LAGRANGE, Ga. — A decades-long cold case for a missing Georgia college student suddenly got hot several years ago when his car was found in a creek in Cusseta, Alabama.
Kyle Clinkscales, a LaGrange native, went missing on his way back to school at Auburn University in 1976. For 45 years, police had very few answers.
But that changed in 2021 when his white Ford Pinto was found along with bones and his wallet with his ID and credit cards. Over a year later, Clinkscales' skeletal remains were positively identified -- a whopping 47 years after his death.
Clinkscales and his 1974 Ford Pinto went missing on Jan. 27, 1976 were last seen at the Moose Club in LaGrange, according to officials.
But on Tuesday, Troup County Sheriff James Woodruff shared new information about the case based on results that came in from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab. The GBI medical examiner officially listed the cause of death for Clinkscales as "undetermined," and the case is now closed unless further evidence is discovered in the case, which still leaves Clinkscales' family answers as to how he died.
“I want to once again thank my team of Investigators, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations and the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office for their hard work to finally close this case after more than four decades," Woodruff said in a statement.
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