mysteriew
A diamond in process
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Nearly 30 years ago, Kyle Clinkscales, a 22-year-old Auburn University business major from LaGrange, left his part-time bartending job at the LaGrange Moose Club to return to his campus apartment 42 miles away in Alabama.
He never made it.
The young man vanished on Jan. 27, 1976, seemingly into thin air. His white '74 Ford Pinto was never found. Neither was Clinkscales' body.
But a fresh tip from a man who was a child at the time of Clinkscales' disappearance led to an arrest Wednesday.
Last month, Kyle Clinkscales' parents, John and Louise Clinkscales, received a telephone call from a man who said that as a 7-year-old he witnessed the disposal of their son's body. The caller said he was with his grandfather when he saw the body, covered with concrete in a barrel, dumped into a pond.
Although a search of the pond in recent weeks failed to turn up a body or barrel, authorities have arrested a man they say is connected to the long-ago disappearance
Troup County Sheriff Donny Turner said deputies arrested Jimmy Earl Jones, 63, an employee with the Heard County road department, before dawn Wednesday at a convenience store where Jones stops every day.
Jones, who is being held without bond in the Troup County Jail, is charged with concealing a death, hindering the apprehension of a criminal and two counts of making false statements. Jones was not charged with murder.
"We're in the middle of getting some good statements. [Jones is] in the middle of cooperating. We've got a lot of stuff to sift through," Turner said.
The sheriff said investigators believe Ray Hyde, who died in July 2001, "is the one that did the killing."
The caller said he and his grandfather were threatened that "if they opened their mouths, they'd be murdered too, and [the caller] had to live with that for 29 years," she said
Authorities drained the one-acre pond, about two miles from Hyde's property, "and there was a 3-foot dip. We dug there and couldn't find anything," the sheriff said.
Based on other information, the sheriff said, authorities believe Hyde later moved the body from the lake and buried it elsewhere. "There's a good chance the hole we found in the lake is where [the body] was. Jimmy Jones may not know where it was moved, but we're not quitting yet," Turner said.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0405/14clinkscales.html
He never made it.
The young man vanished on Jan. 27, 1976, seemingly into thin air. His white '74 Ford Pinto was never found. Neither was Clinkscales' body.
But a fresh tip from a man who was a child at the time of Clinkscales' disappearance led to an arrest Wednesday.
Last month, Kyle Clinkscales' parents, John and Louise Clinkscales, received a telephone call from a man who said that as a 7-year-old he witnessed the disposal of their son's body. The caller said he was with his grandfather when he saw the body, covered with concrete in a barrel, dumped into a pond.
Although a search of the pond in recent weeks failed to turn up a body or barrel, authorities have arrested a man they say is connected to the long-ago disappearance
Troup County Sheriff Donny Turner said deputies arrested Jimmy Earl Jones, 63, an employee with the Heard County road department, before dawn Wednesday at a convenience store where Jones stops every day.
Jones, who is being held without bond in the Troup County Jail, is charged with concealing a death, hindering the apprehension of a criminal and two counts of making false statements. Jones was not charged with murder.
"We're in the middle of getting some good statements. [Jones is] in the middle of cooperating. We've got a lot of stuff to sift through," Turner said.
The sheriff said investigators believe Ray Hyde, who died in July 2001, "is the one that did the killing."
The caller said he and his grandfather were threatened that "if they opened their mouths, they'd be murdered too, and [the caller] had to live with that for 29 years," she said
Authorities drained the one-acre pond, about two miles from Hyde's property, "and there was a 3-foot dip. We dug there and couldn't find anything," the sheriff said.
Based on other information, the sheriff said, authorities believe Hyde later moved the body from the lake and buried it elsewhere. "There's a good chance the hole we found in the lake is where [the body] was. Jimmy Jones may not know where it was moved, but we're not quitting yet," Turner said.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0405/14clinkscales.html
