A Tangled Web, Part II

Neil Entwistle was arraigned this morning for the murders of his wife, Rachel, and infant daughter, Lillian Rose. Elliot Weinstein entered a plea of not guilty on his client's behalf. Meanwhile, the Boston Herald has more of the gossamer strands of Entwistle's tangled web detailed in recently released court documents.

Yesterday, in new court documents released, it was revealed that Entwistle told a different story to friends than he told authorities. He had told authorities he found his wife and baby dead, went to his in-laws’ home in Carver, could not get in, and then flew to England.

‘‘The defendant said to his friends that he had indeed been able to locate his mother-in-law’s place of business, told her of his discovery of the bodies, and then gathered with family back in Carver to mourn the news,” according to the Statement of the Case filed by Assistant District Attorney Michael Fabbri.

‘‘He also told his friends that once back at the Carver home, he began to feel left out,” the document said. ‘‘It was only then that he decided to return to his own family in England, going straight home after arriving in London on January 21, 2006.”

But according to court records, Entwistle did not go straight home to his parents’ Worksop home. Instead, he rented a vehicle, spent a night in a hotel located about an hour away from his parents’ home, and drove almost 800 miles around England before going to his parents’ home on Jan. 23.

This guy lived in a world of his own invention. Did he really expect others to join him there? I wonder if jail has been a rude awakening or if he's still enveloping himself in fantasy.

Hodgepodge of Updates

A DNA match has linked Darryl Littlejohn, the New York bouncer accused in the rape and murder of Imette St. Guillen, to at least one additional attack.

NY1 News
WABC-7

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Westport News has a lengthy article (with lousy format) about George Smith IV and his family's fight for justice on his behalf. His mother, Maureen, provides some background and insight. The rift between George's widow, Jennifer Hagel-Smith, and his family is acknowledged, but no further information provided.

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Dave Holloway has written a book about the disappearance of his daughter, Natalee, and his experiences with the Aruban justice (Is that an oxymoron?) system. Read an excerpt of the newly released Aruba: The Tragic Untold Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise here.

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Neil Entwistle is due to be arraigned for the murders of his wife and daughter, Rachel and Lillian Enwistle, in Middlesex Superior Court tomorrow .

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And last but not least, Laci Peterson...

Kimberly Guilfoyle, host of Fox News' The Lineup, interviewed Ron Grantski over the weekend. She's written a brief article -- The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree -- regarding Scott Peterson and his parents and wants to hear what you think.

Phooey!

Another valuable lesson learned this morning: When you write a new entry in Blogger, copy and save it to a Word document before clicking Publish Post. Otherwise, it might disappear into cyberspace if the server is having a problem.

Dang, dang, dang! I don't think I can recreate it, and even if I could, it's already dated. It was a lead-in to the Entwistle arraignment, which has now already happened.

Neil Entwistle appeared, straight and tall, beside his attorney and listened with furrowed brow as the prosecutor addressed the court. No bail was set. Afterward, court-appointed attorney, Elliot Weinstein, chastised the media for the biased publicity surrounding the investigation, refused to answer questions, and vowed to defend his client to the best of his ability. Rachel's parents, Joseph and Priscilla Matterazzo, were in attendance and issued a statement through family spokesman, Joe Flaherty. Of note was a reference to their son-in-law's double life. More to be heard there, no doubt.

Update: 6:35 pm, CST
It just occurred to me that I neglected to mention earlier that Neil Entwistle entered a plea of Not Guilty today. It comes as no surprise that he has no intention of fessing up and facing the music. His earlier voiced concern of sparing Rachel's family and his own any additional distress was nothing more than lip service. It's part of his schtick -- an Eddie Haskell-ish rhetoric aimed at portraying the conscientious, selfless, responsible young man that his in-laws once believed him to be. His own agenda always comes first and remains the same that drove him on January 20 -- self-preservation. Judging by some of the details put forth in recently released search warrant documents, the tapestry of his façade was rapidly unraveling.

