Autopsies performed today by the state's chief medical examiner on the bodies of Dartmouth professors Susanne and Half Zantop confirmed homicide as the cause of death, New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin announced this afternoon.
In a 4 p.m. news conference held at the Hanover police station, McLaughlin said the state currently has no one in custody, and he would not comment on any possible motives for the murders.
McLaughlin also declined to comment on any details of the homicides or how the bodies were found for fear of compromising the ongoing investigation, which is being led by the state police's major crimes unit.
However, three independent sources confirmed for The Dartmouth that the bodies were discovered yesterday around 6 p.m. by Roxana Verona, a French and Italian languages professor and close friend of the deceased.
McLaughlin said the person who found the bodies had a "perfectly good reason" to be at the residence, but would not say whether Verona was that person. The police were alerted by 6:48 p.m., according to the Attorney General.
This is the first murder in Hanover in almost a decade, and only the second in over 50 years. McLaughlin assured local residents and friends of the deceased present at the conference that the investigation was in "experienced" hands.
McLaughlin declined to say whether the Zantops were targeted or victims of random violence.
He said at this time he had no basis for alerting the public to possible risk, but he said he could not rule out the possibility of potential danger.
"At the present time, we simply do not have specific information," McLaughlin said. Officials will inform the community if a risk is determined.
Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone said that he could not say whether students were involved in the homicides or the investigation.
But College President James Wright said in a BlitzMail message sent to the campus this afternoon, "The Attorney General's Office will likely need to talk to students and faculty, and I hope that you can provide them with your full cooperation."
McLaughlin said the investigation will respect the "privacy" and "guiltlessness" of the student body, but did not deny that students may or have been contacted for information.
Police began investigating the deaths of the Zantops yesterday afternoon at 115 Trescott Road in Etna, which is located approximately four miles from the center of campus.
Hanover police were called to the scene early last night by the Zantops' neighbor, Audrey McCollum, wife of retired dean of the Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Bob McCollum.
Audrey McCollum told The Dartmouth that her family was alerted by the knocking of a distressed female member Dartmouth faculty, later identified as Verona, on the door sometime around 6 p.m. yesterday.
Verona confirmed for The Dartmouth that she was the first to find the Zantops. She declined to comment on what she saw because she said the police told her it could compromise the investigation.
Verona told the McCollums that she had just come from the Zantops' home, where she had been invited for dinner. She entered the home through the unlocked front door.
In the Zantops' study, Verona saw Susanne Zantop "lying on the floor in a pool of blood," Audrey McCollum said.
At that point, Verona went to the McCollums' home. Audrey McCollum called 911 while Bob McCollum and their daughter ran to the neighboring house where they found Half and Susanne Zantop dead on the floor of their study.
"It was very clear that they had been dead a long time - hours not minutes," Audrey McCollum said her husband told her when he and their daughter returned from the Zantops' after approximately an hour.
McCollum said her husband and daughter looked "shell-shocked" when they returned. By then, she said, "The area was swarming" with police.
She said that the Hanover Police Department almost immediately turned the investigation over to the state police, who told her they believed they were safe in their home.
Another neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Dartmouth that the state police notified neighbors that there was "nothing to worry about."
McCollum said she and her husband had become close to the Zantops in the seven years that the couple had lived next door to them.
"We loved that couple. They were among our very closest friends," McCollum said.
"They were a deeply devoted couple. There's no doubt about that," she said.
Verona concurred, calling the Zantops, "an absolutely great couple."
"Based on his observations, Dr. McCollum is absolutely certain it was not an incident of domestic violence or a murder-suicide," Audrey McCollum said.
She declined to speculate on how the Zantops died and said her husband could not comment because of the pending investigation.
The McCollums had gone skiing in the morning and returned home around 1 p.m. They did not speak or see the Zantops yesterday, Audrey McCollum said, but guessed that they died sometime in the early afternoon.
Last night, Berger told The Dartmouth that he received a call from Safety and Security at around 9:30 p.m. yesterday notifying him of the Zantops' death.
Susanne Zantop, 55, was chair of the department of German studies, and Half Zantop, 62, was a professor of earth sciences at the College.
Audrey McCollum said the Zantops were "two wonderful human beings" and that she and her husband considered them some of their closest friends.
"We were really good friends. We saw each other every weekend," Verona said. "They were [like] part of my family."
"They were probably among the most beloved faculty members at Dartmouth," McCollum said. The Zantops' "door was always open" and they "went a mile and a half for any student."
They were also "generous with their time and energy" in the local community and were "among the first to reach out" to others in times of need, McCollum said.
She said the Zantops always felt a strong sense of commitment to the community and to social issues, especially aafter they became U.S. citizens about three years ago.
The Zantops were natives of Germany who moved to the United States to study and teach.
McCollum remembered that Susanne Zantop told her that, growing up in Germany, she was never taught about the Holocaust because of the "historical blackout" until she was 13 years old.
Zantop had a "vivid memory about the day the kids were told about the Holocaust in school."
This memory stuck with her and spurred her decision to become a U.S. citizen three years ago.
The decision was difficult for the Zantops, who were "deeply rooted" in their German heritage, with family still in the country, McCollum said.
However, when they did decide to become naturalized, the Zantops, felt as citizens, they could "not sit back and watch things happen as [people] did in Germany."
They were compelled to be involved in the world around them and soon developed a "strong sense of commitment to being politically minded," McCollum said.
The "strong Democratic supporters" followed both local and national political news voraciously.
"I would get emails from them about issues - marches to Washington [D.C.] for a particular issue or another," McCollum said.
"We're absolutely shattered," McCollum said. Her husband and daughter were told by the police not to talk to the news media.
McCollum was shaken when The Dartmouth interviewed her this morning. She likened her feeling to "a gruesome old-time Alfred Hitchcock film [that] won't stop."
She said she and her husband slept a "total of about an hour" last night.
This morning, "at first light," she and her husband looked out of their window at the view that she had so many times before admired with Half and Suzanne Zantop by their side.
Their homes both overlook the same view, and the couples often "would call each other up if they saw six deer" or other exceptional views, McCollum said.
The Zantops were "very attune to nature," she said. They had a vegetable and herb garden and spent much time in the outdoors. They were cross-country skiers, hikers and sometimes took their small sailboat to Maine during the summer.
McCollum said she did not know the Zantops' exact ages but that she thought they were in their 50s.
The Zantops are survived by their two daughters. The elder is a doctor in Seattle, and younger is involved in international relief efforts based in New York, McCollum said.
She said that the Zantops "put a lot of academic pressure" on themselves, along with being active community members, and "it was partly for that reason that they were overextended."
Professor Bruce Duncan, a German professor, said he knew Susanne Zantop well and said her death is "just a total shock." He said that he did not know of any marital or domestic problems.
Page Chamberlain, an earth sciences professor, told The Dartmouth last night that he was waiting for a call from the chair of the department but declined to comment further.
"I'm scared to get out of my house," Verona said. "I hope we have an answer."
Berger told The Dartmouth, "I've already been talking to a number of folks from counseling services to set up critical incident debriefing for students and faculty."
Berger said the College would most likely begin group - and possibly individual counseling - early this week.
The Dartmouth will continuously update this report as information becomes available.
