Neil, Rachel and Lillian Entwistle
At around 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21, some friends and family of Neil and Rachel Entwistle showed up at the Entwistle home for a dinner party. They saw lights on inside the house and could hear a television. Alarmed that the party had been a planned event and logic would dictate that someone would be home and answering the door for guests, the police in Hopkinton, Massachusetts were called.
The police showed up at the house and did a “well-being” check. Which, I must assume, is a process whereby police check the inside of a home with the permission of family or due to some strong concern. 27-year-old Rachel Entwistle lay dead under a pile of comforters, pillows and blankets, killed by a gunshot wound to her head. 9-month-old Lillian Entwistle lay in her mother’s arms under the blankets, killed by a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
But the wellness check provided no clues as the Hopkinton police did not look under that pile of blankets.
The following day, relatives and friends again showed up at the Entwistle home. Provided the garage door key code by a neighbor, the friends and relatives also did not look under the blankets.
Later that day a missing persons report was file on the Entwistles and this time, the police looked under the blankets.
Thus began the investigation into what will likely become one of the more intriguing true crimes of the year. It always seems that the beginning of these highly publicized crimes starts with a royal police screw up.
Although you’d never know it by the silly excuse provided by the Hopkinton police.
The Hopkinton police chief defended his officers’ actions per the Boston Herald:
Hopkinton’s police chief yesterday defended the officers who did not check under blankets for the slain bodies of Rachel and Lillian Entwistle during a well-being check.
The officers, Chief Tom Irvin said, were looking to simply help, not investigate a murder.
“I think given the same set of circumstances next week, I would have expected the officers to do nothing different,” said Irvin.
“When we make the decision to go into a house . . . it’s not carte blanche to search your papers or go rifling through your closets,” he added.
That bit about not expecting anything different from the officers given the same circumstances really grates. Never mind the logic of the thing even to us non-police types. The guests showed up for a planned event! Right there is reason to get very suspicious. Folks don’t go and plan dinner parties then disappear when the guests show up.
But don’t listen to me. For I have a source right in the Massachusetts’ police department. Said source provided some very interesting information.
I was a police officer for 7 years and during that I time received many calls for well-being checks, as we called it. This would mean that the family or friends hadn't seen or heard from a person for maybe a few days or weeks. As a police officer, I always assumed the worst when I received a call like this. I assumed, dead body. I would go to a house and if I couldn't get in, I would call a street supervisor and the fire department. The fire department would gain entry to the house and the supervisor and myself would then search the house. A good police officer would know that a dead body is usually found in or near a bed or bathroom. I'm talking about the fact that if someone collapses on their own, it's usually because they are feeling ill and have gone to bed or to the bathroom. I had dead bodies in the bedroom and in the bathrooms. A thorough search of the premises is definitely an order. Closets, beds bathrooms etc. Call like that is so general that you could be looking for a murder, suicide, accident, etc. Also, a detection of an odor is definitely a clue, which is how they eventually found the bodies.
Of course, I was a police officer in [another Massachusetts town]. The murder took place in the town of Hopkinton. [My town] has a population of 42,000, is 10.03 square miles and has a median household income is $37,000. Hopkinton has a population of 14,300, is 27.9 square miles and has a median household income of $89,000. In Hopkinton they haven't had a murder in years and as a result are probably lax when it comes to that. Although, I'm sure they've found a dead body or two. It's a ritzy town and the police may be more worried about upsetting a home or fear that the owner of the house may come home and ask what they are doing there. We don't worry about that in Revere simply because the crime weight outweighs the cops’ worries about messing up a home. These people did not even own this home, they rented it.
If it were me, I would have went through the house with a fine tooth comb. I had a well-being check once in which I had to call the fire department to take the door off so I could get in. I wasn't worried about the homeowner. It turned out that she was dead in there for about three days. The stench was horrible. We went through that home thoroughly and found thousands of dollars in cash in the house. Someone in the medical examiners office subsequently stole some of the money. That's another story. One other thing a cop does on a well-being check, look up high.
