Another thing that could suggest he hit a deer - the front left headlight is missing.
The investigators think that the hatch rusted out over time, like you said, and popped up. Only that clean corner of the rear hatch was visible, so like 18 inches(ish).
The passerby who called it in was a truck driver, so it's possible that his vantage point from sitting up higher in the truck is why he was able to see it and others didn't. I will say that the other night local reporter Elizabeth White posted on
her Facebook page seeking help to identify the person who made the discovery to interview them. Another truck driver commented on that post and said that he had also seen the car like a month ago and didn't call it in because he thought it was just a door. He never imagined the creek was deep enough to conceal an entire car. So I do think that you probably had to be sitting up higher or physically looking over the bridge to see it.
I think you're right regarding the truck driver's high vantage point.
The picture of the car on the creek bank in the story you linked
is much higher resolution than any I've seen before, and I noticed a few things.
On reviewing the photos, a few things bother me a bit. The first is one you asked about before, the hood. Those were quite heavy (I often worked on a friend's old and dilapidated '72 Pinto when I was in college) and had some very sturdy hood hinges. I see one of them in the high-res photo, sticking up. It's the passenger side one. I think I see the other in the photo you provided of the engine compartment; it's down. That got me to wondering about whether the hood was recovered. I see some differences in the roof between the recovery photo and the later ones on the tarp. Could the hood have been partially off, and the recovery crew placed it on the roof for the haul-out, and it's just not there in the latter photos?
I also noticed (in the high-res recovery photo) that I'd misinterpreted the pictures before. I was wrong when I said the frames around the door windows were intact; that's not true of the passenger side. It;s canted out at about 25 degrees, and the window is gone. There is a linear horizontal crease in the door. I'm having a lot of trouble envisioning the dynamics of an impact that would cause that while not harming the upper edge of that door window frame in any way that I can see. My only guess is this might possibly have been done during the recovery (yanking the door open to look inside, such as for the VIN). It it was not done in the recovery, I'd say that backhoe story looks more and more plausible.
The back axle is indeed out of line, though the usual method of hauling a car out of a ravine or water is to hook onto the back axle. I'm guessing this could easily have caused the issue, as well as springing the frame.
I found the comments by the retired sheriff extremely interesting. If indeed that testimony about caving the top in with a backhoe was given prior to the finding of the car, that would fit in a lot of ways. A big one that comes to mind is that the suspect owned a scrapyard, and damaging the vehicle to make it look like it had been in a wreck would be a means of disguising it as a salvage vehicle. Likewise, some missing parts (such as the hood, wing mirror (Driver's side; it never had one on the passenger side), gas cap, headlight, headlight bezel, both forward side running lights, gas cap, etc) would fit the theory that, for a while, the car was in a scrapyard and mined for parts. I'm very curious to know if any other parts turn up missing.
The reported testimony throws up a lot of red flags for me, such as this line from the story;
"The equipment wasn’t working, the man told Hyde. At that point, Hyde reportedly said, “I’ve got to get that Clinkscales’ blood off the backhoe.”
So, Hyde just up and randomly confessed to having blood on the backhoe, and named the victim, to the guy he's trying to get it back from? At the very least, that's an invitation to blackmail. On the other hand, criminals often hang themselves via their own mouths, so I guess that indicates nothing.
Another troubling aspect; the 16 year old and the 7 year old were cousins, and their stories match. That ought to be a concern, seeing as how, with them being cousins, they've likely spoken to each other about this over the years, which can taint memories even without ill intent. For example, they might have witnessed a murder, then later heard of Kyle Clinckscales, and thus fit details from his story into their memories. So, even if it turns out that Kyle's death was a car accident, I think there might still have been a murder those boys saw.
On the flip side, it's possible that the retired sheriff might have motive to obfuscate a bit, if the convictions he obtained were wrongful. Or, he may be exactly how he comes across; frustrated that they didn't get the clues they needed in time.
My hunch is that the car body will reveal far more than the autopsy, one way or another. For example, if the damage was done by a backhoe, the marks, plus the stress vectors elsewhere on the frame, should be detectable. I also hope they'll be on the lookout for any incongruously missing car parts.
If this was foul play, my current wild guess is that the car wasn't stashed on Hyde's property, but somewhere else. The sheriff did say that Hyde's son agreed to the search, so where they on the right track, but looking in the wrong place? Or was the car at Hydes and missed in the search? The sheriff said they searched where the warrant allowed, so were certain areas off-limits? I wish I knew roughly where that salvage yard was - if it was close to where the car was found, that might mean something.
One more observation; it puzzled me for a bit as to why the passenger side of the car showed more paint, plus more corrosion. The back hatch waterline finally clued me in; that side would have been upwards at about 45 degrees, so my guess is leaves and other debris settling on that side. They'd expose the paint when the came off during recovery, and also increase acidity due to decay, hence more corrosion.
Edit; upon seeing after posting that there may be an issue with al.com not being an approved site, I have removed a link to it. I'll link here instead solely to the picture of the car, as it's the only high-res picture I've seen, there's no doubt as to its authenticity, and it's rather important to the case.
https://www.al.com/resizer/N4Shj9dh...m/advancelocal/AIVLO4DWLJCGHAW4DHOPKEOOTE.jpg
dang I wish I took Physics!
