Free Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders by Mitchell Zuckoff, Dick Lehr Page A

meeting of the day, and she knew she would have to spend much of the upcoming weekend catching up on work. Susanne also hoped to squeeze in a visit to the River Valley Club—she had scheduled her once-a-year facial.
    That same day, Half taught his introductory metals course with his usual verve. A student’s notes reveal a professor working hard to fill young minds with complex information about the formation of mineral deposits, malleable metals, and oxidation/reduction reactions. As always, Half stressed the need to be aware of the effect of mining on the environment.
    After work, their friends Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer dropped by the Zantops’ home to borrow snowshoes. They were going to see Susannah Heschel’s new baby, and Susanne decided to join them. On her way out the door, she went to her greenhouse and grabbed an impromptu present: a pot of spring daffodils. At Heschel’s house, they took turns holding the baby. Then Heschel’s three-year-old daughter Gittel came into the room to seek some of the limelight. “I wanna use a potty,” she announced to the guests’ delight. It was the first time she had made such a request, and it made Susanne reminisce about the long-ago days of toilet-training her own girls.
    Hirsch and Spitzer drove Susanne home, and she urged them to stay for dinner. Soon the dining table was filled with sautéed shrimp and garlic, broiled trout, roasted potatoes, asparagus, and salad, served on colorful Mexican dishes Half and Susanne had brought back from one of their many trips. The foursome ate, laughed, and talked—no one faster than Susanne—about everything from Dartmouth to national politics to March vacations to a conference on German colonialism Susanne was planning for June. Half made some of his famously strong espresso, and afterward the group went to Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center—“The Hop”—to see the movie Best in Show, a comedy about the strange world of canine competitions.
    Before heading home, they made plans for a cross-country skiing and snowshoeing party on Sunday. The Zantops’ other big plan for the weekend was to attend a ninetieth birthday celebration for Dick Stoiber, the now-retired geology professor who had met them at the Montreal dock and brought them to Hanover.
    Half and Susanne woke early on Saturday, January 27, and threw themselves into their day. It wasn’t uncommon for both to be up before dawn, though Half usually got out of bed first, around five o’clock, so he could bring Susanne tea in bed. Susanne often eased into her day by ironing clothes and listening to National Public Radio. By eight-thirty, they were sending the McCollums and other friends e-mail messages encouraging them to oppose conservative John Ashcroft’s confirmation as attorney general. The McCollums wouldn’t get the e-mail until much later; it was Bob McCollum’s seventy-sixth birthday, and he and Audrey were getting ready to go skiing with their daughter and son-in-law. Around ten-thirty that morning, Susanne invited Roxana Verona to dinner.
    It was a quiet day in town. The Hanover Police Department dealt with routine traffic stops, in most cases issuing warnings and sending the offending drivers on their way. Someone called in a report about a stray animal in the neighborhood, and a stranded motorist needed a hand. Police received two calls about found property and two others about permits to burn leaves. There was a report of a missing person— with no foul play suspected—and a report of a stolen car. The usual stuff in an Ivy League community where serious crime was a faraway problem.
    Later that morning, there was a knock at the door of 115 Trescott Road. Susanne was chopping vegetables, so Half went to answer it. Before him stood two clean-cut young men, both tall and slim, not unlike Half in his youth. They said they were students from the Mountain School over the border in Vershire, Vermont, and they were doing an environmental survey for a class