The Search for Justin Gaines

Justin Gaines' mother Erika Wilson has put aside her real estate career and remains focused on finding her son. It has been 6 months now since her son disappeared from a night out with friends at a Duluth nightclub.

She spends her time printing and distributing fliers, updating the website for Justin and whatever it takes. She is pretty sure that Justin got on someone's bad side that night.

I can understand as a mother, what an all-consuming passion it must be. It's impossible to do anything else. She considers the search for her son to be her new job.

AJC Story Here

A picnic and vigil for Justin Gaines will be held on Friday May 2, 2008
5:30 to 9:00pm at Bethesda Park, 225 Bethesda Church Rd in Lawrenceville.
See www.JustinGaines.com for more information and updates.

Justin Gaines Update

Justin Gaines has been missing for five months now. Tomorrow (Monday) is Justin's 19th birthday, so it will be especially hard on the family. There is some new information in this online news article.

Justin Gaines news

Official Justin Gaines Website www.JustinGaines.com
WSB Article on Justin Gaines
WSB Video
Family gathers to remember Justin Gaines
Forensic astrologer looks at Justin Gaines case
Justin Gaines' mother launches foundation
Justin Gaines is still missing, and why you should care
Search for Justin Gaines
Justin Gaines disappearance - new updates
Search for Justin Gaines expands to Cherokee County
Difficult Christmas for Justin Gaines' family
Grainy video of Justin Gaines at Wild Bill's has surfaced

Georgia State Defense Force looking for new members

The Georgia State Defense Force is looking for new members.

MySnellvilleBlog reader and GSDF member OC O'Dwyer writes, "The larger the GSDF becomes, the more soldiers we can deploy to missions like this particular search.[the Justin Gaines missing person search] The GSDF is one of the three branches of the GA Dept of Defense that report up to the Governor: Air National Guard, Army National Guard, and GA State Defense Force."

More info on joining is available at http://www.ga-statedefenseforce.info

The photo was sent to me by OC O'Dwyer and shows some of the area that they searched on Saturday when looking for signs of Justin Gaines or clues to his disappearance. You can see how small the humans look, compared to the terrain.

See their website for details on joining. I am SO glad there are folks like this in the world.

For updates in the Justin Gaines disappearance, please visit www.JustinGaines.com

PHOTO CREDIT: CPL Bridges

Charles S. Gibson Art Collection Charitable Auction

Dr. Mark Taylor, who has the blog www.MarkSaves.com is auctioning a large family collection of pencil and ink drawings by artist Charles S. Gibson (1892-1973) not to be confused with Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944), who created the Gibson Girl, but they are still really nice artworks.

Proceeds from this fine art auction will fund a new foundation to help in funding searches for missing adults. This page of Dr. Taylor's site will give you more information, but here are some snippets of the basic information, edited and formatted a bit by me for increased readability.
Be sure to read the information about how your winning bid could be tax-deductible.

"as a contribution from ALL OF THE TAYLOR FAMILY we are offering this valuable and very personal collection for auction 75 pieces of art. For details please call Dr. Mark Taylor at 404-287-0414 for details on these cases of Kyle Fleischmann, Justin Gaines go to www.helpfindkyle.com or www.justingaines.com or www.marksaves.com HOME OF ATLANTA LIVE MEDIA for live broadcasts, and current info on these cases.

THIS AUCTION STARTS AT 2 PM on MONDAY NOVEMBER 25 2007, AND ENDS SUNDAY DECEMBER 2nd 2007 AT 2 PM. BIDS START AT $ 7,000.00"

Dr. Taylor continues:

"This is a collection of Charles S. Gibson. 1892-1973.
We have had several art enthusiasts give a value for insurance purposes, and the collection was valued between; $ 18,000.00 - $ 25,000.00, depending on the enthusiast. This collection includes pictures from his childhood to his very last piece that he actually wrote on the bottom he knew he was dying and it was his last drawing. This collection has been in our family for nearly 100 years.

"You will view some of these Pen and Ink masterpieces and see that they are created by an extremely, and unprecedented artist. The only knowledge we have of the whereabouts of any more of these are 3 which are kept by relatives. We know there are some others, but have know way of knowing where. Charles' mother was very careful to preserve as many as possible as she saw his talent early on, and knew he would become a very talented artist. She was correct as you can see. Also included is a family genealogy which he is on as well as my family that carries the family back to England in the early 1800s. We are grafted into the family by marriage, as our ancestry has been traced to Scotland exclusively, both mother and father.

Dr. Taylor has put photographs of the artworks in a Kodak picture gallery HERE

Command Center for Justin Gaines search

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. -- Family and friends of a missing Gwinnett County teen are now getting some help from a professional team of searchers.It has been two weeks since 18-year-old Justin Gaines disappeared from a Duluth bar. Thursday, dozens of volunteers scoured the area for any sign of Gaines.

Texas EquuSearch last helped find the missing grandson of an Alabama senator in Georgia. Now, they’ve set up a command center at Berkmar United Methodist Church to find Gaines.

Full story from AJC

Now from me:
Berkmar United Methodist church is on Pleasant Hill Road. The search is going on today. It started at 8:30 am. Volunteer searchers were advised to wear very warm clothes, closed-toe shoes, hats, etc. The search is being guided by the professional searchers from Texas EquuSearch, who have arrived from Texas. The founder of EquuSearch lost his own daughter in 1984, and that was the impetus for starting the search organization. It is non-profit, they do it out of the goodness of their hearts, because they have been there.

Folks on the ScanGwinnett forums are working on getting some donations of catered food, drinks, ice, etc from local businesses like Chick-Fil-A of Snellville, Frontera of Snellville, Papa John's and Pizza Hut. I think they said Frontera is donating the ice. As you can imagine, it's a big deal to feed and support a lot of hungry searchers. So if you know anyone who manages or owns a food establishment, maybe you can ask them if they can help. The location to take the things would be the Berkmar Methodist Church. I imagine they will continue to search tomorrow.