Feb. 20, 2001 — Indiana police arrested two teenagers suspected in the murder of two Dartmouth professors. The young men were captured early Monday morning while they waited for a ride at a truck stop outside of New Castle, Ind. The teens, Robert Tulloch, 17, and James Parker, 16, live in Chelsea, Vt., a small town about 25 miles from the Dartmouth campus. They were called in for fingerprinting last week after police traced the purchase of a military knife matching the sheath recovered at the murder site to one of the two young men. Tulloch and Parker reported to the police station for fingerprinting but fled the area in Parker’s mother’s car just before the New Hampshire state police issued an arrest warrant over the weekend.

Tulloch and Parker have been charged in the murders of Dartmouth professors Half Zantop, who taught earth sciences and specialized in economic geology, and his wife Susanne Zantop, who was a humanities professor and chair of the German Studies Program. The couple was found dead in their home Jan. 27.

The teens abandoned the Parkers’ car in Sturbridge, Mass., and hitch-hiked to Columbia, N.J., where they were picked up by a trucker, James Hicks, on his way to Chicago. Tulloch and Parker told Hicks they were on their way to California and the trucker sent out a message over his CB radio looking for truckers headed west.

Sgt. William Ward of the Henry County, Ind., police department was monitoring his CB radio when he heard the Chicago-bound trucker radio for someone willing to give two teenage boys a ride to California. Recalling that the New Hampshire police thought that the two suspects might be headed to California, Ward called back over his CB pretending to be a fellow trucker and instructed Hicks to leave the teens at a popular truck stop in Henry County.

Minutes after the boys arrived at the Flying J truck stop in Spiceland, Ind., they were arrested by two Henry County officers.

New Hampshire police have charged both teens with first-degree murder. Tulloch will be tried as an adult under New Hampshire law. At age 16, Parker is considered a juvenile but the state will seek to have him tried as an adult. No motives have been suggested and the young men are in the process of being extradited to New Hampshire. Tulloch’s attorney has stated during a hearing in a Henry County court that his client is willing to return to New Hampshire. Parker remains in Indiana waiting for his attorney to arrive before his hearing can take place.

Laura Wright

Geotimes original story posted Jan. 29, 2001:
http://www.geotimes.org/jan01/zantop_0129.html

News stories from Feb. 20, 2001:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/532237.asp

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/update02202001.htm

http://www.theunionleader.com/

Statements by Dartmouth president James Wright:
Feb. 20, 2001:   http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/zantop/wright219.html
Jan. 28, 2001:   http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/jan01/wright.html

Half Zantop’s home page:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~earthsci/roxpage/facfelstaff/zantop-h-bio/zantop-h.html

Susanne Zantop’s home page
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~german/faculty/zantop.html
 
 

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