GEORGIA: GEORGE ZINKHAN BURIED HIMSELF, COMMITTED SUICIDE

Georgia Bureau of Investigation official seal: Crime fighters get their man!

Authorities swarm wooded area in Bogart, Georgia, where cadaver dogs found a body.

Law enforcement agents worked near a wooded area where the Jeep belonging to murder suspect George Zinkhan was found. (Vino Wong/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Associated Press)

Phil Skinner / pskinner@ajc.com
Athens police cordoned off an area of the Cleveland Road Elementary School playground after reports that a body was found near where George Zinkhan’s car was found.

Alpha K9 Search & Rescue cadaver dogs Circe (left) and Madison located the body of George Zinkhan Saturday. PHIL SKINNER /pskinner@ajc.com

Zinkhan’s body found in grave he dug
Police searched two days near elementary school
By Rhonda Cook, Kent A. Miles , Chip Towers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution / Saturday, May 09, 2009

Fugitive murder suspect George Martin Zinkhan III dug his own grave and covered himself with debris before firing a single bullet into his head, investigators said Saturday.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigations’ state crime lab confirmed early Saturday evening that the body discovered earlier that day in the woods outside Athens was Zinkhan, authorities said.

“A person not accustomed to the woods would not have found it,” Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Jack Lumpkin said. “The body was beneath the earth… The body was purposely concealed in a manner not to be discovered .”

Searchers found two handguns in the grave.

Zinkhan’s well-hidden body was discovered Saturday by cadaver dogs — an Australian shepherd and a German Shepherd — at 9:50 a.m. Saturday. The civilian Alpha Search and Rescue Team was working woods beyond the initial search area.

Zinkhan’s temporary grave was in thick woods about 1,000 yards from an elementary school and about a mile from where his red Jeep Liberty was recovered more than a week ago. Zinkhan’s home in Bogart in Clarke County is not far away.

BIZARRE ENDING TO A BIZARRE MAN...

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/05/09/%20body_found_near_zinkhan_car.html

GEORGE ZINKHAN: BODY BURIED IN GEORGIA; WHO KILLED THE KILLER?

MAP OF ATHENS, GEORGIA. TOWN OF BOGART IS TO THE LEFT.
Cadaver dogs found the body about 10 miles west of Athens in Bogart, where Mr. Zinkhan lived.

Police have discovered a body said to resemble University of Georgia professor George Zinkhan, who they say shot and killed three people, including his estranged wife, at a theater group picnic April 25. (Richard Hamm/Athens Banner-Herald/AP Photo)

GBI (GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION)
The GBI released these sketches of wanted triple-murder suspect George Zinkhan that show how he may appear today.

Authorities Identify Body in Georgia Woods as That of Fugitive Professor Wanted in Killings
Saturday, May 09, 2009 / FOX NEWS

A body found hidden in dirt and brush Saturday in the north Georgia woods is a professor accused of killing his wife and two others, authorities said.

A massive manhunt had been under way for University of Georgia marketing professor George Zinkhan, who vanished after the April 25 shootings at a community theater near the Atlanta campus.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation State Crime laboratory confirmed Saturday evening that the remains discovered earlier in northwest Athens-Clarke County were those of Zinkhan.

Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin announced the news of the identification of the fugitive professor's body.

The guns matched those described by witnesses to the shootings, though police did not say how they believe Zinkhan died.

Authorities hoped to have a cause of death by the end of Saturday.

Cadaver dogs found Zinkhan's body about 10 miles west of Athens in thick woods in Bogart, where he lived.

Searchers — as many as 200 at one point — had been scouring the woods since his Jeep was found wrecked and abandoned in a ravine about a mile away a week ago.

HOW DID GEORGE ZINKHAN GET BURIED IN THE GEORGIA WOODS?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519625,00.html

DREW PETERSON: HOW MANY WIVES CAN YOU KILL BEFORE BEING CAUGHT?

AP / May 7, 2009 / State police Lt. Carl Anderson with a fellow investigator escort Drew Peterson into District 5 State Police headquarters in Lockport, Ill.

Peterson’s fiancee, Christina Raines, 24: ‘I just don’t believe it’

Feb. 13: Drew Peterson, who is suspected in the disappearance of his fourth wife and the death of his third, and his fiancee, Christina Raines, talk about their plans for the future.
Today show

Drew Peterson Charged With Murdering Third Wife, Held on $20M Bond
Thursday, May 07, 2009 / FOX NEWS

After pursing Drew Peterson for 1 1/2 years after the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, authorities in Illinois closed in Thursday, arresting the former Chicago-area police sergeant on two counts of first-degree murder in the drowning death of his third wife.

Peterson — who launched into the national spotlight after Stacy Peterson's suspicious disappearance in October 2007 — is being held on $20 million bond, police and prosecutors said Thursday night at a news conference.

Peterson, 55, hasn't been charged in Stacy Peterson's disappearance. But he now is criminally accused of killing Kathleen Savio, the third wife, who was found at home dead in a dry bathtub on March 1, 2004.

Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said at the news conference that a judge granted his request for $20 million bond "without question."

"This is an extremely grave and serious matter, and I think that's reflected in the bond," Glasgow said.
An arraignment is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CDT Friday in Joliet, Ill.

Glasgow said he intends to introduce evidence at trial that would allow Savio "to testify from the grave" through third-party statements uncovered during the investigation.

A recently passed law, spurred by the Savio and Stacy Peterson cases, would allow the statements to be admitted as an exception to hearsay rules if they are proven in a pre-trial hearing to be reliable, probative and relevant, he said.

