GAINESVILLE, Ga. — The family of a Hall County father who was found dead near Lake Lanier is opening up for the first time after being left with more questions than answers.
Investigators with the Gainesville Police Department said that Kenneth 'Kenny' Holland was last seen on Aug. 18. His body was found deep in a ravine off Pearl Nix Highway across from Gainesville High School.
Kenny's dad lives in Spalding County but would drive two hours to Gainesville and then back home just searching for any sign of his son. In an exclusive interview with 11Alive, Ken Holland said that eventually, he knew he wouldn't see his son alive again. The family finally got the call on Sunday.
"There's no way to put it into words. There just really isn't. It's unnatural to lose a child," Holland said.
His firstborn child is gone, and he didn't even get to say goodbye. Holland's son was only 34 and a father to a 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy.
"For me to see that visually with my own eyes, to see how much he loved that baby, it was the proudest I've ever been of him," Holland said.
The family described Kenny as loving, patient and kind. When no one could get in touch with him on Aug. 19, that's when the panic started to set in, Holland said. His truck and belongings were left at the hotel where he was staying. They officially reported him missing 48 hours later.
"The detective called me after I had filed the missing person's report. I was about 15-20 minutes from home, and I pulled over to start looking for the pictures. It dawned on me, the detective needs pictures of my child. That's when I just, I lost it. I started crying," Holland said.
While investigators searched, the family looked, too. Search groups from all over Gainesville and nearby areas helped. Holland's company Wingstop was even offering a $5K reward for any information that led to Kenny.
In the middle of their search, a Ring video of Kenny running through an apartment complex close to the hotel where he was staying was sent to them. It's the last time they'd see him alive. Holland said his son looked scared but that he was still hopeful.
"Hopeful that he's alive. He's breathing. But then once you dig into the circumstances and everything else behind it, that the hope kind of goes away," Holland said.
After 14 days of searching, the family ended up just yards away from where Kenny was found dead, close to Lake Lanier.
"I'm kind of glad I'm not the one that found him," Holland said.
But he still wants to know what happened to his son after everything they went through to find him alive.
"I want the timeline. What happened? What caused him to fall down that ravine? How did he end up in that situation? What was he running from? You know, I'd like to sit here and have a conversation with him, but now I can't," Holland said.
Right now, police said they don't suspect foul play in his death and said that Kenny had an altered state of mind at the time he went missing.
The family told 11Alive they had just spoken to him the day before he went missing, and he was acting normal. The detective on the case told them Tuesday that there's a possibility Kenny hit his head on rocks in the ravine.
We're still waiting for an official cause of death and toxicology reports to come out to learn more, and we will provide that information once we receive it.