CHAMBERS COUNTY, ALABAMA — Auburn University student Kyle Clinkscales vanished in January 1976 while driving back to campus from his hometown in Georgia. For nearly 46 years, his family had no idea where he was. In December 2021, his white Ford Pinto was found in a creek beneath a country road bridge in Chambers County, Alabama. DNA later confirmed the remains inside were his.
Kyle Clinkscales Left LaGrange Moose Club on January 27, 1976
Clinkscales was 22 years old and studying at Auburn University. On the night of January 27, 1976, he left the Moose Club in his hometown of LaGrange, Georgia, to drive back to campus. His family expected him to make it back safely.
He was driving a white 1974 Ford Pinto. He never arrived at school, and no one heard from him again. LaGrange sits close to the Alabama state line. His disappearance quickly became one of the region’s most puzzling cases.
Decades of Searching, Arrests, and Unanswered Questions
Investigators followed hundreds of leads, searched bodies of water, and explored the possibility that he had been murdered. Searchers checked rivers and lakes across the region. In 2005, two people were arrested in connection with his disappearance, but the case remained unresolved.
His father spent years searching for answers and died in 2007 without learning what happened to his son. Neither of his parents lived long enough to see him found. The uncertainty weighed heavily on the family.
Car Spotted Beneath Bridge in Chambers County Creek in 2021
On December 7, 2021, someone noticed what looked like the back of a car sticking out of a creek beneath a bridge in Chambers County. They called 911. The vehicle was largely hidden from view. Chambers County lies along the Georgia border, near LaGrange…