Westminster Schools teacher Gary Jones drove from Cobb County to Hogansville to pick up his fishing boat at 11:27 a.m. Feb. 8. From there, he stopped at a Burger King in Palmetto before driving to Lake Oconee, arriving at 3:37 p.m., according to investigators.
Less than two hours later, the boat was seen going in circles on the water. But neither Jones nor his fiancee were aboard.
New details — including from Flock cameras and cellphone pings — released in the death investigation on the popular east Georgia lake are starting to help piece together the timeline of events before the metro Atlanta couple’s boating trip began. The new information, however, has prompted even more questions about what happened when the two went missing.
On Tuesday, the search entered its 11th day. Meanwhile, the investigation continued into the death of 49-year-old Joycelyn Wilson.
It appeared the couple had planned a boat outing to celebrate Jones turning 50. A cookie with icing was found still inside his small fishing boat, according to investigators.
Jones, who taught science and coached track at Westminster, and Wilson, a Spelman College math instructor, were seen together on the vessel that afternoon. But the boat was empty when it was spotted circling a couple of miles north of the Wallace Dam at 5:24 p.m.
The following morning, Wilson’s body was pulled from the water. On Monday, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said Georgia Department of Natural Resources officials told him that Wilson still had her cellphone in her right hand. The phone belonging to Jones, which investigators said last pinged in the area at 5:06 p.m., has not been located.
The autopsy on Wilson raised even more questions, Sills said.
”The totality of all the circumstances ... is requiring us to take additional measures to thoroughly investigate this case,” Sills said Monday afternoon.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
In a meeting with two dozen or so volunteer boaters and others at the Long Shoals boat ramp Tuesday morning, Richard Pickering of the Emergency Dive Response Team told the group that it was a “working theory” that Jones and Wilson were tossed into the lake when their craft’s 18-horsepower motor banged into something.
”Every time we’re out there,” Pickering said, “we’re constantly running into these trees and bouncing off them.”
But investigators have said there was no extensive damage to the Sun Dolphin Pro 120 belonging to Jones.
Pickering said that on Monday some cadaver dogs that were taken out on the lake “alerted” in about the same location and that Tuesday’s searches would focus on those spots, a few miles north of the dam, the lake’s southernmost point.
Helicopters from the DNR and the Georgia State Patrol had planned to do flyovers. 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.
Wardens continued to use sonar, remotely operated vehicles and K-9s in the search, the DNR said Tuesday. The State Patrol dive team was also at the lake.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Also joining the search efforts Tuesday was the United Cajun Navy, a nonprofit organization that provides disaster relief and help during emergencies. The group assisted after deadly Hurricane Helene ripped through North Carolina in late September.
The man piloting that boat, Laurence Walker, a graduate of Morrow High School who now lives in Destin, Florida, said he plans to bring in a cadaver dog team from Florida later in the week. Walker said Lake Oconee’s submerged forests make it difficult for even the most advanced sonar devices to locate someone’s body below the surface.
”That’s why the cadaver dog teams are a big asset in trying to narrow down the search area,” Walker said.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Sills has compared the underwater landscape to a disaster scene.
”It looks like Mount St. Helens after the eruption,” Sills said, referring to the famed 1980 volcanic blast that charred the Washington wilderness.
The lake conditions have made the search complicated and provided few answers to what happened to Jones and Wilson.
Sills previously said Wilson’s death “is no longer a simple drowning. This is a death investigation.” Details about her cause of death have not been released.
Wilson and Jones met as students at Clark Atlanta University around 30 years ago but had reconnected, according to Wilson’s friend, Natasha Harrison. After getting engaged during the holidays, the two planned to marry March 14.
On Feb. 8, the weather was unseasonably warm when Jones and Wilson put the boat into the water at Fish Tale Marina at a ramp along Ga. 44. Once the boat was in the lake at 3:41 p.m., Jones steered it to The Lodge on Lake Oconee, where he picked up Wilson, who had driven their truck back to the hotel, Sills previously said. Wilson had checked into the hotel at 3:46 p.m. From there, the two rode away across the cold waters.
Credit: Putnam County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Putnam County Sheriff's Office
About 90 minutes later, the boat was spotted going in circles without Jones or Wilson aboard.
Investigators reviewed some video footage from Feb. 8 that was available, according to Sills, but it has not offered clues to what happened to the couple.
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