Entwistle in his own words

Today the court got to hear Neil Entwistle's version of events in his own words. During the two-hour long tape of a phone call between Entwistle and state police Sgt. Robert Manning, the court heard Entwistle say that he had found his wife and baby dead in bed after a shopping trip, considered killing himself, and finally flew to his native England without calling 911 or telling anyone what had happened.

The call, which took place on January 23, 2006, begins when Manning calls Entwistle to tell him, "We have some bad news about your wife and your daughter."

"Yeah," replies Entwistle.

When asked if he already knew his wife and baby were dead, he replies, "I did."

Then, Entwistle said that he woke at about 7:00, fed Lillian her breakfast, and then put Lillian back to bed with Rachel at 9:00, as he usually did. He then left to buy a wireless device for his computer at Staples, but did not end up buying anything there and tried to go to Wal-Mart but could not find his way there.

“I’m not sure why I think it was 11 when I got back but for some reason I do,” he said. “I called to Rachel, and um, no one answered.” Entwistle saw that the dishes from breakfast were still out and said that he was “a little annoyed when I got back because I thought Rachel had not done anything.”

Then he went upstairs and looked in the master bedroom. "It looked, you know, obvious what had happened," he told Manning. “They were under the covers…I couldn’t see Lilly; I could only see Rachel. “

Entwistle described the condition of the bodies, his voice breaking: “I couldn’t see anything on Rachel; it was all on Lilly.”

“There’d just been so much on Lilly…it was just so much…it was on her mouth and on her chest.”

“Rachel had got her arm…had got her arm across her.”

“They obviously weren’t alive anymore,” said Entwistle. Then he pulled the covers over the bodies, “almost like I was closing them off; I don’t know why I did it.”

“I pulled the covers over them,” he continued, “and the only thing I could think of was the knife.” Entwistle said he considered suicide and “I just kinda held it towards me, and I just couldn’t do it.”

Next, he decided to go to his in-laws’ house in Carver. “It’s strange because I didn’t call them because I didn’t think they were going to be in,” he said, “but I wanted to go to their house to see them.” Additionally, Entwistle said he wanted to use one of his father-in-law’s guns to kill himself.

“Well, I got there and the key to the house used to be on the car keychain…but when I got to the door, the key wasn’t on there.” So he then decided to find his mother-in-law at her workplace in Braintree. “I got back in the car and started to drive to how I thought to get to Braintree.”

But he was unable to find his way. "I ended up at the airport, at Logan Airport," said Entwistle, who described the airport as "the only place I know."

“I parked the car and I think I just sat there for a while… I don’t know what was going through my head at that point.”

"I started toward Hopkinton...and then I just got lost."

“I was driving around more and more, getting more and more frustrated.” When Manning asked him if he was frustrated or scared, Entwistle admitted, “I was scared, yeah.”

After being unable to find Hopkinton, Entwistle says he returned to the airport, where he booked a one-way ticket to England the next morning.

When asked whether he had thought about funeral arrangements for his wife and daughter, he replied, “No, not really. I don’t know.”

He also expressed some regret about his decision to fly to England without trying to get help. “The only reason why I came back here was because I wanted to be with my family,” he said. “It just wasn’t the right thing to do, was it?”

Manning pressed Entwistle on why he never called for help or told anyone about his wife’s and baby’s deaths. “I’m believing what you tell me, only I have a hard time understanding why you didn’t call 911,” Manning said.

“I don’t know why,” Entwistle replied, “It’s just not what I did.”

Manning also repeatedly questioned Entwistle on why he wanted to kill himself but never did. He asked if Entwistle had ever been depressed or if there were any circumstances that were “out of character.” Entwistle replied, “I didn’t know why that’s what I wanted to do.”

Although Manning never overtly accused him of the murders, his questions clearly made Entwistle uncomfortable. Near the end of the phone call, he exclaimed “I couldn’t do that! Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know what to say to you,” Entwistle said later.

Overall, Entwistle did not seem to be as grief-stricken as some might expect, but neither did he seem to be a cold-blooded murderer. He seemed to be on the verge of tears at several points during the conversation but was relatively calm at other times. He seemed nervous and often had trouble finding the right words.

The court heard the beginning of a second call between Entwistle and Manning, which took place the next day, but the jury had trouble hearing it so court was adjourned early. The prosecution will most likely rest their case on Monday, and I’ve heard some people in the courtroom say that the defense may not call any witnesses. That’s only speculation, though, so we’ll see if they have anything else up their sleeve. I highly doubt Entwistle himself is going to testify, although it would be really interesting…