South Carolina authorities are probing the murder of a former Riverhead, LI, councilman and cop whose body was found Thursday in a wooded lot in Myrtle Beach.

Timothy Buckley, a 51-year-old married father of three girls, was last seen Sept. 28. “We were holding out hope he would return. This is quite a blow,” family friend Patrick Mulcahy told The Post.

Buckley retired from the police department in 2007 to run for the Riverhead Town Board. He resigned in February 2009.