A Henry County man is in custody and charged with the brutal Thursday night murder of a professor’s son, and police said they are not ruling out the possibility of more arrests.

Michael Zenos Akin, 21, is charged with killing the son of Kent Middleton, journalism department head of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"We’re still exploring what possibilities are out there," said Lt. W.J. Smith of Athens-Clarke police. "If there was a third party, we won’t know until he presents himself to us."

The teen, Arthur Middleton, 16, died in his mother’s home near Cedar Shoals High School from shotgun blasts to the head and abdomen.

Someone called 911 from the house and hung up around 9 p.m., but Art Middleton was dead before paramedics reached the scene, according to police reports.

  AKIN

Police returned the 911 call and an unknown person answered, but the line went dead before authorities could get much information, Smith said.

Art Middleton was discovered by his mother, who came home sometime after the 911 call but before police arrived.

"A beautiful life was lost for nothing," Kent Middleton said. "It’s unfathomable."

Police found Akin with Art Middleton’s 1994 blue Mazda Protege.

Akin was apprehended Friday night in a Stockbridge trailer park after someone reported seeing the car earlier in the day. Akin was brought back to Clarke County Saturday morning and was charged with first degree murder. Police found a shotgun in the car with Akin but won’t know if it was the same gun used to kill Middleton until a ballistics test comes back.

Police said at least one person has told them he saw Middleton and Akin together in East Athens, although police won’t say what type of social situation the two had been seen in together.

Smith said police now know who made the 911 call, but he wouldn’t say Monday who it was for fear of jeopardizing the criminal case. Akin will appear in Superior Court Feb. 1 for his bond hearing.

Middleton, a junior at Cedar Shoals, was an "outstanding" student and an editor on the yearbook staff, said Charles Worthy, principal of Cedar Shoals High School.

"He was a dynamic, incredible young man — every teacher’s dream," Worthy said. "It’s just a tremendous loss to our school and our community. It’s hard to imagine this has really happened."

— Contributing: Chandler Brown, Kristen Wyatt