BOSTON (AP) – A native of England whose wife and daughter were found shot to death in their Hopkinton home left his parents’ home north of London on Tuesday for an unknown destination.

Massachusetts authorities investigating the deaths said they did not expect Neil Entwistle would attend the mother and daughter’s funeral Mass today in Plymouth.

Entwistle ignored reporters’ questions about his destination when he and his parents left their home in Worksop in a car.

The 27-year-old 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 referred to him as a suspect.

The office of Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley issued a statement Tuesday saying Massachusetts investigators “do not believe” Entwistle would attend the services. A wake was taking place Tuesday evening, and the pair were to be buried in nearby Kingston. Media were being turned away from the funeral home but were gathered outside as mourners arrived to pay their respects.

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.

Rachel and Lillian Entwistle were found shot to death in their Hopkinton home on Jan. 22. Their bodies were found side-by-side in bed. The couple had moved to the home just 10 days earlier.

Neil Entwistle left for England around the same time, and authorities have not been able to precisely say when his wife and daughter were killed.

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.

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.

AP-ES-01-31-06 1833EST