Authorities looking for a Georgia college student missing for more than 45 years stood a great chance when his car was found in an Alabama creek – along with his wallet, ID card, and suspected human remains.
The video in the media player shown above is from Eyewitness News on December 8, 2021 at 11:00 a.m.
Kyle Clinkscales, a student at Auburn University, was last seen on the night of January 27, 1976 when he was leaving his hometown of LaGrange, Georgia to drive back to campus in his 1974 Ford Pinto, Troup County, Georgia, sheriff said James Woodruff at a press conference Wednesday, the day after the discovery.
The 22-year-old never arrived at the Alabama school, and neither he nor the car has been seen – until maybe now.
“We looked for Kyle and his car for 45 years. We followed hundreds of tracks and never really developed anything substantial from those tracks,” said Woodruff.
He said they had drained lakes and conducted numerous searches in hopes of finding clinkers.
LaGrange is located north of Columbus in western Georgia and is approximately 20 miles from the Alabama state line.
On Tuesday, someone called 911 to report they saw a car in a creek on County Road 83 about a mile from County Road 388, said Major Terry Wood of Chambers County, Alabama, Sheriff’s Department.
When authorities arrived, they saw the partially submerged vehicle, which Wood said was visible from the two-lane road that crosses the creek.
Chambers County Sheriff Sid Lockhart said the car was found about three miles off the normal Clinkscales route back to school. Lockhart said he did not know if the area was searched when Clinkscales was first gone missing.
MORE | Woman pulled out of car on the edge of Niagara Falls and died
The tailgate of the car was open, but Lockhart said he didn’t know if it opened after years in the water or if the water level in the creek has dropped.
After the vehicle was removed from the water, local law enforcement found it was a white pinto with a Troup County license plate.
Local officials then contacted the Troup County sheriff’s office, which ran the tag number through their system and found it was Clinkscales’ car, Woodruff said.
Woodruff said the top of the car was “completely” rusted, but authorities discovered a wallet, credit cards, Clinkscales’ ID and several bones.
“We believe these people are by nature. We called the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They are currently at our facility to disassemble the car and, if they can, see what’s in it, to see how many bones there are and “if it’s actually his bones,” Woodruff said.
Woodruff said he hoped a cause of death could be established, “but we may never know”.
“Just the fact that we hopefully found him and the car is a huge sigh of relief,” said Woodruff, adding that Clinkscales’ mother died earlier this year and is still hoping her son will come home.
Clinkscales’ father died in 2007, Woodruff said. Clinkscales was an only child.
The CNN Wire
& 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia company. All rights reserved.
