Remains of college student who vanished in 1976 found in car at bottom of creek – Law Officer

TROUP COUNTY, Ga. – Human remains were located inside a Ford Pinto that was discovered in a body of water in Alabama in 2021. Now, more than a year after finding the skeletal remains, authorities positively identified them as belonging to a long-missing college student.

Kyle Wade Clinkscales was 22 when he vanished. He was last seen the night of Jan. 27, 1976, leaving the Moose Club in LaGrange, Georgia. He was reportedly returning to school at Auburn University where he was enrolled as a student. However, he never arrived, which created a decades-long mystery that caused heartache for his parents; something they took to the grave as his father John died in 2007, and his mother Louise passed away in January 2021, CBS 42 reported.

Kyle’s 1974 Ford Pinto Runabout was found in December 2021 in a creek in Chambers County, Alabama, a mile from County Road 388. His ID and wallet were found inside the car along with human remains.

The vehicle was taken to Troup County, Georgia, where the case was re-opened. Deputies at the time said they recovered about “50 different skeletal remains to include a partial skull bone” in addition to some personal items that belonged to Clinkscales.

The Troup County Sheriff’s Office wrote at the time:

“Once they arrived on scene, they recovered the car from the water and it appeared to be an older model Ford passenger car with a 1976 Georgia tag with a Troup County decal. Chambers County contacted the Troup County Sheriff’s Office for assistance in trying to run the tag information. The Troup County tag office was contacted and investigators in our criminal investigations division began to check for any records we may have had.

“After verifying information, it was found that the tag and VIN matched that of a 1974 Ford Pinto Runabout which was the same car that Kyle Clinkscales was last seen driving on the night of January 27th.”

On Sunday, officials confirmed that they have identified the remains as belonging to Clinkscales. Troup County Coroner Erin M. Hackley made the announcement, Law&Crime reported.

“The vehicle was transported to Troup County at which point investigators located skeletal remains,” Hackley wrote in a statement. “The remains were turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations for DNA analysis. On February 19, 2023, the Troup County Coroner’s office was notified that the remains have been positively identified as Kyle Wade Clinkscales.”

Authorities have yet to determine a cause and manner of death as the investigation remains ongoing.

“Upon further discussion with the GBI, this analysis was completed by a FBI lab at the request of the GBI,” Troup County deputies said. “At this time an official report has not been completed or released by the GBI as it relates to a manner of death. We certainly appreciate the work of the FBI and the continued work of the GBI in this case.”

Jimmy Earl “Slim” Jones pleaded guilty in 2006 to giving false information to law enforcement officers in the case, according to AL.com. He claimed that another man, Ray Hyde, who died in 2001, killed Clinkscales. Nevertheless, a prosecutor at the time attacked his inconsistent statements as “absolutely useless to us.” Jones was released from prison in 2013.

Kyle’s father John Clinkscales wrote a book in 1981 about his son’s disappearance, titled, “Kyle’s Story: Friday Never Came.”

“We generally measure our lives as ‘before” and ‘after’ the disappearance,” John wrote in the book, CBS 42 reported.

After Kyle disappeared, the Clinkscales’ explored every possible theory about what may have happened to their son. Was he killed? Did he just leave?

“I don’t think he ever got out of Troup County that night. I think whatever happened to him happened that night,” Louise told the Associated Press in 2005.

“We just keep telling ourselves that he might just have wanted to make it easier on us by disappearing… rather than telling us he was dropping out, or staying in school when he felt he was being a burden on us,” John told the Montgomery Advertiser in 1978.

In “Kyle’s Story,” John wrote that there seemed to be only one realistic answer.

“The only explanation we can come up with that fits all unanswered questions is for an accident to have happened, somewhere, taking him and his car out of sight,” he wrote.

Although Kyle’s parents have passed away, his aunt Martha Morrison from Oxford, Alabama traveled to LaGrange with law enforcement officials after the car was found in 2021.

“It was a shock because after 45 years, you tend to know that it’s out there, but you don’t think about it every day,” Morrison told CBS 42 at the time. “It was just an emotional breakthrough.”

Now surviving loved ones wait to hear if officials can determine if foul play was involved or what it merely an undiscovered accident.

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