The Freedom Bulletin

The jury learned about more of Neil Entwistle’s internet activities today as Det. Larry James continued his testimony about what he found when he examined Neil’s computer. Internet history records from the Toshiba laptop showed that someone had accessed sites about sex, killing, suicide, and airplane flights in the days leading up to the murders. The computer, which was running Windows XP, had three user accounts. Two of them, called “Ent” and “Contracts” were password-protected and had administrative privileges. Here’s a timeline of what sites were visited:

• Jan. 9, 2006: “Ent” visited eBay and PayPal, as well as hotjobs.yahoo.com and other job search sites. He also Googled “embeddednt.com” and “srpublications,” both the names of sites Neil owned. Then the same user searched for flights on CheapFlights.co.uk, FlyManchester.com, LastMinute.com, BritishAirways.com, and ManchesterAirport.co.uk.
• Jan. 16, 2006: “Ent” Googled “how to kill with a knife” and clicked on one of the results, a forum thread that included a diagram of a person to illustrate the best places to stab. He also visited AdultFriendFinder.com, HalfPriceEscorts.com, FemaleEscortBoston.com, PayPal, Monster.com, MerchantBoss.com, and other job search sites, a genealogy site called EntwistleFamily.org.uk, and EMC.com, the site of the Hopkinton-based high-tech company. Additionally, he Googled “escort in Westborough” and “Hopkinton FPGA.” FPGA stands for field-programmable gate array, a high-tech device that Neil was familiar with through his work.
• Jan. 17, 2006: “Contract” conducted job searches, logged into the web hosting site 1and1.co.uk, and visited IEEE.org, the site of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Neil was a member of the IEEE Computer Society. Also, “Ent” did job searches and visited eBay and PayPal, as well as AdultFriendFinder.com. He accessed a Google results page for “American semiconductor” and finally Googled “knife in neck kill” and “quick suicide method.” He clicked on at least one result for each of the last two searches.
• Jan. 18, 2006: “Ent” visited MoneyBank.com, PayPal.com, HalfPriceEscorts.com, HotLocalEscorts.com, Escorts.NaughtyNightlife.com, andAdultFriendFinder.com. He conducted Google searches for “escort in Worcester” and “escort Worcester Mass” and a Yahoo search for “Westborough Massachusetts professional services and sex escort services.” Additionally, he accessed maps on the site of Blonde Beauties Escort Service and maps of the Worcester area on Yahoo and Google.

At the beginning of the day, the jury briefly heard from Michael Fee, the lawyer for Neil and Rachel’s landlady, Kim Puig. During Fee’s testimony, the court got to hear Neil’s voice for the first time. On Feb. 6, 2006, in response to a letter that Fee sent him, Neil left a voice message saying that “I really don’t care what happens” to the house. During a subsequent phone conversation, Fee expressed concern that the Hopkinton house and the property inside it appeared to be abandoned and the February rent not paid, and Neil reiterated that did not want to go back to the US and did not care about the property. He then requested that Fee deliver jewelry from the house to him, and they decided to create a written agreement. Fee later e-mailed the agreement to Neil, who replied on Feb. 8, expressing concern about one part of the agreement.

James will continue his testimony tomorrow. He had just begun to describe computer activities on Jan. 20, the day of the murders, when the clock struck 1:00 and court was adjourned, as it is each Wednesday. There’s a chance the prosecution might wrap up their case by the end of the week, and according to Channel 7, the medical examiner is expected to be their last witness.

Lots of DNA evidence was presented today in the trial of Neil Entwistle. The court also heard from two of his friends and began to hear evidence of his alleged internet activities.

