Officials: Bones found inside submerged car identified as university student missing 47 years

TROUP COUNTY, Ga. (WTVM/Gray News) - Investigators in Georgia identified the skeletal remains found in a car submerged in a creek in 2021 as those of a college student who had been missing for 47 years.

Kyle Wade Clinkscales, a 22-year-old Auburn University student, went missing on Jan. 27, 1976. He was working at the Moose Club in LaGrange at the time and was driving back to Auburn University when he was never heard from or seen again.

Authorities recovered a car that belonged to Clinkscales from a creek in Chambers County on Dec. 7, 2021.

The 1974 Ford Pinto was taken to the Troup County Sheriff’s Office and was processed by the sheriff’s office and agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Personal belongings of Clinkscales, along with skeletal remains, were also recovered. The remains were sent to the GBI Crime Lab for examination.

On Sunday, officials said the remains were positively identified as those of Clinkscales.

An official report has not yet been completed or released by the GBI as it relates to a manner of death, according to WTVM.

Copyright 2023 WTVM via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.