GUILTY MA - Beth Lochtefeld, 44, stabbed to death, Nantucket, 25 Oct 2004

[lisafremont]

Here's a tragic story that has unfolded this past week.

She was an entrepreneur who lived in Manhattan and sold her business for big bucks and moved to Nantucket. He was a disgraced Wall Street whiz once busted for trying to smuggle a pricey bust out of an antiques show.

They met over Labor Day weekend and had a whirlwind romance. But then things soured and she wanted out. He held her captive overnight in his West Side apartment. But when he dozed, she escaped and ran to her bungalow in Nantucket. He followed.

And now she is dead, stabbed to death in her beach home. He was arrested for DWI in Rhode Island and awaits extradition to Massachusetts.

Here's an article in today's NY TIMES:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/nyregion/01nantucket.html?pagewanted=all

 

[deputylinda]

this brings to mind Christa Worthington, probably just the locales, Christa was in Truro. but it is haunting.

 

[lisafremont]

this brings to mind Christa Worthington, probably just the locales, Christa was in Truro. but it is haunting.

But isn't Christa's murder unsolved? There's a big dif.

 

[deputylinda]

yes it is unsolved, but Cape authorities do have suspect. i hope they are closing in. i only meant it was reminiscent for me somehow.

 

[Richard]

Every Woman's Nightmare

Elizabeth Lochtefeld thought she had met the man of her dreams. Now he stands accused of her vicious killing

In early October Elizabeth Lochtefeld ran into a friend at a charity concert on Nantucket. A longtime summer visitor to the exclusive island off the coast of Massachusetts, Lochtefeld, 44, had recently moved there from New York City, where she had been a successful entrepreneur. The spirited Lochtefeld had never married, but now she proudly introduced her handsome new boyfriend, Thomas Toolan, 37. "I could see the love in her eyes," says the friend, Gene Mahon, a photographer who met Toolan that night. "I was happy for her."

Three weeks later, on Oct. 25, Lochtefeld lay stabbed to death on the living room floor of the tiny cedar-shingled cottage she rented on Nantucket. Several hours later on a highway in Rhode Island, police nabbed Toolan, a financial executive, who will be charged with the murder as soon as he is returned to Massachusetts. It is the first murder on the island in more than 20 years. What emerged over the next few days, according to police and friends of the victim, was a cautionary tale of how a search for Mr. Right can go disastrously wrong. "This is absolutely shocking," says Lauren Ettinger, a bartender at American Seasons, a Nantucket restaurant that Lochtefeld often visited. "You don't think something like this is going to happen to her, a strong, bright female."

Link:
http://people.aol.com/people/ataol/articles/0,19736,750106,00.html

 

[lisafremont]

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/31752.htm

BIG APPLE FAREWELL FOR NANTUCKET GAL

by Jennifer Fermino

The heartbroken family and friends of a murdered Nantucket woman are gathering in Manhattan today to honor the slain self-made entrepreneur.
The memorial service for Beth Lochtefeld, whose jilted ex-lover is accused of brutally murdering her, is being held at St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue and 50th Street at 3 p.m.

The successful businesswoman, who left New York City to be near her family on Nantucket, was slain in her cottage Oct. 25, days after ending her relationship with former Wall Street exec Tom Toolan.....

 

[Lemonade]

I bought the latest issue of People Magazine just to read this article. Sad, sad, sad. She was uncomfortable with his reaction to her recent visit to see him in NY to end the relationship. She feared the worst and inquired at her local police station about a protective order, but her request was not granted. She had also boxed up all personal belongings of the accused and gone to mail the package. She told the PO clerk she was returning things to her former boyfriend, and I believe she said he was a psycho. She spoke to her neighbor, told her she was to pick up her nephew at school at 1:00. When her neighbor noticed her car was still in the drivewayat 1:00 she became suspicious, but had not heard a struggle. Beth had already been murdered in her cottage.

Boyfriend was detained in NY airport for knife in posession, relinquished the knife and continued his trip to murder his former girlfriend. He then purchased a new knife upon arrival.

Beth sounded like a wonderful person. She had a prosperous business in NY and sold her part to her partners because she wanted to get out of the rat race. She moved to Nantucket to be with her family, mother, father and brother. She had never married and had no children.

My heart goes out to this family. Such a tragic loss of life.