Laura Bryant, a chemist in the DNA unit of the state police crime lab, tested about 30 items and obtained DNA samples from 11 people involved in the case, including Neil, Rachel, Lillian, and members of the Matterazzo family. Here are some of the items and their results:

• Handle of the .22 Colt revolver (serial number R52151) – a mixture; Neil matched the major profile
• Barrel of the revolver – a mixture with Rachel as the major profile
• Gun case that the revolver was kept in – mixture of Neil, Joe Matterazzo, and possibly Joe’s son Zachary
• Trigger lock of revolver – mixture; Neil is the major profile
• Green metal ammo can handle and lock – mixture; Neil is the major profile
• Cylinder of revolver – mixture; Neil is a possible contributor
• Red-brown stains on the bedroom wall – matched Rachel
• Federal Ammunition .22 caliber ammo box – mixture; Zachary is a potential contributor, inconclusive for Neil
• Black gun case handle – mixture with Neil, Rachel, Joe, Priscilla, Joe’s son Anthony, and Rachel’s uncle Lloyde Cooke as potential contributors
• Trigger lock in black gun case – mixture with Anthony as a potential contributor, everyone else, including Neil, is excluded
• Rachel’s underwear and vaginal swabs – Neil was the major male profile, not too surprisingly
• Trigger of revolver – mixture; Joe matched the major profile; Neil excluded

For each of the DNA matches she described, Bryant gave the odds that a random person would have a similar match. In every case she described as a match, the odds were always greater than 1 in a trillion, and occasionally reached the quadrillions. Athough Neil’s DNA was on a lot of the items associated with the gun, other people’s was too, as many people, including Neil, had used Joe’s guns to go target shooting. Weinstein tried to create reasonable doubt by pointing out that DNA that is found on an object does not indicate when someone handled the object, who handled it last, who handled it longest, or who gripped it the hardest.

Next, a mother and daughter who own a flower shop together testified that Neil called from England to order three flower arrangements for Rachel and Lillian’s funeral. For one arrangement, Neil requested an orange rose and a white lily, and a card that read, “My Orange Rose and My Lilly For Always.” He did not attend the funeral.

Two of Neil’s friends from England, Benjamin Prior and Dashiel Munding, testified next. They met Neil in 1998 through the Universitiy of York’s rowing club and often socialized with him, Rachel, and another friend named Richard Skinner. After the murders, Neil stayed at Munding’s house in London to escape the pack of media camped outside his house in Worksop.

Both friends said Neil told them that he returned home from a shopping trip to find his wife and baby dead and then drove to his in-laws’ house. Prior said that Neil went to the Matterazzos’ house to obtain a gun to commit suicide, but was unable to get in and drove to Priscilla Matterazzo’s work to explain what had happened. Then Rachel’s family congregated at the Matterazzo home to grieve. Neil called the police from there, according to Prior, and began to “sort of feel slightly isolated” before he decided to leave for England. According to Munding, however, Neil went to his in-laws’ home to make sure none of the guns were missing and called law enforcement from Priscilla’s work. In addition to conflicting with each other, the accounts Neil gave his friends conflict with what he told police. Neil told law enforcement that he did not call anyone for help after finding Rachel and Lillian’s bodies and that he left for England without speaking to any of Rachel’s family.

Munding was with Neil immediately before he was arrested by British police on February 9, 2006. Neil received a call from his father Cliff early in the morning, during which Cliff told him that the police were looking to arrest him and wanted him to return to the family home in Worksop. Munding walked with Neil to the nearest Tube station and then received a call from the police, who apparently had changed their minds and wanted to arrest Neil immediately. When Munding told him, Neil said that he didn’t want to meet the police because he wanted to see his family one more time before being arrested, and asked if there was another way off the platform.

Prior testified that Neil and Rachel appeared to be “a really loving couple” but their financial situation was “quite perilous.” Neil told his friend that he had considered filing for bankruptcy and that Rachel spent large amounts of money to furnish their house. Munding said that Neil was a “quiet guy” and that Rachel “was the more outgoing of the two.”

At the end of the day, the jury finally began to hear computer evidence. Det. Lawrence James of the Medford Police Department examined three computers in the case. He said that there were three usernames on Neil’s Toshiba laptop: “Ent,” “Internet and Photos,” and “Contract.” The “Ent” account was password-protected and had administrative privileges, and it had been used to do a Google search on “how to kill with a knife” on January 16, 2006.

