A detective for the Hanover Police contacted members of the Dartmouth Outing Club today via email, pleading for help with the ongoing investigation of the murders of professors Half and Susanne Zantop.
Hanover Police Detective Eric Bates sent an email to unknown numbers of DOC members today at 2:46 p.m., requesting information.
"Our Task Force is looking for information from club members concerning sales of equipment to, or purchases from, local area residents from December 15th, 2000 to the current date," Bates wrote in the email.
In the email, Bates identified himself as "one of numerous investigators who are working on the Half and Susanne Zantop Homicides."
He continued, "The information about equipment sales may shed more light on the ongoing Zantop investigation."
The email did not specify what type of equipment the police may be looking for.
Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone declined to comment on exactly what information investigators are requesting, and whether the information could be related to a murder weapon or motive.
Earlier in the investigation, authorities contacted several Dartmouth students and faculty to ask if anyone had been missing rock climbing or geological equipment, but those leads appeared to have run dry.
Asked if the police had investigated other places where climbing or other outdoors equipment is sold, Giaccone said, "We've been to all the major outlets both within the area and outside."
He would not comment on whether the investigators are focusing on the DOC as a possible direct connection to murder suspects teenage Robert Tulloch and James Parker of Chelsea, Vt., or if they are looking for a intermediary connection linking the boys to the Zantops through a DOC member or community member.
"Those scenarios are conceivable... but I'm not going to say anything that would jeopardize the work we've done so far," Giaccone said.
Tulloch, 17, and Parker, 16, had become avid fans of rock climbing in recent months, according to friends of the teens. They were members of a climbing gym in Vermont, which police have also looked into.
Giaccone would not allow Bates to comment on the email, saying it is self-explanatory and other information regarding it could not be released.
Meanwhile, Parker was arraigned in juvenile court in Haverhill, N.H. today in a closed hearing.
Prosecutors are seeking to try Parker as an adult, but his attorneys say he is still a boy and should be tried as one.
"I represent an overwhelmed adolescent who is now within the protection of the juvenile justice system of New Hampshire, which is where we think he should be," lawyer for the defense Cathy Green said after the arraignment today.
John and Joan Parker, the suspect's parents, avoided reporters as they walked hand in hand into the courthouse before the hearing. They addressed the media when their son was first arraigned in Indiana, where police arrested both him and Tulloch.
