LAKE OCONEE — The extensive search for a beloved metro Atlanta coach ended Sunday when his body was pulled from Lake Oconee.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said the body of Gary Jones, a physics teacher and the track and field coach at Westminster Schools, was found at about noon in about 45 feet of water. It was recovered about 100 yards from where the body of Jones’ fiancee, Spelman College instructor Joycelyn Wilson, was located.
The discovery comes a month to the day that Wilson’s body was recovered in the lake in the vicinity of where Jones’ empty two-seater fishing boat and his sneakers were found floating.
The area is about 3 miles northwest of the Wallace Dam, which separates Oconee from Lake Sinclair to the south toward Milledgeville. Underwater timber still stands from when the Oconee River basin was flooded to build the lake nearly half a century ago.
Sills said Jones’ body was found by Wisconsin search-and-recovery expert Keith Cormican, who was brought in by Jones’ family over the weekend.
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cormican had trawled much of the deep-water channel of the lake Saturday and Sunday turned his attention to the shallower water’s standing timber.
He described it as “an underwater forest” that made it difficult to use the tow-behind devices that probe the depths. At one point Saturday, the torpedo-like sonar device he tugs along was snagged in underwater limbs. Divers had to go down and free it.
“We went into the timber this morning and we just started our search, mowing back and forth,” he said, describing the maneuver that is akin to the pattern one might use cutting grass with a lawn mower.
He said that finding bodies in such terrain is typically “nonexistent,” citing his 13 years of experience using the sonar as the reason he was able to succeed.
“It’s a very emotional feeling, knowing that we were going to be able to give them their brother back,” Cormican said.
Sills said the body was brought to the surface around 1 p.m. and was clad in a Westminster Wildcats shirt and denim jacket.
“This has gone on for 29 days, the longest rescue or recovery that I’ve ever been involved in in my half-century in law enforcement,” the sheriff said.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Michael Jones, Gary Jones’ older brother, called the last 29 days one of the worst periods of his life, and is hoping to find closure now that his brother’s body has been recovered.
“We just encourage everyone to continue to pray for us and also use this as a catalyst for awareness of safety, for resources to go to these great programs and hopefully avoid something like this from happening again,” he said.
Jones, 50, was last seen alive Feb. 8 when he and Wilson launched a small boat into the water at Fish Tale Marina at a ramp along Ga. 44.
The couple, who were to get married March 14, planned to stay that night at The Lodge on Lake Oconee, according to investigators.
Once his boat was in the water, Jones steered it to the hotel, where he picked up Wilson. From there, the two rode away across the cold waters.
But the lake outing lasted about 90 minutes before witnesses reported seeing the boat near Wallace Dam without anyone aboard. By the time wardens made it to the Sun Dolphin Pro 120, it had run out of gas.
When officials found Wilson’s body the next day, her phone was in her right hand, according to investigators. Wilson also had her ID, some cash and a credit card in a fanny pack she was wearing. The GBI conducted an autopsy, but her cause of death has not been released.
Wilson was a Spelman College math instructor, and earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Clark Atlanta University. She also received a second master’s degree from the University of Maryland. Wilson was 49.
“While we have expected this news, the finality of this tragic loss is heartbreaking,” Westminster Schools President Keith Evans wrote in an email to students, staff and alumni Sunday. “I know you join me in praying for Gary’s children and extended family as they face this tragedy.”
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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