Left inset: Joycelyn Wilson (WGXA/YouTube). Center inset: Gary Jones’ boat after it was recovered from Lake Oconee, Ga. (WGXA/YouTube). Right inset: Gary Jones (WGXA/YouTube). Background: Lake Oconee in central Georgia (WGXA/YouTube).
A death investigation and missing person case has been unfolding in Georgia that’s unlike anything local authorities have ever seen, with cops spending nearly a month looking for the fiance of a Spelman College instructor who was found dead and floating in a lake, along with her partner’s boat and shoes. The U.S. Secret Service has even been called in to assist, according to officials.
“There’s never been anybody looked for like this,” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told local Fox affiliate WAGA this week as police entered day 22 of looking for Gary Jones, husband of Joycelyn Wilson, at Lake Oconee — the last place they were seen alive together — in what officials have dubbed the largest search effort in county history.
Jones, who is believed to be dead, was boating with Wilson on Feb. 8 when they disappeared sometime that evening. His boat was found circling a portion of Lake Oconee with no one on board, roughly seven miles away from where he and Wilson were caught on video at a boat launch. Cops say they can be seen putting the vessel into the water together. Witness testimony and phone records show that whatever happened with the couple unfolded between 5:01 p.m. and 5:24 p.m., according to Sills.
“This is a huge area,” he told Fox and ABC affiliate WGXA last week. “Not to mention the cold weather and the cold water preventing normal surfacing. There is a Herculean effort going on here trying to locate his body.”
Asked why Wilson’s body would surface but not Jones, Sills said: “There was some air, and some water in her lungs. The crime lab pathologist has not rendered her final opinion yet.”
Authorities believe Wilson took several photographs with her phone before she died and went into the lake. Wilson’s phone was found in her hand when her body was found, according to police, but investigators have been unable to bypass a security code that’s keeping it locked — that’s where the Secret Service comes in.
Sills says agents have been trying to help unlock Wilson’s phone; investigators can look at its data and see a final photo was taken at 4:59 p.m. just before it lost connection and power. But they can’t view the image until the phone is unlocked.
“We don’t know what happened after that,” Sills told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.
He said the Secret Service has struggled, as well, to open Wilson’s phone, so they’re now enlisting Georgia’s Department of Corrections to assist them with the investigation as DOC claims to have a machine that could possibly crack the security code. “We’re getting ready to take it to Forsyth (DOC headquarters) today,” Sills said.
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The sheriff acknowledged that there have been rumors and theories going around about Wilson and Jones — regarding their relationship and plans to marry in a few weeks — but Sills declined to delve further.
“This is a death investigation,” Sills told WGXA after being asked about the possibility of an argument happening between the couple that led to a physical altercation. “We are investigating any aspect of that. Right now, I’m more convinced, unfortunately, Mr. Jones has drowned.”
Search efforts have been centered around a 200-acre triangular area at Lake Oconee, according to police. Activities have included the use of dogs and divers seeking to locate Jones’ body. On Monday, authorities suspended the water search until further notice.
“(Department of Natural Resources) officers and Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputies will continue to conduct daily shoreline searches and if weather conditions improve, search dogs will be deployed again in the near future,” Sills wrote in a Facebook post. “We have deployed aircraft, all available underwater technological devices, and professional divers in our efforts. 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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