Rachel Entwistle�s family and friends remember her as �the essence of a loving mother� who would �light up a room with her smile, her laughter and her love of life�.

Wesley Johnson
Rachel Entwistle's family and friends remember her as "the essence of a loving mother" who would "light up a room with her smile, her laughter and her love of life".

Rachel, who was 27 when she was killed, was widely remembered as a young mother who gave her best to everyone she met and enjoyed a close relationship with her family.

"Everyone that became a friend of Rachel's became a very close friend," said family friend Joe Flaherty.

Born on December 14, 1978, in Kingston, Massachusetts, Rachel Elizabeth Souza graduated from the Silver Lake Regional High School in 1997 before studying at the College of the Holy Cross and moving to England as an overseas student at the University of York in 1999.

It was there, in the university's rowing club, that she met her future husband Neil, whom she married in August 2003.

Rachel taught English and drama at St Augustine's Catholic High School in Redditch, Worcestershire, for three years before the family headed to America.

Principal Yvonne Brennan said: "She was a vivacious, lovely young woman who was popular and respected. She took great pride in Lillian and frequently brought the baby in to show us."

The couple moved to the US in the summer of 2005 and lived with Rachel's mother Priscilla Matterazzo and her husband Joseph in Carver, Massachusetts, before moving into a colonial-style rented house in Hopkinton just 10 days before the murders.

When their bodies were found under the covers of the bed, Rachel was clutching her baby daughter protectively to her body.

Rachel's mother said her granddaughter had been a "very happy" baby.

Mrs Matterazzo told a newspaper in February 2006: "Rachel was a very happy person. She had worked hard, and her life was going in the direction she had hoped it would.

"She gave her best and expected the best from us. She never let us slide over things."

Rachel was the kind of person who "would light up a room with her smile, her laughter, and her love of life".