Spelman instructor took photos before phone stopped transmitting on Lake Oconee

Credit: Family photo

Credit: Family photo

Data taken from Wilson’s phone, which was in her right hand when her body was pulled from the water, showed that she had been snapping photos, seven or eight of them, during their trip down the lake, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. Of what, he could only speculate: houses, birds or other scenery.

The photos were taken “obviously after they left the hotel but before the incident.”

The last photograph — which authorities have not been able to see because her phone has a passcode that they’ve yet to crack — was taken at 4:59 p.m. that afternoon, Sills said, adding that there is no record of any transmission after that.

That’s around the time when investigators have speculated the pair were roughly 7 miles from their hotel.

“We don’t know what happened after that,” the sheriff said.

Sills on Tuesday told the AJC that the U.S. Secret Service has tried to crack the security code on Wilson’s phone but has not succeeded. The sheriff said the Georgia Department of Corrections had informed him that a machine they have might be able to unlock it.

“So we’re getting ready to take it to Forsyth (DOC headquarters) today,” Sills said.

The sheriff, however, doesn’t believe Wilson’s phone will reveal much, short of the last photo showing a better idea of where their boat was located.

Jones' cellphone has not been recovered, but the AJC previously reported that it last “pinged” at 5:06 p.m. That time came from cell tower logs. More recently, investigators have obtained records from Jones’ cellular service provider, AT&T, which show his phone “pinged” last at 5:01 p.m.

Sills has said it was 5:24 p.m. when people in a passing pontoon boat called 911 to report seeing an empty vessel in the lake. That area is within a mile or so of where Wilson’s body was found and also where Jones’ sneakers and their boat were located.

“So we know we’ve got a window there of 23 minutes,” Sills said. “And it’s in that area where we’ve been looking.”

Officials with the sheriff’s office, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and hundreds of volunteers, along with cadaver dogs and divers, have scoured the lake for any sign of Jones.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Sills said he believes the body is 80 or so feet below the surface in a deep channel within a couple of miles of the dam.

“I can’t tell you that it’s impossible,” Sills said of the possibility that Jones somehow survived and hasn’t been found. “But the evidence we have leads me to believe he’s in the lake.”

The sheriff said a professional diver who was there over the weekend suggested that cadaver dogs may be alerting, perhaps erroneously, on gases emitted by the decaying underwater forests of trees left over from when the Oconee River basin was flooded to build the lake nearly a half-century ago.

As of Sunday, the daily use of dogs and divers has been suspended, officials said previously, though stressing that they haven’t given up on the search. The dogs may be brought back if weather conditions improve and the water warms, Sills said.

In a statement to Channel 2 Action News, Jones' family said they are “still working and searching in cooperation with numerous private nonprofit agencies, volunteers and national search teams in completing the search.”

“We have had positive recent developments that heighten our enthusiasm in concluding this search victoriously,” the statement read.