Missing Blairsville woman’s cell phone found

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The cell phone belonging to Kristi Cornwell was found Friday evening about three and a half miles from where she was apparently abducted.

The latest piece of evidence is one of just a few clues police have revealed in the disappearance of the 38-year-old Blairsville resident.

A man mowing his grass on Nottely Dam Road spotted the phone and alerted police, according to John Bankhead, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesperson.

Union County Sheriff Scott Stevens confirmed that the phone belongs to Cornwell, who has been missing since taking a walk Tuesday night.

Cornwell was talking on that cell phone to boyfriend Douglas Davis when she was taken, according to police. Cornwell was down the street from her family’s home, and Davis was in Atlanta, according to the GBI.

“It’s been heart-wrenching for me to have been two and a half hours away and be unable to get to her,” Davis said Friday night. Davis, 53, called Cornwell his fiance.

After hearing Cornwell’s frantic cries for help, Davis called Union County police at 9:20 p.m. to report what he had heard.

Since then, more than 100 searchers from at least 15 agencies have helped search for the missing woman, according to Bankhead. Earlier Friday, blood hounds were brought in to assist in the mission.

The area around where the phone was found has now been sealed off, Bankhead said. Police are conducting road checks in the area, and the search will resume around Nottely Dam Road on Saturday.

Some of Cornwell’s personal items had previously been found along Jones Creek Road, and witnesses have reported two suspicious vehicles in the area. But the GBI has released little other information about what the investigation has revealed.

“We have some leads,” Bankhead said. “We’ve had a lot of calls from the public.”

Davis, who said he is not in Blairsville and is with his family, wants to avoid attention from various media outlets that have focused on the efforts to find Cornwell.

“I’m trying to avoid the circus atmosphere,” said Davis. “I just don’t feel like it’s appropriate.”

Friends and family members asked others to pray simultaneously at 7 p.m. Friday.

“If we all stop and pray at one time, that’s one huge prayer going up,” said Steven Donaldson.

Donaldson, whose girlfriend Sherry Kimsey is a close friend of Cornwell’s, created a group on Facebook for those hoping for the woman’s safe return. More than 800 people on the online social networking Web site had joined the group by 10 p.m. Friday.

Cornwell’s friend Tahni Canfield said it’s hard to believe something like this could happen in the small, northeast Georgia town. Jones Creek Road is a rural, two-lane, country road, Canfield said.

“When you cut down Jones Creek, that is a nothing road,” Canfield said. “Every time I’ve been to her house, I’ve never even passed a car on Jones Creek Road.’’

As searchers continue looking for clues, others say they’re clinging to hope that Cornwell will be found unharmed.

“She’s going to be fine,” Canfield said. “She is extremely smart. She thinks things through very, very carefully.”