 

[redheadedsister]

Ya know how you watch America's Most Wanted and you always wonder what it would be like to actually see someone you knew profiled? Well, that happened to me with this week's People Magazine. I totally freaked out when I realized that the guy who murdered Beth was Tom Toolan, was the very same Tom Toolan I knew and worked with about 9 years ago at Prudential Securities in Atlanta and then also at Smith Barney until I left to go to another firm! Tom was hired as a rookie broker at Pru and he never was accepted by any of his peers because he was such a jerk. He was handsome, tall and a GQ dresser, but he had a over inflated sense of himself and bragged constantly about his sexual conquests and how smart he was etc. He had no idea how to relate to other people on a personal level. He had this underlying "smarm factor" The guys used to call him "The Tool" behind his back. I remember he tried to boss me around once and I put him in his place since I had about 20 years experience on him. I remember standing there and he was so so angry, but he never said a word. He just stared down at me with these dark dark eyes and I got scared (and anyone who knows me knows I don't scary easily). He creeped me out. I remember feeling that he was dangerous and scary. That was at Pru. Later, at Smith Barney (he quit Pru and started to work at Smith Barney) he asked if I would be his Sales Assistant, but I told him he didn't make enough money to compensate me (because of my experience I only worked with the top producers and he keep pestering me.) I finally had to go to the manager to call him off. Then I left about 3 months later for a better job. Words can not describe the chills I had when I saw his face on the cover of that magazine. I am totally freaked out. This world is too small. Creepy story, but I had to share. Be careful out there.....you never know.

 

[Jade]

Welcome to Websleuths Redheaded sister.
Gosh that really gives us some insight into this case! I was wondering what would have made him take such a drastic step over a breakup from a relationship that was not long in duration. What do you want to bet that Beth put him in his place before she took off?

 

[redheadedsister]

That's the problem.....he refuses to be "put in his place". He feels that he is just so great, so smart, so good looking that he can't handle (nor believe) rejection. He has something really radically wrong about him that scares women away. That is why he is so hell bent on "consuming" someone. He can't really relate, so when a woman is taken in by the obvious outside attributes (and he IS good looking and CAN be charming) then gets to glimpse the REAL Tom Toolan they run away. It's really sad that no one ever made him go to therapy or saw that he had problems. He wasn't a monster, just really troubled. Now he IS a monster and who knows, maybe could have been saved and therefore Beth could have been saved. Ahh, who knows. Shoulda Coulda Woulda. It's just so sad.

 

[bbmcrae]

Hi Redheadedsister-

Thanks for sharing your personal experience and insights about this scary guy. There seems to be a general sense of entitlement with truly frightening people like this, the sense that they are superior to everyone and deserving of everything they want. It's a personality disorder that runs deep and may not be fixable, to my (limited) understanding. This poor woman had the bad luck to cross paths with him. He should never be released. He is truly dangerous IMHO.

One thing that clicked while I read about this case was how everyone described him as "normal" and "pleasant" (as friends and neighbors always seem to) but then I read how he once tried to steal an expensive statue or vase from an auction by hiding it under his coat. A truly bizarre bit of behavior and not what "normal" people do.

BBMc

 

[newsfan101]

The murder trial of Tom Toolan has started. They are in the jury selection phase right now. Toolan's attorney has vowed to try to get a change of venue, and is using a jury consultant.

 

[nanandjim]

The murder trial of Tom Toolan has started. They are in the jury selection phase right now. Toolan's attorney has vowed to try to get a change of venue, and is using a jury consultant.

Isn't he also using the "insanity" defense.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

23 Knife Wounds in Nantucket Murder


Thomas Toolan Was Drinking Heavily and 'Very Depressed' the Night Before the Murder, a Friend Testified


The night before he allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Lochtefeld 23 times in a little cottage on Nantucket Island, Thomas Toolan was drinking heavily and "very depressed," according to testimony of one of Toolan's friends.
Toolan called an old friend from rehab, Patrick Keegan, that night, apparently from a bar, and allegedly asked him to call Lochtefeld and try to "straighten things out" between the two of them, Keegan said.

More: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3269194

 

[Belinda]

May 9, 2010

By Jason Graziadei
I&M Senior Writer

Thomas Toolan III was convicted of first-degree murder one year ago and sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Now his attorney, Kevin Reddington, wants a new trial and the opportunity to interview the 12 jurors who decided Toolan’s fate last June on Nantucket.

Reddington, of Brockton, Mass., has filed motions in Nantucket Superior Court seeking both a new trial, and a post-verdict inquiry of the jurors. The text of the motions has not yet been released by court personnel, so it is unclear what grounds Reddington has based his motions on, but Judge Richard Connon, who presided over the trial last year, will have to rule on whether to allow the motions to proceed.

snip

Since his conviction, Toolan has been incarcerated at the Cedar Junction state prison in Walpole, Mass.

Much more at link:
http://www.ack.net/062608Toolan.html

Not that it makes much difference, but Vinelink says he is housed at Souza-Baranowski Correctional.

 

[Moreack]

Update.?

http://www.ack.net/ToolanAppeal031011.html

Can/will this appeal change anything?

