Entwistle in seclusion at parents' home

WORKSOP, England -- Neil Entwistle remained inside his parents' home in this former coal mining community in central England yesterday and his mother broke down in tears as authorities in two countries continued to probe the slayings last week of his 27-year-old wife and 9-month-old daughter in their Hopkinton, Mass., home.

Authorities said Entwistle remains a ''person of interest" in the case, someone whom they believe may have valuable information, but that he is not a suspect. On Friday, acting on the advice of a lawyer, Entwistle, 27, declined to meet with Massachusetts investigators who had flown to England to talk to him, according to a source with direct knowledge of the investigation.

Yesterday in Worksop, 150 miles north of London, Entwistle's mother began sobbing as she left the family's modest brick house on a shopping trip with a man whom neighbors identified as her other son, 21-year-old Russell Entwistle. Several Nottinghamshire police officers stood nearby, and Russell Entwistle placed a reassuring hand on his mother's back as one television reporter bellowed to Russell upon their return, ''Did your brother kill his wife and daughter?"

Neither mother nor son spoke, and both rushed inside.

Rachel Entwistle and her daughter, Lillian Rose, were found dead in the master bedroom of their Hopkinton home last Sunday, both shot with a small-caliber gun. At the time, Neil Entwistle, an electrical engineer, was in his native England, authorities said, having flown there late Friday or early Saturday. Last week, two Hopkinton police officers and two State Police troopers flew to England as part of an investigation into the slayings and sought a meeting with Neil Entwistle.

In a voice mail yesterday, Nottinghamshire police said that on Friday, ''we drove Mr. Entwistle down to the US Embassy in London, where he went voluntarily to talk to authorities from the US down there."

But the source with direct knowledge of the investigation said that Entwistle, after consulting with a lawyer, declined to be interviewed by the investigators who had hoped to talk with him.

Yesterday, Emily LaGrassa, a spokeswoman for Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, said Massachusetts investigators continue to ''follow up on leads" and are ''working on a number of fronts" but have not made any arrests.

Authorities have said that among the areas they are probing are Neil Entwistle's online businesses, including complaints this month that he was failing to deliver software that he sold on eBay.

Entwistle had registered with eBay, the Internet auction site, in 2004 under the name srpublications and had advertised another venture that was designed to help bidders establish pornography websites for a down payment of about $1,700.

Meanwhile, relatives of the murder victims are preparing a funeral Mass for Rachel and Lillian Entwistle, to be said at 11 a.m. Wednesday in St. Peter's Church in Plymouth, according to a death notice submitted to The Patriot Ledger newspaper of Quincy.

Yesterday, at the house of Rachel Entwistle's family in Carver, a relative who answered the door said the family was grief-stricken. The man, who declined to give his name, said relatives are not watching the news, to avoid upsetting Rachel Entwistle's mother, Priscilla Matterazzo, any further.

In Worksop, residents have also been shaken by the slayings and several said they were perplexed by Entwistle's behavior.

''Why has he fled the country?" said Phillip Mills, a laborer and Worksop native who was grabbing a pint with his girlfriend at a pub about a mile from the Entwistle home. ''It's hard to understand."

Globe correspondents Franci R. Ellement and Michael Levenson contributed to this report.