Episode 191: The Murders of Half and Susanne Zantop
Half Zantop was born in Germany in 1938. “Half” means “help” in German, and this was very fitting for him. His family moved to Spain when Half was a year old to escape WWII, moved back to Germany in 1942 and moved to Spain in 1948. He was absolutely fascinated by geology, and he earned his undergraduate degree in geology from Freiburg University. Half then attended Washington State University before earning a PHD from Stanford University’s School of Earth Sciences in 1969. Half met the love of his life, Susanne, while they were both attending Stanford.
Susanne was also German, having been born in Kissinger, Germany in 1945. She excelled in school, majoring in political science at the Free University of Berlin before pursuing her master’s degree at Stanford. She and Half both connected, not only in the fact that they were both two geniuses at Stanford, but that they had also both grown up in the aftermath of the horrors of the Holocaust. Susanne and Half traveled together, going to South America on Half’s first major field assignment. They married in 1970, traveled the world, and eventually welcomed two beautiful daughters named Veronika and Mariana. In 1976, Half got a job as a professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire teaching geology and earth science and the family moved from Germany, where they were when Half was working there, to New Hampshire. In 1984, Susanne earned a PHD from Harvard in both German and Spanish, and she too joined the faculty at Dartmouth in their German department. She eventually and proudly became department chair.
55-year-old Susanne was an incredible cook, loved to garden and be outside. She was absolutely brilliant and highly respected and admired at Dartmouth. Her colleagues and her students adored her. She held the Parents' Distinguished Research Professorship in the Humanities, was chairing the German Studies Department, and was Graduate Director of the Comparative Literature MA program. She had also authored multiple books, one of her most notable being “Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany.” She dedicated it to Half, writing “to Half, in more than one sense my better half.”
62-year-old Half, as a Professor of Earth Sciences, was a specialist in the field of economic geology and loved teaching. He took his role of shaping and educating young minds very seriously and loved being out in the field doing field study with his students. He was more than approachable - his students looked up to him and he was always more than willing to help them however he could. He was nicknamed “Mr. Sweetness” for good reason.
On January 27th, 2001, a friend of the couple’s named Roxana Verona arrived at their home in Etna, New Hampshire at around 6:30 p.m. The couple loved to host and entertain their friends, and they were all planning to have fun and enjoy dinner. The Zantop’s home was always known as being open to anyone who was a friend of the family or a friend of a friend, and they gave their friends an open invitation whenever they wanted to come over. The door was left unlocked for her, but when Roxana walked into the house, it was silent. There was none of the typical sounds of the home like cooking, talking or laughing, which was already unnerving. When she walked into the house further, Roxana saw the bodies of Half and Susanne in the den. They were a few feet away from one another, both in a pool of blood.
Roxana ran to get help, and police arrived quickly. Investigators were stunned that something like this had happened in their small town, especially to two well respected and adored professors. Police questioned anyone they could, and to their knowledge, no one wanted to harm the Zantop’s or had any issues with them. They looked at Roxana, who was immediately cleared of any wrongdoing, they looked at Half’s teaching assistant, a dishwasher at a local restaurant, and anyone who could have possibly been responsible. There were no signs of forced entry, and nothing of value had been stolen or moved in the home. The couple had beautiful paintings and silver, Apple computers and other newer electronic devices, and Susanne had gorgeous jewelry in the bedroom. Nothing had been touched aside from Half’s wallet.
A Crime Scene Investigation team went to the home and painstakingly collected evidence such as a bloody boot print left on the floor, fingerprints from the scene and whatever else they could find. This included two 12-inch long knife sheaths, specifically for SOG SEAL 2000 knives, which were knives used by Navy Seals that had 7” blades. These were clearly sheaths from the murder weapons. This also pointed police to the fact that there were likely at least two perpetrators. Three weeks after the murders, police were able to obtain a list of everyone who had purchased these knives in the last several months, and one name, a resident of nearby Chelsea, Vermont, immediately stood out to them. 16-year-old James Parker was first spoken to by police on February 15th when they showed up at his parent’s home.
