DNR: Agents pause search for man in Lake Lanier to catch alleged boat thief

Man charged with stealing $100K ski boat was previously banned from marina, cops said
Georgia DNR officers paused their dayslong search for a missing man in Lake Lanier to chase down a stolen ski boat valued at more than $100,000, officials said.

Credit: Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Credit: Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Georgia DNR officers paused their dayslong search for a missing man in Lake Lanier to chase down a stolen ski boat valued at more than $100,000, officials said.

The grim, dayslong search for a swimmer missing in Lake Lanier was briefly paused Tuesday as officers with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources helped Hall County deputies chase down a stolen boat.

DNR agents have spent the past week searching for the body of 29-year-old Kaiyan Ding, who they believe jumped from a boat near Holiday Marina to swim June 18 but never resurfaced. On the third day of the search, which has been complicated by submerged standing timber, those same agents were called into action as a stolen ski boat sped away from its owner.

The owner of the boat, a Super Air Nautique ski boat valued at more than $100,000, called 911 to report the theft, a DNR spokesman said. The owner provided the boat’s GPS coordinates to Hall sheriff’s deputies and that information was relayed to the DNR agents already on the lake.

The stolen boat’s owner was already giving chase in a separate boat and the DNR joined the pursuit, the spokesman said. When the DNR boat pulled up behind the ski boat and activated its police lights, the suspect surrendered. DNR officers took the man into custody and returned the boat to its owner.

The suspect was later identified as 55-year-old William Thomas Buker Jr. of Buford, Hall sheriff’s office spokeswoman B.J. Williams said. Buker was charged with felony theft by receiving, possession of methamphetamine and going inside a guard line with drugs.

Buker was also booked on an outstanding criminal trespass warrant out of Hall, according to Williams. Buker had previously been banned from Holiday Marina but was seen on the property Monday, the day before the boat was stolen, Williams said.

Buker was booked into the Hall County Jail where remains with bond is set at $8,500.

The body of the missing swimmer had not been located as of Friday. That search will continue “until all reasonable efforts are exhausted,” according to the DNR.