Neil Entwistle
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Neil Entwistle (born September 18, 1978) is the widower of Rachel Entwistle and father of Lillian Entwistle and is charged with their murders. English-born Neil and American-born Rachel were married on Sunday, August 10, 2003, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Although the murders happened on January 20, 2006, the bodies of 27-year-old Rachel and 9-month-old Lillian were not found until January 22, in the master bedroom of the couple's rented Hopkinton, Massachusetts home where the Entwistles had moved just ten days earlier. Autopsy results showed that the mother died of a gunshot wound to the head and the baby died of a gunshot to the stomach.
Hours after their deaths, Entwistle bought a one-way ticket to London about 5:00 a.m. EST on the morning of January 21, and boarded a British Airways flight that left at 8:15 a.m. The immediacy of these events raised questions as to the activities of Entwistle during the previous few hours.
On January 23, Hopkinton Police called Entwistle at his parents' Clifford and Yvonne's home in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England. They say he told them that he left his Hopkinton home at around 9:00 a.m. EST three days previously to go on an errand. He told them that both his wife and daughter were in bed. When he returned at around 11:00 a.m. EST, he says he found they had been shot dead and covered their bodies with a blanket.
He told the police that he didn't call 911, but instead decided to kill himself. Unable to bring himself to end his life with a knife, he then got in the family car and drove to his father-in-law Joseph Materazzo's house to get a .22 handgun. Finding the house locked, he then decided to fly to England and see his parents.
However, as well as confirming that a set of keys to Materazzo's house were found in the car Entwistle parked at Boston's Logan Airport before his flight, DNA matching Entwistle was found on the handle of a .22 handgun owned by Materazzo. In addition, DNA matching his slain wife Rachel was found on the gun's muzzle.
Entwistle appeared in court after being arrested in London on February 9. At a brief central London Bow Street magistrates' court hearing, he requested that he not be sent back to the United States ”at this stage”. Saying little else - except confirmation of his name, age, and address - he was then remanded in custody until a hearing the following day.
However, he changed his mind overnight. At a three-minute Bow Street hearing in front of Judge Nicholas Evans, Entwistle's lawyer Judith Seddon said he had decided to agree to being returned to the US as soon as possible. Just a few hours later, a Home Office minister signed Entwistle's extradition order.
Outside the court afterwards, Yale Law School-educated Seddon - who did not indicate whether her client intended to plead guilty - told reporters: "He has consented at the earliest opportunity because he wants to cooperate with the authorities in any way that he can.
"He's anxious that a delay may cause his late wife's family, and his own, additional distress. He believes he will receive a fair and proper hearing in the United States on these very serious allegations."
She added that Entwistle "had always been inclined to consent" to an extradition request.
Earlier, Middlesex County District Attorney Martha Coakley - the same person who successfully prosecuted nanny Louise Woodward - explained why a warrant for his arrest had been issued and reminded journalists that Entwistle was “innocent until proven guilty”.
He had been stopped around mid-day while he sat on a London Underground train at west London’s Royal Oak tube station, by officers who had been tailing him since a warrant for his arrest was issued the previous evening. Entwistle did not put up a struggle.
His arrest followed detailed searches by two teams of officers at his parents' house. Local officers interviewed the couple from 10:00 a.m. while a Metropolitan Police team arrived about lunchtime and left with black bin liners containing undisclosed items taken from the garage and house where he previously lived with brother Russell.
Flaherty said: “The family is deeply saddened at the arrest of Neil Entwistle.
"Rachel and Lillian loved Neil very much. He was a trusted husband and father and it’s incomprehensible how that love and trust was betrayed in the ultimate act of violence.
“God didn’t do this - there is evil among us.”
And he added that the family had “always been confident that the person who did this would be brought to justice.”
Martha Coakley told a press conference after Entwistle’s arrest: “On Thursday night (January 19, 2006), Rachel was alive and had spoken with family members.
“At sometime on Friday morning, Neil Entwistle - with a firearm we believe he had secured at sometime before that from father in-law Joseph Materazzo - shot Rachel Entwistle in the head and then proceeded to shoot baby Lillian, who was lying on the bed next to her mother.
“We believe possibly this was intended to be a murder-suicide, but we cannot confirm that. Obviously the murder was effected, but the suicide was not.
“What we believe happened next was that Neil Entwistle returned the gun to his father-in-law’s home in Carver, then made preparations to leave the country. As we know, he was observed at Logan Airport.
“He purchased a one-way ticket on British Airways at approximately 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, January 22. He was on an 8:15 flight to the United Kingdom on that day.
“He was then in Worksop with his parents.”
She added: “Based upon forensic information late Tuesday afternoon that linked the .22 handgun owned by Joseph Materazzo both to Neil Entwistle and to Rachel, we believed we had probable cause to seek an arrest warrant for Neil Entwistle’s arrest.”
[edit] External links
- Boston Herald editor's blog on Entwistle
- Neil Entwistle eBay profile
- Neil Entwistle Trial Resources
- "Entwistle told police he found his family slain", The Boston Globe, February 11, 2006.
- "Entwistle charged with killing wife, daughter in alleged murder-suicide plan", The Boston Globe, February 9, 2006.
- "Rachel Entwistle is recalled as engaging", The Boston Globe, January 31, 2006.
