The light in the upstairs bedroom

On a chilly February day, a crowd of more than 500 gathered at the Plymouth church where Rachel and Neil Entwistle's daughter, Lillian, had been baptized just seven weeks before.  This time, the family, friends and loved ones gathered to lay Rachel and her baby girl to rest. 

Conspicuously absent at the funeral was Neil Entwistle, the husband and father who'd inexplicably flown to England the day before his wife and daughter were discovered dead in their home.  After a day in seclusion, Neil emerged from his parents' house in Worksop, England, dodging reporters' questions. 

Dennis Murphy:  By then, Rachel's family had learned disturbing things about their son-in-law. 

Niel Entwistle: Hello.

Police: Hi. Is this Neil?

Neil Entwistle: It is. Yes.

Police: Neil, this is -- my name's Bob Manning.  I'm a trooper with the Massachusetts State Police.

In a rambling, two-hour telephone interview from his parents' house in England, Entwistle told a Massachusetts state police investigator about that last day he had seen his wife and daughter alive. The investigator recorded that conversation.

Entwistle: It was -- it was Friday morning. We got up about 7:00, which is what we normally do.  And I fed Lillian.

Manning: Uh-huh.

Entwistle: And well... then I wanted to go out -- just to the store to find some computer equipment...

In a quavering voice, Neil Enwistle recounted heading out at about nine to comparison shop for computer supplies at Staples and Wal-Mart. When he got back, around eleven, he said, the house was quiet.

After puttering around for a while on the first floor, he said, he went upstairs. That's when he found them.   

Entwistle: When I walked in, I couldn't see Lilly.  I could only see Rachel. And she just looked asleep. And they -- you know, I, that -- at first it didn't look anything wrong.

When he got closer, Neil said he saw immediately that his wife and daughter had been killed.

Entwistle: Lilly was such a mess.

Police: Where did you see some blood, sir?

Entwistle: Well, there was -- wasn't any on Rachel... It was all on-- it was all on Lilly... Her whole, the whole mouth -- mouth and nose were-- covered. They were, it was almost like it -- it was bubbles.

Dennis Murphy:  Entwistle then told the investigator that he he felt so distraught he went downstairs and grabbed a kitchen knife to do himself in, but he reconsidered.

Entwistle: I think it was almost the thought of how much it was going to hurt. I couldn't do it. And then I realized that what I needed to do was to get to Priscilla and you know -- I've got to let Priscilla know.

He decided he needed to get over to his in-laws' house, he told the police sergeant. And it was at that point he remembered that his father-in-law, Joe Materazzo, had a gun. A gun would be better than a knife.

Manning: You wanted to go to their house, to try and get in, thinking you wanted to hurt yourself—

Entiwistle: That—

Manning: ... with one of his guns?

Entwistle: --that was what I... at that point. Yeah. But it, everything, but none of this happened.

No one was home at the Mattarazzos, so Neil said he never went inside. Rather, he drove to Boston's Logan Airport. At that point, he said, all he could think of was going home to his parents.

So the young husband who claimed he discovered his wife and daughter shot to death never called 911 or told her parents but simply ran back to his childhood home across the ocean without telling a soul.

Entwistle: I don't feel that I've done the right thing in what I've done here by not letting, you know, by not being the one to call and say what had happened.

The strange rambling phone interview gave detectives a lot to work with. Why, for starters, had he said so much about his father-in-law's gun collection? They would test them all in a lab.

Police at Boston's Logan Airport meanwhile had located the Entwistle's white BMW in an airport parking lot. The driver's seat was pushed way back, the SUV was locked with the keys still inside. The water bottle in the cup holder was swabbed to recover a sample of Entwistle's DNA.

Detectives had also seized Neil Entwistle's laptop and were scouring its hard drive for clues when they found what looked like possible motives, reasons why he would want to rid himself of his family.

For one thing, forensic technicians found, he'd been runnning what looked like a possible scam.

McPhee: He was selling bogus computer equipment over eBay and had infuriated a lot of customers who claimed that they paid and never received the product.  There were postings on eBay that the Entwistles were not to be trusted.  And all of this started to unravel.

And investigators found something else on that laptop. He'd searched on a series of kinky websites with titles like "Naughty Nightlife", "Blonde Beauties", and "Hot Local Escorts."  The story told by the computer was that Neil Entwistle, the well-scrubbed family-man, had been dabbling in a secret life. Two hats: potential scam artist and would be swinger.

On Feb. 9, 2006, three weeks after his wife and daughter's death, Neil Entwistle was arrested by British authorities in a London subway station. 

Neil Entwistle was arrested this morning just before noon London-time, just before 7 am our time on two charges of murder. The murder of Rachel Entwistle and Lillian Entwistle.

Neil Entwistle was brought back to Massachusetts and appeared in court wearing a bullet-proof vest. He entered a not guilty plea to the charges of the first-degree murders of Rachel and Lillian Entwistle.

Friends of both Neil and Rachel couldn't believe what was happening.

Anthony Bootman, childhood friend of Neil: Just had all shock, disbelief.  And I still find it really hard to believe that he may have done it.

Carolyn Eisen: I can't make sense of it.  I don't understand how this could have happened.

Rachel's family issued an emotionally wrought statement through their friend, former state trooper Joe Flaherty.

Flaherty: The family is deeply saddened at the arrest of Neil Entwistle for the murders of Rachel and Lillian Rose. Rachel and Lili loved Neil very much. Neil was a trusted husband and father and it is incomprehensible how that love and trust was betrayed in the ultimate act of violence.

It would take more than two years before Neil Entwistle would have his day in court, when the secrets about his life and his relationship with Rachel would be more fully revealed.

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