Since authorities announced that they had issued an arrest warrant for Robert Tulloch, 17, and James Parker, 16, most reports have depicted them as good students with senses of humor. No one in early reports pegged Tulloch as violent -- and certainly not capable of murder.
Orange County Sheriff Dennis McClure acknowledged that he has had multiple contacts with the pair within the past year on a professional basis, but he said these encounters were not out of the ordinary.
"I'm just as shocked as most of the town's people are," he said. "Teenagers are teenagers. Local police are going to have contact with them in one form or another. That doesn't make you feel that they're going to be involved in a homicide or anything like that."
He said his 690 square mile county has only one traffic light, and described the county seat, Chelsea, as a safe town of about 1000 people, where the biggest crime is when "once in a while somebody might drive off without paying for some gas."
Molly Jackson, a neighbor and a ninth grader at Chelsea Public School told The Dartmouth Saturday, "[Tulloch] was your run-of-the-mill good student." She said he played soccer, was president of the student council and a member of the debate team.
From her home, Jackson can see the Tulloch's residence, a big, canary-yellow house prominent on Main Street in Chelsea, Vt. She said her first thought when she saw police and crime unit cars swarming into the 313 Main Street driveway last night was, "It might have something to do with the parents."
When she heard Saturday morning that investigators had issued a search warrant for Robert Tulloch, a classmate of her older sister and her across-the-street neighbor, she was "a little shocked."
She said the family usually "kept to themselves," but she said in all of her encounters with the Tullochs, "They were always really nice."
Jackson was not the only confused and shocked resident of Chelsea -- a rural blue-collar town surrounded by farms and snowy fields, approximately 30 miles from Hanover
People in shops on Main Street grumbled Saturday about the media trucks and reporters that had overtaken their quiet hamlet. Some joked nervously about when the two teenagers would be caught. A woman working in the Chelsea Country Store remembered when Tulloch used to frequent her centrally located shop.
But one woman, who said she was accompanying her 17-year-old son to be questioned by the police on Saturday afternoon, told The Dartmouth that she was not surprised by the news of Tulloch's alleged involvement in the Zantop double homicide.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the woman said her son is close friends with Robert Tulloch's younger brother, and often visits the family's home. In fact, she said her son saw both Robert and his younger brother in their 313 Main Street home for about three or four hours the day before authorities issued a warrant for Robert Tulloch's arrest.
The source told The Dartmouth that on Thursday afternoon, her son called her from school to ask permission to go to the Tulloch's home because he didn't have afternoon classes at school. Her son had returned by the time she got home from work at about 5 or 6 p.m., she said.
By the next day, Tulloch and his alleged accomplice, James Parker, had left Chelsea.
According to Sheriff McClure, the two boys were questioned by investigators on Thursday at the Sheriff's office, located in Chelsea.
"That was just following up leads, I would imagine," McClure said. However, he said his office was not involved in the investigation other than to supply "desks, a place where they could use facilities, use telephones and have a cup of coffee."
"[Parker and Tulloch] probably got scared after that first contact and fled," McClure speculated.
McClure also said his officers aided the out-of-state investigators, who were searching for Parker and Tulloch on Friday, helping them look for the two boys down the town's back roads.
The anonymous source speculated that Chelsea's location makes getting away easy. "You can be out of state in 30 minutes. Just pick a direction and you're gone."
She said neither she nor her son had any idea where Robert Tulloch and his friend James Parker would have gone after leaving the town. (The police have received reports of Tulloch and Parker stopping at truck stops in Massachusetts and New Jersey since Saturday.
Casey Purcell, 18, who said he is on a short list of friends set to be questioned by investigators and is one of Tulloch's friends and classmates, also told The Dartmouth that he could not speculate on where the pair of friends would have gone. But he said he remembered when the two had disappeared about three weeks ago soon after the Jan. 27 murder.
"I know that [Robert] sold some of his stuff to get some money to leave," Purcell said of this first exit from Chelsea. "The first time, it was all about the rock climbing."
He said he thought the two boys bought rock climbing gear before setting out the first time, travelling west, and he said neither told their parents they were leaving.
Leaving without giving his parents a detailed explanation was not out of the ordinary for Tulloch, Purcell said.
"He can do what he wants," Purcell explained. "[The Tulloch children] can leave. Parents, when they let their kids leave whenever, I consider them not strict."
But Parker's parents do not give him the same freedom, Purcell said, and he called home from the bus expedition out west to tell them that he was safe.
Parker's parents were "pretty upset," Purcell said, and when he returned, they punished him, telling him he could not see Tulloch for a month and placing restrictions on his television privileges.
