Disappearance of Kyle Wade Clinkscales

circa 1976

22-year-old Kyle Wade Clinkscales worked as a bartender two nights a week at the Moose Club in LaGrange Georgia. Kyle was a junior at Auburn University in Alabama. He was Majoring in Business at the time.

On January 27,  1976, at 11:00 p.m. he had left the Moose Club and was believed to be going 35 miles to Auburn University. He left in his vehicle a two-door, white 1974 Pinto Runabout with the GA license plate number CEF-717 and VIN number  4T11Y207954. This was the last time he and his vehicle had been seen. His parents a week later on Feb. 3 reported him missing.

It was unlike him to leave without telling anyone. He was fairly close with his parents and would either call and or left notes if he planned on leaving. His father initially thought he had left due to his grades and stress. Kyle had enrolled in Auburn University straight out of high school, but he could not keep good grades and then transferred to Lagrange University where he eventually dropped out.  He renrolled at Auburn and changed his major from education to business. He planned it a little better, but his grades weren't as good as he wanted. His father just thought he had left with a new identity. 

In 1987 a man in Troup County, Georgia found Kyle's Exxon credit card at the Flat Shoal Creek area. Police searched the area but did not find him. 

In 2005 a man called his family and admitted that Kyle was dead. He told them when he was 7 in 1976 he witnessed the disposal of the body. He claimed that Kyle had concrete poured on him and he was stuffed in a barrel and dumped in a pond. A search of his body turned up nothing, but it could be the body was moved for they had found a 3-foot dip where his body might have been.

The tipster did lead them to the arrests of Jimmy Earl Jones and Jeanne Pawlk Johnson. Jones had been convicted of concealing a death, making false statements and hindering the apprehension of a criminal. Johnson was convicted of concealing a death, making false statements, and obstruction of justice. Neither was convicted of murder because it was believed to be done by a man named Ray Hyde. 

Ray Hyde had died in 2001. His salvage yard was searched for Kyle's Pinto, but it was not found. They are unsure why Kyle was killed it could though be because he knew something of Hyde's criminal doings like car theft. On the find a grave website though it is concluded that Kyle might have double-crossed Hyde in a drug deal and this was why he died. 

Kyle was a white 22-year-old male. He was 5'11 and 156 lbs. He had brown hair and hazel eyes and may have had a mustache. He has a previous fracture to his ring finger. He was wearing a denim or suede jacket, a multi-colored blue shirt with a tie, and denim jeans. 

His father did write a book about his disappearance. You can find it here.

Other Images:

Circa 1976

Age Progressed to 56

Age Progressed  to 61

SOURCES:
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/426/5
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/clinkscales_kyle.html
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=98175362
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/797dmga.html
http://www.walb.com/story/13605745/college-football-coming-to-phenix-city