Search For Abducted Kristi Cornwell Extended *found deceased*

[justmeintn]

BLAIRSVILLE, Ga. - Authorities searching for a missing north Georgia woman started interviewing nearly 200 sex offenders in nearby Tennessee Tuesday.

Police said someone abducted 38-year-old Kristi Cornwell in Georgia on Aug.11.

Cornwell was on the phone with her boyfriend when she told him she believed a car was following her. The boyfriend called police after he heard sounds of a struggle, and the line went dead.

Investigators said they believe she was abducted on Jones Creek Road in Blairsville, Ga. They later found her cell phone some three and a half miles away.

Investigators questioned sex offenders in the counties closest to the Georgia-Tennessee border. They're continuing to do road checks and neighborhood canvassing in the town of Blairsville, Ga.

Cornwell last worked as a state probation officer in 2002. She also worked at the state prison in Blairsville and for the town's county sheriff's office.

Cornwell has a 15-year-old son.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

justmeintn, Do you have a link for that??

After interviewing dozens of neighbors and 180 sex offenders, police still are no closer to finding a Blairsville mom who went missing a week ago.

Kristi Cornwell, 38, has been missing since Aug. 11.
[...]

Although concerned a possible kidnapper may be loose in the area, Blairsville residents said they are skeptical about the abduction being a random act.

The boyfriend, Davis, told investigators he was on the phone when he heard the struggle between Cornwell and her abductor. She said “don’t take me,” and then hung up, investigators said.

Davis then called Jo Ann Cornwell, his girlfriend’s mother, Bankhead said. The mother called 911.

Davis, who was in Atlanta at the time, also called police, the GBI said.

Details about those calls and the 911 tapes are part of the investigation and not available, Bankhead said Monday.

Investigators questioned Davis and Kristi Cornwell’s three ex-husbands – and have ruled them out as suspects, said her brother Richard Cornwell.

http://www.ajc.com/news/police-conti...or-117175.html

I wonder if it was somebody she encountered through her work? He may have spotted her and decided to act, or maybe even stalked her??

[justmeintn]

Link: http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=10950345

I'm hoping she is safe but I'm not so sure.

[MadeaBecBec]

BLAIRSVILLE, Ga. — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has called off the ground search for a missing Blairsville woman.

GBI spokesman John Bankhead says investigators have covered the area where they thought 38-year-old Kristi Cornwell might be. The search lasted nearly eight days across northeast Georgia and into North Carolina and Tennessee.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2.../?breakingnews

I'm praying for you, Kristi, right along with all the folks of Blairsville,GA and that you come home, alive, soon!

[MadeaBecBec]

Here's the terrain map of the road that Kristi was walking on, lots of wooded areas, I see a pond (It's been searched) and Lake Bailey, surely they have searched there!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...22638&t=h&z=16

[Dakota Valkyrie]

U.S. Marshalls and Cleveland County search and rescue crews are scouring an area in Kings Mountain local for a missing Georgia woman.

A tip came into America’s Most Wanted that the woman’s body would be found in a neighborhood off of Baltic Rd.

The US Marshall’s Office tells NewsChannel 36 that the woman they are looking for is Kristi Cornwell.
[...]

http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/...10c8e625e.html

[Shellie435]

I know at this point us "outsiders" can only pray for her safe return. Times like this I really wish there were something I could physically do. This story really freaks me out because I go for alot of walks and to think that you could be abducted in the middle of the day is scary! I hope she is found safe.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Authorities in Cleveland County have called a halt to a search there for a Georgia woman who has been missing for two weeks and is feared abducted.

Searchers looked in a wooded area for two days this week, trying to find Kristi Cornwell, of Blairsville, Ga.
[...]

Federal authorities joined Cleveland County officials in looking for the woman but were unsuccessful.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/bre...ry/907509.html

[Whisper]

Letter provides hope for family
Cherokee County sheriff’s officials ask anonymous letter writer to come forwardMonday, February 1, 2010

In what could be a lead in the Kristi Cornwell abduction, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office is requesting that the person who wrote a letter regarding her grandson to contact them immediately.

The person who wrote the letter is asked to contact Investigator Randy Cook at 557-9882.

“Every lead gives us hope,” Cornwell’s mother, JoAnn Cornwell, said Tuesday. “Anything new gives us more hope than ever. I know they get a lot of tips and many go nowhere. Anything may lead to Kristi being found safe.” On Aug. 11 Kristi Cornwell, then 38, was walking at night near her home on Jones Creek Road in Union County, Ga., when she was apparently abducted. She was talking with her Atlanta boyfriend on her cell phone.

The boyfriend told law enforcement officials he heard a conversation that sounded like she was being abducted. She screamed for help, and that was the last he heard. Her cell phone was later found by a man mowing about three and a half miles form where authorities believe she was abducted.

A Ranger woman later contacted law enforcement officials and told them that on Aug. 2, nine days before Cornwell’s disappearance on Aug. 11, she was walking to the Ranger Community Center about 9 p.m. when a vehicle pulled up from behind and knocked her to the ground. The driver got out and approached the woman, but he returned to his vehicle and drove off as another car approached.

A sketch of the man was distributed to news outlets, including the Cherokee Scout. A sketch of a possible vehicle driven by the alleged would be attacker also was distributed.

