After nearly a half-century of unanswered questions, officials have positively identified the skeletal remains of Kyle Clinkscales.
The 22-year-old Auburn University student disappeared on Jan. 27, 1976, after leaving his bartending job in LaGrange to make the roughly 35-mile drive back to campus. For decades, his body and vehicle were never found.
On Dec. 7, 2021, deputies with the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama pulled a white 1974 Ford Pinto believed to have belonged to Clinkscales from an unnamed creek under County Road 83, a remote area between LaGrange and Auburn University. Deputies noticed a Troup County decal on the car and contacted the Troup County Sheriff’s Office, which confirmed the connection to the Clinkscales cold case.
Credit: Troup County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Troup County Sheriff's Office
After the car was towed to LaGrange, investigators searched it and found Clinkscales’ wallet, which had his ID inside. They also found several credit cards and bones that were stuck in thick mud, Troup County Sheriff James Woodruff told reporters at the time. The remains were sent to the GBI Crime Lab for further examination.
“For 45 years, we have looked for this young man and his car,” Woodruff added. “We drained lakes. We looked here and looked there, and it always turned out nothing. Then out of the blue, we got the car, his ID and hopefully his remains.”
On Sunday, the Troup County Coroner’s Office positively identified the remains as Clinkscales, according to the sheriff’s office. The analysis was conducted by an FBI lab at the GBI’s request.
“The Coroner’s Office received this information from the GBI, at which time they released it,” the sheriff’s office 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.”
John and Louise Clinkscales continued to look for their only child for decades after his disappearance. John, who published a memoir detailing Kyle’s disappearance, died in 2007. Louise died at a LaGrange hospice facility in 2021.
A major break in the case came in 2005, when the parents received a phone call from a man who said he saw their son’s remains covered with concrete in a barrel and dumped into a pond, which belonged to Ray Hyde, a salvage yard owner and convicted car thief. The informant, whose identity has not been released, was 7 years old in 1976.
Troup County investigators speculated that Hyde killed Clinkscales because he feared the student learned of Hyde’s role in hiding stolen cars, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. Hyde owned a 50-acre salvage yard, and investigators suspected the missing Pinto was initially buried there. Authorities dug up the yard in 1996 and 2003. In 2005, they drained the pond, but the barrel of concrete and the Pinto were never found. Six months after Clinkscales’ disappearance, Hyde was arrested on numerous auto theft charges and was later sent to prison.
In the months that followed, Jimmy Earl Jones and a woman, Jeanne Pawlak “Jenny” Johnson, were arrested on charges of concealing a death, giving false statements and obstruction. Only Jones served time in prison and was released in 2013 after five years, online records show. No information was available about Johnson’s case.
About the Author
