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Listener discretion is advised. November second, 2023, marked 16 years to the day that Justin Gaines went missing. When Erica Wilson told me about the recent lead she'd received regarding a particular cove at Lake Lanier, I was determined to do everything I could to follow it through to the end. Because even if it's a long shot, someone has to at least try.

Recently, within the last maybe year, or so, I had a gentleman reach out to me and said he spoke with someone that used to date Martin Wilke. And this guy said, he asked the girl, Hey, what about Justin Gaines? And the girl says, Well, yeah, everyone knows. They put him in the toolbox and they moved him to this location. They gave me a specific location. I hadn't told anyone about it for a very long time because I don't feel like I could trust anyone.

Having people for. This one, there's a box. We have something we can look for. If it was just a body, it's so much more difficult.I'd fill Jeremy and Adam in on what it was we were doing through email and over a few phone calls, and they were already familiar with Justin's case.It's still early for us. You'll still hear stories all around about the kid of witnessing from Wild Hills.I gave them the few additional details I had. And as we had thought, our biggest issue would be the visibility.This is like two-inch visibility. You might be able to see like this close. If we see anything, we'll dive it and hopefully just find it, be able to feel it. We won't be able to see anything. It's basically going to be a lot of searching, and it might just be all searching, but we don't know until we get out here and start looking. As you guys get out here, you're just actually you're just going to be cruising back and forth.Jeremy, Adam, and myself began canvassing the area in and around the cove using sonar to see if any anomaly stood out, particularly anything that resembled a large toolbox. The cove we're focusing on sits directly across the lake from the large concrete bleachers built for the Olympic spectators and is secluded with tree cover on three sides. Honestly, it's as good a place as any to hide evidence. The average depth of Lake Lanier is about 60 feet, with the deepest point being 160 feet at the Buford Dam. But from the story I've heard, Justin's body was moved from the lake when the level dropped several feet because it became visible. So I knew if that story were true, he would have had to have been near the shoreline. So that's where we concentrated our search first.The footage of the scanning is going to be a lot of repetitive-looking footage. So until we actually see a signal. This is the right side and left side on this view. So that's just shooting out much where you're looking down straight above it. This one's in the side view. If there was a car sitting here, you'd see the side view of a car. We also have the live scan, which is this, which you can see a live image. You can turn it and get the 3D-looking shape if you see something. We were going to run that over some of these things.This is the bottom that we're looking at out to the left.That's where it's swimming. It's pretty clean, so it's pretty just flat in the sand. It's not really... Once you see something, it'll stand out.After several hours spent in the freezing cold, searching the murky waters, gliding lazily across the surface in a grid-like pattern, Adam alerts us that he's spotted something on the sonar near the mouth of the cove. We're seeing something that looks square.. It's a few different anomalies, you're saying. We're trying to weave out the If it's a block for a dock and stuff like that, there's a few that aren't by the dock, so we're not seeing. We're going to run a live scan and try to get a better image of it. We'll probably try with the magnet, even though if I was to guess, I would say it's going to be an aluminum box, but if we got lucky, it's steel. We just hit it with a magnet, and then we just follow the rope down to it and see what it is. We have an anchor on here, too. We could just get the anchor and sit next to it. Yeah, we can bounce the anchor and you can feel it in the rope. We'll just drop the anchor right there. They will have a guide rope take us right to it. Then I'll just dive down and see what it is. If it feels like a box, I'll probably just tie the rope to it, go from there.You couldn't tell what the shape was exactly, and the water was cloudy from recent heavy rains, so you could see nothing from the surface. Jeremy volunteered to put on his dive gear and take a closer look.There's something right there we'll probably have to drop down on to see what that is. Yes.The water was cold, and where we sat in the cove was hidden from the sun by the trees. By now, the fog had burned off, but a steady breeze was blowing, and the cold was biting at our fingers and faces again. Jeremy stripped down to his underwear and slipped into his thick coldwater dive suit. After several checks to make sure the equipment was working, including a comms unit, so we could communicate with him while he was underwater, he slipped into the lake. Soon after, his head sank beneath the surface, and he was gone. Everything was quiet but the home of the trolling motors keeping the boats in place and the sound of a few bubbles boiling to the surface. The water was calm and still. It was at this very moment that it hit us all that we could be we were minutes away from finding Justin Gaines. A somber feeling washed over us. It seemed to leave as quickly as it came because after several minutes, we'd lost contact with Jeremy.Do you read me? Do you read me? Copy.After several minutes of not being able to communicate with Jeremy while he was underwater, investigating the anomaly detected with Sonar, the