Prominent Hilton Head Island chef goes missing, considered ‘endangered’ by police
Update: Cirafesi was found “safe and unharmed” on Wednesday, Nov. 8. Read the latest update here.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in locating 50-year-old Michael Cirafesi, an executive chef and co-owner of the restaurant OMBRA Cucina Italiana on Hilton Head Island.
Cirafesi was last seen on Oct. 28 and was last heard from via text around 8 p.m. Halloween night, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies found Cirafesi’s vehicle at his home in Sea Pines, but he may have his cell phone, keys and wallet.
The man is considered endangered by police, although Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Maj. Angela Viens would not specify why. Viens said this was the first time Cirafesi had been reported missing to police, and that investigators had not yet observed any indications of foul play.
Cirafesi was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania and was raised in the heart of the city’s Italian neighborhood, just miles away from Philadelphia. He moved to Hilton Head in 2002, quickly becoming one of the island’s most highly decorated executive chefs. Partnering with his mentor Nunzio Patruno, he opened OMBRA in 2013 in The Village at Wexford, a shopping mall off of William Hilton Parkway just north of the Sea Pines traffic circle.
A host of other local restaurants, including Tio’s Latin American Kitchen in Shelter Cove and Olive & Fig Mediterranean Kitchen on U.S. 278 near Bluffton, took to social media to facilitate the search for Cirafesi.
“As regular patrons of his restaurant, Ombra, we are praying for his safe return and for peace for his family during this agonizing time of the unknown,” the owners of Tio’s wrote in a Facebook post Sunday night.
Anyone with information on Cirafesi’s whereabouts is encouraged to call 911 or the Sheriff’s Office non-emergency dispatch line at 843-524-2777.
This story was originally published November 6, 2023 at 9:58 AM.
