Marie E. Bruce, a 47-year-old attorney, was tragically killed on April 25, 2009, in Athens, Georgia, in a shooting that also claimed the lives of two other individuals. The incident occurred outside the Athens Community Theater, where members of the Town & Gown Players theater troupe had gathered for a picnic reunion. More than a dozen witnesses saw Marie's husband, George Zinkhan III, a 57-year-old marketing professor at the University of Georgia, approach and open fire.
The two other victims were identified as Tom Tanner, 40, and Ben Teague, 63. Tanner was a Clemson University economist, and Teague was a member of the theater group. Two other people were also injured by shrapnel during the attack. Investigators believed that Marie Bruce and Tom Tanner were the primary targets of the shooting, and that Ben Teague was tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Following the shooting, Zinkhan fled the scene in his red Jeep Liberty with his and Marie's two young children, a 10-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, inside the vehicle. He dropped the children off unharmed at a neighbor's house, stating there was an emergency, before disappearing. This initiated a statewide manhunt for Zinkhan, with law enforcement issuing a warrant for his arrest on three counts of murder.
The investigation into the motive for the killings pointed towards marital difficulties between Marie Bruce and George Zinkhan. It was reported that the couple had been experiencing problems and that Marie may have been considering a divorce. Police discovered that Zinkhan had been secretly recording conversations with his wife, and a digital voice recorder found in his university office contained a recording concerning an alleged affair between Marie Bruce and Tom Tanner. This led investigators to believe that the murders were a result of jealousy.
The search for George Zinkhan ended on May 9, 2009, when his body was discovered by cadaver dogs in a wooded area about a mile from where he had abandoned his vehicle. He had dug a shallow grave, and his death was the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A. 22-caliber handgun used in the shooting spree was found with his body. The autopsy estimated his time of death to be between five and fourteen days before his body was found. In the aftermath of the tragedy, a custody battle ensued over the couple's two children.
