Reward offered for Zinkhan’s capture — but only $1,000

There is a reward offered for the capture and arrest of accused triple-murderer George Zinkhan III. However, it’s not likely to spur a bunch of bounty hunters into action.

Captain Clarence Holeman of the Athens-Clarke County Police’s criminal investigations division, said the only reward currently offered is his department’s standard “crime-stoppers reward” — $1,000.

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“That’s always on the table,” Holeman said in an e-mail reply Thursday.

Zinkhan, a 57-year-old UGA marketing professor, has been missing since April 25 when he gunned down his wife and two men in broad daylight in front of two dozen witnesses at the Town and Gown Theater near downtown Athens.

Holeman was responding to an e-mail request for information about the case, including the possible role of railroads in Zinkhan’s escape and the number and credibility of tips and sightings of the fugitive professor.

Athens-Clarke County’s police department is the primary investigating authority in the hunt for Zinkhan. Holeman clearly is growing increasingly frustrated with inquiries about the case.

“I have reached a point regarding this case where it becomes an integrity issue discussing what we are doing to find Mr. Zinkhan,” Holeman wrote. “… I don’t feel that the amount or types of calls we’re receiving is relevant to this case. We know who we’re looking for so how we’re doing it is not important, in my opinion, to the media.”

The FBI, GBI and several other federal agencies are also involved in the pursuit of Zinkhan. The popular television show America’s Most Wanted television show is also on the case.

A GBI forensic artist on Wednesday released sketches of how a trimmed down Zinkhan might look without hair and his beard and mustache.

The GBI could not say Thursday whether those renderings led to any tips. All leads are directed to Athens-Clarke County police, according to GBI spokesman John Bankhead. Bankhead said his office received calls from three reporters Wednesday who had heard a shooting in Jackson County involved Zinkhan.

“It wasn’t him,” Bankhead said.

Meanwhile, Holeman would just as soon not answer any more questions about it.

“I have a different opinion about sharing certain things,” he wrote. “… Mr Zinkhan could be alive and reading my strategies and comments, which makes it easier for him to elude capture.”