Purcell said he assumed that Tulloch returned to Chelsea at least in part so that he could get treatment for a cut on his leg. He said he had never seen the cut itself, but he said "everywhere he walked, he was limping."
According to Purcell, Parker missed a great deal of school and Tulloch came only one or two days during the approximately two weeks from when they returned to town and when they were last seen Thursday.
Purcell said he takes an art class with Tulloch and said, "I talked to him quite a bit, and he was totally normal."
Purcell has known Tulloch since the two were about 13 or 14 years old, he said. About a year ago, they were close friends, but since then, they have not spent as much time together, Purcell said.
In fact, according to Purcell, for the first half of this year, Tulloch rarely came to school. As Purcell explained, Tulloch had completed all but two of the credits he needed to graduate, but planned to finish those in the second half of the school year. When Tulloch did come to school, Purcell said, it was usually during lunchtime, and he typically wanted to play games.
He said during the first semester, Tulloch and Parker, who was planning to transfer from Spaulding High School in Barre, Vt., in the second semester, spent a lot of time with each other.
Purcell described Tulloch as smart, but said, "He doesn't really try." Tulloch likes to play video games and surf the Internet -- but Purcell said he would not place Tulloch in the "computer nerd" category in which he places himself.
According to Purcell, Tulloch is not a violent person. Purcell said even if Tulloch showed up at his door right now, he would not be intimidated.
However, according to the anonymous source who spoke with The Dartmouth, her 14-year-old son told her that Tulloch used to pick on smaller children at the town school.
Although she called Tulloch "intelligent," she said her younger son, told her, "He's a prick, and he's not very nice."
She said she thought Robert Tulloch was an introvert who spent most of his free time working with computers.
The source said her own son got caught up in the habit of ditching school and going over to the Tulloch's house last year. She said she often had to pick up her son and return him to school.
When she arrived at the house she said she never saw adults, but said both Robert and his brother were at home.
"The parents were a bit free-minded," she said, explaining that the children had mostly free reign to do as they pleased.
However, according to the source, about three weeks ago, some students at Chelsea Public School, including Robert Tulloch, were investigated for "misuse of the Internet." She said some students were suspended.
The principal of Chelsea Public School, Patricia Davenport, could not be reached for comment to confirm this report, and Purcell said he did not remember this incident.
Robert's mother, Diane, is a nurse, who is a member of the Visiting Nurse's Association, a group affiliated with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
The anonymous source said she has known Diane Tulloch since about seven years ago when they attended medical school together.
The source described Diane Tulloch as "sort of a floater." She said she is "a really nice person but she's an introvert."
She continued, "She builds up a defense and fluffs a lot of things off."
She said Diane Tulloch has consistently been the sole money earner for the family and is "very granola," making her own soap and raising chickens.
She said, over the past few weeks, Diane Tulloch had not indicated to her in any way that she suspected her son was guilty of the Zantop double homicide.
"I don't think she has a clue," about her son's alleged involvement with the murders, she said.
She remembered that she and Diane rarely talked about Robert, and indicated that Diane was very busy as the only breadwinner for the family of six and with other family issues.
The Tulloch's youngest daughter, Julie, is "developmentally delayed" and is enrolled in a behavior management program, she said.
She said she thought Julie's situation has been "stressful on the dad because he didn't participate in that."
Purcell confirmed that Julie Tulloch has a mental disorder, but he said he thought the family had handled her condition well.
The anonymous source also said Diane Tulloch sometimes talked about her youngest son, discussing the typical problems of adolescent boys.
Describing Tulloch's activities, the source said he and a few other local children -- including Parker, the other suspect -- got together and played with computers.
"They play games that involve all the role-playing fantasy games," she said, naming "Diablo," "Dungeons and Dragons" and "Realms" as a few of the most popular.
She said the boys hold "weekend events" to play "Realms."
Former Orange County Sheriff Sam Frank, who retired in September and moved down to Virginia, told The Dartmouth that he did have some professional dealings with the Tulloch and Parker families over the years, revealing that he had more encounters with the Parkers than the Tullochs.
He said he was not very surprised by the news coming from his old county.
"After being in this business for a long time, you don't get really too surprised about a lot of things," he explained. "After 25 years-plus, it takes a lot to surprise you."
Saturday morning, the Tulloch family had left their residence. A police officer who was sitting in his car outside the house said the family was getting hounded by the media and wanted to escape from the attention. However, he said the police knew where to find them and was in the process of searching the residence.
Police continue to search for the teenage fugitives, who were last spotted in Columbia, NJ. They are considered armed and dangerous and anyone with information should call Investigators at (877) 246-2100.
