Body found yesterday in Lavonia possibly that of missing White County man

WNEG News reported earlier the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, as well as the Lavonia Police Department and the Franklin County Coroner’s Office, were investigating a body that had been found yesterday in the David Avenue area of Lavonia.

At 8 a.m. this morning, relatives of Douglas Cordell Barnes posted on the “Find Douglass Cordell Barnes” facebook page that the “they received calls last night from the Chief of Police and the Coroner, advising them that Cordell’s belongings had been found on the body discovered in Lavonia. 

The Facebook page stated, “We won’t fully know 100 percent until he can be properly identified. Here’s the hard part….it probably is him! I just want to believe even for another day that just maybe it’s not!” 

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has not yet provided an official identification of the body, or results of the autopsy. 

WNEG News and sister station WLHR reported on Barnes’ disappearance on August 14, when a $5,000 reward was offered for information on Barnes’ whereabouts.

According to that earlier report, Barnes, 36, who is known by his middle name, Cordell, was last seen on July 19 at his home in White County.  Hart County Sheriff Investigator Chris Carroll said Barnes’ gold Ford F-150 Crew Cab was located in Hart County on July 29 parked on the side of Highway 59 near Providence Church Road, also known as GA77, which is a main route into Hartwell from counties to the north of Interstate 85.

Cordell’s mother, Debbie Barnes, as well as his sister, father and others, drove to Georgia from Tulsa Oklahoma to search for him the weekend of August 12, but the search was not successful. 

Debbie Barnes said she last spoke to her son on her birthday, July 13. At the time, he told her he was planning to go camping, but she said he always camped in and around the Helen area, and had no reason to be in Hart County. She had said when Cordell’s dad picked up the truck, all of Cordell’s camping equipment was still inside 

WNEG News will continue to follow this story and provide updates as they become available.