Kristi Cornwell Family Releases Home Video to Generate Leads
Aug. 19, 2009 — -- The family of a missing Georgia woman has released home video of their cherished family memories in hopes the images will generate new leads in a search with few clues.
Kristi Cornwell, kidnapped more than a week ago while taking a walk near her Blairsville, Ga., home, can be seen on the 1994 video bouncing her then-infant son on her lap and opening Christmas gifts.
Cornwell's brother, Richard Cornwell, told ABC's Atlanta affiliate WSB that the family has set up a reward fund to encourage anyone with information to come forward.
"We're trying to get this reward fund built up," he said, "And we want this awful predator or predators put behind bars."
Cornwell, 38, was snatched off the street last week while on the phone with her boyfriend.
The FBI has joined the effort and police have set up road checks to question drivers who may have seen anything that could be a clue.
"I just know God is looking after her," Jo Ann Cornwell told "Good Morning America" Monday of her daughter. "And she has great faith in God. And that's where I'm putting my strength."
Mike Ayers, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told WSB that the FBI would bring in a behavioral scientist and assist with cell phone information.
Cornwell, mother to a son, Brody, now 15, was on her cell phone with boyfriend Douglas Davis as she was out for a stroll around 9 p.m.
Davis told police that Cornwell said a car was approaching her. He then heard a struggle and Cornwell yelled, "Don't take me".
Then Davis lost reception.
Jo Ann Cornwell said Davis' next call was to her to tell what he had heard. Horrified, she then called 911.
"It terrified me," she said, her voice cracking. "I couldn't believe what he was saying."
Cornwell's brother, Richard Cornwell, told "Good Morning America" that investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are still unsure whether his sister's abduction was random or if she was targeted, possibly in relation to her job as a former probation officer.
"Her son needs his mother back, and I need my baby back," Jo Ann Cornwell said, crying. "And we believe we're going to get her back."
Cornwell's cell phone was found Friday evening, according to police. A man was mowing his lawn when he found the phone, more than three miles from where investigators believe Cornwell was kidnapped.
Richard Cornwell said that single piece of evidence has given the family the most hope that Cornwell would be brought home.
Found along a major thoroughfare, not the back street from where Cornwell disappeared, the phone indicates the kidnappers' route, Richard Cornwell said.
"That's very encouraging to me, because we know the direction of travel," he said. "We know they were heading north on State Route 325."
From there, he said, they could have driven into Tennessee or North Carolina. Or, he said, just doubled back into Georgia.
"That gives me hope that there is still a good chance she's out there somewhere," he said.
Police, however, have told ABC News that they may soon be forced to scale back their search.
