HOUSTON -- A murder case and international manhunt for a professor from the University of Georgia has ties to Houston, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.

George Zinkhan, 57, disappeared after his wife and two other men were shot in Athens, Ga., this weekend.

Zinkhan joined the University of Houston marketing department in 1981. He taught in the college of Business for 13 years before leaving for the University of Georgia.

UH professor Keith Cox said he finds it hard to believe a one-time faculty member is in trouble with the law.

"I was floored, I guess, just unbelievable," he said. "His major teaching job was very productive. He rose and he got tenure at a very early age, full professor, well respected at the national level. He was a good teacher and so from the professional point of view, he was very dynamic."

While a standout in the classroom, Cox said Zinkhan's personal life seemed complicated at the time.

"He got a divorce from his first wife here before he left and they had three kids that were grown, and I just think there were some personal things that he had that were totally outside of him being a professor, but may have affected the way he lived," Cox said.

Zinkhan's second wife, Marie Bruce, was president of the community theater in Athens, where Zinkhan is accused of opening fire on Saturday, killing his wife and two men as his young children sat in his Jeep nearby.

He then dropped the children off at a neighbor's house and has not been seen or heard from since, investigators said.

The FBI said Zinkhan has a Delta Airlines ticket for the Netherlands for May 2. Officials are not sure when the ticket was purchased.

He has a house in Amsterdam and teaches there part-time.

Athens, Georgia, is located 70 miles east of Atlanta.