Pair accused in N.H. deaths planned to flee to Australia

CONCORD, N.H. – The teens accused of killing two Dartmouth College professors plotted to rob homeowners and kill any witnesses to raise money to flee to Australia, prosecutors say.

Robert Tulloch, 18, and James Parker, 17, both of Chelsea, Vt., planned to threaten the residents with violence to get their ATM cards and PINs and “eliminate all witnesses to their crimes,” prosecutors said in court papers Monday.

“Every robbery-murder attempt was in furtherance of a common goal and single objective: to raise $10,000 to fund their joint travel and relocation to Australia, without getting caught,” the court papers say.

The court papers were filed as part of the prosecution’s attempts to consolidate the three sets of murder indictments against Tulloch.

The new information comes from Parker, who has pleaded guilty to reduced charges and agreed to testify against Tulloch in the Jan. 27, 2001, stabbing deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop in their Hanover home, the court papers say.

The court papers also say Tulloch and Parker discussed their plan almost daily and researched on the Internet the most efficient way to carry out the plan.

“James Parker stated that he and the defendant spent time watching the homes that were potential targets for their planned attacks, discussing various options for gaining entry to private homes and researching on the Internet to obtain weapons and plan their anticipated travels,” the court papers say.

“James Parker has stated that he and the defendant made each of the five robbery-murder attempts in the furtherance of this overriding objective.” Last month, prosecutors said the married German-born Dartmouth professors butchered in their home a year ago were the fifth random targets of their teen-age killers.

In the six months before the murders, Tulloch and Parker went to four other homes planning to talk their way in, get the residents’ ATM cards and PINs and murder them, last month’s indictment said.

They succeeded on Jan. 27 by telling the Zantops they were students conducting an environmental survey, according to the indictments.

Their four previous attempts failed because no one was home or the people who came to the door would not let them in, the indictment says.

Tulloch, 18, is charged with first-degree murder, which carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole. He has indicated he will use an insanity defense at his trial, which is scheduled to start in April.

The new motion seeks to use the prior incidents against Tulloch. It says the defense has objected, citing the fact that they are prior bad acts.

“The scope of the conspiracy is relatively simple, and its objectives are disturbingly straightforward,” the court papers say. “It involves two best friends as conspirators who made an agreement to kill for financial gain, employing repeated attempted home invasions.”

A lawyer for Tulloch declined to comment when reached at home by telephone.

The motion also seeks to cast doubt on Tulloch’s insanity defense.

“James Parker is anticipated to provide direct testimony in support of the state’s position that he and the defendant acted with the same state of mind when the Zantops were killed,” the court papers say.