Posted on 10/26/2004 8:00:41 PM PDT by islander-11
A 37-year-old New York City man is being held in Rhode Island in connection with the alleged murder of Elizabeth Lochtefeld, 44, at her Hawthorne Lane home Monday.
Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe and Nantucket Police Chief William Pittman announced at 11 a.m. Tuesday that an arrest warrant for murder and a fugitive from justice warrant had been filed in Rhode Island to hold Thomas E. Toolan, 37, of 412 West End Ave. in Manhattan, N.Y. in connection with Lochtefeld’s death. Toolan and Lochtefeld had been in a brief relationship, O’Keefe said.
Lochtefeld’s body was discovered Monday afternoon by Nantucket Police officers conducting a well-being check at her home following a call from a concerned neighbor who was unable to contact her. O’Keefe said the cause of death was "sharp force injury consistent with a knife," and the death was being investigated as a homicide. A full autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities believe Toolan traveled to and from Nantucket Monday by plane via Hyannis. Rhode Island police said Toolan was stopped for drunk driving in Hopkinton, R.I. Monday afternoon, and that investigators from the Massachusetts State Police were at the Rhode Island State Police Barracks in Hope Valley, R.I. Monday night.
Action is underway to return Toolan to Massachusetts for arraignment on a murder charge, O’Keefe said. First District Attorney Michael Trudeau said Tuesday that Toolan must first be arraigned in Rhode Island on the fugitive from justice charge before he can be brought back to Massachusetts for an arraignment on the murder charge. Depending on whether he waives rendition (extradition), Trudeau said, Toolan’s return from Rhode Island could be delayed.
Toolan was arraigned in Rhode Island on the suspicion of drunk driving charge Tuesday.
“It’s too soon to tell,” Trudeau said. “We’re still going through the process right now. If he waives rendition, he will be brought back to Massachusetts sooner rather than later. If he chooses not to waive rendition, then we have to get a governor’s warrant and have him brought back to Massachusetts on that and it would take longer.”
Trudeau added that Toolan would ultimately be arraigned in Nantucket District Court, a hearing that could take place either on Nantucket or in Barnstable depending on when court is in session in those locations.
“Beth feared for her personal safety,” said Lochtefeld’s brother, Peter Lochtefeld, who is acting as a spokesman for the family. “She had recently broken off a relationship with him (Toolan). She returned to Nantucket a couple days ago. She spent the next couple days with relatives because she didn’t know if he was going to come after her. She went home Monday during the day.”
Peter Lochtefeld added that he got a message from his sister’s landlord on Monday who said that a man had stopped by the house and was asking questions about Elizabeth, after which he called the police to relay that information. He also said his sister had asked Nantucket police about applying for a restraining order against Toolan, but that she had decided against it.
Pittman said that officers discovered the body inside Lochtefeld’s home at 1A Hawthorne Lane off Hummock Pond Road, at 1 p.m. Monday.
Lochtefeld’s cousin, Eric Lochtefeld, was traveling from the West Coast Tuesday to be with the family on Nantucket.
He said it was his understanding that Toolan became violent and may have held Lochtefeld against her will in New York City on Friday night, but that she was able to escape on Saturday and came to the island to be with family members. “Somehow he must have hunted her down and killed her,” Eric Lochtefeld said.
“A friend had introduced her (to Toolan) on Labor Day and they were falling in love, as I understood it. Being 44 and single, and thinking she had met the man she was going to marry, she was very excited. But something happened in the last week that changed things so that she wanted to slow things down and be patient. My understanding is that on Friday night, everything went awry.”
Lochtefeld graduated from the Universlty of Notre Dame in 1982 and went on to become a successful entrepenuer in New York City. She founded CODE, Inc., an architectural consulting firm based in New York and guided the business into a multimillion dollar organization during her 15 years as president. In 1995 Lochtefeld was named president of Grove House, Inc., a cooperative housing corporation in Greenwich Village. She was also active in her cousin Eric’s company, University of Dreams, a summer internship program for college students, doing consulting on best practices, financial and legal aspects, as well as assiting with the identification of new corporate clients. In April 2002, Lochtefeld sold her interest in CODE, Inc. to her associates, and last spring moved to Nantucket and became active in the island’s arts community. Her father, John Lochtefeld, is a printmaker and painter who owns a studio-gallery on Fair Street.
In January 2001, Toolan was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after attempting to steal a 60-pound marble head worth $80,000 from a Roman statue at an antique show on Park Avenue in Manhattan. Toolan’s lawyer described her client’s action as a "prank."
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday the charges later were reduced to disorderly conduct. Toolan pleaded guilty on Jan. 10, 2002 and was sentenced that same day to 10 days of community service.
At the time of the attempted theft, according to American Banker magazine, Toolan was an executive with Citigroup’s AST Stock Plan, which provided Citigroup clients with stock option execution and administrative services. Information wasn’t immediately available Tuesday from Citigroup on whether Toolan was an employee of the company as of Monday.
Multiple police vehicles belonging to the Nantucket Police Department, the State Police, as well as several unmarked vehicles were present at the scene most of the afternoon and into the early evening Monday. One officer was stationed at the entrance to Hawthorne Lane and was requesting identification from residents and others attempting to travel down the dirt road. State and local police had roped off the driveway of Lochtefeld’s Hawthorne Lane home with yellow police tape and what appeared to be a forensics team entered the home around 3:30 p.m. Judith Moran, who has lived on Hawthorne Lane for 30 years, said that she did not know Lochtefeld and had not seen anything suspicious on the day she was killed.
“It’s a terrible shock,” Moran said. “She hadn’t been living here very long, and I didn’t even know her name. This is the kind of neighborhood where houses are very far apart and you can’t see your neighbor from your house. I was worried about someone running around and breaking into people’s houses. Nothing like this has ever happened here before.”
The last homicide to occur on Nantucket took place in 1983. Following a trial, Robert Aguiar was convicted of killing David King by a Nantucket jury.
Check out www.ack.net and this week’s Inquirer and Mirror for more on this developing story. Inquirer and Mirror staff writer James Kinsella contributed to this report.
I once knew a girl from Nantucket.
This guy killed his girlfriend by a knife. MUCH nastier.
These are the crimes that occur when we actually begin to believe that we have bought some safety. Had a family behind me in FAL that had committed multiple crimes, We thought we were safe too. Thank the Democrats, they let the skunks out everywhere, it's equal opportunity Mayhem.
This guy killed his girlfriend by a knife. MUCH nastier.
Not necessarily. The jury could have been all girls from Nantucket.
Sad story. Woman devotes life to career; decides to settle down in midlife; picks a loser; ends up dead.
New to Nantucket, but not to the rest of the world.
I guess the Kennedys never go to Nantucket?
TommyDale asks: I guess the Kennedys never go to Nantucket?
Unfortunately, they do. Joe Kennedy managed to cripple one for life in a car accident in the 1970's...
Uncle Teddy is often heard spouting, "Do you know who I am?"
Round up the usual Kennedys...I mean suspects.
OK who's going to write a limerick about this?
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