BELLE ISLE, Fla. — One day after police confirmed the death of missing Belle Isle mother Stephanie Hollingsworth, her family is opening up about the tragedy. Spectrum News 13 has been following her disappearance and the search efforts for nearly a month.

On Tuesday, her husband Scott Hollingsworth is speaking through his own pain, acknowledging the pain others may be feeling while battling depression and anxiety just as he says his wife did.

Now, he is encouraging those who need help to get it.

 “We needed you we need you here,” Scott Hollingsworth said.

In a time of darkness a flickering candle flame is a light for Scott Hollingsworth, and sunflowers, his wife's favorites, are a link to Stephanie Hollingsworth. Her husband and three boys all still processing the news.

“As a family we are going to pull together we are going to make the best of this,” Scott Hollingsworth said.

After nearly a month of searching, Stephanie’s SUV was found in a retention pond near Dowden Road and Story Time Drive on Saturday. The cause of her death has not been determined.

“Stephanie’s anxieties depression led to a need to escape, a need to literally escape her own skin," Scott Hollingsworth said. "And I feel like for millions of Americans who are feeling those same thoughts and those same feelings, (they) are in such fear of being able to articulate or express what is happening and it’s so much easier for people to bury this deep down inside."

Scott is hopeful Stephanie’s struggles will help inspire others to get the help they might need.

“There is going to be somebody in your life that you can turn to, to just start that conversation,” Scott Hollingsworth said.

It is a conversation Scott says he wishes he had more often with his wife.

“It is my job to protect you and I’m sorry I failed you,” Scott Hollingsworth said.

Through his pain, there is light, or in Scott’s case Sunflowers, forever reminding him of his wife and the many memories they’ve all shared. 

“We are going to make sure that your heart and everything that you were about is going to carry on in our lives, in our son’s lives and their family’s lives but we are going to miss you so much,” he said.   

A memorial service is being planned for this weekend and it will be streamed lived online. Right now, the medical examiner’s office is still trying to determine how Stephanie died.

Scott Hollingsworth says he and his family would also like to thank the many volunteers and law enforcement who worked to find his wife.