Australian Shepherd key to discovery of Zinkhan body

A team of volunteers and two cadaver dogs spent 10 hours Friday searching the dense woods for fugitive murder suspect George Zinkhan. When one of the dogs — a 5-year-old German Shepherd named Circe — showed some behavior changes, searchers returned to the location Saturday morning.

“We came back today for a more detailed effort,” said Steve Barden, a volunteer with Alpha Search and Rescue, based in Atlanta.

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

This time, the search lasted 10 minutes. Madison, a 7-year-old Australian Shepherd, did what she trained two years to do when she led the volunteers to Zinkhan’s buried body at 9:50 a.m.

“The body was beneath the Earth,” said Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Jack Lumpkin during a press conference Saturday afternoon. “It was purposely concealed in a manner that was designed not be found for a significant amount of time, if ever,”

Two weapons, believed to be those used in the triple murder, were also recovered and sent to the GBI for testing, according to police.

Lumpkin said more than 1,100 acres, including rivers, vacant homes and other properties, have previously been searched. The location where the body was found was beyond the initial search areas. The thickness of the woods would have made it hard to see from the air.

“A person walking in those woods would not leave a path,” Lumpkin said.

Although the clothed body was decomposed, Lumpkin said he does not think it has been in the woods since April 25, the day Zinkhan shot and killed three people, including his wife outside a theatre in Athens.

“Nothing is inconsistent with (the body) being the person we’re searching for,” Lumpkin said.