Briton absent from funeral for slain wife, child

PLYMOUTH, Mass. - The husband of a woman found shot to death with their baby daughter did not attend a funeral service for the two that drew about 500 mourners Wednesday.

Rachel Entwistle, 27, and 9-month-old Lillian were memorialized in the same Roman Catholic church where the baby was baptized less than two months earlier. A single wooden casket contained the remains of both mother and daughter.

They were found shot to death Jan. 22 in a bed in their home in the Boston suburb of Hopkinton.

Massachusetts authorities recently questioned the woman’s British-born husband, Neil Entwistle, in London as a “person of interest,” but they have not labeled him a suspect. It was unclear whether Entwistle left the country before or after the shootings.

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley issued a statement Tuesday saying the investigation remained “very active.”

“Authorities continue to follow up on a number of leads on several different fronts, and are making consistent progress,” she said.

The killings drew intense media interest both in Massachusetts, where the family lived, and Britain. There has also been much media speculation about possible events leading to the murders.

Entwistle’s travel plans
Neil Entwistle’s car was found at Logan International Airport near Boston and flight records show he bought a plane ticket to London 48 hours before the bodies of Rachel and Lillian were discovered.

Autopsy results showed both the mother and daughter had been shot to death with a small-caliber gun. The bodies were found under layers of blankets in a bed in their home, about 30 miles west of Boston.

The autopsy and a phone call Rachel Entwistle made to relatives on Thursday placed the time of their deaths between late Thursday and Saturday.

The couple met while Rachel was studying abroad in England, and they had been married for three years. Neil Entwistle was looking for a job in the technology field; his wife was an unemployed teacher.

Entwistle and his family had lived in the United States for about 4 or 5 months and began renting their home on Jan. 12.

Relatives told investigators that the couple did not have a history of marital problems.

An Entwistle family Web page that once focused just on the couple and their baby — www.rachelandneil.org — has been transformed with its guestbook now a page of mourning.

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