The light in the upstairs bedroom

On June 6, 2008, two-and-a-half years after Rachel and baby Lillian were found shot to death in their Boston area home, Neil Entwistle would stand trial for the murder of his wife and daughter.

The Middlesex County district attorney, Gerry Leone, had assembled a top team of prosecutors to try the case.

Leone: As any case like this, we do it as a team, and we talk a lot about it. And what you try to do is you put your defense counsel hat on, you try to figure out where the holes in your case are.

The theory of the crime prosecutors had to prove -- a killer husband, almost dead broke and boiling with sexual frustration -- was based almost entirely on circumstantial evidence.

Take the .22 revolver that police believe was the murder weapon. It was a mixed bag as far as forensic evidence. The handgun belonged to Rachel’s stepfather, Joe Mattorazzo, but it had no readable fingerprints.

On the other hand, as a DNA analyst testified, Neil Entwistle's DNA was found on the grip and trigger guard of that same revolver, as well as DNA from Rachel both in and around the gun's muzzle.

Laura Bryant: I was able to match the major DNA profile to the DNA profile from Rachel Entwistle.

A forensic chemist took the stand, showing jurors the bloody pillowcase mother and child had rested their heads upon.

She testified that based on tests for gunshot residue, Rachel was probably shot from 18-inches away, while baby Lillian had had the revolver's muzzle pressed against her chest.

Dygan: I concluded it was a contact shot.

Prosecutor: What is that?

Dygan: A contact shot is from a firearm when the firearm is pressed directly against the target.

How could there be a motive to match such an unimaginable crime?

The jurors would soon hear that life under the roof of the young Entwistles wasn't as glowing as it looked on the web page Neil had put up filled with photo album happy snaps.

Remember that scam he'd been running on eBay? It looked like he was selling software that never materialized. A fraud investigator from eBay testified about how duped customers were sending him money, but getting nothing in return.

And eBay wasn't the only site Neil was visiting.  Prosecutors would show how the husband had been trolling for sex online through steamy hook-up sites like "Adult Friend Finder."

A computer specialist read from the profile Entwistle had set up for himself on that site -- an Englishman teasing American women to prove their prowess in bed.

Laurence James (reading): "I need to confirm what friends have told me, that you are much better in bed than the women over the ocean."

Dennis Murphy:  Is this fantasy stuff do you think, or is he actually trying to find swingers, escorts, somebody out there, somebody outside the relationship?

Leone: It's hard to tell whether it's fantasy or not. The fact of the matter is at the end of the day it really gives you a window into his mind. And in addition to everything else we have, you start to piece together a picture of who he is. He was unsuccessful in trying to find a job, and we felt that was another factor, another indicator which led to his what his state of mind was at the time. He was a failure.

The computer expert also testified about a disturbing Google search made on Entwistle's laptop on Jan. 16, just four days before the killings.  A password-protected file had been set up under username, "Ent."

Six words had been typed into the search engine.

James: In quotation marks, "How to kill with a knife."

The next day, two more searches, for "knife in neck kill" and...

James: "Quick Suicide Method."

The prosecution built on its unappealing portrait of a get-rich quick entrepreneur and internet sex addict with testimony about his actions in the hours after the killings.

A bank investigator told the jury about multiple ATM withdrawals Neil had attempted the day of the deaths. The couple's joint account was overdrawn, so Neil was denied all but $800 from a line of credit.

The next morning, Saturday, he was attempting to withdraw still more money at the airport, where that day he also bought a one-way ticket to England.

But it was what Entwistle didn't do in the hours after he claims to have discovered his wife and daughter shot to death that--to the prosecutors--was maybe most chilling of all. He didn't call 911. He didn't cry out for help. He didn't even tell his in-laws what had happened to their beloved daughter and grandchild.

It wasn't until Jan. 23, three days later, that Neil even called his wife's parents, the Mattarazzos, to explain what had happened.

Under questioning by prosecutor Michael Fabbri (fab-ree), father-in-law Joe Matarazzo recounted that overseas call from a whimpering Neil Entwistle.

Joe Matarazzo: First he said, "Hi, Joe, I don't know how things got like this."

Neil told Joe Matarazzo that after finding Rachel and Lily dead, he drove to his in-law's house, partly because he knew Joe kept guns in the house.

Joe Matarazzo: He said when he got to the house, he knew that I had guns in the house, but he didn't have a key he couldn't get in.

Proseuctor: What else did he tell you?

Joe Matarazzo: He said he wanted to see Priscilla and me. He said he couldn't face me.

The father-in-law testified that over the next couple of days, he spoke to Neil several times. Once they discussed funeral arrangements and the father-in-law thought he heard a slip.

Joe Matarazzo: He asked me if Rachel and Lily could be buried together.

Prosecutor: And did he say anything further?

Joe Matarazzo: Yes.  He says, "Because that's the way I left them, I mean, that's the way I found them."

Prosecutor: And that's your best recollection of what he said?

Joe Matarazzo: That's exactly what he said.

Whether he'd "found them dead" or "left them dead," at the funeral a week later Neil compounded his problems with his wife's family by being a no-show.

Rachel’s mother, Priscilla Matarazzo, testified about her son-in-law's unexplained absence.

Prosecutor: Did you see the defendant there at any point in time during the funeral on February 1st?

Priscilla: No.

Dennis Murphy: Entwistle's story that he'd been too distraught to face Rachel’s parents might have carried some weight if he hadn't been caught by then in a series of lies.

Benjamin Prior, an old friend from his university days, testified that he'd met up with Neil shortly after he arrived back in England.

Neil told the friend that before leaving the States, he’d told his mother-in-law, Priscilla, about Rachel and the baby, and had reported the information to the police. Neither story checked out.

Prior: He spoke to the State Police and sort of told them what happened.

Weinstein: Did he tell you how he had gotten in touch with the State Police?

Prior: I believe it was over the telephone.

Another English buddy, Dasheil Munding, told the court he was with Neil the day he was arrested at a tube stop on the London underground.

Munding: I told Neil that I'd received a phone call from the police that they were looking to pick him up in London.

The friend said that police had called him to direct Entwistle out of the train station. In effect, get your mate to turn himself in without a fuss.

But Entwistle implored the friend to help him dodge the police waiting outside.

Munding: He asked whether there was some other way of getting off the platform.

After two weeks and more than 40 witnesses, the prosecution was almost ready to rest its case, but not before letting jurors hear one final disembodied voice.

The recorded conversation Entwistle had with police just 12 hours after arriving at his parent's house in England was played in court.

Entwistle: I haven't even cried yet.

Police: You haven't even cried?

Entwistle: No. Not properly.

Police: What would properly be?

Entwistle: I shed a few tears.

When the prosecution's picture was done, Neil Entwistle had been portrayed before the court as a heartless killer, failed father, husband and entrepreneur.

Prosecutor: There is one person responsible for the murders. And that man is sitting right there. He's the one that pulled that trigger twice. Put a bullet in the head of Rachel Entwistle. Put a body through the body of Lilly Entwistle.

But the defense team was about to present its own picture of Neil and it had a very different take on what had happened in the Entwistle home that winter day in 2006.

It was a scenario that would startle most in the courtroom, not least of all Rachel Souza's family.

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