The hopes of family and friends that two men who vanished on a fishing trip would be found alive were dashed Friday when their bodies were pulled from Lake Lanier on the ninth day of searching.
Divers pulled the bodies of the two missing 20-year-olds from the lake Friday afternoon, about 30 feet from a boat dock, the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office said.
The bodies of Mason Cox and David Wood, missing since Jan. 2, were found in the area of Fredericks Cove, said Maj. Tony Wooten of the sheriff’s office. Investigators had not determined what happened to the men, but there were no initial signs of trauma, Wooten said. Autopsies will be conducted on both men, he said.
Cox and Wood took an early morning fishing trip and apparently returned to one of their homes, police said. But after that, the two best friends seemed to have disappeared, even leaving their fishing poles behind.
The friends’ mothers had pleaded publicly for help in locating their sons.
“My son left his cellphone, his wallet, the shirt that he was wearing that night, it’s all in his room,” said LeaAnne Cox, Mason’s mother.
Investigators had been searching the lake for several days, but efforts were hampered earlier in the week by icy conditions. The GBI assisted in the investigation. Using sonar equipment, Department of Natural Resources investigators identified possible “targets” for divers to search for Friday, Wooten said. The Dawson sheriff’s office then contacted the Hall County Sheriff’s Office dive team, he said.
Divers located the body of one man around 5:30 p.m., Wooten said. The second man was pulled from the lake about 15 minutes later.
About the Author
