her son had plans to go watch the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor at a friend’s house that night, but he never made it, Iwanski’s mother told the deputy. Heavy rains hit Manatee and Sarasota counties hard Saturday night and into Monday, causing severe flooding in some areas, including near where the family lives.

Iwanski’s cell phone had been going straight to voice mail, according to his mother. She had also been monitoring his bank, cell phone and Facebook accounts, she told deputies. He had not made any phone calls since Saturday morning and Facebook posts since Friday. Also, there were no new transactions in his bank account.

His 2015 Chevrolet Malibu did have OnStar, according to the report, which could have helped law enforcement in finding him within hours of being reported missing.

The sheriff’s office is looking into if there is a drug connection to Iwanski’s death.

Iwanski was arrested in 2015 after a suspicious vehicle outside a Beef ‘O’ Brady’s with someone inside possibly doing drugs was reported to the sheriff’s office. When deputies approached Iwanski, the smell of marijuana was coming from his car, and he had marijuana on his shirt when he got out of the car. Deputies found a total of 51 grams of marijuana, $771, a scale and a grinder in his car.

Iwanski was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell within 1,000 feet of a business and possession of drug paraphernalia. He later pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and was sentenced to a year probation as a youthful offender, according to court records.

A judge terminated Iwanski’s probation less than six months later after he had completed all his conditions. His probation officer had been against the early termination, but his defense attorney argued Iwanski had plans to move to Orlando to attend Valencia Community College, according to court records.

This story was originally published August 30, 2017 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Detectives pursuing leads in slaying of man."