Human bones discovered inside a submerged automotive close to the Georgia-Alabama state line in 2021 have been matched to a school scholar who had been lacking for 47 years, a Georgia sheriff has mentioned.

Kyle Clinkscales, 22, of LaGrange, Georgia, vanished in January 1976 after leaving the membership the place he labored as a bartender to return to high school at Auburn University in neighbouring Alabama.

Investigators received a break within the chilly case in December 2021, when somebody noticed a automotive in a murky Alabama creek.

The 1974 Ford Pinto pulled from the water belonged to Mr Clinkscales, and a few of his belongings had been nonetheless inside. So had been about 50 bones, together with a part of a cranium.

The workplace of Troup County Sheriff, James Woodruff, introduced in an announcement that forensic checks by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI have concluded that the bones discovered contained in the automotive greater than a yr in the past are Mr Clinkscales’ stays.

“At this time, an official report has not been completed or released by the GBI as it relates to a manner of death,” in accordance with the sheriff’s assertion.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Nelly Miles confirmed on Wednesday that investigators haven’t decided how Mr Clinkscales died or whether or not foul play was concerned.

In 2006, Jimmy Earl Jones pleaded responsible to creating false statements to authorities about Mr Clinkscales’ loss of life and was sentenced to 4 years in jail.

Jones had advised investigators that Mr Clinkscales was fatally shot by another person, however he gave conflicting accounts that prosecutors decided had been ineffective to uncovering the reality.

Pete Skandalakis, the previous district legal professional who prosecuted Jones, mentioned after Mr Clinkscales’ automotive was discovered that the “most plausible explanation” for his loss of life was that he unintentionally ran off the street.