Teen still missing, more searches planned for Tuesday

Published 7:58 pm Monday, February 23, 2009

Dana Massey, mother of Brett Thomason, said she feels as if “the life has been drained out of me.”

“My heart is just aching,” Massey said Monday.

The 19-year-old Thomason, a 2008 graduate of Southeast High School, went on a boating trip Thursday evening with friends. Thomason’s family reported him missing about 12:45 a.m. Friday after he did not return.

Since then, dozens of people with several state and local agencies, as well as many private citizens, have been looking for Thomason. A search began around 1 a.m. Friday and a few hours later, rescue workers found Thomason’s boat and oars, as well as some wet clothes, on the bank of the Whitfield County side of the Conasauga River north of Tilton Bridge Road, near Stanley Road.

“We had about 23 people involved in the search (Monday), and unfortunately it wasn’t successful. There were no discoveries. Tuesday the Department of Natural Resources will provide several officers and some of their boats to drag the river,” said Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office Maj. John Gibson.

Gibson said they plan to drag the river near where Thomason’s boat was discovered.

Authorities have also asked people living near the Conasauga on the south end of Whitfield County to search their property and out buildings for any sign of Thomason.

“When someone is lost and disoriented, especially in cold weather, it’s just instinct to get into some building away from the cold,” said Gibson.

Family members plan another community search for Thomason as well Tuesday. They are asking those who can to meet at 9 a.m. at Riverbend Baptist Church to take part in the search.

“I am asking anybody that will come to help. They need to dress warm, wear boots, and if they have a cell phone, bring that with them. The more people we have the better. I know Tuesday is a workday, but the more people that can come out the better,” said Massey.

Family members say Thomason had enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was supposed to report to boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., in mid-April.

Massey said authorities have told her they do not know what has happened to her son.

“The GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) guy told me he did not think Brett has run away. He said that Brett’s truck is at home, he had no resources, no billfold and no money. So he doesn’t think he ran away. He doesn’t know where he is at but he doesn’t think he ran away,” she said.