2001 Dartmouth College murders
Open-knowledge reference entry
On January 27, 2001, Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop, aged 62 and 55 respectively, were stabbed to death at their home in Etna, New Hampshire. Originally from Germany, the couple had been teaching at Dartmouth since the 1970s. High school classmates James J. Parker, age 16, and Robert W. Tulloch, age 17, were charged with first-degree murder.
Parker pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against Tulloch, and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison; he was granted parole in April 2024. Tulloch pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole. In 2014, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ordered Tulloch's sentence reviewed, but the review hearing did not commence until September 2024. In April 2025, the Court declined to review the trial court's certified questions regarding life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders under the New Hampshire Constitution, remanding the case back to Grafton County's Superior Court Judge Leonard MacLeod for further proceedings. On October 21, 2025, Judge MacLeod ruled that life sentences for juvenile offenders violate the New Hampshire Constitution's prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishments." In 2026, using this reasoning, Tulloch was resentenced to '45 to life'. He will be eligible for parole in 2046 at the age of 62.
Half and Susanne Zantop
Half Zantop was born in Germany in 1938.
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