Rain and wind hindered Wednesday’s search for a missing track and field coach, an effort officials called a “recovery mission” days after onlookers spotted a small, unmanned boat circling Lake Oconee.
Game wardens were notified of the empty vessel Saturday evening. By Sunday morning, the body of Joycelyn Nicole Wilson, a Spelman College instructor, was found, officials said. But her companion, Gary Jones, a coach at the Westminster Schools, remained missing as the sun set Wednesday.
The Lake Oconee incident has been deeply felt two hours away in Atlanta because both Jones and Wilson are educators. Spelman and Westminster each released statements about the victims, and social media posts about them have been flooded with comments from former students, colleagues and other mourners.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said officers did their best Wednesday to search within a 1-mile radius northwest of Wallace Dam, though bad weather held them back.
“The weather has limited the search efforts to just a couple of surface searches today,” DNR spokesperson Mark McKinnon said. ”We will likely be back out (Thursday) with a full sonar operation, but unfortunately we were not able to make much progress today."
Raindrops and wind on the surface of the lake greatly reduced the effectiveness of sonar, McKinnon said.
Officials have searched for Jones since Saturday.
The boat was seen circling near the dam on the edge of Putnam and Hancock counties around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills. By the time wardens made it to the boat, it had run out of gas, the DNR said.
Witnesses said a man and a woman had been aboard the boat earlier in the day, and officers immediately began searching the area using sonar equipment, authorities said.
By 10 a.m. Sunday, Wilson’s body had been recovered near the boat, a Sun Dolphin Pro 120 with an 18-horsepower outboard motor attached, according to authorities. The small fishing boat is rated for a 10-horsepower trolling motor, according to its website.
The same day, Sills said the DNR asked his deputies to go to The Lodge on Lake Oconee, a hotel often used by fishermen and those on weekend getaways, to retrieve personal belongings of people who were missing.
The hotel declined to confirm to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution if Jones and Wilson had stayed there.
The lodge is several miles away by water from the dam. It is not clear where the boat was put into the lake, and McKinnon said it “could have been circling for an hour or more, while also working its way across the lake.”
“We really don’t know where the occupants came out of the boat,” he added, but they are focusing their search where they believe is the most likely spot.
A spokesperson for Spelman said Wilson joined the faculty in 2007 after teaching at Howard University and American University in Washington.
The 49-year-old Atlantan was a member of the mathematics department and held the position of program director of the Spelman/Salem STEM Mentoring Program and the Women in Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering Program. She also served as program director for the Mathematics Research and Mentoring Program.
According to her staff biography, Wilson enjoyed working “math logic puzzles, watching baseball and being adventurous.”
“It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the death of a highly respected member of the Spelman College community, Senior Instructor Joycelyn Wilson,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends and the many people whose lives she touched.”
Westminster, a private school in Atlanta, said in a statement that Jones had gone missing while spending time at an area lake. His name has not been released by the DNR.
“Gary Jones is a beloved Westminster faculty member, coach and parent,” school spokesperson Liz Ball said in an email. “Our entire community is praying for his safe return and for his family during this difficult moment.”
Courtlyn Cook, a former student of Jones' who graduated from Westminster in 2011, told the AJC she felt compelled to drive to Lake Oconee from her home in St. Simons Island to help with the search Wednesday. She described Jones as one of her favorite teachers and coaches from her time at the private school.
“What makes a good school into a great school is the teachers,” Cook said during a phone interview.
Cook said she’d seen photos of Jones' boat during the search and that it appeared undamaged.
She explained that the area of the lake she helped search Wednesday was heavily timbered. Like many lakes in Georgia, sections of Lake Oconee were not cleared of trees before the lake was filled, so parts of the lake are populated with dense, underwater forests.
“You could see stumps six inches below the surface of the water,” Cook said.
Cook described Jones as a coach who always pushed his track and field athletes to be excellent, but that he also seemed personally committed to their success. Jones would often go watch his former athletes compete in college, supporting them even after they graduated, she said.
Cook still remembers Jones' science class she took in middle school. She said he fostered a culture where students who were excelling were expected to tutor those who were struggling.
“He just had a great way of touching people emotionally,” she added.
— Staff writer Joe Kovac Jr. contributed to this article. Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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