HALL COUNTY, Ga. — The body of a drowning victim who has been missing since April has been found on Lake Lanier. The Hall County Sheriff's Office confirmed with 11Alive that 20-year-old Dorian Pinson's family was notified on Wednesday afternoon.
Crews were searching for a victim located in the same area Pinson went underwater. A private dive team found his body in Flowery Branch by the Old Federal Camp Ground located nearby Sunrise Cove Marina — the area where Pinson and two other people were using a rented pontoon boat on April 18.
“DNR and the dive team in Hall County have limited resources," Richard Pickering of Lake Lanier Recovery Divers said. "They spent about a week out there. After a month had gone by and the body hadn’t been recovered, the family contacted us and asked if we could provide assistance.”
Cadaver dogs from the Forensic K-9 Unit, part of the Richland County Coroner's Office in South Carolina, assisted in the search. Advanced sonar technology was provided by Bruce's Legacy, a nonprofit based in Wisconsin that helps in recovery efforts.
Pickering said the groups paid out of pocket for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of technology and equipment; however, no one would take any money out of respect to Pinson's family.
Pinson did not resurface after the group tried to go swimming. Now, it's been 86 days since he was reported missing. The two people who were rescued said they couldn't make it back to the boat because of the wind. The Greenville, South Carolina pro-basketball player is believed to have drowned that Sunday afternoon.
In April, Mark McKinnon with the Department of Natural Resources told 11Alive they searched everywhere they could along the bottom of the lake with radar, but said in 130-feet deep water with trees lining the bottom of the lake, they couldn't locate a body. At the time, McKinnon said their crews also conducted a surface search of the lake area, which involved a shoreline sweep operation, boat searches, and an aircraft.
After weeks of searching for Pinson's body, Hall County suspended its efforts.
His family, desperate to find their loved one, started a fundraising campaign to hire a private dive team in June to search for Pinson's body and bring him back home.
“The water is very complicated, because you’re talking number one, you’re on a moving surface," Michel Galliot, forensic K-9 unit handler said. "The water is moving all the time. You have the wind, the depth and here, this lake is very dangerous for the diver. It’s emotional. I feel for the family. I always think it could be one of my own. This is why I do this. It must be hard on them. It is hard on us. You can tell the dogs also feel it.”
"I just want to see his face and just be able to touch him one more time," Alicia Pinson, Dorian's mother told 11Alive on June 4.
Alicia and Johnny Pinson quit their jobs at the time to temporarily move from Greenville to a Gainesville, Georgia hotel along the lake to be close to the crews working to find their son.
The search that led to the discovery of the body on Wednesday was not an official operation performed by Hall County or the Department of Natural Resources. The team told 11Alive they were working past midnight when they found Pinson's body.
The Hall County Sheriff's Office provided this statement to 11Alive:
The Hall County Sheriff’s Office had personnel on the scene who assisted in the joint effort to recover Mr. Pinson’s body this afternoon. As stated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the body has been sent to the GBI Crime Lab for autopsy. The Sheriff’s Office role in the case is the death investigation, to ensure the facts of the incident are consistent with autopsy results. At this time the case is still active and no further information can be released.