At the beginning of the day, Judge Kottmyer ruled that the prosecution could introduce some evidence of Neil’s alleged visits to sex sites. Specifically, she ruled that they could introduce evidence that the “Ent” user joined the site Adult Friend Finder, sent e-mails through the site, checked email after 11 am on January 20, 2006, and downloaded maps on January 18. Thankfully, the judge excluded Neil’s profile on Adult Friend Finder, which contained a nude picture that may or may not be him. Judge Kottmyer instructed the jury that the evidence that is allowed cannot be used to determine if the defendant “has misbehaved in some manner or has a bad character,” but merely to evaluate his relationship with his wife, his state of mind, any any possible motive.

Tomorrow, the internet evidence will continue, so stay tuned.

Today the prosecution continued to present forensic evidence against Neil Entwistle. The most disturbing evidence of the day was the bloodstained clothes that Rachel and Lillian Entwistle were wearing when they were shot to death. Rachel’s shirt and underpants and Lillian’s pajamas and onesie were shown to the jury during the testimony of state police chemist Deanna Dygan. Dygan performed forensic tests for blood and gunshot residue on many objects in the master bedroom where the bodies were found, including bedding, clothing, and stains on the walls. She testified that there was blood on the walls, a pillow that was covering Lillian, a fitted sheet, and on all the items of clothing the victims were wearing. Additionally, Dygan said that there were three holes in the chest area of Rachel’s shirt, two of which tested positive for gunshot residue. She also testified that Rachel’s shirt and underpants tested positive for sperm cells, but she did not say whose.

Lillian was shot on the left side of her chest with what Dygan described as a contact shot, which means that the gun was touching her when it was fired. There was also an exit wound on her back. Neil’s mother Yvonne wept when Lillian’s clothes were shown to the court, and Neil appeared to be crying as well and reached for tissues to wipe his eyes.

Dygan also tested a black t-shirt and blue sweater that were found in the BMW that Neil left at Logan Airport when he fled to England. Neither blood nor gunshot residue could be detected on either item of clothing.

Additionally, Dygan testified that she swabbed the .22 Colt Diamondback revolver that is alleged to be the murder weapon, as well as its case, trigger locks, keys to trigger locks, and an ammunition can. There was a brown, gel-like material inside the muzzle of the gun, she said, but it tested negative for blood.

On cross examination, Elliot Weinstein again stressed that investigators in the case were not open minded enough. “You certainly didn’t have any idea about who might be responsible for the deaths of the two bodies?” he asked. Dygan admitted that she had written that Neil Entwistle was the suspect in her report. “That colored your thinking throughout this entire investigation, didn’t it?” Weinstein asked. Dygan said that it did not.

Like chemist John Soares, Dygan admitted that other people, including Rachel’s friends Joanna and Maureen Gately, had been in the house before her, and she could not be sure if the crime scene was in its original condition by the time she examined it. Additionally, Weinstein stressed that no one had set up potential trajectories of the gunshots, that Dygan herself did not test fire the Colt revolver or any other weapons, and that her statement from Friday that Rachel and Lillian were shot from fewer than 18 inches away was just a general statement about guns, not the alleged murder weapon in particular. Finally, he pointed out that evidence can easily be contaminated.

The next witness of the day was John Drugan, also a chemist in the state police crime lab. He testified that Rachel’s hands tested positive for gunshot residue, indicating that she had either fired a gun, handled a gun, or was near a gun when it was fired. However, the steering wheel and car keys in Neil’s BMW tested negative for gunshot residue, as did his blue sweater and thirteen knives found in the Entwistles’ home.

Finally, state police trooper Stephen Walsh testified that the bullet found in Rachel’s chest matched the .22 revolver. He first explained how various types of guns work and said that the bullet had the same direction of rifling as the alleged murder weapon. He could not say for certain which gun the bullet was fired by, however.

I saw on the news that witnesses are expected to testify tomorrow about Neil’s internet activities and later about additional forensic and DNA evidence. I’m not sure whether the judge has ruled on a defense motion to exclude evidence about alleged visits to sex sites, but there was a bench conference at the end of the day today, and when Neil walked back to his seat, his lawyer Stephanie Page patted his arm as if she was consoling him. Perhaps the judge made a ruling on that motion that the defense wasn’t particularly happy with … but that’s just speculation. I really hope the judge doesn’t let the prosecution introduce a nude picture that is allegedly of Neil. I don’t see how that could possibly be relevant to this murder trial, especially if it isn’t actually him. Prosecutors could give the jury a perfectly good idea of Neil’s online activities without showing the actual picture. Its prejudicial effects would certainly outweigh its minimal usefulness.

