John and Louise Clinkscales were frustrated but not overly concerned when their son Kyle did not attend his classes at Auburn University. A familiar pattern was unfolding as the twenty-two-year-old was trying collegiate life again. Kyle had dropped out of the local LaGrange (Georgia) College the previous year after the academic demands proved too much. His second attempt was being met with similar results as his grades were still far below par.

It appeared Kyle was not college material. The elder Clinkscales believed their son had again become discouraged at not making the grade and had gone into seclusion to reflect on his life. When Kyle came out of his shell, whenever that was, John and Louise would be there to support their only child in whatever he chose to do. That day never came.

Kyle Clinkscales was last seen in the late evening hours of January 27, 1976. On December, 7, 2021, nearly forty-six-years later, his car was found submerged in a creek. Fourteen months later, remains found inside the vehicle were positively identified as Kyle’s, but the cause of death is not yet officially determined.

Kyle Clinkscales

Kyle was a junior majoring in Business Administration at Auburn University in Alabama. He worked part-time as a bartender at the Moose Club in his hometown of LaGrange, Georgia, in the west-central part of the state, only a few miles from the Alabama border and approximately forty-five miles from the Auburn campus.

After finishing his shift at approximately 11:00 p.m. on January 27, 1976, Kyle is presumed to have begun the roughly forty-mile drive to Auburn, but he never arrived at his apartment and did not attend classes for the week. On February 3, with still no word from their son, his parents reported him missing.

Kyle’s clothes and other personal belongings were in his apartment, as was his beloved cat. His roommate, Phil Langford, told John and Louise that Kyle had recently purchased food and potted plants at the grocery store.

Nothing suggesting Kyle had voluntarily disappeared. The police investigation yielded few clues suggesting what happened to him.

Vanishes

Kyle’s disappearance remained a cold case for five years until 1981. After seeing him profiled on the nationally broadcast WTBS-TV, Danny Moore of Yachats, Oregon, contacted John and Louise Clinkscales saying he believed he was their missing son. Danny told them he had been in a car accident in 1976, the year of Kyle’s disappearance, and was unable to remember any of his life prior to the accident.

Danny appeared to be the same age and was approximately the same height and weight as Kyle. Dental records, however, confirmed the amnesiac Oregonian was not the missing Georgian.

A doctor said studies of Danny’s brain showed he had suffered a traumatic but undetected brain injury at some point in his life. Police believed he was sincere in his belief that he could have been Kyle Clinkscales.

Danny Moore

In 1987, eleven years after his disappearance, Kyle’s Exxon credit card was found by a man walking his dog along a kayaking and canoe trail along Flat Shoal Creek, eleven miles south of LaGrange. The card, in remarkably good condition, had expired in 1973, three years before Kyle’s vanishing, the same year Kyle reported his wallet as being stolen. No evidence in relation to his disappearance surfaced from the finding.

Nearly three decades passed before police received a major break in the disappearance of Kyle Clinkscales.

Cold Case

In 2005, a man contacted Georgia State Police saying Kyle had been murdered by Ray Hyde, the owner of a salvage yard in the Clinkscales’ home county of Troup, Georgia. Hyde had died in 2001.

The caller said when he was seven-years-old, he had witnessed Hyde dispose of Kyle’s concrete-covered body, saying it was stuffed into a metal barrel and dumped into a private pond. The male caller, whose identity has not been revealed, told police that his grandfather helped dispose of the barrel because Hyde threatened to kill both his grandfather and him if either said anything.

Ray Hyde he was a member of the Moose Club where Kyle worked. Investigators believe Kyle may have been murdered because he had knowledge of Hyde’s criminal activities, which involved automobile theft and drug dealing.

Foul Play Claimed

Information provided by the caller also led to the arrest of Jimmy Jones and Jeanne Johnson.

Jones told police several stories, one of them being that he helped dispose of Kyle’s body, but he denied taking part in his murder. In one version, he said he found Kyle shot to death upon arriving at Ray Hyde’s home in the early hours of January 28, 1976, and that he helped Hyde drag Kyle’s body into his shop. He then claimed Hyde later told him he moved the remains into the nearby pond and then to another location which he refused to reveal, saying only it would never be found.

