Showing posts with label university of georgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label university of georgia. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

More Details On This UGA Professor..

(CNN) -- A wanted University of Georgia professor killed himself with a single gunshot to the head after he dug his own grave and covered it with brush, police said Tuesday.

The manhunt for George Zinkhan ended Saturday when cadaver dogs discovered his body in Georgia's Clarke County, about a mile from where his red Jeep Liberty was found more than a week earlier, police said.

"Zinkhan's body was found in a small dugout area in the ground, covered with leaves and debris, and it was apparent that he took significant steps to try to conceal his body from being located," a statement from Athens police said.

Law enforcement officials determined that Zinkhan, 57, committed suicide after killing his wife, Marie Bruce, 47, Thomas Tanner, 40, and Ben Teague, 63, outside a theater in Athens on April 25.

All three victims were associated with the Town and Gown Players theater group, which was holding a reunion picnic at the time of the shootings.

Police did not give any motive for the slayings but said in a statement that Zinkhan and his wife were having marital problems. Zinkhan targeted Tanner and shot him first, the statement added.

Authorities said Zinkhan arrived while the Town and Gown event was under way and got into a disagreement with Bruce. Police believe he left, went to his car -- where the couple's children apparently were waiting -- and returned with two handguns.

In addition to the three deaths, two other people were wounded, police said.

After the shootings, Zinkhan, a marketing professor at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, drove to his hometown, Bogart, Georgia, and left his children -- ages 8 and 10 -- with a neighbor.

Authorities put out bulletins across the nation for Zinkhan following the shootings and revealed that he had purchased an airline ticket in March for a May 2 flight to the Netherlands, where he owned a house.

But Zinkhan never showed up at the airport.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

It Was Pretty Obvious It Was Going To Be Him..

(CNN) -- The body of a University of Georgia professor accused of killing three people was found Saturday buried in woods near Athens, Georgia, authorities said.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Body Found Near Where Prof's Jeep Was Located

BOGART, Ga. (AP) — Police dogs searching for a University of Georgia professor accused of killing his wife and two other people discovered a body Saturday near where the teacher's abandoned Jeep was found.

Police said the body was taken to a state crime lab for identification. The body was found 1.3 miles from where George Zinkhan's Jeep was located about a week after the April 25 shootings, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department said in a news release.

Authorities planned a news conference for Saturday afternoon.

Zinkhan has been on the run since police say the marketing professor opened fire on a reunion for a local theater group a short distance from the university's campus.

Authorities said they believed Zinkhan left his two young children in the car at the time of the shootings. He was last seen dropping the children off at a neighbor's house shortly after the shooting, saying there was an emergency.

At one point, more than 200 law enforcement officers scoured the forest where the Jeep was found wrecked in a ravine near Zinkhan's home, trying to locate him. His passport also was found in the Jeep.

Bulletins were issues nationwide and authorities kept watch on airports in case Zinkhan tried to flee to Amsterdam, where he has taught part-time at a university there since 2007. Federal authorities later revealed Zinkhan had an upcoming flight booked to Amsterdam, but the professor never showed up at the airport.

Zinkhan had been a professor in the university's Terry College of Business and had no disciplinary problems, school officials said. He had taught at UGA since the 1990s and was fired after the shootings.

The shooting victims were identified as Zinkhan's wife Marie Bruce, 47; Ben Teague, 63; and Tom Tanner, 40. Two others were injured by bullet fragments. Authorities said initially they had no motive for the shooting. Later the FBI said interviews with family and friends indicated Bruce may have been considering a divorce and said the shooting was likely a domestic dispute.

Zinkhan's wife, a family law attorney, had been serving as president of Town & Gown Players, the local theater group that was having the reunion at the Athens Community Theater.

Tanner was a Clemson University economist who taught at the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs in Clemson, South Carolina. Tanner was playing Dr. John Watson in the group's performance of "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure."

Teague was one of Town & Gown's longest-serving volunteers and was married to a popular University of Georgia English professor.

Bogart is a rural town about 60 miles east of Atlanta.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Vehicle of Professor Suspected In Georgia Killings Found

(CNN) -- Investigators have found the vehicle of a University of Georgia professor wanted in the killing of three people.


Police found George Zinkhan's vehicle early Friday in northwestern Clarke County, home to the University of Georgia, the university said in a statement.

Authorities have been looking for a 2005 red Jeep Liberty that Zinkhan was driving when he was last seen six days ago after a shooting left three people dead, including his wife. Last Saturday's shootings happened at a community theater group's reunion in Athens, Georgia, just off campus.

The university fired Zinkhan from his job as a marketing professor the day after the shootings.

Zinkhan had purchased a plane ticket to the Netherlands for travel on Saturday, said Gregory Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI's Atlanta, Georgia, office, this week. Authorities have said Zinkhan owns a home in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Police Capt. Clarence Holeman identified the dead as Marie Bruce, 47, Zinkhan's wife and an Athens attorney; Tom Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63.

Holeman said it appeared that Zinkhan "and his wife were having problems."

Police said Zinkhan has relatives in Texas as well as in the Netherlands.

University Police Chief Jimmy Williams said Monday that authorities do not believe Zinkhan remains on campus or in Athens. However, he said, security has been beefed up on campus, including officers on foot patrols carrying semiautomatic weapons.

The victims were all associated with the Town and Gown Players, a theater group that was holding a reunion picnic at the time of the shootings.

"The three people we lost were a part of the rich 50-year history of this theater and, more than that, were vital members of the Town and Gown family," the organization said on its Web site.

The site described Bruce as "the binding force that held the Town and Gown community together."

"Having worked with Town and Gown for over 20 years, at one time or another she served in every capacity at the theater, artistically and administratively, from leading lady to president of the board to chief cook and bottle washer."

Police said Zinkhan arrived while the Town and Gown event was under way. According to Holeman of the Athens police, Zinkhan got into "a disagreement" with his wife. He left the scene -- police believe he went to his car, where the couple's children apparently were waiting -- and returned with two handguns.

The shootings "only took a few minutes," Holeman said. Police found eight shell casings, he said.

After the shootings, Zinkhan left the scene with his children -- ages 8 and 10 -- still in the vehicle, police said. He drove to a neighbor's house in nearby Bogart, Georgia, where he lived, and left the children there.

The neighbor, Bob Covington, said that Zinkhan arrived at his home shortly after noon Saturday with the two children.

"He rang the doorbell -- asked me if I could keep his kids for about an hour," Covington said. "I said sure, and he said there'd been some type of emergency, and he took off."

An hour or so later, Covington said, police arrived and took the children.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Breaking News: Professor Sought After 3 Shot Dead Near UGA

(CNN) -- Police are looking for a University of Georgia professor in the shooting deaths of three people on Saturday, authorities tell CNN.

Sonny Wilson, Athens-Clarke County coroner, confirmed three people were dead, but couldn't provide identities.

UGA is in Athens, but university spokesman Pete Konenkamp said the shootings did not happen on campus.

Information about the shooting was disseminated through a campus-wide alert, which identified professor George Zinkhan as a shooting suspect.

"George Zinkhan is a white male in his mid-50s with a goatee or beard. ... He was last seen wearing a polo shirt, blue shorts, and a backpack. He was last thought to be in a red car in the area of Prince Avenue," the alert said.

CNN affiliate WSB-TV said the people were shot behind The Taylor-Grady House, a National Historic Landmark on Prince Avenue.

Zinkhan teaches in the department of marketing and distribution at the Terry College of Business, according to the UGA Web site.

The incident is being investigated by Athens-Clarke County police, with campus police assisting.