Crime & Safety
Search For Missing Boater Ongoing At GA's Lake Oconee
Two Atlanta educators were reportedly celebrating a 50th birthday when they disappeared nearly two weeks ago at Lake Oconee.
PUTNAM COUNTY, GA — The search for a missing Westminster Schools coach continues after he and a Spelman College instructor disappeared from Lake Oconee nearly two weeks ago.
The Department of Natural Resources told Patch authorities are searching for Gary Jones daily using K-9s, a helicopter, remote operated vehicles and SONAR units.
Jones and Joycelyn Nicole Wilson, both 49-year-old Atlanta residents, disappeared on Feb. 8 at Lake Oconee in central Georgia, according to the DNR.
Find out what's happening in Oconeefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Game wardens were first alerted to an empty circling vessel on the lake. While investigating, authorities identified the owner of the powerless boat and determined two adults had been aboard it earlier in the day, the DNR said.
With the use of SONAR equipment, authorities said they began searching the area. The next day, around 10 a.m., the DNR said Wilson's body was recovered.
Find out what's happening in Oconeefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Wilson was a senior math instructor at Spelman College who had been with the Atlanta campus since 2007, college officials said in a statement to Fox 5 Atlanta.
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Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told 11Alive that Jones' wallet was found on the boat. Life jackets, snacks and a slice of birthday cake were also found, according to the news outlet.
Authorities found Wilson, who had air in her lungs, holding her cellphone and located Jones' shoes in the water, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
"The circumstances in this case indicate it's not just a simple drowning," Sills said in the report.
The pair was celebrating Jones' 50th birthday at Lake Oconee at the time of their disappearance, 11Alive reported.
Investigators told the AJC that Jones and Wilson were possibly en route to a restaurant at the lake and could have been on the small boat for about 90 minutes.
An official cause of death for Wilson has not been released.
The Putnam County Sheriff's Office is the leading agency for the death investigation.
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