Source: No pleas offered to prof-slay suspects
by Franci Richardson
Friday, April 13, 2001
http://wwww.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/dart04132001.htm

CHELSEA, Vt. - New Hampshire authorities have not offered a plea bargain to either of the teen suspects in the murders of two Dartmouth professors even though investigators still do not have a motive for the slayings or even a connection between the boys and the victims, said a source familiar with the case.

``This attorney general's office historically does not offer pleas and they haven't here, but they still have no clue about the motive or connection and that is what's killing them. That's what in the end could make this case largely circumstantial,'' the source said yesterday.

Robert Tulloch, 17, and his friend, James Parker, 16, are accused of the brutal stabbings of Half and Susanne Zantop, found dead by an invited guest in their Etna, N.H., home on Jan. 27.

The state's case against Tulloch, who is being held in a maximum-security jail, is before a special investigative Grafton County Grand Jury that will convene again April 19 in New Hampshire to weigh evidence and hear witness testimony from the defendant's sometime girlfriend, Christiana Usenza, who was in downtown Chelsea yesterday.

``I don't know anything,'' she said, declining to comment on the case or her previous interviews with New Hampshire investigators.

Parker, who is being held at a juvenile detention facility in Concord, awaits a May hearing where a court will determine whether he'll face the charges as an adult. The hearing will also determine whether Parker will be moved to an adult jail on May 24, his 17th birthday. Parker cannot be indicted before he is certified as an adult.

The source said most authorities involved in the case expect the grand jury to hand down a first-degree murder indictment against Tulloch by the end of April.

``I do, and everyone else expects there will be an indictment handed down by the end of the month,'' said the source. ``And that's (positive) because all the discovery and depositions will begin.''

The source also said the case will not go to trial ``before the next snow flies,'' meaning it could be several months before a jury hears the evidence against the teens.

``There have been search warrants applied for in four states, all of which in this case will be challenged. There will be independent testing of all forensic evidence, all investigators deposed,'' the source said.

The high-profile case, which gained national attention, started at the crime scene in the Zantops' home in Etna, N.H., where investigators say they found a knife sheath with Parker's fingerprint on it, and a bloody footprint that matched boots worn by Tulloch.

Detectives matched the knife sheath to two knives purchased by Parker over the Internet, and then later found two matching knives hidden in Tulloch's bedroom in Chelsea, Vt.

The teens ran before they could be arrested, ditching their car in Sturbridge, Mass., and began hitching rides with truckers. After a three-day national manhunt, Parker and Tulloch were arrested in a New Castle, Ind., truck stop.

Since their arrest, Parker's mother, Joan, is said by friends to be the parent most troubled by her son's arrest.

Her husband, John, has gone back to work as a builder, as have Michael Tulloch, a carpenter, and Diane Tulloch, a nurse.

But friends say Joan Parker, a nationally known racquetball player and instructor, has been withdrawn and depressed.

In a sworn statement given a month ago to New Hampshire investigators, the Parkers and Tullochs denied knowing the Zantops, according to their attorneys.

A source yesterday said during the Parkers' interview, Joan Parker was asked if she had ever had an affair with Half Zantop, but laughingly denied the allegation.

Town Clerk Diane Mattoon said yesterday that Diane Tulloch had come in to renew a license for the family's black labrador retriever, Ruby, a few days earlier.

``She mentioned her boys, and then stopped when she realized there was only one of them in her house,'' said Mattoon. ``Time doesn't stop, you have to move on.''

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