Authorities in Georgia have announced on Wednesday that they discovered human remains they believe belong to a college student who vanished in 1976 while driving to Auburn University, a report said.
According to Fox 5, Georgia authorities were informed after a submerged car was located in a creek near a road in Cusseta, Alabama. The vehicle, which was a 1974 Pinto, was pulled from the water. Investigators say they found human remains and identification that belong to Kyle Wade Clinkscales, the missing student who disappeared on Jan. 27, 1976. Clinkscales was 22 when he vanished.
Clinkscales’ disappearance and the events leading to it have been a mystery. However, investigators hope that the few bones could provide some fresh information.
Investigators have previously revealed that Clinkscales was murdered. As a result, two people were arrested in connection with his disappearance. The two suspects told police that Clinkscales’ parents received a call from a man who said he witnessed the disposal of their son’s body, which was covered with concrete in a barrel and dumped into a pond, according to news reports. The two people were accused of making false statements.
A sheriff in Troup County, James Woodruff, told reporters that the search for Clinkscales has been extensive.
“We’ve drained lakes, and we’ve looked here and looked there and ran this theory down and that theory down and, it’s always turned out nothing,” he said.
Deputies confirmed to Fox 5 that they recovered a Ford car with a 1976 Georgia tag and a Troup County decal. Authorities said the tag and VIN matched the car Clinkscales was last seen driving before he vanished.
“Was he murdered and left there? Did he run off the road and wreck there? That’s something we hope to discover, but it’s been 45 years,” Woodruff asked, saying he would like to see what state investigators recover from the car.
Both Clinkscales’ father and mother have died since his disappearance. His father passed away in 2007, while his mother died earlier this year. It pains Woodruff that neither the father nor the mother was alive to find him before their death.
“It has always been the mother’s hope that her would one day come home,” Woodruff said.
