Ten months after the murders of professors Susanne and Half Zantop, the Dartmouth College community is trying to return to normal as it waits for the suspected teenage killers to be brought to trial.
The Zantops were found slain in their home in Etna, N.H. on Jan. 27, which sent shock waves through the college and local community. It was the first murder case near Hanover in almost a decade, and only the second in over 50 years.
Teenagers Robert Tulloch and James Parker, both from Chelsea, Vt., have been charged with first-degree murder for stabbing the couple in their home. Their trials will not be held until next year so that both sides can review the evidence.
Tulloch's trial, which was initially scheduled for January 2002, was postponed until Apr. 18 in late August. Prosecuting attorney Kelly Ayotte said that this delay would allow both sides more time to evaluate the evidence.
A trial date has yet to be scheduled for Parker, whose case is still in juvenile court. The state is first attempting to certify Parker, who was 16 at the time of the murders, to stand trial as an adult.
Postponing these trials has allowed the Dartmouth community to distance itself from the initial shock of the murders, and the tragedies of Sept. 11 have moved to the forefront and lessened the focus on them.
"Although people still wonder about what's going on, I think that there are other issues that have taken peoples' attention away from what occurred 10 months ago," Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone said.
Giaccone said that the police department had not "done anything different" with regard to security in quiet Hanover in light of the murders.
Safety measures at Dartmouth have not increased in response to January's incident.
The residence halls remain unlocked following the murders, and a card-swiping security system in the dorms is only now beginning to be implemented.
"Perhaps what happened in January in some ways furthered the discussion of installing a security system, but it is not completely due to the incident," Dartmouth Student Body President Molly Stutzman said.
Lindsay Reither, a Dartmouth sophomore, also said she did not believe that the installation of this system sprung from the Zantop murders.
"I truthfully don't think that the dorms need to be locked," Reither said. "The Zantop murders were only part of the decision to install a security system."
Among students and faculty alike, January's tragedy has been somewhat muted as a result of the terrorist attacks.
"The events of Sept. 11 and subsequent anthrax attacks have clearly impacted the community, in some sense overshadowing the horrible events of last year," said Ed Berger, who was the dean of faculty at Dartmouth at the time of the murders.
If anything, there is a feeling of unease among many due to the lack of an explanation of reason behind the murders.
"I think that it's fair to say that people here hope that the trials will bring a greater sense of closure, not just by determining guilt officially, but also shedding some light on what motivated the murders," said Dartmouth Professor Bruce Duncan, who was also a friend of the Zantops.
Nonetheless, for those who knew the Zantops personally, the impact of the murders will be felt for a long time to come.
"After 10 months, the shock of the murders have of course lessened," Duncan said. "What remains is mostly a profound sadness."
Stutzman added that the innocent feeling many feel in Hanover has been jolted.
"When you're living in a small college community in New Hampshire, it's kind of easy to get trapped into a little bit of a bubble," he said. "There has sort of been this reality shock that we aren't a separate community from the rest of the world."
