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The Dartmouth
March 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Police contact ASU professor

A former visiting professor of earth sciences and current geology professor at Arizona State University, Stanley Williams, has been identified by several media outlets as the man whose rental car was seized from the rental agency in Manchester by officials investigating the Zantop murder.

Williams does not appear to be a suspect in the double homicide, however.

The New Hampshire Attorney General's office said that they have no suspects and that none of the people interviewed by state police who travelled to Arizona are considered suspects.

Williams could not be reached for comment yesterday, but earlier confirmed to the Boston Globe that he had in fact been in contact with New Hampshire investigators.

"We still don't have any suspects," Senior Assistant Attorney General Daniel Mullen told The Dartmouth yesterday, adding he personally did not know if Williams had been questioned.

Williams and his wife, Lynda, were in Hanover the weekend professors Half and Susanne Zantop were killed to attend the 90th birthday party of his dissertation adviser, Richard Stoiber, a professor emeritus of earth sciences.

Police impounded the white car the couple had apparently rented from Thrifty Car Rental at the Manchester airport. The Boston Herald reported authorities had found a card from ASU in the vehicle when it was searched.

Stanley Williams received his Ph.D. from Dartmouth in 1983 and is an expert in volcanolgy, focusing on the behavior of active volcanoes. Lynda Williams received a master's degree, studying under Half Zantop, from the College in 1984.

Stanley Williams has been travelling back and forth to Hanover in recent months to visit the ailing Stoiber, whose party took place from 5 to 7 p.m. on the Saturday that the couple was murdered.

Half Zantop was expected at that party as well, and one person who was there earlier told The Dartmouth, "He was missed."

Williams also attended a department support meeting the next evening a member of the earth sciences department said.

Earth sciences professor Jim Aronson expressed respect and admiration for his Arizona colleague, calling him "a very famous person," adding, "He's somewhat of a legend."

Williams' fame stems not only from his scholarship, but also from an 1993 tragedy, when Williams was the only survivor of a deadly volcano eruption, which occurred while he and nine other researchers were working in and around the crater.

Williams was severely injured in the eruption of the Colombian volcano, named Galeras.

A press conference regarding the ongoing Zantop investigation is scheduled to take place at noon today at the Hanover Police Station.