Augusta, GA
Augusta man missing off Georgia coast as search continues
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The Coast Guard and McIntosh County Fire Department continued searching Friday for an Augusta man who went missing off the Georgia coast, as a body was found Thursday.
Roman Waldera’s daughter spoke about the last conversation she had with her father before he disappeared while fishing.
“I actually spoke to my dad in the morning he went missing. We talked back and forth a little bit and then he told me, well, I’m on the boat. I’ve got to get going. We’re going to start fishing. And I was like, all right, we’ll be careful. I love you,” she said.
The Coast Guard called her after Waldera went missing.
“After we got the call, my first goal was to get down there and start searching the island of Blackbeard,” she said.
Community joins search efforts
Shellman’s Fish Camp and other local boat owners joined the search in Sapelo Sound.
“I mean, everybody in the area who had a boat, they were on the sound, and it ended up, I was coordinating with the Coast Guard this whole time,” Waldera’s daughter said.
She said her father’s teachings motivated her to take action.
“So my dad raised me and my grandparents to get it done. Don’t wait around. Don’t sit around. Don’t wait for someone else to do the work. If someone’s going to make it happen, it’s going to be you. And I just, I thought, what would my dad want? He’d want me down there and he would want me looking,” she said.
She described what she would do if reunited with her father.
“I think I just hugged him. I think he just hugged me because I think he knows that I was down there. I was all alone doing that, looking for him all day long. I slept in his room. I think he knows. I think he knows everything, and I don’t think there need to be any words. I think we just love each other,” she said.
The Coast Guard asks anyone with information about the disappearance to call 843-453-1261. Officials said crews not part of the official search can create unsafe conditions and hinder response efforts.
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Democratic candidate for Georgia governor Olu Brown visited Augusta on Friday evening, stopping near the Sand Hills Community Center as early voting continues.
Brown is one of six candidates in the Democratic primary.
Campaign priorities
Brown said his vision as governor would focus on three main areas.
“One, it’s affordability around health care and making sure we expand Medicaid and expand Peach Care and make sure we continue to make our rural health care systems healthy and vital,” Brown said. “Number two, we’ve got to address education in all of Georgia, making sure every kid in Georgia gets an excellent education, and we’re paying our teachers more. And number 3, we’re protecting the rights of all women. Folks in the Gold Dome shouldn’t be making decisions about their bodies or the choices that they make.”
Brown is running against Amanda Duffy, Derrick Jackson, Geoff Duncan, Jason Esteves, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Mike Thurmond.
Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – An Augusta Prep student was arrested on a charge of terroristic threats over a picture of a LEGO gun he posted on social media.
It happened Wednesday, according to an incident report from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.
Eric Hedinger, the principal of Augusta Preparatory Day School, told deputies a student had uploaded a picture to Snapchat of a “pistol” with the caption “shooting up the school so I don`t have to take the stats exam tomorrow. Don`t come yall!”
The principal said he spoke to the student and his father about the photo.
The principal also provided deputies with the student’s address in Grovetown.
A deputy went there and was told by the student that the “pistol” was a LEGO set that he had built.
He also said the comment he made was supposed to be a joke because he was not looking forward to taking his Advanced Placement statistics test this week.
The student showed the deputy the box that the LEGO set came in, and how the set was already disassembled.
The deputy also looked in the boy’s room to make sure he was not in possession of any weapons.
The mother advised that there was one firearm in the residence but it was locked up.
The deputy contacted Judge Leslie Morgan and she issued a warrant for terroristic threats.
The student, age 18, was taken into custody and transported to the Columbia County Detention Center.
News 12 is not reporting his name or publishing his photo since the LEGO gun could not have actually harmed anyone.
Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
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