There were no tears in the courtroom today as prosecutors continued to present forensic evidence in the trial of Neil Entwistle. State Police Chemist John Soares continued his testimony about the gruesome crime scene. He testified yesterday that the bodies of Entwistle’s wife Rachel and baby Lillian were huddled in bed in their Hopkinton home, killed by what appeared to be gunshot wounds and covered by layers of bedding. He also said that there were about four reddish-brown stains on the walls of the master bedroom, all but one of which tested positive for blood. Today Soares talked about forensic tests he did on Entwistle’s car, which was found in Logan Airport. Soares swabbed water bottles and coffee cups in the car for DNA and tested the steering wheel and car keys for gunshot residue. He was also given custody of 13 knives found in Entwistle’s house, including one found on the kitchen counter. Also during Soares’s testimony the jury (but not Neil or anyone in the gallery) viewed photos of Rachel’s and Lillian’s bodies.

On cross examination, Elliot Weinstein criticized Soares for failing to be open-minded and thorough enought in his investigation. “You wouldn’t begin an investigation wanting the evidence to funnel in one direction, would you?” Weinstein asked. Soares replied that he would not. He admitted that he did not know how many people were in the Entwistle home before him and if anyone had moved anything. Additionally, Weinstein pointed out that Soares and others who processed the crime scene did not test anything in the walk-in closet or bathroom except for a towel, did not test anything in the house for occult (invisible) blood, and tested only the steering wheel of the car for gunshot residue. Soares also admitted that he thoroughly tested Neil’s car for occult and visible blood, including the driver’s side door, steering wheel, and seat positioning levers, but didn’t find any.

The next witness of the day was Jeremy Roybal, a fraud investigator with eBay. For the first time in the trial, Assistant D.A. Daniel Bennett, who is working with Michael Fabbri, conducted a direct examination. Roybal’s testimony consisted mainly of records on Neil’s various PayPal accounts and one under Rachel’s name, all created with different mailing addresses and e-mail addresses. He also listed numerous transactions associated with the accounts as information about the transactions was displayed in a spreadsheet on a monitor. Entwistle had received many complaints from buyers in late December 2005 and January 2006 because he had failed to deliver products. On January 20 and 21, PayPal made automatic refunds to these buyers because they were unable to contact the seller.

Next Chemist Deanna Dygan, who processed the crime scene with Soares, described the forensic tests she performed. She collected sheets and pillowcases, a hair found on the bed, and later the clothing that Rachel and Lillian were wearing when they died. The clothing was entered into evidence today, but because it was stored in bags it was not visible to spectators. Additionally, Dygan performed a lead test on a hole found in Lillian’s pajamas to see if it was made by a bullet, collected swabs from the bedroom, and tested the pillow that was found under Rachel’s and Lillian’s heads. Photos of the pillow, which was stained with blood, were displayed on a monitor visible to everyone in the courtroom. Dygan testified that the pillow had high-impact blood spatter and tested positive for vaporous and particulate gunshot residue. According to her, vaporous gunshot residue does not travel farther than 18 inches, so whoever shot Rachel and Lillian must have done so from very close range. Dygan will continue her testimony on Monday.

Neil Entwistle broke down and cried today as jurors were shown a crime scene video of the bodies of his wife and baby daughter huddled together in bed in their Hopkinton home. The 20-minute video was visible only to jurors, who watched it on a monitor facing the jury box, and to Entwistle, his defense lawyers, and prosecutors, who watched it from another monitor on the opposite side of the courtroom. It was shown this morning during the testimony of Mary Ritchie, a state police sergeant who processed the crime scene. Before the video was shown, Judge Diane Kottmyer warned jurors about its graphic nature and reminded them to use reason, not emotion, to evaluate the evidence. Entwistle wiped his eyes and looked down several times as he watched the video. His mother, Yvonne, cried as well and was comforted by her husband Clifford and younger son Russell.

