Body of missing teacher found in Georgia lake after he disappeared with fiancée
The body of a Georgia teacher was located Sunday not far from where his fiancée was found dead after the two vanished while boating on Lake Oconee last month, police said Monday.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told Paste BN the body of Gary Jones was recovered from the water Sunday afternoon about 75 to 100 yards away from where his fiancée, Joycelyn Wilson, was found in February. Jones and Wilson went out on the lake on Feb. 8 to celebrate his 50th birthday, and boaters found the couple’s empty boat on the water about two hours later, according to WAGA-TV.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources was notified about the missing couple at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 8, spokesperson Mark McKinnon previously told Paste BN. They began searching for the couple later that day.
Wilson's body was discovered the following day, Fox 5 reported, but law enforcement officials, civilian search and rescue organizations, school staff, civilian fishermen and residents from the area continued to search for Jones for weeks. Sills said pathologists determined the couple drowned but are awaiting a toxicology report before releasing their findings.
What happened to Gary Jones and Joycelyn Wilson?
Sills said there are a few drownings and boat accidents on the lake and neighboring Lake Sinclair each year, but this was the first winter drowning in deep water in 40 years. He said the top cover of the boat's outboard was not on the motor, which led him to believe the couple had mechanical difficulties and may have been knocked out of the boat while trying to fix it.
"This was a very small boat and inappropriate, a totally inappropriate boat for this type of lake," Sills said.
Other states assisted in the search
The search area covered more than 100 acres and there was a vast area between where the boat was spotted circling without its occupants, where Wilson's body was found and where Jones' shoes were spotted in the water, Sills told Paste BN.
Sills said on social media that divers and dog handlers from all over Georgia, Florida and South Carolina came to assist the search. Meanwhile, patrol boats equipped with sonar technology conducted daily sweeps, aviation units searched from above, and rescue workers endured "frigid temperatures, rain, and other challenging conditions," according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
"I cannot remember such an extensive use of government and civilian personnel and resources for an incident such as this on Lakes Oconee and Sinclair in the last 40 years," Sills said on Facebook.
The extensive search effort was indefinitely suspended last week, though Sills pledged to redeploy search dogs if weather conditions improved. Over the weekend, Sills said search-and-recovery consultant Keith Cormican joined the search and helped locate the body.
Sills said Cormican used a sonar device similar to the technology used by the state's department of natural resources to probe the lake's channel and the standing timber in its more shallow areas. He said the terrain was akin to an underwater forest, which broke one of Cormican's cable and ensnared his sonar device, and credited Cormican's success to his extensive experience using sonar.
“It’s a very emotional feeling, knowing that we were going to be able to give them their brother back,” Cormican told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
'Beloved teacher, colleague and friend'
Wilson was a senior instructor in the math department of Spelman College, and Jones taught at Westminster Schools, an independent Christian day school in Atlanta. Jones' students sent handwritten cards to first responders during the search last month, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
"Throughout the Westminster community, we are mourning the loss of Gary Jones − a beloved teacher, colleague and friend," Westminster President Keith Evans said in a statement to Paste BN. "Gary had such a positive impact on his students over the course of more than two decades at Westminster and he enjoyed the respect and affection of his fellow teachers and coaches as well as parents and alumni."
Contributing: Saleen Martin