Kristi Cornwell: GBI looking for information on Georgia woman's cold case murder

UNION COUNTY, Ga. - More than 15 years after a north Georgia woman was abducted and killed while going for a walk, officials with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are hoping someone can help them learn more about her murder.

Kristi Cornwell, a 38-year-old former probation officer, disappeared in August 2009, while walking near her parents' home on Jones Creek Road in Blairsville. Her boyfriend, who was talking to her on her cell phone at the time, told police that she said a vehicle appeared to be following her, and he overheard a struggle moments later.

After more than a year of searching, Cornwell's brother found her remains while searching in the woods off of Moccasin Road in Union County.

(Georgia Bureau of Investigation)

Kristi Cornwell's body had been burned, and the medical examiner could not determine how she died, officials said. A state forensic pathologist used dental records to identify her remains.

"We're thankful that Kristi can now have a proper burial that she deserves," Richard Cornwell told reporters at a press conference announcing the discovery, his voice cracking.

Investigators had planned to search that land this month because cell phone records indicated the primary suspect, James Scott Carringer, was there the night that Cornwell disappeared. 

Carringer, 42, killed himself in 2010 after a standoff with Atlanta police who were trying to arrest him on charges that he raped a teenager in Gilmer County. Police in Montgomery, Ala., said Carringer also likely tried to abduct a 10-year-old girl during a church egg hunt there a few days earlier.

Investigators suspected that Carringer may have been involved in Cornwell's disappearance because he lived a few miles from where she was last seen and owned a silver Nissan Xterra, the same type of car spotted in the area the night Cornwell went missing.

"We have no direct evidence that Carringer is the murderer of Kristi Cornwell," then-GBI Director GBI Director Vernon Keenan said. "He remains our prime suspect based on a series of circumstances that point to him. Because we have no direct evidence, this will remain an active and open investigation at GBI."

If you have any information that could help with the investigation, call the GBI Tipline at 1-800-597-8477 or the Union County Sheriff’s Office at (706) 439-6066.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.