My sister had more than a few hangings. My sister and I had a call in which we found a dead body on the floor in the kitchen. It turned out that here sister had found her naked in bed, dressed her up, and dragged her in the kitchen. People do strange things. The sister was mad because my sister and I found out that she flushed some pills down the toilet after she found her sister. We went through the cabinets and she yelled at us for touching her sister’s stuff. Meanwhile, the family showed up, went out and got coffee and came back to the apartment with the sister’s body still lying there. Unbelievable.
Note that part about most people being found dead in or around their beds/bathrooms. This was written by a Massachusetts’ police officer. I doubt very seriously that the Hopkinton police chief would do the same thing all over again and to say such a thing publicly is reprehensible. His officers screwed up, pure and simple.
Because of this initial police failure, the bodies of Rachel and Lillian Entwistle lay dead in that bed and weren’t discovered until 24 full hours later.
Meanwhile, the husband of Rachel and father of Lillian was, poof, totally gone.
Since the Entwistles are from England, soon enough it was discovered that Neil Entwistle was in England, allegedly staying with his family.
So why was Neil Entwistle in England when: a)his wife and daughter were dead in his bed in America and b)when a dinner party had been scheduled for Saturday 1/21/06 and he’s out hopping planes to England?
According to the Boston Herald, there seems to have been some attempt by Neil Entwistle to cover his sudden disappearance.
If a British newspaper report that Neil Entwistle called his father-in-law claiming he was "confused" and did not know how he got to England is true, experts say, he could be laying the groundwork for an insanity defense.
If so, several defense lawyers said, it's a bad idea.
That only applies, of course, if he is someday charged in the deaths of Rachel, 27, and Lilly, 9 months. The mother and daughter were found executed Jan. 22 and investigators have called Neil a "person of interest."
"I think an insanity defense is always a last-ditch effort," said Framingham defense lawyer Mark Helwig. "From what I've read, I don't think he would qualify. You would have to have no concept of what's right or wrong. Blacking out is not enough. From what I have seen, he has many better defenses than that."
In yesterday's London Sun, a family source is quoted as saying Neil Entwistle called Rachel Entwistle's family and said, "I can't remember how I got to England. Is it true Rachel and Lillian are dead?"
He also reportedly told Rachel Entwistle's stepfather, Joe Matterazzo, he was "confused."
"Those comments do not necessarily mean Neil Entwistle is trying to appear insane," Newton defense lawyer Randall Power said.
"It sounds like he's trying to lay the groundwork of having no criminal responsibility," said Power. "This is conjecture, but if he wasn't the perpetrator, say if it had something to do with something, maybe he knows who did it and he's scared, and that's his cover.
Rachel and Lillian Entwistle were laid to rest this past week. Neil Entwistle was not in attendance. Speculation has it that were Neil to show up he would have been arrested right on the spot.
As it is, extradition treaties with England are very liberal. I suspect the investigators are getting their case together, gathering the evidence and taking meticulous time.
A precious 24 hours was already lost due to a police screw up. When the evidence is compiled and in order, it will be small matter to get this fellow back to the United States.
Although the latest on Neil Entwistle is that he has left his parents’ home and is “in seclusion” somewhere else.
Let’s hope the British police are keeping an eye on this guy.
This case has all the elements of intrigue. Allegedly Neil Entwistle was somehow involved in Internet porn and online scams. Then there’s the international element.
It’s also a case where the perpetrator has a damn good chance of walking free.
Body Builders Charged With Murder
As first posted on 1/4/06, , two body builders wended their way across country from Las Vegas to Massachusetts. Only problem, the couple, a Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan, left behind their live-in trainer. Who was found dead in Ryan’s burned Jaguar.
Soon enough this duo, veterans of the body building circuit, were brought back to Nevaada and recently specific charges were made against them.
Per KLAS-TV:
Titus, 41, who made his first appearance in a Las Vegas court,previously faced murder, accessory to murder and third-degree arson charges. He is also now facing an additional charge of kidnapping.
Ryan, 33, had appeared Tuesday on accessory and arson charges in the slaying of 28-year-old Melissa James, a former fitness instructor who moved last year from Lambertville, N.J. to live with Titus and Ryan. Her charred body was found Dec. 14 in the trunk of Ryan's burned Jaguar off a desert highway outside Las Vegas.
