A nationwide manhunt led to the arrest of two Vermont teenagers wanted for the murders of two Dartmouth College professors. An Indiana police officer apprehended Robert Tulloch, 17, and James Parker, 16, at an Indiana truck stop on Monday. The pair will face charges on two counts of first-degree murder in New Hampshire court.
Tulloch, who returned to New Hampshire yesterday, was arraigned in Lebanon District Court. Parker will remain in Indiana until a hearing on Feb. 27, at which point his lawyers say he will fight extradition. Both will be charged as adults, and if convicted could face life in prison.
New Hampshire authorities allege that on Jan. 27, the suspects stabbed Susanne and Half Zantop to death in their home outside Hanover, N.H.. Susanne, 55, was the chair of the German department at Dartmouth, while Half, 62, was an earth sciences professor.
Officials have not been forthcoming with the details of the investigation, which is being conducted by New Hampshire State Police, the Hanover police, and the FBI. No information has been released about the connection between the suspects and the victims.
"We will be very guarded in the specific information we give from this point," N.H. Attorney General Phillip McLaughlin said. "We cannot provide the kind of case-specific evidentiary information that can in any way prejudice the trial of this case."
The Dartmouth community is still recovering from the loss of the two popular professors. "While neither today's developments nor future proceedings in the case can diminish the pain caused by the loss of Susanne and Half Zantop, we hope that these arrests will bring some measure of relief to the Zantop family and the Dartmouth and Upper Valley communities," Dartmouth President James Wright said in a statement released Monday.
A Zantop scholarship fund has been set up, and a memorial service was held on campus earlier this month.
Tulloch and Parker are from Chelsea , Vt., a town of 1,300 people located about 25 miles north-west of Dartmouth. They became suspects after investigators learned that one of them had purchased a military-style knife on the Internet, according to Orange County, Vt. Sheriff Dennis McClure. The sheath from that type of weapon was reportedly found in the Zantop's home.
Police questioned the suspects last Thursday and took their fingerprints. When they disappeared on Friday, warrants were issued for their arrest. A silver 1987 Audi belonging to Parker's mother was later found at a truck stop in Sturbridge, Mass., and authorities alerted police nationwide to search for the teens, whom they thought were hitchhiking to California.
The fugitives were captured with the help of Indiana Sheriff Sergeant William Ward, who became suspicious after he heard a truck driver from New Jersey ask over his radio if anyone wanted to give the hitchhikers a ride to California. Ward told the driver to take his passengers to the Flying J truck stop near New Castle, Ind., where he and two other police officers apprehended them.
New Hampshire authorities say the investigation is still active. Earlier this month, they questioned Arizona State University volcanology professor Stanley Williams in connection with the Zantop murders. Williams, a former visiting professor at Dartmouth, was in town the weekend of the crime to attend the 90th birthday party of his former dissertation advisor, Richard Stroiber. Police impounded the rental car he used that weekend, but Williams was never named a suspect in the case.
An erroneous article in @italics:The Boston Globe last Friday reported that authorities believed an extramarital affair involving Half Zantop could have provided a motive for the killings. The New Hampshire attorney general's office fiercely denied this theory, and the Globe admitted its error on the newspaper's front page yesterday.
"The sources said the information they supplied was correct to the best of their knowledge at the time it was provided. However, in light of the current focus on teenage suspects Robert W. Tulloch and James J. Parker, the sources now concede that the extramarital affair theory is not correct," editor Matthew Storin wrote.
There are no known connections between the suspects and Dartmouth College. Security on campus has been heightened since the murders, and a number of counseling services continue to offer support to the community.