group became increasingly concerned. Even in reasonably shallow water, Lake Lanier has any number of obstacles on the bottom to get snagged on and held down, like tree branches and discarded metal objects.Are you seeing anything down there? Over.Adam attempted to get an update from Jeremy to see if he'd found anything of underwater.Can you hear me? Over.While we looked for any signs of movement from the surface, Adam tried repeatedly to make contact. Each time, there was no response.Do you hear me?We all waited for any response from Jeremy, and again, nothing.Can you hear me? Over.We waited and waited, now becoming concerned for Jeremy's safety.Do you read me? Copy.Suddenly, Jeremy emerges from the water.Zero visibility. Cold. Found the target just laying there next to a tree stop.Thankfully, Jeremy was fine. It was the comms unit that had malfunction. The tension that was building minutes before lifted, and we waited to hear what he'd found below the surface. A flood A lot of thoughts rushed over me. Could this really be the moment after 16 years that Justin Gaines was found? If so, could forensic testing be done to determine exactly what happened to him and lead us to his killer? There was a lot riding on what we were about to hear.The second I deflated and went down, it was just brown. You could see the sun, so it wasn't pitch black. But once I started dropping down, it was just darker and dark, and I could still see the sunlight, but it was just a dark brown. I literally couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I found the anchor, and then I just started going around in a circle. I'll hold on to the anchor, and then eventually, I kicked that target with my foot, and I swam over to it and figured out it was a plastic barrel just by feeling on it. It was flimsy. The top was open.An empty plastic barrel. Sadly, another dead end. The whole group was disappointed because this was the only foreign object of interest we really saw after hours of searching. The Lake floor in this area was surprisingly clean. I suddenly have the same feeling that I imagine investigators like Carl Sims and Mike Rising must have had for years after coming up with no results from their searches, feeling like you could be so close only to be disappointed again and again. But also a pretty A profound thought hit me at this very moment, too. Something that would make me question what I was even doing at this lake in the first place. It's like a part of you wants to find Justin and find what we came for, and the other part of you is... If If he actually did find him down, you know what I mean? Do you really want to be a witness to that? I mean, it's just... God, it's such a big lake. I mean, you could do this forever, and I mean, it really is a needle in a haystack. It is a needle in a very large haystack. With near zero visibility underwater, the odds were stacked even more against us.As we discussed, Jeremy and Adam offered to come back out and do another search when the conditions were better, an offer we enthusiastically took them up on.We could spend days out here doing that. I'm all for it, not necessarily today, just because it's so horrible.Our search was done for now, and I had to give Erica the news that we didn't find Justin. If that's good news or not, I don't know.I want to thank you. You've gave me chills. For you, to put all this and go into this and what you're doing. It's amazing. I'm going to cry. I thank you so much. For real. I promise. Wow. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I don't expect anything ever, but just to know that you're out there putting that much effort into digging in really deep again. I appreciate it.I think not finding Justin was both a relief and a disappointment for her. It's this mixed bag of emotions that she's carried with her for almost two decades. But I know she's just thankful to know that someone still cares.I feel better that I know someone's actually went out there and look. So that makes me feel better. But I would never say no. If they think, it's worth a shot to take another thing when it's clearer or warmer. I understand the water is freezing right now.Maybe there is something to the stories and leads pointing to Lake Lanier. Maybe not. But just because we came up empty-handed this time doesn't mean I'm at all dissuaded. If anything, I'm more determined than ever to find the truth of what happened to Justin Gaines. I feel like each new person I come in contact with leads me a little closer to that truth.I have a really good girlfriend of mine. The father of her child got brought in for questioning this, and he failed his lie detector test. He was worried sick that something was going to happen to him. She kept asking him, Well, what did you do? Tell me, what did you do? Did you have something to do with this? And he would never tell her. I know he did fail his lie detector test asking about if he had anything to do with Justin's death, and he failed. And that's not public knowledge.Who'd you hear that from?His baby mama.Are you able to tell me his name?Leon.Drounding Creek is an original production of Waveland. I wrote and created the series and the original score. Executive producer is Jason Hoke. Associate producer is Leo Kolp. Sound engineering by Shane Freeman. Special thanks to Erica Wilson and her family. If you have any leads on this case, please contact me at info@shaunkype. Com. If you love the series, please leave a review and tell your friends. Follow Waveland on Instagram @WavelandMedia for more on this series and upcoming new shows. You can also find me on social media @shaunkypeofficial or @shaunkype. Com. As always, thanks for listening.

for. This one, there's a box. We have something we can look for. If it was just a body, it's so much more difficult.

