Dartmouth Suspects Caught
by BILL LASCHER

Two teenagers suspected of murdering a Dartmouth University couple were arrested Monday, ending a nationwide search. Meanwhile, the small colleg town of Hanover, New Hampshire, where the school is located, is struggling to find a motive for the Jan 27 stabbing of Susanne Zantop, 55, and her husband Half, 62, in their home. The shock of this tragedy has been felt across the country, as the Zantops were reported to be well-loved in academic circles.
Susanne was the chairwoman of the school's German studies department and Half was an Earth sciences professor. A colleague visiting for dinner discovered their bodies in their house in Etna, New Hampshire, just outside of Hanover.
Investigators had few leads initially as newspapers reported claims by friends and faculty members that the Zantops were so well loved around the school that they were baffled as to why anyone would do harm to them.

Then, on Feb. 15 a warrant was issued for the arrests of 17 year-old Robert Tulloch and 16 year-old James Parker, both of Chelsea, VT. The two were charged with first-degree murder, suggesting that authorities believed the murders were premeditated. However, those familiar with the two knew of no connection between them and the Zantops.
A manhunt began for the two suspects after an Audi belonging to Tulloch's mother was found in Vermont. The two had begun to hitchhike across the country before a sheriff in Indiana lured them into arrest by offering a ride to California over a CB radio. The two were arrested without incident at a truck stop.
In Oberlin, some of the unofficial, casual animosity students have expressed in the past toward Dartmouth has been suspended in sympathy for that school's community.
One member of the Oberlin Community, dean of students Peter Goldsmith, does have connections with Dartmouth. Goldsmith, who worked there as dean of first-year students prior to coming to Oberlin, was acquainted with the Zantops.
Suzanne Zantop had done some committee work with him, and he said that the couple clearly had many friends in the community. "This has been a tragedy that has shattered the serenity of Hanover," he said. "I expect it will be years before a sense of normalcy is restored."
Clearly, this attack was jolting to the Dartmouth community. The town of Hanover is more spread out than Oberlin and it is more difficult to get around off campus.
"The overwhelming physical beauty of the countryside provides a sense of great peacefulness," Goldsmith said. "In the years I was there, the campus and the town exuded a sense of total safety; students were strongly opposed to proposals to lock the exterior doors of residence halls. Like most of our neighbors, we only locked our doors when we went on vacation."
Goldsmith said that such an attack makes a community feel vulnerable and threatened. "In any town which values its sense of community, which thrives on face-to-face interactions, exchanges of opinion, and mutual support, events like this can eat at the trust which is essential to the quality of our collective lives. Somehow we have to remember that, while no community is invulnerable to incidents like this, we must not allow this knowledge to undermine our openness and trustfulness," he said.