Husband To Attend Slain Kin's Funeral?

Authorities expect one relative to be notably absent Wednesday morning at the funeral for a mother and her 9-month-old daughter found shot to death in their Hopkinton, Mass. home: the husband and father.

Massachusetts authorities investigating the slayings said they assume Neil Entwistle will not attend the Mass at St. Peter's Church in suburban Plymouth, Mass.

The 27-year-old native of England has been called a "person of interest" by police investigating the deaths of his wife, Rachel Entwistle, 27, and their 9-month-old daughter, Lillian. Authorities have not labeled him a suspect.

Entwistle flew to his native England around the same time that the two were shot to death, but authorities have not publicly pinpointed an exact time of death. Rachel and Lillian Entwistle's bodies were found side-by-side in bed on Jan. 22.

On Tuesday, Entwistle left his parents' home in Worksop, north of London, for an unknown destination. It was the first time he emerged in front of reporters since he arrived in England, says Christina Hager of CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston. Entwistle ignored reporters' questions as he and his parents drove away.

The office of Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley issued a statement Tuesday saying Massachusetts investigators "do not believe" Entwistle will attend the services.

He's believed to still be in England, Hager reports.

Rachel and Lillian will be buried in the same casket, says Hager. She adds that the same priest who presided over Lillian's christening, a close friend of Rachel's, will officiate at their funeral.

A few hundred people paid their respects at a wake Tuesday evening in Rachel's hometown of Kingston, Mass., arriving in small groups in a cold rain mixed with snow. Media were turned away from the funeral home but gathered nearby, across a busy road.

Coakley on Tuesday described the investigation as "very active.""Authorities continue to follow up on a number of leads on several different fronts, and are making consistent progress," she said.

Massachusetts authorities have been in contact with their counterparts in the United Kingdom as to Entwistle's whereabouts, Coakley said.

Entwistle went to the U.S. Embassy in London on Friday to meet with Massachusetts investigators. Police said they drove him to the embassy from his parents' home, but it was unclear what information, if any, Entwistle provided to investigators. There were reports he wasn't cooperative.

In Hopkinton, Police Chief Tom Irvin defended his officers, who did not look under blankets on a bed for the bodies of the mother and baby when they conducted a well-being check on Jan. 21. It wasn't until a day later, after family and friends also had gone into the home that police checked the house a second time and found the bodies.

Irvin told the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham that such "well-being checks" are not the intensive searches some people may imagine, and there was no sign anything was wrong at the home.

"I think, given the same set of circumstances next week, I would have expected the officers to do nothing different," Irvin said.