LAKE OCONEE, Ga. — The wallet, driver’s license and credit cards of a missing Atlanta teacher were found in the small boat he was in before disappearing on Lake Oconee.
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Gary Jones and his fiancé, Joycelyn Wilson, were in the boat on Feb. 8 when the two vanished. Game wardens found the boat empty and circling in the water with its engine running that evening.
Wilson’s body was recovered from the lake the following day.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills says officers found Wilson’s body with a fanny pack containing cash and credit cards and her cell phone in her hand.
Channel 2′s Bryan Mims asked the sheriff whether this could have been an accident or a crime.
“Since Mr. Jones has not been found, I must approach this as if this was a criminal matter of some kind,” he said, noting that it could have been an accidental drowning. “But there’s no evidence of that boat being struck by another boat,” he said. “There’s no evidence of that boat crashing into something.”
On Monday, the sheriff’s office again used a forensic dog trained to sniff human remains in water. Bodies in water release gases that the dogs can detect. Sills said a dog experience in searching large bodies of water is coming Tuesday from Columbia, S.C. He also said the Cajun Navy, which does search, rescue and recovery missions across the country, is coming from Louisiana.
Melanie Miller, who lives in nearby Greene County, is working to rally locals to assist in the search and call the sheriff’s office if they have any information. She’s distributing flyers to businesses around the lake.
“I did not know him,” she said. “I’m just concerned about how long it’s taking for him to be found. Whatever I can, that’s what I’m trying to do. I would want to be found. I’d want someone actively searching for me, if I was in this situation, it’s heartbreaking. He just needs to be found.”
Jones is a teacher and coach at the Westminster Schools, a private school community in northwest Atlanta. Wilson was a math instructor at Spelman College.
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