March 29, 2024
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Dartmouth suspect’s lawyer asks for patience

CONCORD, N.H. – A lawyer for one of the teen-agers charged with killing two Dartmouth College professors says the public should hold off making judgments until incriminating evidence is independently reviewed.

Authorities investigating the slayings of Half and Susanne Zantop found one victim’s blood on knives discovered in the bedroom of Robert Tulloch, 17, according to court documents released Monday.

Tulloch and James Parker, 16, both of Chelsea, Vt., are accused of stabbing the Zantops to death in the couple’s Hanover home Jan. 27.

“It’s incomprehensible and inconceivable that Jimmy Parker could have had anything to do with this crime,” said Doug Brown, a San Diego lawyer and longtime family friend. A lawyer for Tulloch did not return calls seeking comment.

Investigators said they were unsure of a motive for the killings or a possible connection between the German-born professors and the suspects. “There’s no evidence that I am aware of that they knew each other,” Brown said.

After weeks of fighting the release of the court documents, prosecutors agreed to make public several search warrants and other information supporting the teens’ arrests.

According to the documents, a man who had driven past the Zantops’ home on the afternoon of Jan. 26 told police he saw a young man speeding out of the driveway in a dark green station wagon. Police later found a red “bloodlike stain” on the floor mat of the Parker family’s green Subaru station wagon, according to the documents.

Police analyzed two military-style knives found in a box in Tulloch’s bedroom that matched the sort believed to have been used in the killings.

“On one knife, DNA consistent with Susanne Zantop was detected,” the documents say. “On the second knife, DNA consistent with Susanne Zantop was detected, with a mixture of another source of DNA.”


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