Car Belonging To Student, Missing For 45 Years, Found With Human Remains Inside

A college student at Auburn University left his hometown of LaGrange, Georgia, on the night of Jan. 27, 1976, never to return. He was driving back to his campus in a white 1974 Ford Pinto when he went missing. Forty five years later, the case now sees a major development after 911 dispatchers received a call about a car partially submerged in a creek in Cusseta, Alabama.

Kyle Clinkscales was 22 years old when he went missing in 1976. Investigators said they had been searching for his car for more than four decades and even drained lakes in the hopes of finding him, according to ABC News.

“For 45 years, we have searched for Kyle and his car. We have followed hundreds of leads and never really had anything substantial develop from those leads," Sheriff James Woodruff of Troup County, Georgia, said at a news conference Wednesday.

On Tuesday, a man saw what appeared to be a car in a creek off County Road 83 and called 911; the vehicle was spotted from the two-land road that runs over the creek. Authorities arrived at the scene to find a white automobile partially submerged.

The car was retrieved with its top completely rusted away. Inside the vehicle was a wallet, credit cards, and Clinkscales' ID. The car was confirmed to be the same 1974 Ford Pinto that belonged to Clinkscales, and had several bones inside, according to CNN.

"We believe those to be human in nature. We've called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They are currently at our facility taking that car apart and if they can, looking at what's in it to determine how many bones are in there and if they are indeed his bones," Woodruff said.

Although investigators hope to find out exactly what led to Clinkscales’ untimely death, Woodruff said, “We may never know.”

“Just the fact that we have hopefully found him and the car brings me a big sigh of relief," the sheriff added.

Clinkscales’ parents died before they could know what happened to their only child who had gone missing decades ago. His father passed away in 2007 and his mother, who never lost hope of her son returning home, died in January this year.

Two decades after their son disappeared, Clinkscales’ mother spoke to 11Alive about her son’s disappearance. "We haven't given up hope yet. Until you've got something tangible to say (his body's been found), we won't give up hope," said the mother, Mary Louise Clinkscales.

Sheriff Woodruff said investigators have been hoping the day would come where they could tell the mother what happened to their son 45 years ago.

“It was always her hope that he would come home. It was always our hope that we would find him for her before she passed away,” Sheriff Woodruff said.