Another woman told officials in December that a man who attacked her in June looked similar to the sketch of a man who may have sought to attack the woman in Ranger on Aug. 2.

On June 5, a woman’s vehicle became disabled on U.S. 441, about 10 miles north of Interstate 20 in Morgan County, Ga., according to the Kristi Cornwell Web site. As she was removing battery cables, a man grabbed her from behind. She fought off the attacker and fled the area in her car without seeing the attacker’s vehicle. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation forensic artist sketched the suspect in the Morgan County assault with help from the victim.

During an interview with the victim by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, she said the sketch of the Ranger suspect looked similar to her attacker.

JoAnn Cornwell said Tuesday that a Dec. 20 candlelight celebration of Kristi Cornwell’s 39th birthday in Meeks Park in Blairsville,Ga., was “uplifting. It was a celebration

.”

http://www.thecherokeescout.com/arti...f411457528.txt Kristi Cornwell Law enforcement authorities are searching for a Nissan Xterra and this white man in his mid-20s with dark hair. He is a person of interest in Kristi Cornwell’s disappearance.

[Unamused Cat]

For the first time in the case, the GBI is looking at a possible suspect. GBI spokesperson John Bankhead said 42-year old James Carringer, recently from Young Harris, GA is being looked at for his possible involvement in Cornwell's disappearance.

But Bankhead said there is a problem pursuing that lead. "He's dead, we can't interview him," he said.

Carringer shot and killed himself April 8th, after being cornered in his Nissan Xterra by Atlanta police. Carringer was wanted by the Gilmer County Sheriff Office for the alleged abduction of a Kennesaw State University student. He was also charged with raping the 19-year old female.

When Carringer was stopped on Peachtree Street in Buckhead, he held police at bay for more than three hours before shooting himself.

Carringer was also wanted for the attempted abduction of a ten year old Alabama girl during an Easter egg hunt at her church in Montgomery, AL on April 4th. The attempted abduction was captured by a security camera at the church.

http://www.11alive.com/news/local/st...143838&catid=3

[sgr1966]

i hope they are sure before they close the case.

[Whisper]

UNION COUNTY, Ga. -- GBI Investigators confirm remains found in Union County are those of missing Blairsville woman Kristi Cornwell.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead told CBS Atlanta that the remains were found in some woods Saturday by a civilian in the north Georgia county, about nine miles from the area where Cornwell is believed to have gone missing in August of 2009.

Forensic anthropologists went to the scene Sunday to search and to gather evidence. Investigators then brought the remains to the GBI crime lab in DeKalb County.

Officials will attempt to make a positive identification Monday morning, according to Bankhead.

"Since she’s the only person from that area that we know of that’s missing, obviously we will check to see if there might be some connection to these remains," he said.

The GBI has scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference Monday to discuss its findings.
[....]

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/26346...10160101032011

[Dakota Valkyrie]

It was he brother that found her. How sad.

Kristi Cornwell's brother discovered her remains Saturday while searching for the sibling who disappeared nearly 16 months ago.

"I'm thankful she can now have the proper burial that she deserves," Richard Cornwell said Monday at a press conference in which GBI officials confirmed that the partially buried, burned remains were those of the former probation officer, last seen Aug. 11, 2009 walking near her parents' Blairsville home.

Investigators also said they think they know who killed Cornwell: James Scott Carringer, who first emerged as a suspect last spring after fatally shooting himself following a three-hour standoff with Atlanta police.

GBI director Vernon Keenan said Carringer was now a "strong suspect" after cell phone records revealed that he was "within a two-mile radius" the night Cornwell disappeared.

Carringer was wanted in the April 6 kidnapping and rape of a 19-year-old relative in Ellijay. While assisting in that investigation GBI agents "uncovered information that led them to pursue the possibility of Carringer’s involvement ... in Kristi’s disappearance," GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.

Carringer also emerged as a person of interest in the botched abduction of a Ranger, N.C., woman by someone seen driving away in a silver Nissan Xterra. Investigators believe that incident and Cornwell’s slaying could be related, Bankhead said.

Perhaps the most damning evidence implicating Carringer, arrested in 2000 in North Carolina for assault to inflict serious injury, was his removal of a brush guard that had been on front of his Xterra soon after Cornwell went missing.

Agents impounded two Xterras from Carringer's Young Harris home, not far from where Cornwell disappeared. The former appraiser and home builder was also suspected in the attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl from a church parking lot in Montgomery, Ala., on April 4.
[...]

Cornwell's family maintained a relentless search, renting airplanes to scout for her and sending some 80,000 fliers with information about the case to communities in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

That search was down to a single family member by Saturday. Kristi Cornwell's remains were found roughly nine miles away from where police believe she was abducted.

http://www.ajc.com/news/kristi-cornw...ed-793365.html

[Chaindrive]

That is sad.

[DingDang]

It was he brother that found her. How sad.
http://www.ajc.com/news/kristi-cornw...ed-793365.html

Oh, that is really terrible! I remember when I watched her episode of Disappeared, they made a point of saying how close she and her brother were. He even used his own Cessna to search from the air. The poor guy, I can't imagine how he's feeling right now.