Auburn University student’s remains ID’d nearly 50 years after he disappeared

Georgia investigators have positively identified the remains and belongings of an Auburn University student missing nearly 50 years.

Kyle Wade Clinkscales was last seen in 1976, while the 22-year-old was driving from Lagrange, Georgia, to the Auburn, Alabama, campus. On Sunday, Georgia’s Troup County Sheriff’s Office learned that remains found years earlier were identified as those of the long-missing student, officials revealed.

Clinkscales disappeared on Jan. 27, 1976. Investigators have long said Clinkscales was killed, and arrested two people in 2005 in connection with the missing person case. 

Police said at the time that Clinkscales’ family had received a phone call from someone who claimed he witnessed Clinkscales’ body in a barrel being covered in concrete that was then discarded in a pond, news reports said.

Investigators had another big break in December 2021, when Georgia authorities located Clinkscales’ 1974 Ford Pinto submerged in a creek near a Chambers County, Alabama, roadway. Police also located Clinkscales’ identification and bones, officials said upon announcing the discovery. 

At the time, Troup County Sheriff James Woodruff told local affiliate FOX 5 Atlanta he hoped the findings would help answer glaring questions regarding what happened to Clinkscales.

“Was he murdered and left there? Did he run off the road and wreck there?” he said during the 2021 interview. “That’s something we hope to discover, but it’s been 45 years.” 

Clinkscales’ parents died before they were able to be reunited with their son’s remains. Despite Sunday’s positive identification, investigators have still not yet released the cause or manner of Clinkscales’ death.