Documents: Entwistle researched killing and suicide

The week he allegedly shot his wife and 9-month-old daughter to death, Neil Entwistle searched the Internet about ways to kill someone with a knife and how to commit suicide, according to police affidavits unsealed today under a court order.

On Jan. 16 and 17, Entwistle viewed an electronic document that "describes such things as how to kill people by various methods; and that Neil Entwistle actually typed in Internet searches regarding how to kill yourself, suicide, how to kill someone with a knife, and euthanasia," said an affidavit based on what police said was a search of computers Entwistle used.

Authorities say that Entwistle shot his wife, Rachel Enwistle, and their daughter, Lillian, in the master bedroom of their rented Hopkinton house on the morning of Jan. 20, and then flew to London the next morning from Logan International Airport.

Some 231 pages of court documents also allege that financial problems strained the Entwistles' marriage, and Rachel Entwistles' parents "believed Neil had some type of secret government job in England which he could not talk about."

The documents include affidavits filed in support of search warrants for Entwistle's home, car and computer. Sought by media organizations, they include filings in which investigators spell out their reasons for seeking a warrant, as well as the search warrant "returns," which list the items found during the searches.

Investigators also found information about several area escort services on Entwistle's computer. Authorities said he visited the escort services' Web sites and accessed directions to at least one of them two days before the slayings, according to the documents.

Prosecutors said in an arrest warrant affidavit released last week that they believe Entwistle killed his wife and daughter after becoming despondent because he accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in debts and that he had expressed "a dissatisfaction with his sex life."

Entwistle did not fight extradition, and British authorities signed an order Friday authorizing his return to face the charges in Massachusetts.

In one affidavit, filed for a warrant authorizing the search of Entwistle's home and car, investigators describe a telephone conversation between state Trooper Robert Manning and Entwistle on Jan. 23, three days after the killings, while Entwistle was at his parents' home in Worksop, England.

Entwistle allegedly told Manning that he woke up around 7 a.m. on Jan. 20, fed his daughter, then left the house to do some errands.

When he returned around 11 a.m., he said, he checked the baby's room. When he did not see Lillian, he went to the master bedroom, where he found his wife partially covered with the comforter.

"Neil said that he pulled down the comforter, saw his wife was pale, saw blood on the baby and that the baby had been shot, and they were dead," Manning recounted in the affidavit.

"Neil said he pulled the covers back over his wife and daughter, went downstairs, grabbed (a) knife from the kitchen and considered killing himself, but then put it down because it would hurt too much, and then decided to drive to Carver and tell his in-laws what had happened since he had no number to call them."

Entwistle told Manning that the other reason he drove to Carver was to get one of his father-in-law's guns to kill himself, but found no one home when he got there.

Authorities say they believe Entwistle used a .22-caliber handgun owned by his father-in-law, Joseph Matterazzo, to kill his wife and daughter, then drove about 50 miles from his home in Hopkinton to Carver, where he returned the gun while no one was home. Investigators said they found keys to his in-laws' Carver home locked inside Entwistle's BMW when it was discovered at Boston's Logan International Airport.

Entwistle told Manning that he left Carver and drove to the airport, walked around a bit, then left to start driving back to Hopkinton. He then turned around and went back to the airport, where he boarded a flight for England, according to the affidavit.

"Neil said he wanted to go home to be with his parents," Manning wrote.

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley opposed the release of the search warrant affidavits, but Framingham District Court Judge Robert Greco agreed Monday morning to make public more than 200 pages from the file. He ordered some of the information redacted, including credit card numbers.

Prosecutors said Monday they were not aware that Entwistle has hired an attorney in Massachusetts. He may be assigned a lawyer by the state Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state agency which oversees private attorneys for the poor in state courts.

Anthony Benedetti, general counsel for the committee, said Coakley's office contacted the committee and said they expect Entwistle to declare himself indigent. In that case, an attorney would be chosen from a list of private attorneys with experience in murder cases, he said.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.