The national manhunt for George M. Zinkhan III, a former UGA faculty member, ended May 9 with the discovery of his body near the Clarke-Jackson county line, according to reports by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department. Zinkhan had been sought in connection with three off-campus shooting deaths on April 25.
Authorities located the remains of Zinkhan, who taught marketing at UGA, two weeks after he shot and killed three members of the local acting troupe, Town and Gown Players. The cause of death was determined to be suicide. When he was discovered, Zinkhan had been dead anywhere from five to 14 days, authorities said.
Loss of the victims, Marie Bruce, Tom Tanner and Ben Teague, sent shockwaves through the local and university communities. Out of respect, their names were added to the list of those honored April 28 by “Georgia Remembers…A Candlelight Memorial,” the annual service venerating deceased university students, faculty, staff and friends.
“One needs not be a student, employee, or alumnus in order to be considered part of our family; our connections are like the threads of a spider’s web-intertwined and interwoven,” UGA President Michael F. Adams said at the ceremony. “Thus we mourn the loss of Marie Bruce, Tom Tanner and Ben Teague, snatched away from us in a way that brings us pain, confusion, and anxiety. And we can only hope to honor them with the memories of their contributions to our community.”
All three held ties to the university.
Bruce, 47, was a family-law attorney and married to Zinkhan. She came to Athens in 1980 and earned three UGA degrees: a bachelor’s in education in 1983, a master’s in 1990 and a J.D. in 1998. Teague, 63, was married to Fran Teague, an English professor at the university. Tanner, 40, worked as an economist at Clemson University. He earned his Ph.D. at UGA and previously worked in the Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
A summary of UGA statements through the crisis is online at www.uga.edu/index_tragedy4.28.html.