Wednesday February 28 2:21 PM ET
Suspect in Dartmouth Murders Waives Hearing

BOSTON (Reuters) - One of two teen-agers charged with murder in the stabbing deaths of married Dartmouth College professors waived a preliminary hearing on Wednesday that could have shed light on the case that has riveted New England.

Honor student Robert Tulloch, 17, waived his right to a probable cause hearing in papers filed with the district court in Lebanon, New Hampshire. The decision averted the need for prosecutors to give evidence in support of holding Tulloch on first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Half Zantop, 62, and Susanne Zantop, 55, in Hanover, New Hampshire a month ago.

A Grafton County grand jury is now expected to hear evidence against Tulloch next week, while prosecutors are petitioning juvenile court to try the other suspect in the case, 16-year-old James Parker, as an adult.

While the investigation has been the subject of front-page news throughout New England, New Hampshire Attorney General Phil McLaughlin has not revealed a motive for the murders or how two rock-climbing friends from a small town in Vermont became the primary suspects.

A Vermont District Court judge has also declined news media requests to open court records that might explain why New Hampshire authorities accused the two of killing the Zantops.

The Zantops, who died from multiple stab wounds to the head and chest, were found lying in pools of blood on Jan. 27 inside their home near the prestigious Ivy League school in Hanover.

The two high school students come from Chelsea, Vermont, a small town 25 miles (40 km) from the Dartmouth campus where the Zantops taught.

Tulloch and Parker, both sons of craftsmen, were arrested on Feb. 19 at an Indiana truck stop, a few days after giving their fingerprints to police.

Half Zantop taught earth sciences at Dartmouth for 25 years and his wife headed the German studies department.

The murders of the German-born Zantops, who had been married for 31 years and had two adult daughters, unnerved the college and 10,000 residents of the placid college town. Hanover's last homicide was in 1991 when an Ethiopian man killed two Dartmouth female graduate students from his country with an ax.

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