Entwistle talked of finding bodies

Said wife, baby already dead In trial's 1st day, DA outlines case

WOBURN - After returning to his native England, murder suspect Neil Entwistle told a State Police trooper over the phone how he reacted to seeing the bodies of his 9-month-old daughter and wife of three years in their bed at the couple's newly rented Hopkinton home.

"After I came home and found them in the bed, I covered them up," lead prosecutor Michael Fabbri said yesterday, recounting what Entwistle told the trooper shortly after the killings during opening arguments of his trial in Middlesex Superior Court. "It was like I was closing them off."

The trial in the packed courtroom is occurring 2 1/2 years after the killing of Rachel Entwistle, 27, and their daughter, Lillian Rose, made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. Over nearly four hours, prosecutors and the defense questioned five witnesses, including Rachel's mother, Priscilla Matterazzo, who spoke publicly about the killings for the first time.

In his opening statement, Fabbri said Entwistle told Trooper Robert Manning how he saw his wife and daughter lying dead in bed from the doorway after he returned from an errand on Jan. 20, 2006.

Entwistle told the trooper that at first he wanted to kill himself with a knife in the kitchen, but couldn't do it, Fabbri said. Then he thought of the guns his wife's stepfather, Joseph Matterazzo, used for target practice.

"I drove to Carver to get one of the guns that Joe had, so I could kill myself," Fabbri said, quoting Entwistle. "But I couldn't get in."

Telling no one about the deaths, Entwistle flew to England the next morning. "It was obvious what had happened; I could see the hole in Lillian," he said, according to Fabbri. "I didn't even think of funeral arrangements for them. I didn't even call 911 or call for help."

A day after Entwistle left, police found his wife dead from a bullet wound to her head, her arm extending across the body of her daughter, who had been killed by a single shot to the abdomen.

Fabbri said the jury of eight men and eight women would find Entwistle guilty after they heard the inconsistencies in his accounts to police and his friends and when they learned how he attempted to flee from arresting authorities in London. Fabbri noted that Entwistle chose to send flowers rather than attend the funerals.

He also said the evidence would show that after they moved to Hopkinton, Entwistle, who was experiencing financial troubles, had been doing computer searches about bankruptcy and had also looked at a site offering female escorts. In the days before the slayings, Fabbri said, Entwistle's computer searches also included how to "kill with a knife" and "quick suicide methods."

"There is only one true verdict in this case and one true murderer in this case, and that is Neil Entwistle," Fabbri said.

In a brief opening statement, Elliot Weinstein, Entwistle's lawyer, cautioned the jury against jumping to conclusions and predicted that "over and over and over again at this trial, you will learn things are not the way they first may appear to be."

He pointed to the Hopkinton police officers who made a wellness check of the Entwistle home on Jan. 21, the day after the killings. Police found nothing suspicious in the house until they returned the second day at the prompting of family and friends.

"There was no blood. No broken objects. There were no dead bodies," Weinstein said.

Weinstein suggested that Entwistle was himself a victim in the case.

"On Jan. 20, 2006, Neil Entwistle's world changed, never to be the same," Weinstein said. "Neil Entwistle loved his wife and Neil Entwistle loved his daughter. On Jan. 20, he lost them both. Everything he did then and thereafter he did because he loved them."

About a dozen members of the Matterazzo family attended the trial, which began Monday. Accompanied by a victim-witness advocate, they sat quietly in two rows.

The Entwistles - his father, Clifford; mother, Yvonne; and brother, Russell, who have been coming to court since Tuesday, sat behind Neil Entwistle.

Neither family acknowledged the other.

Jury selection lasted four days; the judge screened almost 190 people, many of whom were dismissed because they said they had already decided Entwistle was guilty. The difficulty of finding jurors led Weinstein to call for the judge to dismiss the case or change the location of the trial, which is expected to last three weeks.

During the proceedings, Entwistle watched intently as each side made an opening statement and his mother-in-law took the stand as the first witness.

Matterazzo, 56, recounted calmly how her daughter had attended College of the Holy Cross in Worcester and participated in a study program at York University, where she met Entwistle.

Their love took time to blossom, from friendship to courtship and then onto a more serious track toward marriage, Matterazzo said. The couple visited the United States a few times before they were married in August 2003.

"They seemed to get along very well," she said. "They seemed to have a friendship. They seemed to love and respect each other."

Ten days before the killings, the Entwistle family rented a $2,700-per-month house on a cul-de-sac at the end of Cubs Path in Hopkinton.

Matterazzo testified that Entwistle had acted distant around the time of the move, and left their Carver home after a visit without saying goodbye. When Matterazzo visited the home in Hopkinton, Entwistle stayed busy, assembling lamps in the guest room.

"He stayed upstairs and kept to himself and didn't have much to say," Matterazzo said.

A few days later on Jan. 20, Matterazzo drove with a friend to Hopkinton to have lunch with Rachel and Lillian, but when they arrived on Cubs Path, the house was dark and no one answered the door. Matterazzo left a note on the front door. After driving back to her home in Carver, Matterazzo called police.

"If she made plans, she was always there," Matterazzo said. "I asked them if they could go in the house and see if everything was OK."

They did, but it would be another day before police discovered the bodies under a comforter in the master bedroom.

Defense attorneys yesterday attempted to paint a picture of Entwistle as a devoted husband and father who cared for his daughter and shared in many child-rearing responsibilities.

At one point while defense attorney Stephanie Page questioned Matterazzo - who said Entwistle regularly dressed, washed, changed, and "played silly" with Lillian on the floor - Entwistle held his head and became flushed.

The attorneys also questioned Lloyde Cooke, Rachel's uncle.

Cooke said he and Joseph Matterazzo frequented Old Colony Sportsmen's Club in Pembroke twice between the fall of 2005 and January 2006.

Both Cooke and Matterazzo taught Entwistle how to handle a variety of pistols and shotguns, including a .22-caliber Colt revolver, the type of weapon used to kill Rachel and Lillian.

"We showed him how to handle it and load the gun," Cooke said. "He handled the firearms well."

Andrew Ryan of the Globe staff contributed to this article.