James was pale, appeared shaken and nervous, and almost immediately directed them to his friend, 17-year-old Robert Tulloch. He said that he and Robert purchased the knives to build a fort with, but sold them to someone at an army navy store in Burlington, Vermont. Police took note of how nervous James was, which was a stark contrast to Robert, who appeared calm and even overly confident when police spoke with him that same night. Police obtained fingerprints from both boys and took prints from a pair of Robert’s boots. All of the prints came back as matches to prints found at the crime scene, with the bloody boot print having come from Robert’s boots. When both boys’ parents woke up the next morning, they realized their sons were on the run from police.
James and Robert had driven off in James’ mom’s stolen car and then got a ride with a trucker who was heading out to Indiana. They hoped to get to California. Four days after they fled and twenty five days after the murders of Half and Susanne Zantop, on February 20th, James Parker and Robert Tulloch were apprehended and arrested at a rest stop in Spiceland, Indiana. During their time fleeing from police, law enforcement obtained search warrants for both homes. When Robert’s home was searched, police ransacked his bedroom and pulled away a stack of comic books to reveal a box. Inside the box were the knives wrapped in plastic bags. There was still blood on both knives, and after they were taken into evidence it was revealed that one knife had Half’s blood on it and the other had Susanne’s.
James and Robert were indicted on an extensive list of charges, and the indictment revealed that James and Robert had tried to enter into four separate homes in both New Hampshire and Vermont before getting into the Zantop’s home. They had the same goal each time: rob the family inside, get their ATM cards and PIN numbers to steal $10,000, and then kill them. They would then run away to Australia where they thought they could live off of the land or become hired assassins.
Despite James’ age, he was charged as an adult because of the brutality of the murders. He ended up making a plea bargain where he agreed to testify against Robert and plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a maximum sentence of twenty-five years to life with a possibility of parole after 16 years. As for Robert, his lawyer tried to say that he was mentally ill and attempted to get him off as not guilty by reason of insanity. Shockingly, when he found out that James confessed to everything and was going to be testifying against him, Robert changed his plea to guilty.
During the trial, the two boys both said that they had been driving around on the evening of the murders looking for targets. They had gone to other homes asking people “survey questions”, but people either weren’t home or didn’t want to answer the questions. Half Zantop, being incredibly kind and wanting to help who he thought were students, invited the boys inside. The boys had approached the home because it looked expensive and was a bit more isolated as it was surrounded by trees. Half invited them into the den so that he could answer their “environmental survey.” He then began asking the boys questions about their survey and their project, and he realized they were not prepared at all. He told them they needed to work on their presentation for their surveys, especially as this was his line of work, and then he turned away from them for a minute to get them a phone number. This is when Robert, angered by Half saying they weren’t prepared enough, pulled a knife out of his backpack and stabbed Half in the chest. He began stabbing him repeatedly, and when Half yelled out, Susanne ran into the den from the kitchen. James grabbed the second knife and stabbed her, then slit her throat. Robert stabbed her in the head. Robert later told James that he wanted to find out if his knife could go through her skull.
The boys had wanted to get access to Half’s bank account, but ended up stealing the $340 inside his wallet before fleeing the home covered in blood. They accidentally left behind the knife sheaths, and they tried to return to the house to get them back but saw that police had already arrived on scene. They hadn’t realized that Susanne was in the kitchen cooking for a dinner party, and a guest had arrived shortly after the murders and alerted police.
Veronika Zantop, one of Half and Susanne’s two daughters, read a victim impact statement in court. She said that her father’s name meant “help” in German, and that devastatingly his generosity and willingness to help resulted in James and Robert coming into their home. This made “their deaths seem like the greatest violation”.
On April 5th, 2002, James Parker was sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison with the possibility of parole after sixteen years. Robert Tulloch was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
After earning both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree while incarcerated, James Parker was granted parole in April of 2024.
Robert Tulloch’s case had come under review as a result of the Supreme Court case Miller v. Alabama, where the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory sentencing to life without parole was unconstitutional for minors. Robert was 17-years-old when he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 2014, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that Robert’s case would be reviewed for resentencing. This is an ongoing process and Robert is still incarcerated at the New Hampshire state prison.
Image sources:
wcax.com - “Flowers laid for Dartmouth professors murdered 20 years ago”