TROUP COUNTY, Ga. — A sheriff’s office has closed the cold case of a Georgia student who disappeared decades ago after a crime lab listed his cause of death as “underdetermined.”

Kyle Clinkscales disappeared in Jan. 1976 on his way back to Auburn University from LaGrange, Georgia. He was 22.

The case went cold, but 45 years later, Clinkscales’ car was found in an Alabama creek.

The Troup County Sheriff’s Office then confirmed that skeletal remains found in the car belonged to Clinkscales. This week, investigators received a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that listed the manner of death as “undetermined.”

Sheriff James Woodruff says his office is marking the case as closed unless more information is found.

“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.

©2024 Cox Media Group