Students who spoke with The Dartmouth yesterday wondered if the close-mouthed tactics of investigators working on the murder of Half and Susanne Zantop are feeding the rumor mill and leaving the media to settle for reporting on the rumors they encounter.
Eric Liu '04 said he felt that the information around the case has been vague and that because the investigation hasn't released a lot of information, the story is "a breeding ground for rumors."
Many students questioned the motives of the anonymous source who felt he was a "prime suspect." This source told The Dartmouth in the wee hours of yesterday morning that he believed he may be a suspect in the Zantop case.
The student said police interrogated him for four hours on Tuesday night and confiscated his clothes and a kitchen knife. The state Attorney General Philip McLaughlin said he did not consider the student in question a "suspect" but would not comment on whether he was still being questioned.
After The Dartmouth broke the story early yesterday morning, almost all local and national media outlets, including the Associated Press, reported on the source's possible interrogation.
Some students hypothesized that, with little new information available in the Zantop tragedy, all media outlets, including The Dartmouth, are searching for any explanation for the crime.
"My experience with the media is that you have to take it with a grain of salt. At this point, everybody is desperate for an explanation. So I think they'd be willing to grasp at any sort of reason for why this happened. In that context, we can't be too quick to assume it was a student involved," Walter Igawa-Silva '01 said.
Yesterday, some students criticized the anonymous individual's decision to speak with The Dartmouth.
"I think the student should have taken it more seriously. It is a sensitive issue that is getting glossed over," Erica Stoller '03 said, characterizing his decision to talk to The Dartmouth as "tactless."
"I have no problem with The Dartmouth printing the story. I just think he should have kept his mouth shut," Stoller added. "If he was a serious suspect, then it was in poor taste for him to go to The Dartmouth."
"Why would you want to tell the whole campus? Why not say who you are and clear your name?" Christian Cutul '01 asked, speculating that the investigators might have asked the student to not give his name.
Liu said he thought the student wanted to comment on the police's handling of the situation. Amy Price '04 wondered if the fact that the student revealed his story would "jeopardize the investigation."
Some expressed approval of the publication in The Dartmouth yesterday about the potential suspect, while others felt the coverage was inappropriate.
"[The story] was a little bit misleading. When I saw the headline I thought, 'Oh, they caught a student who did it.' But when you read the story, it was a student coming forward thinking he was a suspect," Elena Ghanotakis '01 said.
She supported The Dartmouth's coverage, though, "We aren't getting any information from the school. At least The D is giving us information."
Kelli Partridge '04 approved of the decision to report on the source. "If he gave [The Dartmouth] the information, then it is okay to print," Partridge said. "It is one of those things that people are going to read [because] honestly no one has a clue. We are just waiting, hoping and praying that they find what really happened."
Some students questioned The Dartmouth's coverage and the authenticity of the information presented by the source in the campus paper and in other publications.
While Cutul found the student's story interesting, he felt uncomfortable that the report was based on "the words of one student who remains anonymous." He added, "Do we choose to believe the guy?"
