Cops search woods for prof. suspected in killings

[May 02, 2009]  BOGART, Ga. (AP) -- Officers in pickup trucks bounced down dirt roads and search helicopters whirred overhead after authorities found the Jeep of a former professor suspected of killing his wife and two others. The academic, however, was proving a much more elusive target than the wrecked vehicle found in a ravine.

Authorities said they think George Zinkhan's Jeep had been in the dense woods of northeast Georgia for several days and could have crashed or been left soon after the April 25 shootings. The professor, an avid hiker, hasn't been seen since he dropped off his two children with a neighbor after the shootings.

More than 200 law enforcement officers scoured the forest Friday for Zinkhan, some of the searchers crammed in the back of pickup trucks that crisscrossed dirt roads through dense woods.

Investigators said Zinkhan, 57, knows his way around the wilderness. But they reported no signs of the man and the Jeep was hauled away on a flatbed truck hours after the discovery.

Athens-Clarke County Police Capt. Clarence Holeman said the vehicle may have been left the day of the shootings.

Zinkhan also had a plane ticket to Amsterdam, and authorities in Europe and throughout the U.S. have been on the lookout.

"He's not the typical type of fugitive police have to deal with," said John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

FBI Agent Greg Jones said a signal from one of Zinkhan's cell phones helped police find the Jeep in Bogart, a rural town about 60 miles east of Atlanta. Bogart is about 10 miles west of Athens, where the professor lived and taught marketing courses at the University of Georgia.

Zinkhan's is accused of killing three people, including his wife Marie Bruce, in front of a theater in Athens. Also killed were two members of her community theater group, Ben Teague, 63, and Tom Tanner, 40, as they gathered for a reunion picnic.

Police hadn't previously revealed a motive, but Jones said Friday that interviews with friends and family indicate Bruce may have been preparing to file for divorce and the shooting likely stemmed from a domestic dispute between the couple.

Zinkhan's brother has said relatives have been working to help police and the FBI find him.

The shooting victims were members of Town & Gown Players, which was staging a performance of "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure" at the theater. Two others were hurt by bullet fragments.

Zinkhan's wife had been serving as Town & Gown's president. Tanner was a Clemson University economist who taught at the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs in Clemson, S.C. Teague was one of Town & Gown's longest-serving volunteers and was married to a University of Georgia English professor.

Federal agents revealed in court documents this week that Zinkhan had a flight on Saturday to Amsterdam. He has taught part-time at the Vrije Universiteit (Free University) in the Netherlands since April 2007.

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Associated Press writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta contributed to this report.

[Associated Press; By KATE BRUMBACK]

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