• Rachel's parents told police they believed Neil "had some sort of secret government job in England" which he could not talk about.


• According to Rachel's parents, Rachel told them Neil would not answer questions about their finances, and this caused some conflict between Rachel and Neil.


• According to Rachel's parents, Rachel told them she tried to use one of Neil's English credit cards, but the account had been frozen.


• According to Rachel's parents, Rachel told them their money was tied up in "offshore accounts" that Neil would not talk about.


• Rachel's parents gave police a make-shift business card they said Neil gave to them for "ENT Embedded New Technologies." The business card was "a folded piece of paper held together by cellophane tape." An internet search by police found the address for this company listed as Rachel's parents' home address.

I'm not aware that the 231 pages of court documents are available on-line, but several in the media have combed through them and provided a summary of interesting details.

CBS4Boston.com
Boston.com News

Some of the allegations are rather salacious, and many contend immaterial to the case. Others argue, and I agree, that they point to motive. Relevant or not, the resultant banter between a decidedly uneasy Nancy Grace and her reporting on-line expert, Clark Goldband, has been an entertaining aspect of her nightly coverage of the case.

Neil Entwistle: A Tangled Web

Click to enlarge the affidavit.

I realize I'm stating the obvious, but Neil Entwistle is a liar. The following is an excerpt from an affidavit released last week, detailing a portion of the district attorney's case against him.

On January 23, 2006, police called Neil Entwistle at the home of his parents in Worksop, England. Entwistle told police that on January 20, 2006, at approximately 9:00 am, he had left his Hopkinton, Massachusetts, home to do an errand. He said his wife and daughter were in bed when he left. He said he returned at approximately 11:00 am and found his wife and daughter dead from gunshot wounds. He said he did not call for emergency assistance, but instead covered them up and got a knife to kill himself, but could not go through with it. He said he left the home in the family car and drove to his in-laws home in Carver, Massachusetts, to get a gun from his father in-law so he could kill himself. He said he could not get into the home so he drove to Logan airport because he wanted to go home to his parents in England.

In the above document, Sergeant Joseph Bennett, the attesting officer, contrasts Entwistle's lies with the pertinent facts. Mr. Entwistle's recounting of his actions upon finding his wife and infant daughter in bed with bullet wounds defies reason. Wouldn't the normal response have been a frantic call to 911 and a desperate attempt to revive them? Instead, he comes up with this cockamamie tale of twice-failed suicide in an attempt to kill two birds with one stone –- to explain his presence at the Matterazzo home late that morning and to garner sympathy for himself. Neil purposes to disassociate himself and the murder weapon from the crime by declaring that he was unable to get into his in-laws' home. In contradiction, the house keys were found in the car that he drove to the airport. The murder weapon, a .22 caliber handgun from Mr. Matterazzo's collection, had been placed back inside the home. Neil Entwistle's DNA was found on the grip, and Rachel's on the muzzle.

What additional lies should we anticipate from Neil Entwistle? Are we to hear that Rachel knew of and was a partner in his fraudulent and failing Internet businesses? Will he say that he told her in early January about his venture into the enterprise of Internet porn because it was the right thing to do, and she was fine with it? (Those are some Peterson pearls, in case you didn't recognize them.) Will he assert that Rachel was a willing participant in the suicide pact, but he was too cowardly to hold up his end of the bargain? There is probably an endless litany of fabrications running through Neil Entwistle's mind. He doesn't strike me as the sort of person who will own up to his misdeeds without first trying to wriggle out of accountability. These things are only incidental to Neil Entwistle's character. There are more relevant questions to be asked.