Neither Titus nor Ryan was asked Wednesday to enter a plea to the amended complaint. They remained shackled to other Clark County jail inmates as they sat two rows apart. At one point in court, it appeared Titus turned to his wife and mouthed the words "don't say nothing."
Titus' rippling arm muscles stretched the fabric of his blue jail uniform. He offered a one-word reply when he and Ryan stood and Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure asked each if they understood the charges. "Absolutely," Titus said. "Yes, sir," Ryan said.
Daskas declined Wednesday to describe a motive for the slaying. The complaint accuses Titus and Ryan of using a Taser stun gun, administering morphine or a related drug, and asphyxiating or suffocating James with a fabric or wire around her neck.
The newest information here is how the fitness instructor died. It would appear that her murder was very deliberate what with a stun gun, morphine and suffocation the manner of death.
In addition, a friend of the couple, Anthony R. Gross, 23, is charged with arson and being an accessory to murder because, authorities allege, he helped Ryan and Titus dispose of the body.
This Anthony Gross claims he had no idea why the Jaguar was set on fire, that he took Titus to the spot and for reasons unknown to him, Titus torched the vehicle while Gross watched.
Not that setting fire to a Jaguar isn’t an odd thing but according to Gross, he and Titus never discussed the matter on the way home.
Astute Woman Saves Child from More Horror
Below this story is a tale of a dead child. A dead child in a home monitored by social service authorities. Below is a story about one woman who followed her gut instinct and brought two child sexual abusers to justice.
From NBC News:
A woman’s hunch exposes child abuse
Chance encounter at a convenience store results in two arrests
By Ron Mott
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:34 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2006ATLANTA - It was a gut feeling Tracie Dean couldn't shake. At a rural Alabama convenience store 11 days ago, Dean had a chance encounter with a seemingly troubled little girl.
“I bet you that no one has ever spoken that kindly to that little girl, because she just ate it up,” Dean says. “And I think she just really decided I'm going home with her.”
Dean says the girl tried to follow her out of the store, but then an older man stepped up. Dean felt uneasy enough to scribble down the license plate as the two pulled away.
“My suspicion was that she didn't belong with that man,” Dean says.
So, Dean called 911. Police told her everything checked out — it was the girl's grandfather. So she returned home to Atlanta, but for some reason, she couldn't let it go.
“Every morning I woke up and thought about it. Every night I went to bed and thought about it,” she recalls. “And I just told my sister, ‘When my heart says to let this go, I'll let it go.’”
For a week she checked missing-kids Web sites, called several law enforcement agencies and even contacted the television show “America's Most Wanted.” She says no one took her seriously.
It turns out there was a reason for suspicion.
“Mr. Wiley initially and still is wanted in California for arson,” says Tracy Hawsey, the sheriff of Conecuh County, Ala.
John Wiley and his 40-year-old wife, Glenna Faye Cavender, were arrested and charged with multiple sex crimes against the 3-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy found in a trailer.
“A 3-year-old girl to have this done to her is unthinkable, and we're not going to tolerate it,” says Tommy Chapman, the district attorney for Conecuh County.
Tracie Dean's not a mother, but says she has the instincts of one.
“I just followed my heart,” she says. “That's the bottom line.”
And her hunch saved two children.
© 2006 MSNBC Interactive
This Child Not So Lucky
The 4 year old in the story below too had other people concerned about his welfare. Only the people paid to check on such things declared the home “to be in order”. Neighbors reported this same family even earlier in the year when the children had been left alone.
Child Dies in Bronx, Raising Concerns Anew
By TOM HAYS
NEW YORK (AP) - A 4-year-old boy found unconscious in a squalid Bronx apartment visited previously by police and social workers died Monday while the city's child welfare agency was still trying to explain another youngster's death three weeks ago.
Investigators were questioning 4-year-old Quachon Brown's mother and her boyfriend.
Late last year, caseworkers had visited the apartment where Quachon and his siblings lived and deemed it ``to be in order,'' agency head John Mattingly said.
