LAKE OCONEE, Ga. — Fierce winds posed a challenge Thursday for search teams looking for a missing teacher on Lake Oconee.
It’s been nearly three weeks since Gary Jones, a teacher and coach at Westminster School in Atlanta, disappeared while boating. He was with his fiancé, Joycelyn Wilson, whose body was recovered from the water the next day.
“The wind is really playing a factor,” said Richard Pickering of the Emergency Dive Response Team, a volunteer group based at Lake Lanier. On Thursday, he had volunteers in six boats using sonar and cameras mounted to poles to search underwater. “But with these wind conditions, the boats are bouncing around, makes it very dangerous for the searchers to be out here doing that.”
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He told Channel 2′s Bryan Mims that winds were steady at about 17 miles an hour, though gusts were much higher.
Another obstacle is all the dead trees under the water.
When the lake was impounded in 1979, many wooded areas near the shoreline were left standing.
“Most of the trees have rotted off here above the water, and they’re six inches down below the surface,” Pickering said. “And there are hundreds of them, and they are only indicated by the buoys that are out here.”
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He said highly trained divers are coming in this weekend to search these wooded areas. “And they’re gonna try and attempt to actually swim this entire area here and see if they can come up with some results,” Pickering said.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has teams searching the lake daily, using boats equipped with sonar. It also launched a helicopter Thursday morning.
“While there are no significant updates at this time, search efforts remain ongoing,” said DNR spokesperson Haley Chafin. “Residents near Lake Oconee may notice increased patrols and aerial activity as the operation continues.”
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