Suspects in Dartmouth murders arrested

Authorities arrested the two teenagers wanted for the murders of Half and Susanne Zantop at around 4 a.m. Monday morning in rural New Castle, Ind.

Henry County Sheriff Kim Cronk said Robert Tulloch, 17, and James Parker, 16, were arrested this morning, but he declined to give specifics of the arrest except to say that the boys were apprehended without a struggle.

New Castle is 45 miles east of Indianapolis, Cronk said.

At a news conference this afternoon at the Hanover Police Department, Attorney General Philip McLaughlin confirmed that the suspects had been apprehended.

McLaughlin thanked agencies and individuals involved in apprehending Parker and Tulloch but released no details regarding the motive of the teenagers or evidence involved in charging them with the crime.

Authorities did not confirm or deny reports saying that one of the boys bought a 12-inch blade knife on the Internet.

Orange County Sheriff Dennis McClure had said earlier today fingerprints of the teens taken Thursday when New Hampshire investigators questioned them in Chelsea matched prints at the crime scene.

McLaughlin confirmed that fingerprints were taken, but would not confirm that their fingerprints matched ones found at the scene.

McClure also said the boys had purchased a military-style knife on the Internet before the murders, but would not confirm that it was the murder weapon.

McLaughlin said McClure acted inappropriately in releasing the knife information, but still would not confirm that the boys purchased the knife.

Investigators have said that they believed Parker and Tulloch brought the unconfirmed murder weapon into the home and brutally murdered the Zantops by stabbing them multiple times in the head and chest.

Meanwhile, McLaughlin also thanked Sergeant Bill Ward, an Indiana police officer, who has been credited with the discovery and arrest of the Vermont teens.

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"What I found remarkable was how normal and uncommon [Ward] thought that this service was," McLaughlin said of the officer, who posed as a truck driver on his CB radio and intercepted a call from a driver transporting the boys.

The driver sent a request out over the radio for another trucker to take Parker and Tulloch further west. The driver did not know at the time that the teenagers were wanted by the police.

Through his radio and acting under the pretense of being a truck driver, Ward said he could pick the two boys up and offered to meet them at a truck stop fueling station. There, the pair was arrested by two other officers, Deputies Landon Dean and Chris Newkirk.

The officers, McLaughlin said, "tried to act surreptitiously and not let their cars be seen," at the apprehension scene and were successful.

"This is a turning point in this particular case," McLaughlin told reporters gathered at the conference.

McLaughlin thanked Vermont and New Hampshire State Police, Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, as well as the Boston Bureau of the FBI.

In addition, McLaughlin especially called to attention the "stalwart" work of Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone, acknowledging that it must have been hard for the officer to conduct the investigation because of his closeness to the people in the small town.

McLaughlin praised Giaccone for being "a champion of the humanity" involved in the case.

"I want to express my appreciation and respect for the professionalism [of all involved]," he added.

FBI Assistant Special Agent John Pistol thanked members of the trucking industry for aiding officials in tracking precisely where and when Parker and Tulloch were travelling.

The boys are being charged with unlawful flight to avoid arrest, in addition to state murder charges.

When asked by reporters about the motive Parker and Tulloch might have had in killing the two professors, McLaughlin said, "We're continuing to investigate and inquire into that question," but he released no further details.

McLaughlin expressed deep sympathy for the daughters of Half and Susanne Zantop, saying "for them, time stopped on January 27."

Chief Giaccone berated the media for the recent story that was published claiming that Half Zantop had an affair which was related to the motives for the killings.

"Suffice it to say that as certain as the Zantops didn't deserve to die, they certainly don't need to have their names smeared in print," he said. — THE DARTMOUTH