Teens sought in Dartmouth murders

After weeks of combing for clues, police have issued warrants for the arrest of two teenagers in connection with the murders of Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop. Robert Tulloch, 17, and James Parker, 16, of Chelsea, Vt., will be charged as adults with first-degree murder, New Hampshire State Police Colonel Gary Sloper announced at a press conference Saturday. New Hampshire Attorney General Phillip McLaughlin issued a statement yesterday, saying the suspects were spotted at a rest stop in Columbia, N.J., on Saturday and may be headed to California. The 1987 silver Audi the two were driving was found earlier yesterday at a Sturbridge, Mass., truck stop, 150 miles from the crime scene and two miles from the Connecticut state line. The police are uncertain as to how long the car had been there. The police have not released information as to why the boys are being linked to the crime. "Both Tulloch and Parker should be considered armed and dangerous," the Federal Bureau of Investigation posted on its Web site yesterday. New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said that the teens allegedly stabbed the victims "multiple times in the head and chest." Tulloch and Parker left town a few days after the murders to go rock climbing in Colorado, returned a few days later and then disappeared again, according to Casy Purcell, a friend of Tulloch's. Purcell said Tulloch told him the boys had to return because Tulloch cut his leg on a sap bucket while walking in the woods. Students at Dartmouth have expressed relief that there has finally been a break in the investigation, which began on January 27, the date of the murders. "I think everyone really just wants it to come to a conclusion," Dartmouth freshman Joshua Marcuse said. "It has dragged on too long." Students have also found it discomforting that there seems to be very little relation between the suspects and the victims. "I was totally shocked. It makes it seems more random, much scarier for us," Dartmouth sophomore Heather Harrington said. "It'd be more comforting if there was a connection between the murders and the suspect," Dartmouth senior class president Charles Gussow said. Marcuse said he did not find the police's announcement especially surprising, however. "The fact of the matter is that they've been keeping everything so quiet that at this point anything would seem random," Marcuse said. "It's unfortunate that [the suspects] are younger -- it adds to the tragedy," Marcuse added. Harrington feels that the initial shock over the crimes has worn off and campus life has assumed its normal routine, minus the prevalence of the media satellite trucks on campus. "People are pretty normal about it now. People feel pretty safe on campus. No one's real worried," she said. The Zantops, originally from Germany, were well-loved on campus. Students said they were very angered by a Friday story in The Boston Globe, which said the murders may have been the result of an extramarital affiar involving Half Zantop. Susanne Zantop, 55, was chairwoman of the German Studies Department and Half Zantop, 62, was a professor of Earth Sciences. The Associated Press contributed to this article.