After the pond was drained, a metal detector indicated something metal had been in the water, but no barrel or human remains were found. Investigators also dug up Hyde’s property, but that too produced no evidence.

Jimmy Jones was sentenced to nine years in prison for hindering the police investigation into the disappearance of Kyle Clinkscales. He has since been released. Authorities say his multiple versions told to them are inconsistent, and that there is no proof that he took part in Kyle’s disappearance.

Authorities Searching The Pond

Jeanne Johnson was confirmed as being at Hyde’s home on the evening Kyle was last seen. She was released from prison in 2013 after being convicted of concealing a death, making false statements, and obstructing justice.

Neither Jimmy Jones nor Jeanne Johnson has been charged in relation to the disappearance of Kyle Clinkscales. I was unable to find pictures of Ray Hyde or Jimmy Jones.  Recent findings suggest that they, as well as Ray Hyde, may not have been involved in Kyle’s disappearance.

 

Jeanne Johnson

On December 7, 2021, nearly forty-six years after Kyle’s disappearance, a motorist reported seeing a vehicle semi-submerged in a creek off County Road 83, between LaFayette and Cussetta, Alabama, approximately midway between Auburn University and Kyle’s hometown of Le Grange, Georgia.

A wallet containing multiple credit cards bearing the name of Kyle Clinkscales was found inside the car, as was his driver’s license. The vehicle’s license plates and VIN number confirmed it was Kyle’s 1974 Ford Pinto Runabout. The car’s roof was damaged, which is consistent with information received by police.

Kyle’s Car, After Forty-Six Years Under Water

In February 2023, DNA testing confirmed the remains were those of Kyle Clinkscales. His cause of death has yet to be determined; some investigators believe it may be impossible to conclusively determine the manner. Prosecutors have stated that the most plausible likelihood off Kyle’s death is accidental, but that it is possible he was murdered elsewhere and then placed in his car which was driven into the river by his killer.

Gerald Clegg, Kyle’s supervisor at the Moose Club, said he believed Kyle had had a couple of drinks before he departed the bar on the evening he was last seen, but that he had not shown any signs of being buzzed.

Even if Kyle Clinkscales’ death is found to be accidental, former Troup County Sheriff Danny Turner believes Jimmy Jones’ prison sentence was justified because of the pain he caused by hindering the investigation.

Kyle’s Remains Are Positively Identified

How He Died Has Not Yet Been Determined

John and Louise Clinkscales founded FIND ME INC., an organization specializing in searching for missing older teenagers and adults. In 1984, they lobbied Congress to declare a Family Reunion Month, which was first observed the following year between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, May 12-June16.

Today, many social groups including churches observe National Family Reunion Month in July, while commercial enterprises generally recognize August as National Family Reunion Month.

Family Reunion Month Established 

John and Louise also traveled to the White House several times as activists in the Missing Persons movement. Among the fellow advocates they worked with were John Walsh both before he developed America’s Most Wanted and after he began hosting the show.

On April 3, 1985, Mr. and Mrs. Clinkscales were granted a meeting with President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush at the White House.

 

A White House Meeting

Kyle had come home from college to work at the Moose Club on the evening of January 27, 1976. His mother had ironed some clothes for him to take back with him, but Kyle said he did not need them and that he would instead pick them up that Friday, when he came home again. In 1981, John wrote the book Kyle’s Story: Friday Never Came about his son’s disappearance, as well as those of several other missing persons.

Friday never came for Mr. Clinkscales, as he died at age eighty-two in 2007 without learning the fate of his son.  Louise Clinkscales died on January 19, 2021, at age ninety-two, eleven months before the major break in her missing son’s case.

John And Louis Clinkscales

Kyle’s Parents

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/98175362/kyle-wade-clinkscales#

SOURCES:

• Associated Press
• Atlanta-Journal Constitution
• Charley Project
• Doe Network
• Kyle’s Story: Friday Never Came; by John Dixon Clinkscales
• Rome (Georgia) News-Tribune
• WJXT Television Jacksonville, Florida
• WVTM Television NBC Affiliate Birmingham, Alabama