It’s been nearly eight years since 18-year-old Justin Gaines was last seen alive outside a Gwinnett County nightclub. But investigators are hopeful a recent tip could finally lead police to the college student’s body.
A tipster told the Walton County Sheriff’s Office that Gaines’s body may be in a well near the Apalachee River, Sheriff Joe Chapman said Tuesday. Investigators have searched the High Shoals area for two days and have pumped several wells, but had not located anything by late Tuesday, Chapman said.
Crews will return to the area for a third day of searching Wednesday, Chapman said. Searchers will bring in sonar equipment Wednesday to search in water, he said.
Gaines was a freshman at the Oconee campus of Gainesville State College when he went home for a weekend, his family has said. On the night of Nov. 2, 2007, he left his family’s Snellville home to meet up with friends at Wild Bill’s in Duluth. But after he left the club, he disappeared.
Family members said Gaines made several calls to friends looking for a ride home that night, but no one was able to pick him up. A surveillance camera at Wild Bill’s nightclub shows the muscular teenager leaving the club about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, holding a cellphone to his ear, police previously said. Someone else reported seeing him about 2:30 a.m. outside of the club, where he appeared to be waiting for a ride.
Rewards have been offered in the case, but no arrests have been made and Gaines was never located.
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