ATHENS — According to police documents, a former University of Georgia professor had secretly recorded a conversation with his wife about an alleged affair with a Clemson economist, both of whom police say he shot to death outside a community theater.

A third man was also shot to death during the incident at the Athens Community Theater.

Almost two weeks after the April 25 shootings, cadaver dogs found the body of George Zinkhan, 57, in a shallow, self-dug grave in the woods not far from his home.

The Associated Press reported he had shot himself in the head.

Police believe Zinkhan shot his wife, Marie Bruce, 47, Clemson University professor Thomas Tanner, 40, and Ben Teague, 63.

They say Teague was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Athens Banner-Herald News obtained last Wednesday search warrant applications and inventories from the various locations searched by police while they were looking for Zinkhan.

Among the items found was a digital voice recorder at the UGA professor’s campus office that “seemed to be a covert recording between George Zinkhan and Marie Bruce,” police Sgt. Christopher Nicholas wrote in the police documents.

“The substance of the recordings was concerning Marie Bruce’s affair with Thomas Tanner,” he also wrote.

The officer also reported that documents on a desktop computer indicated Zinkhan knew about the alleged affair and that one “spoke about Zinkhan wanting to rebuild his relationship with his wife.”

After finding the UGA professor’s body, police disclosed that Tanner was the first of the three shot the day the group gathered for a reunion of a local theater group.

Police say that during the shootings, Zinkhan left his two young children in his car and dropped them off at a neighbors afterward, saying there was an emergency.

Tanner was the director of the Regional Dynamics and Economic Modeling Laboratory at Clemson’s Strom Thurmond Institute.

“A colleague described him as brilliant, talented and most impressive,” a university statement said.