2 Professors Murdered, Police Say

The safe, close-knit feel of Dartmouth College was shattered Sunday by the apparent murders of two popular, longtime professors, a couple known for opening their home and hearts to others.

Susanne and Half Zantop had welcomed so many guests into their home “they practically seemed to run a hotel,” said colleague Bruce Duncan.

Police initially were closemouthed and didn’t say until a late afternoon news conference, nearly a day after the bodies were found, that the deaths were considered a double homicide.

At the news conference, New Hampshire Atty. Gen. Philip McLaughlin said he didn’t know whether anyone else was in danger. “If we have a specific, reliable reason to believe the community is at risk, we would express that because that would be our duty,” he said.

The couple’s latest guest had arrived at their home Saturday evening and found the door unlocked, said neighbor and friend Audrey McCollum.

“She went in and called out; there was no answer,” McCollum said Sunday. “She turned and saw Susanne on the floor with blood around her.”

The guest was identified by others as Dartmouth languages instructor Roxanne Verona. She said police told her not to talk to reporters about the discovery, but she was willing to talk briefly about her friends.

“They are wonderful people,” the instructor of French and Italian said of the Zantops, then corrected herself: “They were wonderful people. They were special--intellectually, humanly, everything.”

Susanne Zantop, 55, was a professor of German and chairman of Dartmouth’s German studies department. Her 62-year-old husband taught earth sciences.

They had been instructors at Dartmouth for at least 25 years, said Edward Berger, dean of faculty for arts and sciences.

“Everybody feels they were their best friends, because they were friends to everyone,” said Susannah Heschel, chairwoman of the school’s Jewish studies department. “Everyone is so shocked because their home was so open to all of us. It just radiated their warmth, and for this to happen in their home. . . .”

The couple had two daughters: Veronika, 29, of San Francisco, and Mariana, 27, of New York City.