10-03-2025
Body of missing high school coach in Georgia found in lake month after reported missing
March 10 (UPI) -- The body of a high school coach was found one month after he and his fiancee were reported missing aboard a 12-foot boat in central Georgia.
Gary Jones, a physics teacher and the track and field coach at private Westminster Schools in Atlanta, was found on Lake Oconee about noon Sunday, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
He was located in about 45 feet of water and about 100 yards from where the body of Jones' fiancee, Spelman College instructor Joycelyn Wilson, was located one day after they were missing on Feb. 8. They had planned to get married this Friday
The man-made reservoir is about 84 miles east of Atlanta.
"This has gone on for 29 days, the longest rescue or recovery that I've ever been involved in in my half-century in law enforcement," the sheriff told The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
He was last seen alive when he launched the boat at Fish Tale Marina to celebrate his 50th birthday.
Once his boat was in the water, Jones steered it to the hotel, where he picked up Wilson.
The empty two-seater boat and his sneakers were found floating about 3 miles northwest of the Wallace Dam, which separates Oconee from Lake Sinclair to the south toward Milledgeville.
Wilson's body was found the next day. She was 49, according to her obituary.
Searchers used sonar, cadaver dogs, helicopters and drones.
The search was suspended March 3.
Authorities turned to Keith Cormican, founder of Bruce's Legacy, a Wisconsin-based volunteer organization that provides search and recovery operations for drowned victims.
Cormican used its advanced sonar equipment to locate Jones.
"He's very successful, very well known around the country, and he's literally traveled the world finding bodies," Sills said.
His new $85,000 side-scan sonar can see about 100 feet underwater.
Cormican trawled much of the deep-water portion of the lake Saturday, and Sunday focused on shallower water's standing timber.
He called it "an underwater forest."
"We went into the timber this morning and we just started our search, mowing back and forth," he told The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
"It's a very emotional feeling, knowing that we were going to be able to give them their brother back," added Cormican, who started his nonprofit in 2013 in honor of his firefighter brother who died in a drowning rescue.
Jones' brother, Michael Jones, was informed the body was found.
"This has been probably one of the worst 29 days of our life. And, and we depended heavily on our faith," Michael Jones told WMAZ. "Our Heavenly Father brought us through. He's still sustaining us, and we have come to a new level of faith, of strength, and we just encourage everyone to continue to pray for us," Michael said.
The independent Christian K-12 school has an enrollment of about 1,900 students.
On Monday, the Westminster School President Keith Evans released a statement, .
"Gary had such a positive impact on his students over the course of more than two decades at Westminster and he enjoyed the respect and affection of his fellow teachers and coaches as well as parents and alumni," Evans said.
