Search for Justin Gaines, Missing Since 2007, Continues in Walton County (Updated)

Updated, 5:45 p.m.

Walton County Sheriff’s Office posted the following on Facebook, in regards to the search for Justin Gaines:

“We are suspending operations for the day but will resume operations in the morning. We have competed searching two of the three wells. We will resume the search of the third well tomorrow and also the pond areas.”

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Officers from multiple agencies are continuing a search of an area in Walton County for a Gwinnett County man who has been missing for nearly eight years.

Justin Gaines, of Snellville, was 18 at the time he was last seen on Nov. 2, 2007 at Wild Bill’s near Duluth.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office said it has been working on a tip that Gaines’ body might be in a well in the High Shoals area near the Apalachee River.

This is an area near the Oconee and Morgan county lines.

Deputies have been searching since Monday, at the request of Gwinnett County authorities.

“Our effort to find Justin Gaines continues this morning,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post Wednesday morning. “With several agencies working together, we hope to find him or confirm that he is not there. His family has suffered and wondered for eight years. We all want to help find as many answers for them as possible.”

The Gwinnett Sheriff’s Office and DNR Rangers have been assisting in the search.

The DNR said rangers from the Law Enforcement Division are “utilizing its unique SONAR and remote underwater camera equipment to help in the search.”

Last year, a similar tip received by the Gwinnett sheriff’s office led to a search of an abandoned well near Dacula. Searchers used a back hoe to dig up the well, but turned up nothing,

Photos: Walton County Sheriff’s Office Facebook; www.justingaines.com