ATHENS, Georgia (CNN) -- The body of accused triple killer and University of Georgia professor George Zinkhan was claimed by a relative Friday, nearly a week after Zinkhan was found dead, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.



A studio proof shows professor George Zinkhan and his wife, Marie Bruce.



A mortuary shipping service in Atlanta picked up Zinkhan's body at the request of a son from a previous marriage, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said. Details on plans for the body weren't immediately available.



Earlier Friday, Bankhead had said Zinkhan's body -- found Saturday in a self-dug shallow grave -- could be headed to a pauper's grave if the family didn't claim the body from the Athens-Clarke County coroner's office by Saturday morning.



Such a grave is typically reserved for unidentified bodies, unclaimed bodies or people without family members.



Bankhead said the situation was rare and that it was unclear why the family had taken that long to claim the body of the professor, described by colleagues and acquaintances as aloof and eccentric.



Neighbor Bob Covington remembers a lot of "forced moments" with Zinkhan.



The last such interaction came the afternoon of April 24, the day before witnesses said Zinkhan, 57, killed his wife and two others outside a community theater in Athens.



Covington was walking down the driveway of his Bogart home to check the mail. Zinkhan had just done the same and was walking back to his house. Covington said hello and told Zinkhan that his son, a UGA student who used to mow the Zinkhans' lawn, had recently seen Zinkhan on campus.



"He said, 'Yeah, that's where I hang out,' and turned and walked into the house," said Covington, who lived next door to Zinkhan for eight years."That's mostly what it was with George, forced moments."



It was odd for Zinkhan to say more than five or 10 words before disengaging, while his wife, Marie Bruce, was the "polar opposite," Covington said, describing the 47-year-old thespian as engaging and vivacious.



Despite the contrasts in personalities, Covington never saw evidence that there were problems between the two, he said.



"He never raised his voice at his kids. I never heard that. I never heard him raise his voice at Marie," he said.



Neighbors, students and fellow faculty members all concur that Zinkhan was standoffish, but their accounts also paint a contradictory image of the marketing professor who would occasionally walk the halls of UGA's business college barefoot.



Some faculty members were quick to defend Zinkhan, but reluctant to do so on record. One said he felt it was a university matter. Another was reluctant to be on record defending an accused mass killer.



"He's being painted as an ogre, which doesn't fit," said the former.



Two faculty members said Zinkhan was introverted but friendly. He was close to some colleagues. He remembered their birthdays and was generous with gifts at Christmas.



His quirky behavior was generally overlooked because of his brilliance, a colleague said. One fellow professor went so far as to call him a genius, and not just with marketing, either.



Zinkhan apparently was well-versed in a wide range of topics -- art, opera, architecture -- and he loved sports. Faculty members recalled that the strapping 6-foot-2 Zinkhan played on the intramural softball team with some of his graduate students, and he liked to boast of his home runs.



He also loved his son, 8, and daughter, 10, and regularly brought them to work.



Neighbors said they saw him outside playing soccer with the kids on a miniature goal that still sat in the yard this week. A basketball goal with a rim a foot or two below regulation stood over the Zinkhans' driveway, and a miniature yellow house sat dormant in his wooded backyard.



A neighbor who asked not to be named said the cedar front door on the house Tuesday was new. A SWAT team had burst through the old front door shortly after Zinkhan allegedly shot Bruce; attorney Tom Tanner
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