The search for a Westminster Schools coach and teacher on Lake Oconee was postponed Wednesday due to drizzling rain and other weather factors that made it difficult for cadaver dogs to detect scents.
Officials initially planned to resume their efforts at 1 p.m. but ultimately called off the official search for the day, though a few volunteer boaters still went out. Authorities will return around 11 a.m. Thursday, the 13th day in the search for Gary Jones.
Jones and his fiancee, Spelman College instructor Joycelyn Wilson, were last seen launching their small fishing boat into the lake Feb. 8. Wilson’s body was found the following day. Her funeral is set for Thursday in Atlanta.
Richard Pickering, one of the volunteer search coordinators with the Emergency Response Dive Team, said the earliest chance his group will have to bring dogs back to assist with the search will be Saturday.
“Between now and then, though, we are going to continue sonar searches,” he said.
Pickering said that in the coming days, several boaters will be outfitted with downward-looking cameras that can be lowered into the water to take a closer look at objects of note.
Investigators have said Jones and Wilson may have been planning to go to a waterfront restaurant the day they were last seen in the boat. But the metro Atlanta couple didn’t make it to dinner.
On Feb. 8 at 5:24 p.m., their boat was spotted on the water without anyone aboard. Jones and Wilson had been on the boat roughly 90 minutes, traveling about 7 or 8 miles. What happened next to the two educators remains a mystery.
Wilson’s body was pulled from the water the following morning, according to investigators. Though his shoes, wallet and some personal items have been found, there are still no signs of Jones, who turned 50 the day he and Wilson traveled to the popular east Georgia lake.
“A family member of Mr. Jones told me that (Jones) had been looking for a waterfront restaurant,” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution late Tuesday.
If that was indeed the couple’s plan, the two would have made the return trip to their hotel in the dark. Their boat had no working lights, according to investigators. The sun had not yet set when their empty vessel was first spotted.
Jones, a science teacher and track coach at the Westminster Schools, and Wilson met as undergraduate students at Clark Atlanta University. They later reconnected, and Wilson, 49, had shared on social media that she had found love, according to her friend, Natasha Harrison. The two women met about 10 years ago through their church choir.
Wilson was a math instructor at Spelman College. The two had planned to marry March 14.
On the morning of Feb. 8, Jones drove from Cobb County to Hogansville to pick up his fishing boat at 11:27 a.m., according to information obtained by investigators through cameras. Sills said from there, Jones stopped at a Burger King in Palmetto before driving to Lake Oconee, arriving at 3:37 p.m.
Credit: WSB; Family photo
Credit: WSB; Family photo
It appeared the couple had planned a boat outing to celebrate Jones' birthday. A cookie with icing was found inside the watercraft, according to investigators.
When Wilson was located in the water, she was still holding her cellphone, Georgia Department of Natural Resources officials told Sills. She was wearing a fanny pack that contained her ID, some cash and a credit card, authorities said.
Jones’ phone, which investigators said last pinged in the area at 5:06 p.m., has not been located. But a pair of Nike tennis shoes that belonged to him were found in the water, not far from where Wilson was located. Jones’ brown, trifold wallet with his driver’s license inside was onboard the empty vessel, along with a key card to their room at The Lodge at Lake Oconee, Sills said.
Life jackets were found on the boat.
The GBI conducted an autopsy on Wilson, though the findings have not been released. The information Sills received was enough to launch a death investigation rather than calling it “a simple drowning,” he has said.
The medical examiner found air in Wilson’s lungs, Sills said. But even that clue has raised additional questions.
”In my consultation with the medical examiner … they do know that there was some air and some water in her lungs, and I can only presume that that was enough to give enough buoyancy to keep (Wilson’s) body from going to the bottom,” Sills said.
Despite an extensive search by officials and volunteers, there have been no signs of Jones.
Helicopters from the DNR and the Georgia State Patrol conducted flyovers Tuesday. Divers were also on hand, but due to the treacherous underwater environment, they were not expected to go into the lake unless search teams found something of urgent interest.
Meanwhile, Wilson’s family will gather with friends to say goodbye at her funeral Thursday. The service will be held at 11 a.m. at Zion Hill Baptist Church, where she was a lifelong member, according to her obituary. She will be laid to rest at Westview Cemetery.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Wilson was remembered for her dedication to her students along with her passion for adventure.
“Her hobbies included skydiving, flying airplanes, reading, dining, hosting game nights with friends, attending every New Edition concert she could, rooting for the Atlanta Braves and traveling the world, reflecting her adventurous spirit and love for learning,” her obituary states.
The Joycelyn Wilson Memorial Scholarship has been established in her honor at Clark Atlanta.
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