The search for Gary Larson Jones continued Friday, Feb. 14, on Lake Oconee by multiple law enforcement and emergency rescue agencies.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said nine Georgia Department of Natural Resources boats, a DNR helicopter, one PCSD boat, a boat with the Forsyth County dive team, and Putnam County Fire Rescue boats were manned and searching the lake all day.
Sills said most of the boats were side sonar-equipped and noted that PCSD’s boat also had a unique searcher – a cadaver dog trained to detect bodies in the water. The giant schnauzer named Cyrus was there with his handler, Kathy Tompkins, of Central Georgia Search and Rescue.
“He, at some point and time in the past, found a body in 50 feet of water,” Sills said. “In my 51-year career, I have never seen a cadaver dog or a helicopter out there searching for a body plus all the game wardens, and with the [others], there are more than a dozen government vehicles out there.”
Sill said the missing boater, Jones, went out on Lake Oconee around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8. The woman he went out with, 49-year-old Joycelyn Nicole Wilson, was found dead and floating in Lake Oconee on Sunday, Feb. 9.
DNR game wardens recovered her body. At the time of her death, Wilson was a mathematics professor at Spelman College, where she’d taught since 2007, according to reports. Jones is a track and field coach at a private high school, Westminster Day School in Atlanta.
Jones and Wilson, both from Atlanta, were engaged and came to Lake Oconee apparently to celebrate his birthday. Sills noted that their boat had some birthday cake, a couple of bananas, and some water.
“There was no alcohol at all, which is unusual for boaters on the lake,” Sills said. “And he had some rudimentary fishing equipment on there, too.”
The events as they happened:
Sills explained the timeline of the events that he has confirmed using Flock cameras, security video cameras, hotel check-in reports, and witness statements:
Saturday, Feb. 8
When the couple arrived on Saturday, they went straight to the Marathon Gas Station on Greensboro Road. At Fish Tale Marina, Jones launched his 11-foot Sun Dolphin boat, equipped with an 18-horsepower engine, into the water.
Meanwhile, Wilson drove the pickup truck with the attached boat trailer to The Lodge on Lake Oconee, where she parked the vehicle and checked them into the hotel. As she did this, Jones drove the boat from Fish Tale to The Lodge, picked up Wilson, and they went out boating.
The boat was launched at approximately 3:30 p.m., and a few minutes after 5 p.m., a person called 911 and reported seeing the Sun Dolphin circling in the water with the engine running.
The boat was unoccupied.
“So, whatever happened to them happened in about an hour and a half,” Sills said.
Because of the caller’s proximity to the county line, the 911 call went to Greene County’s Emergency 911 Service. The dispatcher notified the Georgia DNR dispatch center in Grovetown. Two DNR game wardens arrived to secure the boat and search for its occupants.
Sunday, Feb. 9
The following day, DNR called Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and requested a deputy go to The Lodge and pick up the couple’s belongings.
Sills declined to send anyone at that time.
After learning from a friend about the missing couple, Lake Oconee residents Jeff and Kristy Everett took their boat out Sunday morning to assist DNR in their search.
After living on the lake for over three years and having a close family member who works at Wallace Dam, Jeff Everett was familiar with the water levels and currents that change as water in Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair is used for hydropower. He phoned his family member to see if water had been released between Saturday evening and Sunday morning and learned that it had. So, he drove his boat toward the dam to search.
“Sure enough, on our second pass through, I saw the body out there in the standing timber right close to Jumping Rock,” Everett told The Eatonton Messenger. “I started blowing my horn because DNR was way down below me, and my wife also called them, and they came up there.”
Everett helped the game wardens pull Wilson’s body from the water. Putnam County Deputy Coroner Andre Williams said her cause of death was undetermined and took the body to the GBI state crime lab in Decatur for an autopsy.
Monday – Tuesday, Feb. 10-11
As word spread about the beloved high school track coach’s disappearance and unknown condition, many volunteers joined the search party.
Sills said many civilians were out on the lake in their boats, and his office and the DNR coordinated the efforts. The sheriff expressed gratitude for all the assistance.
“Quite frankly, some of those bass fishermen have electronics that are far more sophisticated than we do,” he said. “I saw one of them has a screen on his boat as big as my desktop at the office. They’ve got way more sophisticated stuff than us.”
Parents of students at Westminster school, as well as Jones' friends and family, are reportedly searching around the lake.
Sills said no other agency is being declined if they want to assist in the search. When someone complained that he wasn’t allowing the Greene County Sheriff’s Office to help, Sills said he hadn’t told GCSO they couldn’t come. So, he said he immediately called Sheriff Donnie Harrison to ensure Harrison knew that GCSO boats were welcome to join the search party anytime they wanted to.
Sills said the side scan sonar equipment is hindered by the water’s depth and standing timber in the search area.
“It’s 80 feet deep out there, and with the standing timber, the bottom of the lake looks like Mount St. Helens,” he said.
The lake's size, which Sills described as “too broad an area to try to drag,” and the standing timbers make dragging impossible.
“I’ve done this all my life, and lakes and rivers will give up a body when they want to,” he said.
Jones’ shoes found
At some point in the search, Sills said a civilian found Jones' shoes.
“They were not found together; they were about 15 yards apart in water up against the bank,” he described. “They had no mud on them at all, so they never touched the ground.”
Sills said that no mud on Jones' shoes meant he never climbed out of the water.
“I know our lake, and I know that if I climbed out of the water and stepped onto the shore anywhere, the shoes would have mud on them,” he said. “I know because I’ve done it hundreds of times myself.”
Sills said he was confident the shoes belonged to Jones. The sheriff found out from the game wardens that they sent a picture of the shoes to one of Jones’ brothers, Mike Jones, who identified the size 13 gray Nikes as ones that looked like Gary Jones often wore.
“And also, I noticed he was wearing them in the security video at the Marathon,” Sills added.
Wednesday – Friday, Feb. 12-14
Sills announced late Wednesday evening that he had taken over the investigation with the assistance of the DNR. He said he had discussed the transition with DNR Deputy Commissioner Thomas Bernard and that it was now a “death investigation.”
“All unattended deaths, meaning those unattended by a physician, in the State of Georgia are required by law to be investigated pursuant to Title 45,” Sills explained. “As I became more aware of the circumstances and events of [Wednesday], I determined that it’s time we step in and take over this investigation.”
Noting the shoes left unattended in a boat, Sills said he wanted to ensure that the evidence chain of custody is handled as required by law.
Sills said that Wilson’s body was technically found in Greene County waters, ironically in the same place as Shirley Dermond’s body was found in 2014.
Harrison agreed that Sills should handle the case at that time because the Dermonds lived in Putnam County. Although there are no other similarities between the two cases, Sills noted that Wilson and Jones put the boat on the Putnam County side of the lake. He said that the channel in which both women’s bodies were found also is the county line.
“I don’t want people to think bodies come up and move great distances in the water on Lake Oconee,” he explained, referring to the current caused by the water taken and released for hydropower production. “That does happen, but they don’t move great distances.”
Sills again elaborated on the large number of boats and searchers. When asked, he said no efforts are being made to search for Jones anywhere off the lake because authorities believe the search has turned into a recovery.
“They just deployed some kind of a robot to the bottom of the lake because of something they saw on the bottom,” he said late Friday afternoon. “But it didn’t turn out to be anything. They are using so many [tools and equipment] that hasn’t been done before.”
This is a developing story, so please check back for updates.