The dramatic testimony came during the cross examination of medical examiner Dr. William Zane, who performed autopsies on Rachel and Lillian. On direct examination, Zane testified that Rachel was killed instantly by a gunshot wound about an inch below the top of her head. She also had a gunshot wound to her left breast, which did not strike any organs or major blood vessels. Neither of the wounds were contact shots. Lillian was killed by a gunshot wound to her left chest that penetrated her liver, one of her kidneys, and exited through the right side of her back. It may have been "a minute or minutes" before she died. Zane testified that Lillian's back must have been against Rachel's chest, and the bullet that passed through Lillian was the same one that struck Rachel in the chest.
Defense lawyer Stephanie Page cross-examined Zane. She quoted two widely respected forensic pathology textbooks, which had some interesting facts:
- 92% of women who commit suicide use handguns
- women use handguns to commit suicide more often than men
- only 25% of people who commit suicide leave suicide notes
- although the temple, mouth, and chin are the most common places for people to shoot themselves in the head, people have been known to shoot themselves in the top of the head
- in some suicides, there is no weapon at the scene; it is usually a family member that moves the weapon
The defense theory seemed to be that Rachel held Lillian to her and fired the gun at the baby's chest in an attempt to kill them both with one bullet. The shot to Rachel's chest was not fatal, so she then shot herself in the head. According to this theory, Neil may have arrived to find his wife and baby dead and then returned the gun to the Matterazzos' house.
Page pointed out that it is possible for someone to shoot themselves in both of the places where Rachel was shot, that people have been known to kill themselves by shooting through another person, and that not all suicides involve contact shots. Zane agreed but said that most suicides by gun involve contact wounds and that in over 200 suicides for which he performed autopsies, no one had ever shot through someone else.
Another point that Page made was that Rachel had what Zane described as a bruise around her chest wound. Because bruises form when blood goes to the area, Rachel must have been alive when she was shot in the chest. This is contrary to the theory that Neil shot Rachel in the head first and then fired the bullet that hit both Lillian and Rachel.
Finally, Page made a big deal of the fact that Rachel's hands tested positive for gunshot residue, a fact of which Zane was unaware until today. She criticized him for assuming Neil was the perpetrator and for not trying to ascertain whether Rachel had a history of depression or had easy access to firearms. Gunshot residue indicates that someone either fired a gun, handled a gun, or was in the room when a gun was fired.
Zane appeared flustered at times and was unfamiliar with some of the statistics Page cited but said he had no reason to disagree. The medical examiner's office has been criticized recently for numerous mistakes including misplacing a body. In 2005, Zane botched the autopsy of Kelly Proctor, who was allegedly beaten to death by twins Daniel and Peter McGuane. Page was Peter McGuane's lawyer.
I must say that this is the most reasonable doubt the defense has created to far. It doesn't seem likely that Rachel carried out a murder-suicide, but it doesn't seem impossible either. I don't know which way I would be leaning right now if I was on the jury, but I can tell you that Stephanie Page is most definitely a good lawyer.
In other Entwistle news, four witnesses besides Zane took the stand today. Det. Larry James, who examined Entwistle's computer, read from a profile on Adult Friend Finder in which the defendant wrote, "I am looking for 1-on-1 discrete relationships with American ladies and always aim to make all experiences ones to remember." Additionally, he testified that on January 20, 2006, the day of the alleged murders, someone accessed emails and visited websites for purposes related to job searching. Numerous news reports, including one of mine, erroneously stated that someone had visited an Adult Friend Finder account at this time, which turns out not to be true. I did not remember hearing that in court, but I assumed that it had happened and that I had missed it when I saw various news outlets all reporting the same thing. Oops! I have corrected the earlier post.
At the end of the day, the court heard from three detectives with the extradition unit of Scotland Yard. Det. Gary Flood and Det. Constable Ronald Hay arrested Entwistle at the Royal Oak tube station after speaking with his friend Dash Munding. They seized all the items he had with him, including a blue bag that contained clothing, toiletries, correspondance, a cell phone charger, and a driver's license, as well as a notepad, a newspaper clipping, the lease for the Hopkinton house, a piece of paper with writing on it, a blue Nokia cell phone, and a black leather wallet that contained just under 500 pounds in cash, 7 credit cards, letters, a ticket, and a metal ring. Finally, Det. Constable Richard Potter testified that he searched the Entwistles' Worksop home and confiscated a wallet from the trash bin in Neil's room, as well as two desktop computers and one laptop.
Apparently Channel 7 was wrong when they predicted the medical examiner would be the last prosecution witness. I'm guessing more British and American police officers are going to testify tomorrow. The judge said testimony would end at 3:30 tomorrow, so perhaps the prosecution will rest its case.
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