Family relentless in search for Kristi Cornwell

Almost three months have passed since Kristi Cornwell went out for an evening walk  and seemingly walked off the face of the Earth.

The Cornwell case in Union County has followed the same path of other missing persons cases that were not resolved quickly – intense media coverage at first and then virtually nothing.

Her family, however, has been relentless.

“When they [state and local law enforcement] scaled down their aerial and ground searches, we felt it was important to the family to ramp up our ground and air searches,” said Richard Cornwell, the missing woman’s brother.

“What we’re doing is working our way out from the abduction site and the cell phone site. The law enforcement searchers searched about a five-mile radius [from those two sites] and were picking up from that. We’re trying to avoid searching areas that law enforcement has already searched.”

On Thursday, a helicopter piloted by ESPN NASCAR commentator Andy Petree was the first to touch down at the “helicopter landing zone” that was marked Wednesday in a field belonging to the Cornwell family.

Petree agreed to devote some of Thursday afternoon to one of the searches that have been held almost daily since Kristi Cornwell disappeared on Aug. 11 from Jones Creek Road, a short distance from her parents’ house near the small North Georgia town of Blairsville.

There were no traces of the 38-year-old woman in the area where she supposedly was walking when someone in a white SUV grabbed her. Searchers did find her cell phone three miles away, seemingly tossed out the window of a car, but that has provided little information as well.

Investigators have ruled out Kristi Cornewell’s boyfriend, Douglas Davis of Carrollton, and her three ex-husbands as suspects. They have also discounted the registered sex offenders in several surrounding counties, including some in North Carolina. Agents have checked the criminals Kristi Cornwell supervised when she was a probation officer several years ago.

“This is a very difficult case,” said Mike Ayers, the agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s office in nearby Cleveland. “It’s so complex. There’s very little to go on. No one saw her being abducted. There is not a plethora of physical evidence.”

A week after Kristi Cornwell disappeared, law enforcement backed off the ground search in the area.

And now, “it’s very much a traditional criminal investigation,” Ayers said. “We’re still trying to develop and track leads. At this point, we don’t know where Kristi Cornwell is and we are still searching to find her.”

Kristi's family is searching as well.

Her father, Harold, uses maps of the law enforcement searches in August along with his own to dispatch searchers to areas “strategically” chosen. Most evenings are spent on the phone recruiting searchers for the next day.

The family alerts media outlets of every development.

This week, in a series of e-mails sent on one day, the Cornwells distributed pictures of the progression of construction of the helicopter landing site.

First there was a picture of three two-by-fours laid out in the field; the grass had not been mowed. Then there was a photograph of a windsock as it was being installed nearby. Richard Cornwell notified the media that Petree would stop on his way to cover a race and join the search for an afternoon.

That was followed by another photograph of the now-painted markings on the mowed grass for the helicopter landing spot.

They still have to install lights, a fence and aviation markers before the helipad is completed.

Joan Scanlon-Petuski -- who runs a nonprofit in Charlotte that helps families who have missing adult relatives -- said the Cornwells' actions almost follow a script she has seen other families follow.

"Their mindset is they aren't giving up," said Scanlon-Petuski, who founded the Kristen Foundation after her 18-year-old neighbor disappeared a decade ago.

“They can’t believe it happened. They just need to find her. They’re still in that mode [of] ‘hurry up and move so we can find her.’ They are moved to check out every space and not give up at all … Even if it doesn’t come out to the answer they want, they have to find her.”

As for the official investigation, Ayers said GBI agents have “developed some information that’s useful. We’ve talked to, literally, hundreds of people since this investigation began and we will continue to do this.”

The family is offering a $50,000 reward, and family members have appeared on the television show “America’s Most Wanted.”

There is a Kristi Cornwell Web site that has a link to PayPal for any monetary donations.

The Cornwells are fixing up a house on some family land where pilots who help with the search can sleep. Richard Cornwell is hoping for two loaned helicopters and their volunteer pilots this weekend.

“We believe she’s alive,” Richard Cornwell said. “We believe we’re going to bring her home alive. That’s why we’re working so hard. Every minute counts in this situation. We don’t want her endure this any longer than she has too.

Richard Cornwell said the family has funded virtually the entire operation.

“It’s financially draining for some families and most of the families I work with run out of money after the first few months,” Scanlon-Petuski said.

But the family Web site also offers for sale buttons, coffee mugs and t-shirts imprinted with Kristi’s image and the message “until Kristi comes home.”

The family bought an address list and they have printed 60,000 postcards with information about the disappearance and the GBI’s tip line.

So far, 33,000 postcards have been mailed to every house in Union, Lumpkin and White counties in northeast Georgia and to Clay County in North Carolina. The remaining 27,000 are now being mailed to addresses in Towns and Fannin counties in Georgia and Cherokee County in North Carolina.