Search for UGA professor called off around Jeep

The search for a fugitive University of Georgia professor accused in a triple murder was called off Friday in the area where authorities found his abandoned vehicle, authorities said.

Hopes that George Zinkhan had remained in the area faded with the daylight.

Enlarge this image

Vino Wong / vwong@ajc.com

The Jeep belonging to murder suspect George Zinkhan was pulled from a wooded area in Bogart.

Related George Zinkhan news:

• Photos: Zinkhan's body found
• Fellow professor sent into hiding
• Details of suicide
• Dog finds body
• Reaction in Athens
• Timeline of events
• Audio: 911 call
• FBI: Zinkhan's wife had sought divorce

About 200 officers searching about 1,100 acres in Bogart near the abandoned Jeep, said Athens-Clarke County police spokesman Capt. Clarence Holeman.

Authorities reported finding the red Jeep Liberty in a heavily-wooded corner of northwest Clarke County, near the Oconee County border late Thursday night.

But 57-year-old Zinkhan, who is suspected of killing his wife and two men last Saturday, was nowhere to be found and is considered to be still at large, authorities said.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Gregory Jones said the truck was found by tracking a brief signal transmitted by one of Zinkhan’s phones.

Investigators now believe the vehicle was abandoned several days ago, Holeman said.

“It is frustrating that we haven’t been able to locate him, but we are confident he will be found,” GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.

Holeman said the Jeep was found about 11 p.m. Thursday near the intersection of Cleveland Road and Fowler Mill Drive, not far from Zinkhan’s Bogart home.

Jones said the Jeep was found in a ravine, “well off the beaten path.”

“You can draw a couple of conclusions from it,” Holeman said. “It’s not far from his home. If you think back on it, when he dropped his kids off he could have gone right then and there and pushed it over the edge. Other than that, we don’t know.”

Holeman said the Jeep couldn’t be seen from the road, “which explains why we couldn’t find it.”

The property authorities are searching is a 322-acre, undeveloped tract of land that spans Jackson and Clarke counties. Abe Abouhamdan, who manages the property for A.B.E. Consulting, said the land is in the first phase of development to become a subdivision. He said the owner lives in Puerto Rico.

Abouhamdan said Zinkhan “must have known about [the land].”

“When [police] first called I didn’t know how he got in. I guess he was in a Jeep and he could just drive around the gate. We were shocked.”

Holeman said police searched the area around the ravine with night equipment overnight, “hoping we’d go ahead and find him.”

They ordered radio silence during the overnight hours, Holeman said.

“We’re having to do things a little different because this guy is dangerous,” he said.

“We didn’t want any scanners where everybody would know what we were doing last night,” Holeman said. “It was a one-on-one deal last night — us and him.”

At 10:15, authorities had hooked a wrecker to the red Jeep Liberty and were trying to pull the vehicle from the ravine. The SUV was taken from the scene on the back of a flatbed wrecker just before 11 a.m. - about 12 hours after the vehicle was found.

Three rear windows of the Jeep were broken out and there were dents in the rear half of vehicle, which otherwise looked intact. The flatbed wrecker, which followed a white unmarked vehicle, headed south on Cleveland Road.

A nearby school, Cleveland Road Elementary, was placed on lock down while authorities searched for the fugitive.

Dozens of police cars, a Mobile Command Unit RV and a wrecker were assembled at Cleveland Road Baptist Church.

The area, near the Oconee-Clarke County line, is predominantly rural and is home to several horse farms.

Athens-Clarke County police were stopping cars along Cleveland Road at mid-morning Friday. Police were checking the vehicles, then letting them pass.

Bankhead said a small contingency of law enforcement officers will remain on the property overnight to monitor it in case anything pops up. But the intense searching has been called off, he said.

Crime scene technicians at the Athens GBI office are still processing the Jeep clues.

Bankhead would not comment on whether any guns had been found in the vehicle.

He said the public should still consider Zinkhan armed and dangerous.

Anyone who spots Zinkhan should not approach him, but contact their local law enforcement agency, Bankhead said.

—Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this report.