A Young Harris man who shot and killed himself following a standoff with Atlanta Police is being investigated in the disappearance of Blairsville prison guard Kristi Cornwell, missing since Aug. 11.
James Scott Carringer, 42, was wanted in the April 6 kidnapping and rape of a 19-year-old relative. He shot himself two days later following a three-hour standoff with police in Buckhead.
It was then that GBI agents investigating Cornwell's disappearance began to look at Carringer, GBI spokesman John Bankhead told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They later discovered that Carringer had gotten rid of a brush guard that had been on front of his Nissan Xterra soon after Cornwell went missing while taking a walk not far from her Blairsville home.
A white or light-colored SUV had been spotted in the area that same night, which prompted a Ranger, N.C., woman to contact authorities to tell them that she was nearly abducted nine days earlier and 25 miles north by a man driving a silver Nissan Xterra with a brush guard.
"The combination of the silver Xterra and the proximity of the cases made us look closely at [Carringer]," Bankhead said.
The rape of the 19-year-old relative took place on a dirt "logging-type" road off Ga. 515 in Ellijay, Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson told the AJC. That's about an hour from Carringer's residence in Young Harris. Blairsville is even closer, some 10 minutes away.
Carringer also is a suspect in the attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl from a church parking lot in Montgomery, Ala., on April 4.
"Agents are doing everything they can do," Bankhead said. "They are still looking at [Carringer]," though the GBI spokesman stressed he is not yet considered a suspect.
Cornwell’s mother said she was told Carringer was a "person of interest,' "but that was no more than any other tip," Joanne Cornwell told the AJC. "I think unless they get something concrete, they don’t know for sure."
Cornwell said she's not giving up hope that her daughter will turn up alive.
“I still have to have hope that she’s still out there. I don’t have anything to say that she’s not,” she said.
Bankhead said investigators have been to Carringer's home and impounded his car. The Gainesville Times reports Carringer was married with teenage children.
"We're kind of hoping he didn't do it," Bankhead said. "If he did, we may never find Kristi."
--Staff writer Kristi E. Swartz contributed to this report.
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
