The Dartmouth Murders

They took Half's wallet.

In their hurry to flee, they neglected to steal anything but the wallet. As they ran through the hallway, Jim handed his bloody knife to Rob. The two bolted to the Subaru. Rob stuck the knives under the floor mat on the passenger side and Jim backed out of the driveway.

Jim saw smeared blood on his right hand. Rob was physically worse off as he had a deep cut over his right knee that had drenched his pants with blood.

As Jim drove, Rob counted out the money from the wallet: $340.  It was not much toward the $10,000 they believed they needed to start new lives in Australia.

Jim asked why Rob had not made the "water" signal so they could have first tied up the victims and gotten the PIN numbers that might have enabled them to steal big bucks. Rob said he had forgotten.

Jim made a silent decision: "This is not the way I want to make money — killing people." He was not suffering remorse. He just thought the potential for harm to himself was too great for such pitiful rewards. He did not share this insight with Rob for fear of angering him.

Out of New Hampshire and back in Vermont, Jim pulled onto a wooded area with which they were familiar. They got out of the car and used snow to clean blood off themselves, the car, and the knives. Suddenly Jim wondered where the knife sheaths were. They searched the car and could not find them so they decided to return to the Zantop house to retrieve them.

When they drove back to the Zantop house they saw a police car in the driveway. Jim kept driving.