Zantop House on the Market

[Maggie]

The house is much smaller at 2,600 square feet than it appears in the pictures.
From the AP:

Monday, July 23, 2001
Home of murdered Dartmouth professors for sale

HANOVER, N .H. (AP) — "Just Listed Etna."

"115 Trescott Road, Etna. Lovely, private 3+ acre setting 3BR, 2.5 BA, First
Floor Master Suite Offered at $475,000"

Sounds like a typical classified real estate listing that appeared in the July
14 Valley News.

But this listing has a special, tragic history. It was the home of Half and
Susanne Zantop, the Dartmouth College professors who were stabbed to death in
their home last Jan. 27.

Crime scene investigators have come and gone, carrying off evidence for the
investigation and now the murder trials of Robert Tulloch, 18, and James
Parker, 17, both of Chelsea, Vt.

The blood has been cleaned up from the 2,600-square-foot house, that now is
empty of furniture. A wood stove in the living room and some kitchen appliances
remain.

Hanover real estate agent Sally Rutter of Coldwell Banker Redpath & Co., who
listed the home, said she had been instructed not to comment on the listing.
She did not say who listed the house, but the couple had two adult daughters.

Two real estate specialists said the double homicide will not necessarily keep
the house from selling.

"Somebody’s not going to mind," said Jane Darrach, a real estate agent for
Martha Diebolt Real Estate of Hanover. "A lot of people have greater acceptance
that people do die."

Ann Flanagan, an investigator with the New Hampshire Real Estate Commission,
said some people won’t remember.

If the newspaper says that somebody was killed at 123 Main St., "I’m not
going to remember that," she said. "Who pays attention to that stuff?"

People moving into the area might not even know the murders occurred. New
Hampshire law does not require real estate agents showing the home to mention
the stabbings unless a potential buyer asks, said Ashton Welch, executive vice
president of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.

Most buyers are concerned about the physical state of a home, but not all care
whether someone was killed there, Welch said.

However, Darrach said she would be "up front" about the murders if she showed
the house.

It is difficult to find a house in Hanover at any price right now, and the
homicides would not make a difference to some home buyers, she said.

Buying a house is almost always an emotional and subjective decision, Darrach
said.

"I think houses feel right to people, and that’s what makes them buy," she
said.

 

 
 
© 2001 Geo. J. Foster Co.

Maggie

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the
experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to
do so."
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