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Deputy's hunch brings in Dartmouth suspects

Sgt. Bill Ward learned of the teen-agers' whereabouts while monitoring CB radio traffic

CB traffic turns up hitchhiking teens

In this story: 'They appeared to be very surprised' Victims taught 25 years at Dartmouth RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW CASTLE, Indiana (CNN) -- Sheriff's deputies arrested two hitchhiking teen-age murder suspects Monday in Indiana after luring them to a truck stop in hopes of a ride.

Robert Tulloch, 17, and James Parker, 16, were arrested about 4 a.m. Monday at a truck stop outside New Castle, Indiana. They are each charged as adults with two counts of first-degree murder in New Hampshire in the stabbing deaths of Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop.

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Early Monday morning, Henry County Sheriff's Sgt. Bill Ward said that he was monitoring citizens band radio traffic when a truck driver westbound on Interstate 70 asked for someone to pick up two hitchhikers he could no longer carry.

A nationwide FBI alert and reports on CNN indicated the suspects may have been hitching a ride to California, Ward said. So he got on the radio and encouraged the trucker to drop his riders off at a truck stop near New Castle.

"I said, 'Hey, why don't you drop them off at the fuel desk and someone will pick them up in a few minutes.' And he did," Ward said.

"I actually didn't expect it to be them, but I thought it would be worth checking out," he added.

Both suspects are from Chelsea, Vermont, which is about 30 miles northwest of Hanover, New Hampshire, where Dartmouth is located.

'They appeared to be very surprised'

Ward said the trucker did not know who the teen-agers were when he picked them up at a truck stop near the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border late Sunday. They told him they were trying to get back to California after hitchhiking to Massachusetts in hopes of finding jobs.

"The truck driver had felt sorry for them. They were close in age to a child of his own," Ward said.

Another trucker, hearing the CB traffic, helped deputies find the pair at the truck stop. Ward said two deputies had the boys in custody by the time he arrived.

Authorities charged the boys Saturday with the Dartmouth professors' slayings. Police warned that the teens may have been hitchhiking after a Massachusetts state trooper found the car they had been driving abandoned at a truck stop Sunday morning.

"They appeared to be very surprised," Ward said. "They didn't expect us to move in around them so quickly."

Henry County Sheriff Kim Cronk said he was "elated" at the suspects' capture.

"We're very proud of our officers," he said.

Victims taught 25 years at Dartmouth

A friend coming to dinner found the Zantops dead in their home in Etna, New Hampshire, outside of Hanover, on January 27. Authorities have not discussed any possible motive in the killings.

New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin said investigators were expected to arrive in Indiana by Monday afternoon to question the boys, and he thanked Indiana authorities for their assistance.

"What I found remarkable, in speaking to Sgt. Ward, was how normal and how uncommon he thought this extraordinary service was," McLaughlin said.

The professors were German-born, naturalized U.S. citizens, popular among students, and they often opened their home to students and community members. Half Zantop was a field and economic geologist who had taught at Dartmouth for 25 years.

Susanne Zantop, who headed the German Studies program and participated in the Women's Studies and Comparative Literature programs, had also taught there for 25 years.

In Chelsea, Orange County Sheriff Dennis McClure told the college newspaper, The Dartmouth, that fingerprints of the teens taken when they were questioned by New Hampshire investigators Thursday matched prints at the crime scene.

McClure said the teens had purchased a military-style knife over the Internet, but he did not say whether it was the weapon used in the killings.

The suspects were well-known in their hometown: Tulloch had been active in his student council, while Parker played soccer.

"The whole community is in shock," said Chelsea resident Robert Sherman, who said he has known both suspects for about 10 years. "Robert and Jimmy are very important members of this community, as are their families, and I think nobody in the community can imagine that they could have been involved in this crime."

Casey Purcell, a friend of Tulloch's, said Saturday that Tulloch and another boy left town in the days after the murders. They were gone for two or three days, he said, and then they returned to Chelsea. A few days later they disappeared again, said Purcell, who is a senior at Chelsea High School.

Purcell said Tulloch told him the pair set out to go rock climbing in Colorado, but had to turn back because Tulloch had a cut on his leg that had become infected. Tulloch said he cut his leg on a sap bucket while walking in the woods, Purcell said.

They returned to school and were said to have behaved normally -- even participating in discussions about the killings.

CNN Boston Bureau Chief Bill Delaney contributed to this report.

Police find Dartmouth murder suspects' car
February 18, 2001
Police search for teens in murder of professor couple
February 17, 2001

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