BOSTON - A Briton at the center of a probe into the murder of his wife and infant daughter in their Massachusetts home was arrested by British police on Thursday and charged with murder, Massachusetts authorities said.
Neil Entwistle, 27, was taken into custody in Britain and charged with the murders of his wife and daughter, and illegal possession of a firearm and gun, said a spokeswoman for Middlesex County District Attorney Martha Coakley.
His wife, 27-year-old Rachel Souza Entwistle, and 9-month-old daughter Lillian Rose were found dead on January 22 under layers of bedding in the master bedroom at their home in Hopkinton, about 30 miles west of Boston.
Both had been shot with a small-caliber gun.
Coakley plans a 10 a.m. (1500 GMT) news conference on Entwistle's arrest in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her spokeswoman said.
Entwistle will appear before London's Bow Street Magistrates court on an extradition warrant either later on Thursday or Friday, British police said in a statement. He is being held in custody at a London police station.
Entwistle aroused suspicions after flying to his native England around the estimated time of the murders. He was identified by Coakley as a "person of interest" in the case, someone whom Massachusetts police wanted to question.
But on the advice of his attorney he rebuffed Massachusetts detectives who flew to London to interview him.
The case is drawing intense attention on prime-time television news and local talk radio, as broadcasters and callers ruminate over what went wrong in the home of a seemingly happy couple in a quiet, affluent neighborhood.
Entwistle, a computer engineer and Internet entrepreneur, has stayed at his family home in Worksop, England, and did not attend the funeral of his wife and daughter where Catholic priests and other speakers did not mention him.
Rachel met Neil Entwistle in England as a college student and married him in Plymouth in 2003. They had lived in Hopkinton for just 10 days before the murders. People found the killings particularly shocking because they appeared to be a happy couple and photographs posted on their personal Web site portrayed a family overjoyed with their new baby.
But Neil Entwistle's eBay business, in which he sold get-rich-quick schemes and how-to manuals for pornography sites, ran into trouble and was shut down by eBay days before the murder after customer complaints.
British media have speculated that the killings appeared to have been execution-style, with Rachel slain by bullets to the head and torso. There were no signs of a struggle or forced entry to the home.
From the Associated Press:BOSTON (AP) - Neil Entwistle, whose wife and infant daughter were found shot to death in their home, was arrested for their murders Thursday in Great Britain, the Middlesex District Attorney's office said.
Entwistle was arrested by British authorities and faces murder charges in Massachusetts, spokesman Emily LaGrassa said.
"He is in police custody in England at this time," LaGrassa said.
Rachel Entwistle, 27, and 9-month-old Lillian, were found shot to death in a bed in their home in Hopkinton on Jan. 22, killed by a small-caliber bullet.
A spokesman for Rachel Entwistle's family would not comment, but said they would release a statement later Thursday.
District Attorney Martha Coakley and Hopkinton Police Chief Thomas Irvin called a news conference for 10 a.m. ET Thursday to discuss the arrest.
Authorities have said Neil Entwistle, 27, left the country and returned to his native England around the time of the shootings, but have not given an exact timetable.
Massachusetts authorities flew to London late last month to interview Entwistle at the U.S. Embassy, but officials didn't say whether he answered any questions. He had been labeled a "person of interest" at that point but not a suspect.
Police searched the family's home the day before the bodies were discovered, but did not see anything wrong, authorities said.
Coakley has said that friends had showed up for a dinner party but no one answered the door, and that Rachel Entwistle's mother called police when she couldn't reach her daughter.
After a missing person's report was filed, police visited the home again. During the search, they detected an odor and discovered the bodies in the bedroom. Coakley has said the bodies were covered by bedding and "almost not visible."
Neil Entwistle met Rachel Souza in 1999 at the University of York, where she was spending a year abroad. They were married in 2003 and stayed in England until last year. Their daughter was born in April.
The family moved to Massachusetts, Rachel's homestate, last summer and rented a home in Hopkinton, a suburb of Boston, about 10 days before mother and daughter were found dead.
Relatives told investigators that the Entwistles did not have a history of marital problems. He was looking for a job in the technology field; she had been a teacher but also was not working.
