Dartmouth Professors’ Killer Likely a Man, FBI Profile Says

Nearly two weeks after two Dartmouth College professors were stabbed to death, the FBI said Friday that it was assembling a psychological profile of someone it believes could be the killer.

FBI profile specialists said the killer, probably a man, may have unexplained injuries to the hands or arms and expressed an unusual interest in the investigation or the media attention.

Half Zantop, 62, and his wife, Susanne, 55, were found dead on Jan. 27 in their rural Etna, N.H., home. The slayings--the first in the area in about a decade--shocked nearby Hanover, where the Zantops were well-regarded professors at the prestigious university.

At a news conference, investigators renewed their appeal for people to report anything they might know about the case.

“Information about any suspicious person or unusual vehicle in the area where the homicides occurred could be extremely important to this investigation,” said New Hampshire Atty. Gen. Phil McLaughlin.

Investigators also asked the community to report anybody who suddenly shaved their face or head, or began to grow a beard.

They said the Zantops, both born in Germany, most likely knew the killer or killers and opened the door for them.

“This was not a random killing,” said Dan Mullen, a spokesman for the attorney general.

He said the Zantops usually kept their house locked, which is not necessarily the local custom for a town where violent crime is rare.

A Dartmouth language professor discovered the Zantops after she arrived at their house for dinner. The house is a few miles from Hanover, a leafy college town.

As investigators look for anyone who missed work or a routine engagement on the night of the slayings, Dartmouth students this weekend will celebrate during the school’s annual winter carnival.

“In light of the recent tragedy of the deaths of Susanne and Half Zantop, this weekend may not seem the appropriate time to celebrate,” the campus newspaper wrote in its online edition. “Yet now is a time, more so than ever, when we must remember and reinforce the ties that unite the Dartmouth community.”

McLaughlin’s office investigates 20 to 25 slayings each year in the small state. He has released scant detail about the case, saying he does not want to compromise the investigation.

Half Zantop was born in Eckernforde, Germany. He had taught Earth sciences at the school for 25 years. A specialist in the geology of precious metals, he served as a senior geologist for Kennecott Copper Corp. and Bethlehem Steel Corp. from 1969 to 1975.

Described as a prolific scholar, Susanne Zantop, born in Bad Kissingen, Germany, had chaired Dartmouth’s German studies department since 1996. Her book “Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870” was published in German in 1999.