On the morning of July 23, 2007, Jennifer Hawke-Petit was captured on CCTV at a bank in Cheshire, Connecticut. She was alone, withdrawing $15,000 after telling staff her family was being held hostage at the Petit family home. A bank employee immediately called police to report the ongoing crime. These would be the last moments Jennifer was ever seen alive.
On the evening of July 22, 2007, Dr. William Petit was sitting on a porch chair at his family home in Cheshire, Connecticut. Two men, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, who had targeted the house after seeing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughter Michaela shopping earlier that day, approached. Komisarjevsky later admitted he had followed them home and chosen the house because it seemed affluent and easy to access.
After midnight, the two men entered the home through an unlocked basement door. They first encountered Dr. Petit asleep on the couch and bludgeoned him with a baseball bat, then tied him up in the basement.
They then proceeded upstairs, where they bound Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, in their bedrooms. Over the next several hours, the intruders searched for money and waited for banks to open.
In the morning, around 9 a.m., Hayes took Jennifer to a local bank. Jennifer entered alone and told the teller her family was being held hostage, asking for $15,000 to satisfy her captors. Steven Hayes waited outside in her vehicle. A bank employee discreetly called 911, reporting the hostage situation and providing details about the car.
Jennifer and Hayes returned to the house. Meanwhile, police arrived near the Petit residence and began surveillance but chose not to immediately intervene, hoping to avoid provoking violence inside.
Back at the house, the situation escalated. Hayes sexually assaulted Jennifer, and Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted 11-year-old Michaela. Hayes then strangled Jennifer to death. Gasoline was poured throughout the home, and the men set it on fire.
Dr. Petit, severely injured but conscious, managed to free himself and escape through the basement door to a neighbor’s yard to get help. Hayley and Michaela, still tied to their beds upstairs, died from smoke inhalation as the fire spread.
Hayes and Komisarjevsky attempted to flee the scene in the family’s vehicle but were quickly apprehended by police at the end of the driveway.
Steven Hayes was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to death, later changed to life without parole when Connecticut abolished the death penalty retroactively in 2015. Joshua Komisarjevsky was also convicted and sentenced to death in 2011; his sentence was similarly converted to life without parole.
Dr. William Petit survived but lost his entire immediate family. He later remarried and became an advocate for victims’ rights, founding the Petit Family Foundation in honor of his wife and daughters.
Since August 16, 2016, both Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky have been transferred from Connecticut to separate maximum-security prisons in Pennsylvania under an interstate corrections compact. This move was made for “reasons of safety and security”
Steven Hayes, now age 62, is incarcerated at SCI Benner Township, where in 2019 he publicly came out as transgender and is known to be receiving hormone therapy.
Joshua Komisarjevsky, age 44, is housed at SCI Mahanoy. He attempted suicide by hanging shortly after arriving in Pennsylvania.
Both men are held under extremely restrictive conditions. They are moved to a new cell at least every 90 days, their cells are searched twice weekly, and any movement out of cell is closely supervised
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.