James Parker: Man who robbed and killed Dartmouth professor couple as a teen gets parole after 25 years

CHELSEA, VERMONT: A high school student who spent his adult life behind bars for the murder of two Dartmouth professors in their own home as part of an odd scheme to rob them and relocate to Australia has been granted parole.

James Parker, who is almost 40-year-old now, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against his best friend Robert Tulloch, and was sentenced to 25 to life.

Knife sheaths at the house allowed the police to find James Parker and Robert Tulloch

Parker and Tulloch were both enrolled in secondary schools in Chelsea, Vermont, at the time. The two gained entry into the Susanne and Half Zantops' home by pretending to be surveyors, but they had already purchased the two knives that were used in the killings, according to Sentinel Newspaper.

Tulloch allegedly gave Parker instructions to stab Susanne and stabbed Half himself after the Zantops invited the two teenagers into their New Hampshire home.

The boys picked the couple's home despite not knowing them as it appeared to be expensive and was surrounded by trees.

Prior to the murders, the duo calculated that it would cost them $10,000 to relocate from Chelsea, Vermont, to Australia. They intended to force arbitrary detainees to provide their bank passwords before executing them.

However, they only took $340 out of Half's wallet, and they left their knife sheaths at the house, which allowed the police to find them.

Three weeks after the killings on January 29, 2001, police were able to identify the two boys due to fingerprints on the sheaths and a bloody boot print, despite their initial suspicions — later withdrawn by the Boston Globe — of a crime of passion stemming from an alleged affair.

"We were attempting to move overseas and live some sort of life of adventure," Parker recalled of his plan with Tulloch. "It’s just so hard. I’ve gone over and over it and just finding an explanation for that is just, I just don’t know how I could do that."

"I know there's not an amount of time of things I can do to change it or alleviate any pain I've caused," he told the board April 18. "I'm just deeply sorry."

Who is James Parker?

James Parker is a 40-year-old man who was granted parole after serving more than 20 years in prison for the 2001 murders of two married Dartmouth College professors. When Half and Susanne Zantop were killed in Hanover, New Hampshire, James Parker and his closest friend who planned the murders were just 16-year-old, CBS News reported.

 What James Parker's known had to say about him?

The killings stunned those who knew the high school boys, who described them to the Cape Cod Times as "class clowns."

"Jimmy is the class clown," senior Casey Purcell, who went to Chelsea High School with the two boys, told the outlet following their arrest in 2001.

"He's never really serious. That's all there is to him. Rob is the one who always gets voted Most Likely to Take Over the World, just because he's so witty. But they are not violent. They like tricks and stuff, but not anything like this."

Attorney Cathy Green praised her client Parker's "stellar" disciplinary record while he was incarcerated.

She claimed that while incarcerated, Parker completed his master's and bachelor's degrees and painted paintings that are currently on exhibit in the prison. He has taken up sports, participated in jailhouse theater productions, and contributed to the creation of prisoner education guidelines.

Who was James Parker's accomplice and where is he now?

Robert Tulloch was James Parker's accomplice in 2001 murders of two Dartmouth College professors. Tulloch was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release after entering a guilty plea to first-degree murder.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court mandated a review of Tulloch's sentence in 2014. Robert Tulloch was 17 years old when he killed Suzanne and Half Zantop. He's now 41 and serving a sentence of life in prison, NBC 5 reported.

What did Parker say after committing the crime?

"Twenty-four years ago, when he was 16, Jim Parker committed a terrible crime. He has fully accepted responsibility for his actions and remains deeply remorseful," Green told Fox News Digital Friday, April 26. "He knows that nothing he can say or do will bring solace to the family and friends of the Zantops."

However, she said, her client "has spent the past 24 years doing everything in his power to not only improve himself, but to better the prison community. He is very appreciative that the parole board has given him the privilege of living in the community."

According to Green, he would refrain from making any comments to the media "out of respect for the Zantop family."

Parker appealed his sentence in 2018 after the Supreme Court declared in 2012 that it was unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile to mandatory life in prison. In 2019, he retracted his petition upon learning of the disapproval from the Zantops' surviving daughter.

What has the professor's family said?

One of the nine Zantops members present at Parker's parole hearing let out a cry when his request for an early release was approved.

Veronika Zantop, the daughter, expressed her "wish[ed] James Parker and his family the best and hop[ed] that they can heal" in response to the parole board's ruling.

"This is a hard one to make a statement about, especially because I can’t speak for everyone affected by what happened," Veronika Zantop told the outlet.

"For me — I miss my parents and am deeply sad for everything they — and we — have missed out on. I miss my father’s sense of humor and kindness and my mother’s sharp wit and tenacity in all things. Among so many other things. I am deeply grateful for all of the support we have received."

When they were killed, her father was 62 years old and her mother was 55. Dartmouth University had employed both of the German immigrants as instructors. Her husband taught Earth sciences, while Susanne headed the school's German studies department.

The two were "beloved" by their coworkers and students, and many of their homes were open to them. Tulloch, now forty, was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder in connection with the killings.

A new sentencing hearing is set for June for him. Following its ruling in 2012, the Supreme Court decided that Tulloch and four other men who had received life sentences in prison ought to receive new sentences.