Hopkinton police missed bodies in first search of home

Hopkinton police checked Rachel Entwistle's home the day before she was found shot to death and found nothing amiss, and so did her family hours before her body and that of her 9-month-old daughter were discovered, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said this afternoon.

Previously, Coakley had said that officers found the bodies, fully clothed and under a pile of blankets, on the bed in the master bedroom at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Family members called police on Sunday when they received no answer when they knocked on the door for a dinner party on Saturday night, Coakley had said.

In a statement, Coakley said that Entwistle's mother also had been unable to reach her all day Saturday and called Hopkinton police. Police did a "well-being check" of the home on Saturday, did not find anyone there, looked into the bedroom, and called out if anyone was there, the statement said. The bed was in disarray, but there was no "immediately detectable sign of any suspicious activity or injury," so officers left, Coakley said. Police also checked with local hospitals, she said.

On Sunday, Entwistle's friends and her mother and stepfather looked through the house and again did not find any signs of injury or foul play, Coakley said. They then went to the Hopkinton police department to file a missing person's report.

Then, officers did a second "well-being" check, and this time found "an odor indicating that there may be deceased individuals in the home," the statement said. That was when the bodies of Rachel and her daughter, Lillian Rose, were found, Coakley said.

Coakley's office said it does not appear the bodies had been moved.

An autopsy showed that Rachel Entwistle had been shot in the head and torso and Lillian in the torso. Coakley has said there was no sign of forced entry into the house.

Neil Entwistle, Rachel's husband, is being interviewed today at the US Embassy in London. Coakley calls him a "person of interest," not a suspect.

From today's Globe by Donovan Slack, Globe Staff:

As new information surfaced about the Internet businesses run by Neil Entwistle, Massachusetts police went to Scotland Yard in London yesterday intent on interviewing the Englishman whose wife and infant daughter were found slain in their rented Hopkinton home last Sunday.

Rachel Souza Entwistle, 27, and her 9-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose Entwistle, were found shot to death on Sunday. She had been shot twice; the infant shot once.

Neil Entwistle had been accused in recent weeks of failing to deliver software to customers who ordered software from him through eBay. An eBay spokesman, Hani Durzy, said yesterday that Neil Entwistle had registered a business with eBay in England in April 2004, under the name srpublications, Until January, the company was receiving positive feedback, as shown on eBay's feedback site, which as recently as Dec. 27 posted customers' comments such as: "Great communication. A pleasure to do business with." In a comment posted Dec. 15, a user wrote: "Good service. Quick delivery. Thanks."

But after the start of the new year, the feedback took a turn. Beginning Jan. 6, srpublications received a series of 16 customers' complaints, with many customers warning that they never received materials for their money and could not get the company to respond. "Complete Scam, eBay users beware! Absolutely nothing received, " wrote one person. Some of the complaints posted online were directed at Rachel Entwistle, since sales were apparently made in her name.

"What you can see is someone who, at least within the eBay universe, was acting as a good eBay citizen, until all of a sudden there was a period of 48 hours of bad feedback," Durzy said.

After fielding complaints, eBay suspended the account on Jan. 9 for seller nonperformance and notified Entwistle, most likely by e-mail, that the account was being suspended, Durzy said.

Now, he said, eBay is working with authorities to provide any assistance possible in the case.

"We're working with law enforcement to provide them information that they say would be helpful in helping them pursue a case," said Druzy, who did not specify which law enforcement agencies the company is working with. "Whether it will be of any use or not is up to law enforcement to decide."

Yesterday, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley turned down interview requests and instead issued a statement on the case, saying that the pursuit of the killers remained active.

"No one has been ruled in, and no one has been ruled out as a suspect in this investigation," Coakley said in the statement, continuing to describe Neil Entwistle as a "person of interest" because he "may have relevant information about the case that we are investigating."

A spokeswoman for Coakley, Emily LaGrassa, said investigators are looking into Entwistle's websites, but are also pursuing a host of other angles. "In any criminal investigation, you want to look at the people who are involved and what type of business dealings they were involved in," she said. "We're looking into a lot of different things, and that is one of them."

The killings have drawn public attention in the United States and in England, where Nottinghamshire police yesterday issued a statement that appeared at odds with Coakley's declaration that no one, including Neil Entwistle, has been eliminated as a suspect in the double slayings.

"Neil Entwistle is not a suspect," the British police force said in its statement. "He is being treated by the US authorities as a potential witness. There are no extradition proceedings in relation to him."

Neither Neil Entwistle nor his family, who live in the rural central English town of Worksop, could be reached for comment.

As they have since Coakley announced the slayings Monday, relatives of Rachel Souza Entwistle, who live in Carver, declined comment.

An exact time of death has not been established by the state medical examiner, and investigators stress that they have only a rough timeline of events. They believe that mother and infant were killed between last Thursday night, Jan. 19, when Rachel Entwistle was known to be alive, and Saturday. Neil Entwistle left the country between late Friday night and early Saturday morning, officials have said. The victims' bodies were found by Hopkinton police Sunday night, around 6:30 p.m., officials have said.

Slack reported from London and Ebbert reported from Boston. John R. Ellement of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Franci R. Ellement contributed to this report.