Lake Oconee search for missing Atlanta teacher partially suspended indefinitely
Search efforts continue at Lake Oconee for Gary Jones on March 1, 2025.
PUTNAM COUNTY, Ga. - Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills announced Sunday that portions of the search at Lake Oconee for a missing Atlanta teacher will be suspended until further notice.
What we know:
On Saturday, the sheriff's office conducted its largest search effort to find Gary Jones, who has been missing since Feb. 8, since vanishing from a boat with his fiancée, Joycelyn Nicole Wilson. Her body was found the next day.
During that extensive search in the water on Saturday, officials used a helicopter, cadaver dog teams and eight divers from various states. Despite 11 dives, no trace of Jones was found.
On Sunday, after 22 days of looking, the sheriff announced he would be suspending search efforts by the divers and dogs until further notice due to the weather. The sheriff said those teams would resume when conditions improve.
In the meantime, officers from the Department of Natural Resources and deputies with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office will continue to conduct daily shoreline searches for Jones.
What they're saying:
Sheriff Sills previously told FOX 5 Atlanta that in all his 50 years of working in law enforcement, he had never seen such a big effort put into recovering someone believed to have drowned. He shared that he was grateful to see just how many people were ready and willing to assist where possible.
"Until I can formulate a more accurate list to identify everyone, please let me express my gratitude to all who have worked tirelessly for the last three weeks in this difficult endeavor. I also want to express thanks to the many people and businesses who graciously brought food and drinks for everyone. It was most welcome and makes me very proud of our community," the sheriff said. " I cannot remember such an extensive use of government and civilian personnel and resources for an incident such as this on Lakes Oconee and Sinclair in the last 40 years."
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The Source: Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills provided this update on the search for Gary Jones to FOX 5 Atlanta the afternoon of March 2, 2025.