Skeletal remains found in a car in a small stream about a year ago brought to an end the case of the disappearance of a 22-year-old student who disappeared 47 years ago.
The success in deciphering the mystery is mainly a result of the insistence of his parents, who did not give up in their fight to find the truth about the fate of their 22-year-old son Kyle Clinkscales, who was last seen on January 27, 1976 in his town of LaGrange, in the state of Georgia.
In an article in the "New York Times" they were defined as battle-scarred parents who set out on a "crusade" to track down their son.
At one point they even left another pair of keys to their car on the table, in case he suddenly showed up at home.
"They turned over every stone in the search," said the mother's sister, Martha Morrison.
On that fateful evening, he said he intended to drive to the campus where he studied, about 50 km away, but after getting into his Ford Pinto car, he was not seen again - until his car was discovered in December 2021.
"The ground opened its mouth and he just disappeared," his mother Louise Clinkscales told a local newspaper.
As part of the search for him, lakes were even emptied, but as mentioned, in vain, until by chance on December 7, 2021, a passerby found a car of the model he was driving in the mud of a small flow channel, and reported it to the authorities.
Unfortunately, the parents could not experience this moment of discovering the car and identifying the skeleton, as the father in 2007 from a heart attack, and the mother died in January 2021, about a year before the car was found.
The investigators found a wallet and certificates, as well as credit cards, and as mentioned also skeleton parts.
And on Sunday, the sheriff's office announced that they were able to verify that it was Clinkscales.
However, the cause of death has not been deciphered.
Their zeal to find their lost son has become an inspiration to many in America, where the disappearance of people has become a veritable epidemic.
They bought ads all over the city of New Orleans, and when they visited Hawaii they sent letters to every police station in the country.
When information was received about a person matching their son's appearance, they always went to check the report.
At least 5,000 car decals have been distributed across the US to aid in the search.
They even helped other parents raise awareness of their lost loved ones and were even invited to the White House during Ronald Reagan's presidency, to shine a spotlight on the phenomenon of child disappearance and exploitation in the USA.
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