This is by far the most emotion Neil has shown in court. Previously he has always been calm, occasionally smiling at and whispering to his family in the front row of the gallery.

Other witnesses today included Trooper Emily Phaneuf, who helped Ritchie process the crime scene, Lisa Scoutelas, a recruiter at a company called Intrinsix, where Neil repeatedly applied for work, and John Soares, who works in the state police crime lab and also processed the crime scene. Elliot Weinstein is continuing with his strategy of proving that Neil may not be the only one who accessed computers that were allegedly used to visit sex sites and search for information on killing and suicide. He asked Phaneuf and Ritchie whether they had ever tested a laptop for fingerprints in the case, and both replied that they hadn’t.

Today at Middlesex Superior Court, three police officers gave testimony against Neil Entwistle. The first witness was Sgt. Michael Sutton, a Hopkinton police officer who twice searched Neil and Rachel Entwistle’s house. Sutton and Officer Aaron O’Neil conducted a “wellness check” on January 21, 2006 at the request of Rachel’s friend, Joanna Gately. During this initial search, the officers used a plastic card to open the locked front door, walked through the house, and briefly looked inside all the rooms to see if there was anyone inside who was in need of assistance. Sutton said he observed various lights on in the house, heard music playing in the nursery, and saw that there was water in an upstairs bathtub. In the master bedroom, he noticed that the bedding was in a pile in the middle of the bed. However, he did not find any blood, broken objects, or anything out of the ordinary.

The next day, January 22, after Rachel’s family and friends filed a missing persons report, Sutton and Detective Scott Van Raalten searched the house again. This time Sutton noticed a smell that had not been there before, and followed the smell up to the master bedroom on the second floor. He saw a pair of glasses and a woman’s watch on the floor near the bed, and then lifted the comforter slightly and saw a woman’s foot. Sutton and Van Raalten lifted the comforter near the head of the bed and discovered a baby’s face and a woman’s face. After discovering the bodies of Rachel and her baby Lillian, the officers searched the house more thoroughly in an attempt to find a third victim, but Neil was nowhere to be found.

On cross examination, Elliot Weinstein criticized Sutton for breaking into the house and pointed out that he found nothing wrong on the first search. “And you learned that things aren’t always as they appear to be?” he asked. Weinstein also criticized Sutton for failing to contact Neil’s parents to see if they knew where he was and for neglecting to have any police officers drive by the house during the night of January 21 to check the property.

After Sutton’s testimony, Sgt. Steven Bennett, a state police officer who works at Logan Airport, described how he photographed the white BMW X3 that Neil left in an airport parking garage after flying home to England.

Next, Sgt. Mary Ritchie, a state police trooper who works with the crime scene services unit, testified about the crime scene and began to describe fingerprint evidence in the case. She and other officers processed the crime scene in the Hopkinton home in the early morning hours of January 23. Rachel and Lillian were covered under layers of bedding and were both wearing sleepwear. Lillian had a bullet hole in her chest and another in her back, as well as bruising to her face. Rachel was struck in the chest by the bullet that passed through Lillian, and it was discovered later that she was actually killed by a gunshot to her head, just above the hairline. In addition to testifying about the crime scene, Ritchie explained how fingerprints are formed and said that there were 9 to 10 prints on the .22 Colt revolver that is the alleged murder weapon. The court got to see the gun for the first time, although it was difficult to get a good view of it because it was in a box. None of the prints found on the gun were complete enough to be matched to any particular person, however. Ritchie will continue her testimony tomorrow as the prosecution attempts to link the gun to Neil Entwistle.

Prosecution witnesses continued their testimony today in the trial of Neil Entwistle. The first witness of the day was Kim Puig, who owned the house that Neil and Rachel Entwistle rented in Hopkinton. She said that they had requested a six-month lease on the home, but because she was unsure of their ability to pay, she offered them a three-month lease. The rent was $2700 per month, and by the time of the alleged murders the Entwistles had paid $8100, which included two months rent and a security deposit.

Next, Pamela Jackson, who works as the “welcoming lady in Hopkinton,” told the court about how she visited the Entwistles on January 15, shortly after they moved into the Hopkinton house. She said that Neil asked about country clubs, religious groups, and mother’s groups in the area and that Neil and Rachel had a “loving” and “adorable” relationship. Additionally, she testified that Neil told her he was self-employed and worked in the insurance industry.

