Nantucket slaying trial to begin

Victim broke up with accused

By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press  |  June 4, 2007

NANTUCKET -- The last time Robert Foster saw his friend Beth Lochtefeld, she was chatting excitedly about her impressive new boyfriend, a Columbia-educated former New York bank executive who shared her love for art, music, and literature.

Lochtefeld, a 44-year-old New York entrepreneur, longed to finally get married and start a family, and she had high hopes for Thomas Toolan III.

"As we were parting, she held up two crossed fingers, like, maybe he's the one," recalled Foster.

Two weeks later, Lochtefeld was dead.

She was found Oct. 25, 2004, fatally stabbed on the living room floor of her cedar-shingle bungalow on the island of Nantucket, where she and Toolan met and began their whirlwind romance.

Toolan is accused of killing her, three days after she broke up with him.

Today, the first murder trial on this island in more than two decades will begin, and Toolan's lawyer has indicated he will argue Toolan was temporarily insane due to an intoxicating mix of alcohol, medications, and his "mental and emotional condition."

Lochtefeld's family still struggles to understand what happened.

She grew up in Peekskill, N.Y., but spent summers on Nantucket, where her father, John, is a well-known artist and owns one of the island's many galleries.

After graduating from Notre Dame, she traveled extensively and taught English in Japan. She moved to New York and started a consulting business called Code NYC, which helped architects negotiate the city's building regulations. The business grew into a multimillion dollar company.

Lochtefeld eventually tired of New York City and decided to sell her business. In March 2004, about seven months before her death, she moved to Nantucket, where she worked on a book with her father and became active in the local arts scene.

Her romance with Toolan, then 37, began on Labor Day weekend 2004, when they were introduced by a mutual friend. They immediately started visiting each other every weekend, alternating between Nantucket and Manhattan.

Tom Lochtefeld said his sister was initially smitten with Toolan, who could talk easily about classic literature, music, art, and opera -- all things Beth enjoyed.

"Beth was an optimist, and we thought, well, maybe this is it," Tom Lochtefeld recalled.

Looking back, Lochtefeld said he believes his sister might have overlooked some of Toolan's problems because of her kind nature and eagerness to help people. He said she may have wanted to see the best in Toolan because of her desire to have the kind of tight-knit family she had growing up.

"I think that's probably what made her a bit vulnerable," he said.

Toolan had worked as a banker at Smith Barney and Citigroup, but had struggled with alcoholism and was fired by Citigroup in 2001 after he was arrested for allegedly trying to take an $80,000 marble bust from a Manhattan antique show. His lawyer at the time said Toolan had been drinking and never intended to steal the bust. Toolan later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

Becky Hammonds, a Manhattan bartender who met Toolan on a plane, said she initially thought he was charming and well-spoken, but her impression changed dramatically after she went on a date with him. During the evening, as Toolan drank, he became verbally abusive, Hammonds said.

"At one point, I was speaking with the bartender and [Toolan] said, 'You're being awfully lascivious with the bartender.' "

"I was shocked. I ended up running from him at the end of the night when I got out of the cab."

Beth Lochtefeld's family said she became disenchanted with Toolan less than two months after they started dating and went to New York City to break up with him on Oct. 22, 2004.

Three days later, she was dead.

Relatives told police Toolan held her hostage in his apartment for a night, but she escaped while he was asleep and fled to Nantucket. She stopped at the Nantucket police station and asked how to go about getting a restraining order, but she did not file the paperwork.

Two days later, Toolan attempted to board a plane bound for Nantucket, but was stopped after security screeners at New York's LaGuardia Airport found a knife in his coat. The next day, Toolan took another flight to Nantucket, and then rented a car and bought a fishing knife, authorities said. The knife used to kill Lochtefeld was never found.

A few hours after Lochtefeld's body was found, Toolan was stopped for drunken driving in Rhode Island and was later charged in the killing.

Toolan's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, would not talk about his defense before the trial. But court documents indicate he plans to argue Toolan was insane at the time of the slaying.

Reddington said he will renew his unsuccessful bid to move the trial off Nantucket, a once-thriving whaling port that is now a popular vacation spot, about 30 miles south of Cape Cod.