PUTNAM COUNTY Ga — After an extensive three week search, authorities have suspended the use of divers and cadaver dogs in the search for missing metro Atlanta coach and teacher Gary Jones on Lake Oconee.

Sheriff Sills acknowledged the unprecedented scale of the operation, noting, “A lot of people just can’t visualize what a couple of hundred acres of water surface is.” He added that he cannot recall such an extensive use of resources on the lake in the past 40 years.

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, the sheriff gave a few updates on the case.

He said he believes the body of Gary Jones is in the deepest part of the lake. Because of that, a boat could pass over the body and not even know it was there.

Despite halting underwater searches, Georgia Department of Natural Resources officers and sheriff’s deputies will maintain daily patrols along the shoreline in hopes of finding new evidence.

Jones and his fiancée, Joycelyn Wilson, went missing while boating on Lake Oconee more than three weeks ago. Wilson’s body was recovered the following day, but Jones remains unaccounted for.

Sheriff Sills described the case as “strange” and noted, “There has never been any evidence of Mr. Jones or Ms. Wilson being on land.”

The investigation remains ongoing.