A student traveling to Auburn disappeared 45 years ago. His car was just found in a creek.

Asha C. Gilbert, USA TODAY
·2 min read

Officials in Georgia announced they have found the vehicle of an Auburn student who went missing more than four decades ago while traveling back to campus.

On Wednesday, The Troup County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook that they found the vehicle belonging to Kyle Wade Clinkscales, 22 at the time, who went missing on Jan. 27, 1976 after leaving LaGrange to head back to Auburn University.

He never arrived on campus and his white two-door 1974 Pinto Runabout was never found.

The cold case got a significant break when the Chambers County Sheriff's Office found a vehicle submerged in a creek on Tuesday in Lanett, Alabama, according to the Facebook post. The vehicle had a Georgia tag with a Troup County decal and the VIN matched the same car Clinkscales was last seen driving.

Two-door 1974 Pinto Runabout pulled out of a creek in Alabama matching the VIN of the car Kyle Clinkscales was last seen driving.
Two-door 1974 Pinto Runabout pulled out of a creek in Alabama matching the VIN of the car Kyle Clinkscales was last seen driving.

"For 45 years we have looked for this young man," Troup County Sheriff James Woodruff said during a news conference. "We’ve drained lakes and we’ve looked here and looked there and run this theory down and that theory down and it’s always turned out with nothing."

Inside the vehicle, deputies found a wallet with Clinkscales ID and several credit cards. They also found several bones they believe to be human, Woodruff said during the press conference.

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The vehicle was transported back to the Troup County Sheriffs Office and is being processed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

Woodruff said at the press conference that Clinkscales' father passed away in 2007 and his mother died earlier this year.

"It was always her hope that he would come home," Woodruff said. "It was always our hope that we would find him for her before she passed away. Just the fact that we have hopefully found him and the car brings me a big sigh of relief."

Follow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Car of missing Auburn student found 45 years later in Alabama creek