Authorities issued arrest warrants over the weekend for Robert Tulloch, 17, and James Parker, 16, of Vermont, charging them with first-degree murders of Half and Susanne Zantop, but have not apprehended the two suspects.
Investigators believe Tulloch and Parker, "acting in concert" with one another, "brutally murdered" the Zantops by stabbing them multiple times in the head and chest.
Tulloch and Parker were last reported seen at a truckstop in New Jersey Saturday at about 10 a.m. Before that, reports place the teenagers in Sturbridge, Mass., sometime Friday evening. They were also seen in their Vermont homes Thursday.
According to the New Hampshire Attorney General's office, the two suspects may be out of money and soliciting rides from tractor-trailer drivers in an effort to get to California.
A woman at the general store at Travel Centers of America truckstop in Columbia, N.J. confirmed that the boys were seen there Saturday morning but refused to give further details.
Earlier yesterday, authories reported that they recovered the vehicle Tulloch and Parker were believed to have been driving at a truckstop in Sturbridge, Mass.
The four-door silver 1987 Audi with Vermont license plates was found at approximately 10:20 a.m. yesterday in the parking lot of the Sturbridge Isle truck stop, according to Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Dale Kiley.
The truckstop is located off Interstate 84 in Sturbridge -- 150 miles from Hanover and about two miles from the Connecticut border.
Kiley said the car was apparently abandoned in the parking lot, and was covered with a "dusting of snow."
He said State Trooper Walter Coombs found the car this morning, but authorities are not sure how long it has been parked at the truckstop.
The New Hampshire state police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived in Sturbridge yesterday shortly after the car was identified.
A hostess at the Sturbridge truckstop restaurant told The Dartmouth she believes she saw the Robert Tulloch and James Parker.
Sloper said both suspects are "clean cut."
Noting Saturday that investigators did not know where Tulloch and Parker are, Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone said they "may very well be apprehended in another jurisdiction."
Ayotte said Canadian border patrol has been notified as a precaution.
She would not comment on whether sexual assault was involved, but she said other criminal charges will be brought if investigators see fit.
Ayotte reiterated McLaughlin's denial that an affair was involved in the motive, as was reported by the Boston Globe yesterday, saying, "That story was not supported by the evidence acquired by this investigation."
Also, the response from the public has been "tremendous" and helped investigators to identify the suspects, Ayotte said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is continuing to assist in the pursuit of the suspects, and the agency has obtained "unlawful flight" warrants, FBI Assistant Special Agent Bill Chase said.
The FBI has also posted pictures and descriptions of the two suspects on its website, www.fbi.gov.
Late Sunday night, McLaughlin re-issued an appeal that the media not contact the daughters of the Zantops.
Such unwelcome solictations, Sandra Matheson, Director of the Attorney General's Office of Victim/Witness Assistance, emphasized, serves only to further victimize the daughters already undergoing a difficult period of mourning.