 

[joe jones]

Update.?

http://www.ack.net/ToolanAppeal031011.html

Can/will this appeal change anything?

highly unlikely, if it was raised during the trial, and the Judge addressed it during the trial

if the only thing they are focusing on is a sleepy jury then the rest of the evidence must be rock solid so I guess Mr Toolan will be staying where he is

 

[LiveLaughLuv]

Every Woman's Nightmare

Elizabeth Lochtefeld thought she had met the man of her dreams. Now he stands accused of her vicious killing

In early October Elizabeth Lochtefeld ran into a friend at a charity concert on Nantucket. A longtime summer visitor to the exclusive island off the coast of Massachusetts, Lochtefeld, 44, had recently moved there from New York City, where she had been a successful entrepreneur. The spirited Lochtefeld had never married, but now she proudly introduced her handsome new boyfriend, Thomas Toolan, 37. "I could see the love in her eyes," says the friend, Gene Mahon, a photographer who met Toolan that night. "I was happy for her."

Three weeks later, on Oct. 25, Lochtefeld lay stabbed to death on the living room floor of the tiny cedar-shingled cottage she rented on Nantucket. Several hours later on a highway in Rhode Island, police nabbed Toolan, a financial executive, who will be charged with the murder as soon as he is returned to Massachusetts. It is the first murder on the island in more than 20 years. What emerged over the next few days, according to police and friends of the victim, was a cautionary tale of how a search for Mr. Right can go disastrously wrong. "This is absolutely shocking," says Lauren Ettinger, a bartender at American Seasons, a Nantucket restaurant that Lochtefeld often visited. "You don't think something like this is going to happen to her, a strong, bright female."

Link:
http://people.aol.com/people/ataol/articles/0,19736,750106,00.html

I just watched this weekend, I believe on the ID channel...the police stopped him cold, with a bloody shirt in his vehicle. They have him right where he needs to be. Imagine this outrage because he proposed to her and she needed time to think about it. She had seen an ugly side of him and wasn't sure this is the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with...He was, in his mind, rejected and the end result was her death...JMHO

Justice will prevail

 

[fhc]

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130602/NEWS/306020324

By HEATHER WYSOCKI
hwysocki@capecodonline.com
June 02, 2013


It has been more than eight years since Elizabeth "Beth" Lochtefeld's body was found in her tree-shrouded Nantucket cottage; about as long since her alleged killer, Thomas Toolan III, was put behind bars; and almost six years to the day since his trial, where he was found guilty.

But now it will be mere days before the saga again plays out in a courtroom.

TIMELINE

Oct. 25, 2004: Nantucket police find Elizabeth Lochtefeld, 44, stabbed to death inside her island condominium. Thomas E. Toolan III, then 37, of New York City is arrested a few hours later as he drives along I-95 near Hope Valley, R.I. in a rented car. Days earlier, Lochtefeld broke off a relationship with Toolan.
Nov. 22, 2004: Toolan is arraigned on murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in Nantucket District Court. He pleads innocent.
Jan. 10, 2005: Toolan is indicted for the first murder on the island in two decades. He pleads not guilty in February and is held in jail without bail.
June 4, 2007-June 21, 2007: Toolan's trial in Nantucket Superior Court is held, including four days of jury selection and seven days of testimony. He is found guilty of first-degree murder and assault and battery.
Sept. 28, 2009: Nantucket Superior Court Judge Richard Connon, who sentenced Toolan to life in prison, denies Toolan's request for a new trial. Toolan continues to appeal to the state Supreme Judicial Court.
Aug. 23, 2011: The SJC overturns Toolan's murder conviction, finding that Connon did not do enough during jury selection to ensure publicity surrounding the trial didn't influence jurors.
January 2013: A new trial is scheduled to begin the first week in June in Barnstable Superior Court, a different venue than the first trial.
After a Supreme Judicial Court overturned the conviction in 2011, Toolan's first-degree murder trial is scheduled to begin — again — this week.

A specific day is dependent on defense attorney Robert Sheketoff finishing another off-Cape case. This time the case will be heard in Barnstable Superior Court rather than on Nantucket.

 

[BunnyHop]

Jury selection is set to begin next week in the retrial of former New York banking executive Thomas Toolan III for the 2004 murder of Nantucket resident Elizabeth “Beth” Lochtefeld. Originally set to begin Monday, the start of the new trial has been put off until at least Wednesday, as Toolan's defense attorney, Robert Sheketoff, is still involved in another trial.

http://www.ack.net/ToolanretrialbeginsMonday053013.htm

In 2011, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court overturned Toolan's 2007 murder conviction, citing flaws in the jury selection process and pretrial publicity, and remanded the case for a new trial.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130115/NEWS11/130119828/-1/rss04