For a week, we knew their address. We recognized their faces. We knew they were stabbed.
But on Saturday we learned about their lives.
Despite suffering through a horrifying, bewildering week, you -- the friends, students, family and colleagues of Half and Susanne Zantop -- reached out and shared your personal experiences.
For this, we thank you.
You told us about their love for sailing, their love for wine and home cooked food, their love for their students and their children.
From you, we learned about their vacations in Maine, their intellectual pursuits and what made them smile.
Up until Saturday, many of us had delved into the mystery of Susanne and Half Zantops' murder -- Who did it? Why? How? What leads are investigators pursuing?
But for two hours on Saturday afternoon, everyone stopped focusing on leads and suspects. Instead, we, as a community, listened as people shared snippets of the lives they experienced with the Zantops.
You stood behind the pulpit, shared memories that reverberated through the chapel -- alternately shaking us with tears and easing us with laughter.
The number of people and the powerful unity of their voices -- joined in prayer and song -- spoke to the profound impact that the Zantops imparted on those who surrounded them.
When Sujee Fonseca '94 spoke to us through her tears, the Zantops' profound love for one another became clear. And as Roxanna Verona addressed us, we knew that the memories of the Zantops would survive forever at the College.
Not everyone watching the memorial service knew the Zantops in Maine or in the classroom or around their kitchen table. Many here at Dartmouth only knew the Zantops in the light of the television crews and cameras that have surrounded their deaths.
Saturday's memorial service allowed us to learn more about the lives and the legacies of these two wonderful individuals that we lost through an unimaginable tragedy.
And for this, we thank you.