I'd fill Jeremy and Adam in on what it was we were doing through email and over a few phone calls, and they were already familiar with Justin's case.

It's still early for us. You'll still hear stories all around about the kid of witnessing from Wild Hills.

I gave them the few additional details I had. And as we had thought, our biggest issue would be the visibility.

This is like two-inch visibility. You might be able to see like this close. If we see anything, we'll dive it and hopefully just find it, be able to feel it. We won't be able to see anything. It's basically going to be a lot of searching, and it might just be all searching, but we don't know until we get out here and start looking. As you guys get out here, you're just actually you're just going to be cruising back and forth.

Jeremy, Adam, and myself began canvassing the area in and around the cove using sonar to see if any anomaly stood out, particularly anything that resembled a large toolbox. The cove we're focusing on sits directly across the lake from the large concrete bleachers built for the Olympic spectators and is secluded with tree cover on three sides. Honestly, it's as good a place as any to hide evidence. The average depth of Lake Lanier is about 60 feet, with the deepest point being 160 feet at the Buford Dam. But from the story I've heard, Justin's body was moved from the lake when the level dropped several feet because it became visible. So I knew if that story were true, he would have had to have been near the shoreline. So that's where we concentrated our search first.

The footage of the scanning is going to be a lot of repetitive-looking footage. So until we actually see a signal. This is the right side and left side on this view. So that's just shooting out much where you're looking down straight above it. This one's in the side view. If there was a car sitting here, you'd see the side view of a car. We also have the live scan, which is this, which you can see a live image. You can turn it and get the 3D-looking shape if you see something. We were going to run that over some of these things.

This is the bottom that we're looking at out to the left.

That's where it's swimming. It's pretty clean, so it's pretty just flat in the sand. It's not really... Once you see something, it'll stand out.

After several hours spent in the freezing cold, searching the murky waters, gliding lazily across the surface in a grid-like pattern, Adam alerts us that he's spotted something on the sonar near the mouth of the cove. We're seeing something that looks square.

. It's a few different anomalies, you're saying. We're trying to weave out the If it's a block for a dock and stuff like that, there's a few that aren't by the dock, so we're not seeing. We're going to run a live scan and try to get a better image of it. We'll probably try with the magnet, even though if I was to guess, I would say it's going to be an aluminum box, but if we got lucky, it's steel. We just hit it with a magnet, and then we just follow the rope down to it and see what it is. We have an anchor on here, too. We could just get the anchor and sit next to it. Yeah, we can bounce the anchor and you can feel it in the rope. We'll just drop the anchor right there. They will have a guide rope take us right to it. Then I'll just dive down and see what it is. If it feels like a box, I'll probably just tie the rope to it, go from there.

You couldn't tell what the shape was exactly, and the water was cloudy from recent heavy rains, so you could see nothing from the surface. Jeremy volunteered to put on his dive gear and take a closer look.

There's something right there we'll probably have to drop down on to see what that is. Yes.

The water was cold, and where we sat in the cove was hidden from the sun by the trees. By now, the fog had burned off, but a steady breeze was blowing, and the cold was biting at our fingers and faces again. Jeremy stripped down to his underwear and slipped into his thick coldwater dive suit. After several checks to make sure the equipment was working, including a comms unit, so we could communicate with him while he was underwater, he slipped into the lake. Soon after, his head sank beneath the surface, and he was gone. Everything was quiet but the home of the trolling motors keeping the boats in place and the sound of a few bubbles boiling to the surface. The water was calm and still. It was at this very moment that it hit us all that we could be we were minutes away from finding Justin Gaines. A somber feeling washed over us. It seemed to leave as quickly as it came because after several minutes, we'd lost contact with Jeremy.

Do you read me? Do you read me? Copy.

After several minutes of not being able to communicate with Jeremy while he was underwater, investigating the anomaly detected with Sonar, the group became increasingly concerned. Even in reasonably shallow water, Lake Lanier has any number of obstacles on the bottom to get snagged on and held down, like tree branches and discarded metal objects.

