Sheriff taking over investigation of death at Lake Oconee as search continues for 2nd boater

He said Gary Jones, a track and field coach at the Westminster Schools, had not been found Wednesday after days of searching a vast stretch of open water above the Wallace Dam, a dozen or so miles south of I-20.

“Where he is, we don’t know,” Sills said, adding that they are looking for his body.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said that search efforts, including the use of sonar equipment, resumed Thursday.

The department’s “mission is the same — to locate and recover the male victim of the boating incident," spokesperson Mark McKinnon said. The department is ready to assist the sheriff’s office in the case, he added.

On Wednesday, the search was hindered by rain and wind. The DNR has described those efforts as a “recovery mission.”

The small boat that the two were in was found idling and circling by some people in a pontoon boat, Sills said. That group called 911 after happening upon the empty craft.

Sills said he and his investigators have obtained video of the couple launching the boat some 9 miles away by water, roughly two hours before the pontoon boaters spotted the empty vessel.

The pair can be seen in video footage launching the boat from Fish Tale Marina at a ramp along Ga. 44, just across the Lick Creek branch of the lake and The Lodge on Lake Oconee, where the couple had been staying, Sills said.

The hotel declined to confirm to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution if Jones and Wilson had stayed there.

The sheriff said Jones drove the boat across the water and met Wilson at the hotel, where witnesses were said to have seen them ride away together.

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