A 21-year-old woman whose cell phone turned up inside Fort Yargo State Park has been found safe in the Atlanta area, ending a search that drew six law enforcement agencies and temporarily closed most of the Winder, Georgia park before it reopened at 6:30 p.m. Erica Gibson was reported missing Wednesday evening after her phone was discovered inside the park, and police said Friday she is no longer considered a missing person.
According to Classic City News, a City of Winder press release stated that the search began after Gibson's cell phone was found inside Fort Yargo State Park on Wednesday, September 2. Gibson was last known to be at the park that evening, and investigators soon developed a lead suggesting she had left the area entirely under her own power, a detail confirmed by CBS News Atlanta.
Winder Police Department statements cited by FOX 5 Atlanta indicated that information gathered during the investigation raised concerns about Gibson's emotional well-being, though authorities emphasized there was no indication of foul play. That distinction shaped how the search was run, with land teams and water units both deployed even as investigators worked leads pointing away from any crime.
Sonar and Dive Teams Swept the Park's 260-Acre Lake
Dive teams and Georgia Department of Natural Resources game wardens searched the park's lake using sonar equipment on Thursday, September 3, according to the CBS News Atlanta report. The lake at the center of the search spans 260 acres and sits inside a park that totals 1,816 acres with 20.5 miles of surrounding trails, per the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. That scale explains why the operation required so many hands and so much specialized gear before it could be ruled out as the scene of an accident.
The City of Winder statement, relayed by Classic City News, detailed that six local and state agencies assisted: the Winder Police Department, Winder Fire Department, Barrow County Sheriff's Office, Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division, and Georgia State Patrol Dive Team. The DNR's Law Enforcement Division has more than 180 POST-certified officers and sonar-equipped specialized vessels for search-and-rescue missions across the state's waterways.
Park Reopened Once Investigators Confirmed She Left on Her Own
Fort Yargo State Park reopened to the public at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, once investigators had confirmed Gibson left the park on her own Wednesday evening, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. Authorities had received that information Thursday, and the search at the park itself ended that evening even as the broader search for Gibson continued outside its boundaries.
Missing person notices issued by the Winder Police Department and broadcast by WSB-TV described Gibson as 5 feet 6 inches tall and 132 pounds, last seen wearing blue jean shorts and a green-gray shirt. Police believed she had left the park area on foot, and with that description circulating publicly, the search continued beyond Fort Yargo State Park.
Found Safe in Atlanta, With Few Details Released
Police continued looking for Gibson outside the park until she was located Friday in the Atlanta area, according to CBS News Atlanta. Authorities have not released additional details about where or how she was found, a choice consistent with protecting her privacy given the earlier concerns raised about her well-being. The Winder Police Department is no longer treating her as missing and has thanked everyone who assisted with the search and shared information.
Rapid coordination of this kind can involve multiple jurisdictions in missing-person cases. Public missing-person alerts can circulate information quickly. Winder police have used public missing-person alerts before, including an alert for 17-year-old Kyra Marie Reynolds, according to WSB-TV.
A Historic Park Landmark at the Center of the Search
Fort Yargo, the park's namesake landmark, was originally built in 1792 as a two-story log blockhouse by frontier settlers before the surrounding land was developed into a state park in 1954, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia. It remains remarkably preserved, and its grounds — located about a mile south of Winder along State Route 81 — were the unlikely backdrop for a search that ultimately extended far beyond the park's fence line before ending safely in Atlanta.
