Marie E. Bruce, a 47-year-old attorney, was shot and killed on April 25, 2009, outside the Athens Community Theater during a Town & Gown Players reunion picnic. More than a dozen witnesses saw her husband, George Zinkhan III, 57, approach and open fire. Two other people were killed: Tom Tanner, 40, a Clemson University economist, and Ben Teague, 63, a member of the theater group. Two additional people were injured by shrapnel.
After the attack Zinkhan fled in a red Jeep Liberty with the couple’s two young children, later dropping the 10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son at a neighbor’s home before disappearing.
A statewide manhunt followed; Zinkhan’s body was found May 9, 2009, in a shallow grave about a mile from his abandoned vehicle with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a .22-caliber handgun nearby. A custody dispute over the children followed the killings.
Did anyone who attended that reunion or knew Marie Bruce, Tom Tanner, or Ben Teague have additional memories or information to share?