Georgia professor sought in 3 shooting deaths

By Russ Bynum The Associated Press
Posted: 04/26/2009 09:52:43 AM PDT


Independent bio technician Gordy Powell works at cleaning up the crime scene at Athens community theater where three people were killed and two others wounded Saturday in a shooting, Sunday, April 26, 2009, in Athens, Ga. (The Associated Press)ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - Authorities had few leads Sunday as they searched for a University of Georgia professor who disappeared after his ex-wife and two other men were shot to death outside a local theater company near campus.

George Zinkhan, a 57-year-old marketing professor, was last seen Saturday afternoon by his next door neighbor when he dropped off his two young children at the neighbor's house and said there was an emergency. Zinkhan left in his red Jeep and hasn't been spotted since.

Authorities were monitoring airports in case Zinkhan tried to head to Amsterdam, where he owns a home, or Austin, Texas, where he has relatives. Zinkhan hasn't used his credit card or any ATM machines as far as authorities can tell, but investigators haven't been able to focus on a particular area, Holeman said.

"Not when you've got 50 states to cover," he said Sunday. "He could be anywhere."

Meanwhile, friends of the victims dropped off flowers and lit candles Sunday morning in front of the Athens Community Theater. The three victims - identified by police as Zinkhan's ex-wife, Marie Bruce, 47; Tom Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63 - were members of Town & Gown Players, a local theater group that was staging a performance of "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure" this weekend at the theater. Two others were hurt by shrapnel.

LaBau Bryan, a member of Town & Gown Players since 1988, said Bruce cast her in her first role with the group, in the "The Makado." On her way to church,

Bryan dropped off a small vase containing an English dogwood, azalea and iris - one for each of the victims.
"It's a personal loss," Bryan said, crying. "It's a terrible, terrible blow to the theater."

It was midday Saturday when members of the theater group had gathered at the Athens Community Theater a short distance from campus. Some described it as a reunion, a homecoming of sorts, for past and current group members. Most were inside the theater, while a small group was gathered around a few benches outside.

Holeman, the police captain, said an argument erupted between Zinkhan and one of the victims. Holeman said police believe Zinkhan walked away, but later returned with two guns and opened fire on the group.

Each victim was shot multiple times, according to the county coroner.

Holeman also said Zinkhan had his son and daughter with him when he went to the theater, but left them in the Jeep when the shooting occurred.

SWAT members, guns drawn, later swarmed Zinkhan's tidy middle-class suburb about seven miles from the campus and searched his two-story colonial house. They also searched his office at the university, which had issued a campus-wide alert immediately following the shooting as a precaution.

The university was advising students "to use your best judgment in taking precautions while this suspect remains at large."

When Zinkhan dropped his children off, he told his neighbor, Robert Covington, that he needed someone to watch them for about an hour because of an emergency.

Covington said when he asked Zinkhan's daughter about the emergency, "all she would relate to me was there was something about a firecracker."

Zinkhan and Bruce were still living together with their children, Covington said.

Zinkhan, who has a doctorate from the University of Michigan, is a professor at UGA's Terry College of Business and had no disciplinary problems, university spokesman Pete Konenkamp said. Before joining the school in the 1990s, he held academic positions at the universities of Houston and Pittsburgh.

"His track record is impeccable as far as his teaching credentials," Konenkamp said. "He's a respected professor on campus."

Bruce, a family law attorney who specialized in divorce cases, had been a member of Town & Gown Players for several years and currently served as the group's president.

Tanner was set to play Dr. John Watson in the "Sherlock Holmes" play, which was canceled. Teague - whose wife, Fran Teague, was a longtime professor at the university - had also been a longtime member of the group, describing himself on his Web site as "a confirmed theater bum."

Shane Clayton, a Town & Gown member, said the group was in shock, describing Bruce as "very outgoing, very high-spirited" and Tanner as a wonderful person.

Athens attorney Ed Tolley said he and Bruce, who graduated from the University of Georgia's law school, worked on cases together.

"She was a wonderful person," Tolley said, "Redheaded, very attractive, very professional, and a wonderful mother."

Dana Adams, who lives across the street from Zinkhan, said she didn't know the family well, but described the professor as "kind of a strange character" who would sometimes walk off in the middle of a conversation.

"But I would never suspect this," she said.

Associated Press writers Harry R. Weber, Bernard McGhee and Shannon McCaffrey in Atlanta contributed this report.