Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Zinkhan’s passport found in abandoned Jeep

By on May 4, 2009

An Athens-Clarke County officer keeps watch at the Zinkhan search scene Friday.
DANIELLE MOORE
An Athens-Clarke County officer keeps watch at the Zinkhan search scene Friday.

Police spent the weekend monitoring Atlanta’s airport to see if University professor George Zinkhan would make good on his ticket to Amsterdam, but officials confirmed Monday Zinkhan’s passport was found in the 2005 Jeep Liberty discovered in a Athens-Clarke County ravine Friday.

On Friday his Jeep was found in a wooded area two miles from his home, spurring a daylong search for the Terry College professor on the 1,100 acre tract in the northwestern part of the county. Zinkhan is accused of killing three people April 25.

Monday, Capt. Clarence Holeman of the ACC police told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution his passport was among the things found in the Jeep.

“That’s a fact, it was in the car,” Holeman told the AJC. “He can’t leave the country.”

The FBI revealed last week in U.S. District Court that Zinkhan had a ticket for a Delta Air Lines flight Saturday to Amsterdam. He also has a home in the Netherlands, where he has taught part-time at a university since April 2006.

The Jeep found Friday was in drive, as if someone pushed it over, said Holeman. There was no blood or weapons found, and it looked as if it was there for some time.

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