Thus far, the district attorney seems willing to consider the tale of a murder/suicide gone awry. It remains to be seen if DA Coakley truly considers it a possibility or is merely giving it forbearance as a matter of strategy. The supposition appears to be dually based on Neil's own declarations and on the fact that he surfed suicide websites before the murders. But Neil Entwistle is a liar. And what is to be learned by perusing suicide websites? How to kill quickly and effectively, of course. Who were the originally intended victims? Only Rachel and Lillian are dead. We know these things: By January 9th, Neil Entwistle was well aware that his eBay business was in shambles, and he had no present means to support his wife and child. Yet he went ahead and moved his family from the free accommodations of her parents' house in Carver to a large rental home in Hopkinton at the cost of $2700 per month. Ten days later, Rachel and Lillian were shot dead with a handgun that Neil surreptitiously took from his father-in-law's gun collection. Reportedly, Neil had previously fired that same weapon during an outing with Mr. Matterazzo. What was the pretense behind that male bonding session, and when did it occur? At what point did Neil purloin the firearm in question? These are the questions that I want honest answers to. I wonder if any are to be had.

3:48 Update
Now I'm aware that more documents have been released. I'll have to read them later and find out if there are more questions than answers therein. That's what I get for keeping this entry in draft for three days.

Entwistle Arrest

Formerly a person of interest in the murders of his wife, Rachel, and 9 month old daughter, Lillian, Neil Entwistle is now the prime suspect. Entwistle was arrested by British authorities in a London tube station at 11:50 (6:50 am ET) this morning. A sealed warrant had been issued late yesterday. Held at a London police station, he faces charges of two counts of murder, illegal possession of a firearm, and illegal possession of ammunition. Considering the charges, it seems likely that the murder weapon has been found. Massachusetts police have been examining the gun collection of Rachel Entwistle's stepfather, running ballistics tests and searching for fingerprints and DNA evidence over the last couple of weeks. The Entwistles had been living in her parents' Carver home until ten days before the murders. Jim Hammer of Fox News reports that the family car has been absent from his parents' Worksop home since at least 7 am yesterday. Was Neil Entwistle attempting to flee? So far, there've been no reports of dyed hair or a goatee.

Boston Herald article

Update: 9:30 am CT

Moments ago, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley held a press conference to update the public on the status of the investigation. Several new items of information were released.

• Forensic evidence links a .22 caliber handgun from the collection of Rachel's stepfather, Joseph Matterazzo, to both Rachel and Neil. It is known that Rachel had not previously handled the gun. It wasn't specified whether that evidence is in the form of fingerprints, DNA, or both.


• Police believe that the shootings occurred Friday morning.


• It is believed that the gun was returned to the Matterazzo home late Friday morning or early Friday afternoon while Rachel's parents were out of the house.


• At 5 am Saturday morning, Neil Entwistle was at Logan International Airport attempting to raise funds to purchase a ticket to London. He was ultimately able to do so using a credit card.


• Police believe that a murder/suicide may have been the original intent. Neil Entwistle had substantial debt in England, no assets, and no means to support his family.


• At the time of the shootings, Rachel and Lillian were dressed in clothing that could be worn as sleepwear.


• Police do not believe that Neil was attempting to flee authorities, but simply to avoid the media. He was arrested without incident at a west London subway station.


• A hearing will be held later today or tomorrow in England. It could take days, weeks, or months for Entwistle to be extradited to the United States.
  

I have updated the Timeline accordingly.

I'm going to withhold comment on the murder/suicide supposition for now, except to say that Neil Entwistle is a coward, and my sympathy is for the victims and their family.

One more thing...Steve Huff has received some interesting correspondence regarding the case. Don't miss it.

Entwistle Double Murder

I'm following the Massachusetts investigation into the murders of Rachel Entwistle and her 9 month old daughter, Lillian. As I know many other people are also interested in it, I'd like to share this Entwistle Murder Timeline [click for detailed timeline]. Please add your observations, analysis, speculation and new developments in the comment section.

Click to enlarge this chronology.

This entry is a work in progress. Let me know if you notice any errors or omissions. I guess I'm not so good at being on hiatus.