Body fits description of former UGA professor, police say

George Zinkhan, a professor at the University of Georgia, disappeared after the slayings of his wife and two others. Authorities examine a Jeep belonging to Zinkhan on May 1 in Clarke County, Georgia.

A body found in woods near Athens, Georgia, fits the description of a University of Georgia professor accused of killing three people, authorities said.

"In general, the body fits the description of the individual we are looking for," Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Joseph "Jack" Lumpkin said at an afternoon news conference.

Cadaver dogs searching for George Zinkhan discovered the body about a mile from where Zinkhan's red Jeep Liberty was found on May 1, police said.

The body was found "beneath the earth," Lumpkin said, in a tract of land near an elementary school.

Zinkhan, 56, is suspected of shooting his wife and two other people to death last month at a community theater in Athens, Georgia.

The body was concealed, the statement said. The body will be transported to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation laboratory near Atlanta for identification, police said.

Authorities identified the dead from the April 25 shooting as Marie Bruce, 47, Zinkhan's wife and a prominent Athens attorney; Tom Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63.

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

Police said Zinkhan arrived while the Town and Gown event was under way and got into a disagreement with his wife. Police believe he 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 shooting, Zinkhan left with his children -- ages 8 and 10 -- in the car, police said. He drove to a neighbor's home in nearby Bogart, Georgia, where he lived, and left the children with the neighbor.

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

The day of the flight passed without any sign of Zinkhan.

He had been an endowed marketing professor at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business. The university fired Zinkhan the day after the shootings.