LAKE OCONEE, Ga. — The dive team search for missing teacher Gary Jones in Lake Oconee has been called off until further notice, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
While the dive teams and cadaver dogs will not be used, Sills tells Channel 2 Action News that his office and the Deparment of Natural Resources will still be conducting shoreline and surface searches.
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Channel 2′s Bryan Mims was at the lake on Saturday as six professional divers began searching the lake for Jones.
Saturday marked three weeks since Jones and his fiancée, Joycelyn Wilson, went boating on Lake Oconee and vanished on Feb 8. Wilson’s body was pulled from the water the next day.
But, after a 22-day search, search efforts that include the use of dogs and divers seeking to locate Jones in Lake Oconee have now been suspended until further notice.
“This has been an extensive 22-day search conducted by officers from the Georgia DNR, Georgia State Patrol, and Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. We were assisted by numerous civilian search and rescue organizations, staff and other individuals associated with Westminster Schools, and many civilian fishermen and residents from Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair. Divers and dog handlers from all over Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina came here to help us and all came as volunteers,” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said.
They started their efforts in a section of the lake nearly the size of a football field that has consistently triggered responses from search dogs.
“That’s where the evidence points to where this accident or whatever occurred,” Sills said.
Sills says the area is filled with submerged trees, which can be a significant obstacle for divers.
“The trees pose a real hazard. There’s fishing lines, there’s lures, there’s ropes, there’s all kinds of stuff that’s down at the bottom,” he said.
Sills said they have deployed aircraft, all available underwater technology and professional divers.
“I cannot remember such an extensive use of government and civilian personnel and resources for an incident such as this on Lakes Oconee and Sinclair in the last 40 years,” Sills said.
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