The state attorney general's office this afternoon denied claims that the murders of Susanne and Half Zantops resulted from an affair Half Zantop had with an unidentified woman.
Under the headline, "Love affair eyed in N.H. killings," the Boston Globe today reported, "Investigators believe the killings of Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop were crimes of passion, most likely resulting from an adulterous love affair involving Half Zantop."
However, in the press release today, New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin said, "Investigators do not hold the belief attributed to them in the Globe story."
The Globe attributed the information to anonymous "authorities close to the case." In response to this, McLaughlin said, "No responsible and knowledgeable law enforcement official would provide the Globe with the information it attributed to official anonymous sources."
In response, Globe Editor Matthew Storin told The Dartmouth, "We're very comfortable with our story. ... We stand by our story."
He said the Globe's information came from "very responsible sources," but that he "just can't speculate about why [McLaughlin denied the story."
"By [McLaughlin's] definition then, we made the story up, and that is just absolutely, positively false," Storin said.
The attorney general's press release said the Hanover Homicide Task Force has received many calls, but they "will not and cannot confirm one word of the Globe story."
Senior Assistant Attorney General Daniel Mullen told The Dartmouth, "The premise of the [Globe's] story is false."
Mullen confirmed that a love triangle is not the focus of the investigation. He also said he could not confirm other details published by the Globe.
The Globe's sources said the killer disabled Half Zantop quickly and killed him first, stabbing him in the chest. Susanne Zantop was killed second, by stab or slash wounds to the abdomen, after she put up a fierce fight, which left their home a bloody mess.
The anonymous sources that spoke with the Globe declined to describe or identify in any way the woman who, they believe, had an affair with Half Zantop, or the relationship between the woman and the presumed killer. They would not say whether the woman or the presumed killer were members of the Dartmouth community.
Mullen said he could not confirm any facet of the Globe's story.
Meanwhile, friends of the Zantops would also not confirm that Half Zantop had an affair.
Neighbor Audrey McCollum, whose husband found the bodies of the Zantops after being alerted by a dinner guest of the couple, said neither Half or Susanne Zantop ever mentioned an affair to her.
"I knew nothing whatsoever that would support this theory," McCollum said. "We're in a state of disbelief."
Moreover, Dr. Sujee Fonseka, a close friend of the Zantops, said she knew of no affair.
Another friend, a woman who had been close with Susanne Zantop since they attended high school in Germany together, told The Dartmouth that an affair is almost unthinkable. "It would surprise me just as much as the murders if [Half] did have an affair," Gudrun Wilde said.
Arizona State University professor Stanley N. Williams, whose rental car was impounded and investigated by police in connection with the murders, refused to comment on the Globe's claims.
Also, Chair of the Earth Sciences Department professor Richard Birnie declined to comment on the possibility of Half having had an affair.
