Who is the expert who found body of missing Lake Oconee boater?

A day later, he found Jones’ body.

It was a month after the discovery of Jones' empty boat on the lake, so he knew it would be challenging.

“People, they just feel better, even if they don’t find them, they feel better that they’ve tried, tried everything that they can. And so that’s the case here,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week. “I mean, it’s extremely hard, tough. The family knows that. I really hope to be successful.”

The missing Westminster School physics teacher and track and field coach vanished Feb. 8 when his small fishing vessel was spotted circling north of the Wallace Dam. The body of Joycelyn Wilson, his boating companion and fiancee, was located the next day.

Cormican’s arrival came as Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills announced last Sunday that officials would halt the daily use of cadaver dogs and divers but continue regular shoreline searches. Since then, the Putnam County Sheriff‘s Office, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and numerous volunteers have scoured the deep east Georgia lake for Jones.

Over the years, Cormican has been called to the hundreds of searches through his volunteer-based nonprofit Bruce’s Legacy, named after his brother Bruce, a volunteer firefighter who died in 1995 while trying to recover the body of a drowning victim.

Before Jones’ body was found, Cormican felt hopeful through his experience and specialized gear to inspect the hidden depths of the lake’s submerged forest. Sills said he believed the body would be found up to 80 feet down and within a couple of miles of the dam.

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Last week, Cormican said he planned to start from scratch by speaking to the person who reported seeing Jones' empty boat. He said his next step was reviewing the evidence recovered, which included Jones' wallet and a cookie with icing found in the Sun Dolphin Pro 120 fishing boat.

“I’ll listen to what the locals have done, but I don’t get hung up on what they’ve done. I don’t not search an area because they’ve already searched it, because in so many cases that’s where I find them. So I’ll do my own interviews, I’ll do my own thing,” Cormican said.

He has helped to train public safety officials on diving techniques and the use of equipment. Cormican said he was bringing about $300,000 of equipment to Georgia.

That included using sonar, which is a 4-foot-long torpedo towed about 15 feet off the bottom of the lake, during the Lake Oconee search. For areas where the sonar may not reach because of underwater trees or debris, or if a more thorough search was needed, Cormican said he would use a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) — a sonar-equipped device with a light and camera.

He said the lake resembles and underwater forest with trees poking through the surface and making things difficult to maneuver around. He estimated that at least five days would be needed on the water to cover all the areas where Jones' body could be.

“When we do find something, it’s going to give us pretty accurate GPS coordinates,” Cormican said at the time.

On Sunday, Jones’ body was found around 1 p.m. in about 45 feet of water and brought up to the surface using the ROV, officials said. Sills said the recovery proves Cormican “really knows what he’s doing.”

Over the years, Cormican has run his own dive shop in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. His trip over the weekend to Oconee was the second time Cormican was asked to assist in Georgia.

In 2021, the mother of a 24-year-old missing for three months on Lake Lanier asked for his help. Dorian Adonis Pinson’s body was found in 117 feet of water about an hour after Cormican got out on the lake, he said.

“It’s very rewarding to be able to give a family member their loved one back after they’ve been missing,” Cormican added.