"We're very confident in our case," Glasgow said.

Police said the arrest and indictment were the result of 18 months of intensive police work that garnered hundreds of leads and produces thousands of pages of investigative reports.
The search continues for Stacy Peterson, police said.

Drew Peterson is being held at the Will County Adult Detention Facility in Joliet, Ill., under supervision of the Will County Sheriff's office. His children were taken by police and transferred to family services.

STUNNING ARREST OF DREW PETERSON... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519392,00.html

SKYLAR DELEON: "WELL-DESERVED DEATH" FOR DROWNING TOM AND JACKIE HAWKS

TRUSTING VICTIMS
Thomas Hawks, a retired probation officer, was a victim in a chilling 2004 murder. He and his wife, Jackie Hawks, were spending time on their yacht, the Well-Deserved, when they were forced by assailants to sign over the boat and then tied to an anchor and thrown into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Catalina Island. The suspected murderer is former child actor and one-time Mighty Morphin Power Rangers extra Skylar DeLeon, who has pleaded not guilty and is currently under trial for the crime. Neither body has been discovered. (Courtesy of the Hawks Family)

Tom and Jackie Hawks (top) were murdered by Skylar Deleon, (bottom left) while at sea on their yacht, the Well-Deserved. (Courtesy of the Hawks Family/Skylar Deleon)

THE MASTERMIND AND LURE
Skylar James DeLeon, 26, and former wife, Jennifer Henderson, 24. Pregnant Jennifer convinced the Hawks to believe her husband wanted to buy their yacht by bringing their 9-month old baby aboard the yacht. Jennifer Henderson received two life terms without parole.

ACCOMPLICE
Myron Gardner, Sr., 45: Suspect accused in the murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks. Myron Sandora Gardner had been a longtime member of the Insane Crips Gang in Long Beach. His gang moniker was "Fly." (JACK E. HANCOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER)

ACCOMPLICE AND STAR WITNESS FOR PROSECUTION
Alonso Machain, 22: Machain explained in court that his assignment was to restrain Jackie Hawks above deck. Machain said Skylar Deleon asked him to tape the couple's eyes and mouths shut. He watched as Skylar Deleon grabbed an anchor and some rope, tied the Hawks to the anchor and brought them to the back of the boat.

ACCOMPLICE

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 40: Jury recommends execution. Deleon threw the anchor overboard while Kennedy pushed the Hawkses down toward the water until the anchor pulled them overboard.

Skylar Deleon gets death sentence in Newport Beach yacht murders
-- Christine Hanley / 12:14 PM / April 10, 2009

A Long Beach man was sentenced to death today for lashing Thomas and Jackie Hawks to the anchor of a yacht and throwing them overboard off the coast of Newport Beach in a plot to steal the vessel and plunder the couple’s life savings.

Skylar Deleon showed little reaction as Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel explained that mitigating factors -- including any abuse Deleon suffered while growing up -- were outweighed by the “horrors” of the 2004 murders of the Hawkses and the earlier 2003 slaying of John Peter Jarvi in a Mexican desert.

Deleon was convicted of all three murders.

READ MORE...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/04/skylar-deleon-gets-death-sentence-in-newport-yacht-murders.html

READ BACKGROUND OF HOW A CHILD GROWS UP WITH NO CONSCIENCE...

'Yacht' Killer Mom: Deleon's Home of Drugs, Orgies
Drama in Courtroom as Killer's Mom Recounts How Son Almost Drowned
By LEE FERRAN and KIMI CULP / Oct. 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6137048&page=1

MORE OF SKYLAR DELEON'S DEMENTED MIND...

While awaiting trial in jail, Deleon was also charged with soliciting another inmate to murder his father and cousin. He was also accused of killing John Jarvi, a resident of Anaheim who was found dead in Mexico in 2003.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylar_Deleon

COLORADO: SUSPEND DEATH PENALTY OR SOLVE COLD CASE CRIMES?

Nathan Dunlap, on Colorado's death row, for killing four people at a Chuck E Cheese Restaurant in 1993

Colorado May End Death Penalty to Focus on Cold Cases
Sunday, May 03, 2009

DENVER — Colorado and nine other states considered abolishing the death penalty this year to save money, but Colorado's proposal has a twist: It would use the savings to investigate about 1,400 unsolved slayings.

The measure has sparked a fierce debate between prosecutors and some victims' families. Prosecutors want to keep capital punishment as an option for heinous crimes, and they say the bill has raised unrealistic hopes about solving cold cases.

Supporters of the bill say it's more important to find and prosecute killers still on the loose than to execute the ones already tried and convicted.

(snip)

Proponents of the bill, led by Evergreen-based Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, say Colorado's death penalty is so rarely used that it's not a deterrent. The group says hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted trying to put people to death when hundreds of murderers are free.

Suthers and other prosecutors say additional DNA testing, including a proposal pending in the Legislature to take samples at the time of a felony arrest, could do more than expanding the state's cold case unit to solve old cases.

Colorado has executed only one person in the past 42 years, Gary Lee Davis, put to death in 1997 for his conviction in a 1986 slaying.

Two men remain on Colorado's death row. Sir Mario Owens was convicted last year of killing Javad Marshall-Fields, a potential witness in a murder trial, and Vivian Wolfe, Marshall-Fields' fiancee. Nathan Dunlap was convicted in 1996 of murder, attempted murder and other charges for killing four people and wounding a fifth at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora in December 1993.

WHAT WILL COLORADO DECIDE ON THE DEATH PENALTY?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518745,00.html