29-year-old cold case solved, deceased Buchanan Dam man identified as murderer
This is a mugshot of Jimmy Dale McClinton from the Amarillo Police Department in 1994. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, in 2024, he was determined to be the killer of Gloria Ann Covington, who was murdered in Amarillo in 1997. Courtesy photo Texas Department of Public Safety
Texas Rangers and the Amarillo Police Department recently solved the 29-year-old murder investigation of Gloria Ann Covington, of Amarillo, who was killed in August of 1997. Using forensic testing, investigators identified Jimmy Dale McClinton, 81, of Buchanan Dam, as the murderer.
Gloria Ann Covington’s partially nude body was found by children playing at Hilltop Park in Amarillo. She had been stabbed multiple times, sexually assaulted and had several defensive wounds on her body. A cook at a local nursing home, the mother of four was last seen around 3:00 a.m. on Aug. 5, 1997, the same day her body was found, in the 1600 block of North Marrs Street.
In the years after Convington’s death, investigators went to extensive efforts to identify her killer – but all known suspects were eliminated, and the case went cold.
Decades later, McClinton was identified by law enforcement as a primary suspect in the killing in February 2024 using DNA samples collected from the crime scene that were analyzed using modern technology. While the state and authorities prosecuted him for the murder, he died in November 2025 before justice could be served.
“Through further investigation, it was learned McClinton had a documented history of knife assaults against women – including multiple incidents strikingly similar to Convington’s case,” reads a media release issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety. “He had lived in the Amarillo area at the time of Covington’s murder but was never interviewed or developed as a suspect during the original investigation. Between 1977 and 2014, McClinton had been arrested several times in the Amarillo and Waco areas.”