HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) The teens accused of stabbing two Dartmouth College professors to death talked their way into the couple”s home and killed them in a plot to steal their ATM cards and PIN numbers, an indictment unsealed yesterday charges.
In the six months before the murders in Hanover on Jan. 27, 2001, Robert Tulloch and James Parker went to four other randomly chosen homes but did not get in, the indictment says.
It says they finally succeeded by telling professor Half Zantop they were students conducting an environmental survey. Zantop and his wife, Susanne, were found slain later that day.
Their four alleged previous attempts, two near their homes in Chelsea, Vt., and two in Hanover near the Zantop home, failed because no one was home or the people who answered the door would not let them in, the indictment says.
The last of those failed attempts was the same day the Zantops were murdered, the indictment alleged.
Tulloch, 18, is charged with first-degree murder. He has indicated he will use an insanity defense at his trial, which is scheduled to start in April.
Parker, 17, has pleaded guilty to reduced charges and agreed to testify against Tulloch. The Grafton County Superior Court indictment dated Friday and unsealed yesterday does not say whether the details came from Parker.
It is the first time authorities have clearly stated a theory for the killings, which rocked Hanover. Previously, authorities had said only that the motive was robbery.
The new indictment charges Tulloch with murder conspiracy. The penalty for each of the multiple murder indictments he still faces is mandatory life in prison without parole.
The Zantops” bodies were found in their study by an arriving dinner guest the evening of Jan. 27, 2001.
The indictment alleges that Tulloch and Parker came up with the robbery-murder plan in June 2000.
It says their first attempt was in July at a home in Vershire, Vt., near Chelsea, where they cut the phone line before Tulloch knocked on the door as Parker hid nearby. Tulloch allegedly told the person who answered the door his car had broken down. The person refused to let him in and the two left, the indictment says.