The agency investigated the home based on a Nov. 15 complaint from the school of one of Quachon's siblings, who range in age from 5 months to 11, Mattingly said. The nature of the complaint was not disclosed.
Also, police said they had gone to Quachon's home last June after neighbors reported that children there had been left there alone. The mother claimed the children's grandmother had agreed to care for them so she could go to Atlantic City, N.J.
On Monday, police found Quachon unconscious. The apartment was grimy, with a broken window, no heat and no food in the refrigerator. Quachon and four other children were found without clothes, sleeping in the same bedroom, police said.
The mother told investigators that a television fell on the boy on Sunday and that he began vomiting the next day, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The medical examiner said results of an autopsy were pending. But there was preliminary evidence that the child had a fractured skull, a damaged liver and atrophied leg muscles, a police official said.
The child welfare agency underwent a shake-up after the Jan. 11 death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown, who was allegedly tortured, abused and beaten by her stepfather. Reports of her suffering had been made to several agencies, including schools, police and child welfare.
Her death followed recent homicides of three other children known to the agency.
This lovely mother reports that her son had a television set fall on him. Little Quachon had a fractured skull, a damaged liver and atrophied leg muscles. No television did that damage.
The other children were found without clothes, there was no food in the refrigerator, there was no heat. How on earth is this environment considered “in order” by people trained to deduce this kind of thing?
There’s also the problem about other child deaths when the social service agency failed to detect a problem even after numerous reports to schools, police and child welfare.
Why are these people collecting a paycheck?
Female Postal Worker Kills Six, Then Shoots Herself
Although this story indicates five people shot, later information revealed on Greta indicated another shooting considered part of this former postal worker’s deadly rampage.
It’s a story almost flying completely under the radar. At least five, maybe six, people dead. The shooter was obviously disturbed, having already been put on medical leave for psychological problems.
GOLETA, Calif. — A former postal worker who had been put on medical leave for psychological problems shot five people to death at a huge mail-processing center and then killed herself in what was believed to be the nation's deadliest workplace shooting ever carried out by a woman.
The attack Monday night was also the biggest bloodbath at a U.S. postal installation since a massacre 20 years ago helped give rise to the term "going postal."
Finishing With Two Strange True Crimes
From Yahoo News we get this rather hilarious tale of a man stopped for drunk driving. Rather cleverly, the fellow pretended to be an acquaintance. Only the acquaintance had a glass eye.
When police discovered this little fact, they shone a flashlight in his eye. At which point the man’s pupil obediently responded by contracting. Something glass eyeballs do not do. When asked what happened to his glass eye, the drunk driver responded that he used to have a glass eye but didn’t need it any more.
Maybe he had an eyeball transplant?
BERLIN (Reuters) - Officers soon saw through a German driver who posed as an acquaintance when he was stopped for drunk driving -- he forgot his alter ego had a glass eye, police said Tuesday.
Below, a fellow crashes into a house. An inconvenience, evidently. So what’s the driver do? He gets out of the car and passes out sound asleep in the homeowner’s bed!
From WSBTV.com:
Car Crashes Into House; Driver Lands In BedDULUTH -- Police say a drunk driver crashed into a Duluth home early this morning, then made himself at home, falling asleep in the homeowners bed.
The crash caused serious damage when the car ended up in the middle of the home at 3021 Cardinal Lake Drive.
One person was asleep upstairs at the time of the crash, but was unhurt.
After checking to see what had happened Jun Park told police he found the driver of the car sound asleep in his bed.
"He's crazy," said Park.
Police took the driver into custody.
More True Crime Updates HERE
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Two Sites-One Serious, One Whimsical
Why pay the mighty phone companies for a service one can find easily on the web? Below, one such site which will provide the same service as the 411 service but for no charge. Click on the picture to enter the site.
Below, a whimsical puzzle. Click and place the pieces. When done, sit back and enjoy a cute show for your effort.
Click on the picture to enter site.
More Web Notables HERE
1 comment:
Entwistle home for a dinner party. They sawsbo
sbo
lights on inside the house and could hear a television. Alarmed that the party had been
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