BREAKING NEWS
June 4 trial date set in Toolan murder case

Trial date is set in Toolan murder case

At a hearing this morning, Friday, Jan. 19, in Barnstable Superior Court, a date of June 4 was set for the murder trial of Thomas Toolan, III, charged in the Oct. 25, 2004 death of islander Elizabeth "Beth" Lochtefeld. The trial will be held on Nantucket unless an impartial jury is unattainable.

Toolan was arrested in Rhode Island the afternoon of the murder and has been held without bail in the Barnstable House of Correction since his arraignment and subsequent indictment by a Nantucket grand jury.

It is alleged that he flew to the island from Manhattan on Oct. 25, 2004, just days after Ms. Lochtefeld broke off her brief relationship with him, tracked her down at her Hawthorne Lane cottage and and fatally stabbed her.

The first week of this month, Judge Richard F. Connon, who is assigned to the case, denied all six of Toolan's attorney's motions to suppress evidence in the proceedings. He did not rule on a motion to change the trial venue because he wants to first see if a jury can successfully be chosen on Nantucket.