In the evening of January 31, 2006, police in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, received a call from a very concerned mother. She identified herself as Priscilla Matterazzo and told them she had not heard from her daughter, 27-year-old Rachel Entwhistle, in two days, which was unusual from her. Rachel had just recently moved into a new house with her husband, Neil Entwhistle, and their infant daughter, Lillian. Priscilla had visited the Entwhistles’ home and knocked on the door; some lights were on inside and the family’s dog could be heard barking from the other side of the door, but nobody came to open it. When police arrived at the scene, they picked the lock of the front door and entered. They did a quick search around the house and found nothing unusual, except the family’s vehicle absent from the garage. Classical music could be heard playing from upstairs. The officers followed the source of the gentle melodies which led them into Lillian’s bedroom. There, they discovered the radio in which the music was playing from. Then they set foot in the master bedroom and found nothing but an unmade queen-sized bed. There was no sign of the married couple and their infant daughter. Police left the scene shortly thereafter.

The following day, Rachel’s mother and a few others went to the police station to file a missing persons report and investigators decided to conduct a second search of the Entwhistle home. This time, they would discover something disturbing that they had somehow missed the first time. When they re-entered the home, they detected a foul odor that wasn’t present the day before. The smell was coming from the master bedroom. When they pulled back the covers, they found the bodies of mother and baby. The infant girl had a tiny hole in her torso where she’d been shot. Rachel had no visible sign of injury, although the autopsy would reveal that she had been shot in the forehead. The same bullet that had pierced baby Lillian’s torso had also pierced Rachel’s left breast. The bullets were so tiny that it went totally undetected by police. 

In the midst of shock, confusion, and devastation, everyone shared one question: where was the husband? 

Police quickly came to find that Neil had already left the country and was back home in London with his parents. A trooper managed to reach Neil by phone and delivered the heartbreaking news that his wife and daughter were found murdered. To the trooper’s surprise, Neil admitted he was already aware. He then took the trooper through the events that unfolded that day. He claimed that he briefly left the home to run some errands and returned to find his wife and daughter dead. He did not check for breathing, nor a pulse. He simply pulled the covers over their bodies and immediately went to fetch a knife to kill himself, but couldn’t bring himself to do it, so instead he hopped in his car and drove to Rachel’s parents’ house to use their handgun to kill himself with instead, but nobody was home and the doors were locked. After a few hours, he purchased a one-way ticket to London so he could be with his parents. All this time, Neil said, it never once occurred to him that he should probably call 911. 

Forensic evidence would soon paint a much different version of events. The gun that was used to kill Rachel and Lillian belonged to Rachel’s stepfather. The DNA found on the gun’s handle belonged to Neil, despite how he’d claimed he had only touched the gun once, months ago. The knife he had apparently tried to kill himself with had gunshot residue on it, meaning that the knife was in close proximity while the murders had occurred. A search of Neil’s computer would also reveal that just days before the murders, he had looked at a website describing how to kill people and searched for escorts. Investigators believed that Neil didn’t drive all the way to Rachel’s parents’ home to retrieve the gun, rather to return the gun he had just used to annihilate his wife and daughter. 

When Mary was just 17-years-old, she met her future husband, Earl Myatt, while at a party: “It was one of those instant loves,” their son would later say. The young New Yorkers became immediately attached at the hip and formed a bond that would last for decades. They both worked at the same book shop for the community college and became doting parents and eventually doting grandparents.

After 42 years of blissful marriage, their seemingly perfect life began to fall apart when an aneurysm developed in Mary’s brain. She required multiple surgeries and was in and out of hospital but Earl remained by her side throughout. The aneurysm attacked Mary’s cognitive faculties and things that were once simple tasks, became daunting and confusing. Mary became unable to follow conversation and found it difficult to even go to the bathroom on her own. Seeing Mary’s quality of life deteriorate broke Earl’s heart and he knew that she couldn’t carry on living how she was and he couldn’t carry on living without her.