Skeletal remains found in Georgia ID’d as those of Kristi Cornwell

Bones found in a wooded area in Georgia have been positively identified as the remains of Kristi Cornwell, a 38-year-old woman who disappeared on August 11th, 2009.

Cornwell was out walking near Blairsville the evening she was last seen alive, talking to her boyfriend on a cell phone when she was presumably abducted. Her boyfriend heard her scream and say “don’t take me!” before the call was terminated. Since Cornwell’s disappearance, her family has mounted a massive search and offered a reward of $50,000 for her safe return or information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for her disappearance.

A man wanted for questioning regarding Cornwell’s disappearance shot himself before police were able to talk to him about the case:

Investigators eventually came up with a possible suspect, James Carringer, 42, who once lived in Young Harris, in North Georgia. When police located Carringer, and surrounded him in Atlanta, he killed himself.

Carringer was also suspected in other attacks — a woman at Kennesaw State University in Cobb County, GA, and a girl in Alabama.

But the GBI never closed the Cornwell case, never officially solved it.

Dental records were used to identify Cornwell’s remains, and it was not disclosed by police under which circumstances the body was located.