Are you seeing anything down there? Over.

Adam attempted to get an update from Jeremy to see if he'd found anything of underwater.

Can you hear me? Over.

While we looked for any signs of movement from the surface, Adam tried repeatedly to make contact. Each time, there was no response.

Do you hear me?

We all waited for any response from Jeremy, and again, nothing.

Can you hear me? Over.

We waited and waited, now becoming concerned for Jeremy's safety.

Do you read me? Copy.

Suddenly, Jeremy emerges from the water.

Zero visibility. Cold. Found the target just laying there next to a tree stop.

Thankfully, Jeremy was fine. It was the comms unit that had malfunction. The tension that was building minutes before lifted, and we waited to hear what he'd found below the surface. A flood A lot of thoughts rushed over me. Could this really be the moment after 16 years that Justin Gaines was found? If so, could forensic testing be done to determine exactly what happened to him and lead us to his killer? There was a lot riding on what we were about to hear.

The second I deflated and went down, it was just brown. You could see the sun, so it wasn't pitch black. But once I started dropping down, it was just darker and dark, and I could still see the sunlight, but it was just a dark brown. I literally couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I found the anchor, and then I just started going around in a circle. I'll hold on to the anchor, and then eventually, I kicked that target with my foot, and I swam over to it and figured out it was a plastic barrel just by feeling on it. It was flimsy. The top was open.

An empty plastic barrel. Sadly, another dead end. The whole group was disappointed because this was the only foreign object of interest we really saw after hours of searching. The Lake floor in this area was surprisingly clean. I suddenly have the same feeling that I imagine investigators like Carl Sims and Mike Rising must have had for years after coming up with no results from their searches, feeling like you could be so close only to be disappointed again and again. But also a pretty A profound thought hit me at this very moment, too. Something that would make me question what I was even doing at this lake in the first place. It's like a part of you wants to find Justin and find what we came for, and the other part of you is... If If he actually did find him down, you know what I mean? Do you really want to be a witness to that? I mean, it's just... God, it's such a big lake. I mean, you could do this forever, and I mean, it really is a needle in a haystack. It is a needle in a very large haystack. With near zero visibility underwater, the odds were stacked even more against us.

As we discussed, Jeremy and Adam offered to come back out and do another search when the conditions were better, an offer we enthusiastically took them up on.

We could spend days out here doing that. I'm all for it, not necessarily today, just because it's so horrible.

Our search was done for now, and I had to give Erica the news that we didn't find Justin. If that's good news or not, I don't know.

I want to thank you. You've gave me chills. For you, to put all this and go into this and what you're doing. It's amazing. I'm going to cry. I thank you so much. For real. I promise. Wow. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I don't expect anything ever, but just to know that you're out there putting that much effort into digging in really deep again. I appreciate it.

I think not finding Justin was both a relief and a disappointment for her. It's this mixed bag of emotions that she's carried with her for almost two decades. But I know she's just thankful to know that someone still cares.

I feel better that I know someone's actually went out there and look. So that makes me feel better. But I would never say no. If they think, it's worth a shot to take another thing when it's clearer or warmer. I understand the water is freezing right now.

Maybe there is something to the stories and leads pointing to Lake Lanier. Maybe not. But just because we came up empty-handed this time doesn't mean I'm at all dissuaded. If anything, I'm more determined than ever to find the truth of what happened to Justin Gaines. I feel like each new person I come in contact with leads me a little closer to that truth.

I have a really good girlfriend of mine. The father of her child got brought in for questioning this, and he failed his lie detector test. He was worried sick that something was going to happen to him. She kept asking him, Well, what did you do? Tell me, what did you do? Did you have something to do with this? And he would never tell her. I know he did fail his lie detector test asking about if he had anything to do with Justin's death, and he failed. And that's not public knowledge.

Who'd you hear that from?

His baby mama.

Are you able to tell me his name?

Leon.

Drounding Creek is an original production of Waveland. I wrote and created the series and the original score. Executive producer is Jason Hoke. Associate producer is Leo Kolp. Sound engineering by Shane Freeman. Special thanks to Erica Wilson and her family. If you have any leads on this case, please contact me at info@shaunkype. Com. If you love the series, please leave a review and tell your friends. Follow Waveland on Instagram @WavelandMedia for more on this series and upcoming new shows. You can also find me on social media @shaunkypeofficial or @shaunkype. Com. As always, thanks for listening.