The next two witnesses, Michael Sheehan and Marianne Chandler, work for the Massachusetts Port Authority and are involved with overseeing the parking system at Logan Airport. They established that Neil parked his BMW in a garage near the international terminal after 8:00 p.m. on January 20, left at about 9:30, and then returned at nearly 11:00. The court got to see security camera footage of Neil paying for his parking.

Julie-Anne Aloisi, an investigator for Citizens Bank, testified about the Entwistles’ finances. She explained a chart of financial transactions that took place with Neil and Rachel’s bank account between January 19 and 22. Shortly after 8:30 p.m. and again shortly after 9:00 p.m. on January 20, someone made several attempts to withdraw money from the account from ATMs at Logan Airport. The prosecution introduced additional surveillance videos of Neil, one showing him at an ATM at Logan airport, apparently trying to get funds for a flight to England. Although many of his attempted transactions were denied, he succeeded (using the overdraft protection feature of his account) in getting the $800 that ne needed for a plane ticket.

Then Carol Cox and Mary Hannon, who both worked for British Airways at Logan Airport, testified that Neil obtained an electronic ticket the morning of January 21 and boarded British Airways flight 238, which left shortly after 8:00 a.m. for Heathrow in London. He bought a one-way ticket and took no luggage with him. Cox described him as “pleasant, calm, and polite” and said on cross-examination that although he had to board last so she could verify that he had actually purchased a ticket, he never acted agitated or tried to get her to hurry.

In the afternoon, Rachel’s college friend, Joanna Gately, told the court that she and her sister, Maureen, had plans to eat dinner with the Entwistles in their Hopkinton home on January 21, some time between 4:00 and 7:00. When they arrived a little after 7:00, they were unable to get into the house. Joanna called Rachel’s mother, Priscilla Matterazzo, who had left a note on the door after being unable to get into the house for a lunch date, and she later called the Hopkinton police. At about 8:30, Sgt. Michael Sutton and Officer Aaron O’Neil arrived, opened the front door with a Blockbuster card, and did a cursory search of the home, during which they found nothing out of the ordinary. The officers let Joanna take the Entwistles’ dog, Sally, outside to do her business, and then left. The Gately sisters were so concerned that they stayed in their car at the house overnight. In the morning, Joanna called Priscilla again, drove to stores such as Bob’s and Stop and Shop to look for the Entwistles’ BMW, and obtained the passcode to the garage door from the neighbors. She and Maureen entered the house again through the garage, walked and fed Sally, and went upstairs, where they noticed that the TV was on in the living room and a radio was playing classical music in baby Lillian’s bedroom. Finally, Joe and Priscilla Matterazzo arrived with Priscilla’s friend Theresa Pratt and her daughter, and everyone went to the Hopkinton police station at around 5:00 p.m. to file a missing persons report. Later they heard the news about Rachel and Lillian’s deaths and were interviewed by the police.

The final witness of the day was Officer Aaron O’Neil, a patrolman with the Hopkinton Police Department who searched the Entwistles’ house on January 21 at the request of Joanna Gately. He gave his Blockbuster card to his partner, Sgt. Sutton, who used it to jimmy open the door. Both policemen searched the first floor, where Officer O’Neil noticed toys strewn about, Sally in her crate in the living room, and food left on the table as if someone had just eaten dinner. Officer O’Neil turned on a digital camera that he found on a table in the kitchen and found that the last picture was taken on January 19. Then, Sgt. Sutton searched the second floor while Officer O’Neil searched the garage. Neither discovered anything out of the ordinary during this initial search.

On cross-examination, defense lawyer Elliot Weinstein criticized Officer O’Neil for breaking into the house, turning on the camera, and failing to discover the bodies. He called the Blockbuster card “the item of choice for law enforcement to get past the lock” and asked him, “Were you looking for a person when you grabbed that digital camera off the table?” Weinstein emphasized the fact that the policemen “looked thoroughly” and found no blood, no broken objects, and nothing out of the ordinary. The police did not have a warrant to conduct the initial search.