Accused Double-Murderer Tape Played for Jurors

WOBURN, Mass, June 21, 2008 — -- "It was just a normal day." Those simple words filled a Massachusetts courtroom Friday as an audiotape of a conversation between accused double-murderer Neil Entwistle and a police detective was played for the jury.

Of course, the day Entwistle is referring to was anything but normal. That was the day Entwistle's young wife, Rachel, and 9-month-old daughter Lillian Rose were shot to death at point-blank range in their home on a quiet cul-de-sac in a small New England town.

State Police Sgt. Robert Manning called Entwistle in England on Jan. 23, 2006, to question him a few days after the bodies were found.

Entwistle maintains he fled to his family's house in Worksop, England, because he was distraught over the deaths of his wife and daughter and in a "trancelike" state. He admits on the tapes that when he found the bloody bodies lying on the master bed in their Hopkinton, Mass., home he never checked to see if they were alive and never tried to call 911.

"Do you know what 911 is?" asked Manning, and Entwistle replied, "Yah, I do."

Entwistle continued, "I don't feel that I've done the right thing here ... by not being the one to call and say what happened. I just couldn't get it clear in my head."

In the two-hour recording, Entwistle repeatedly denies killing his wife and baby daughter. When Manning asked if Entwistle had anything to do with the killings, he replied, "No, no, no."

Entwistle said that after finding the bodies "the only thing I could think of was the knife downstairs." But he told the trooper that he couldn't kill himself because it would hurt too much. He said his next move was to drive down to his in-laws house in Carver, Mass., to try to find a gun and kill himself, but he couldn't get into the house.

On the tapes, Entwistle also described the condition of the bodies lying on the bed. Rachel, he said, looked pale but just asleep but then "I pulled the covers back and that's when I saw Lilly. Lilly was such a mess."

During the conversation, Sgt. Manning asked Entwistle, "Did you know what happened to them?"