The Cheshire Murders /// Part 1 /// 154 | Forensic Files

[Music] [Applause] thank you foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is the man that's been stuck in the upside down he
is the captain thank you thank you thank you it's good to be seen it's very good
to be seen after all the binging I did this weekend on Netflix and it's good to see you
foreign because today my friend we are drinking Lonesome boat man ale by the brilliant
guys and girls over outer light Brewing Company in Connecticut garage grade 4 out of five bottle caps Lonesome Boatman
ale is a Red Ale it's very complex Red Ale bready toasty and hoppy perfect for these colder months and Lonesome Boatman
ale was brought to us by first up we have Christopher in West Fork Arkansas and a big shout out to Lauren in
Syracuse New York and a big thank you to Celeste in Island Lake Illinois and a big wheel like yojib to Mike and
Chesterfield Michigan and to the beautiful people and Parts Unknown we want to thank Daniel Angela and Sharon
yeah but if they don't have their parts Unknown t-shirts they're kicked out okay
I'm locking the doors if you don't have a shirt and your ID badge and some at least some shoes on no open-toed sandals
spread and fungus you're kicked out of Parts Unknown alright get your shoes on and last but
not least all the way from the Gold Coast we have Paul and Pacific Pines Queensland Australia so cheers mates and
thanks to everybody for filling up the fridge for this week's show if you want to buy the captain around or you want to
buy the Nick around for next week's show go to True Crime garage.com and click on
the Donate button or maybe you want to buy the kernel around who's that anyway everybody gather round grab a chair grab
a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] and children are being held at their
house the people are in a car outside the bank she is getting fifteen thousand dollars to bring out to them that if the
police are told they will kill the children and the husband they have their faces covered she is petrified they told
us they wouldn't hurt anybody if she got back there with the money she believes him I think she's walking out now
foreign Jennifer Hawk was born in September of 1958. now in 1985 she met William Pettit
who was a third year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh he went by Bill we'll call him bill so bill was
tall he was a tall guy six foot four he played basketball in high school and his
freshman year in college before deciding to focus on his studies so the two men Jennifer a new nurse and Bill was on
pediatric rotation at Children's Hospital their first date this was a very casual one with dinner and drinks
Bill brought his parents along for the date well that's that's a move you don't normally see yeah not not a common thing
here I eat my parents I guess this was not a planned move um you know this wasn't Bill like trying
to take this this first date this early relationship immediately to the next level I guess Bill was from you know
even when he was a child but more so as an adult he was very close with his mother and father and too close some
said well to the point where they were like they were good friends right they would hang out together so bill is
getting ready to go out on this date getting ready to go pick up Jennifer and go to dinner when his father called and
just said casually you know hey what are you doing this evening and Bill Bill's like well I'm getting ready to go out uh
to dinner and have some drinks you want to join me and so it turns out that the four of
them have dinner and drinks together bill would later later say that this worked out very well for him uh because
his parents presence did not make Jennifer nervous at all um so everybody she had a great time
everybody had a great time and Bill's father insisted that he paid the check at the end of the night so Bill jokingly
says that that made Jennifer a cheap date they they pretty quickly Fell in Love Jennifer and Bill and would
eventually marry Jennifer and Bill they purchased a home in 1987. this was a corner lot on
sorghum Mill Drive in Cheshire Connecticut this is a quiet street and a quiet neighborhood you know the type of
street that not many travel down unless you live there unless you were visiting somebody that lived there you would not
drive down sorghum Mill Drive now this is a pretty ritzy area yes this would be an upper class uh town
and upper class neighborhood their daughter Haley was born just about two years later in 1989. their second
daughter Michaela was born in 1995. now sometime during this time period Jennifer Pettit was diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis Haley the older of the two daughters she was an active fundraiser for MS and
Michaela she loved to cook uh it was no secret that she loved to cook the grandparents she cooked with and for the
grandparents she cooked with and for her parents now basketball remained in Bill's life and became a part of his
family's life Bill held two season tickets to both the women's and men's University of Connecticut basketball
teams and he often took his daughters to the games now in 2007 Haley the oldest daughter
she graduated from Miss Porter's school and she was scheduled to attend Dartmouth College
Michaela attended Chase Collegiate School right so that's just a little bit of the background of this family
beautiful family smart individuals uh upper class Neighborhood Doctor nurse smart kids and that kind of brings us up
to 2007. yeah Haley was getting ready to go off to attend Dartmouth I would be lucky to be allowed to sweep the floors
at Dartmouth College they actually declined they turned me down for that um now our story takes place in the
summer of 2007 starting with Sunday July 22nd the Pettit family attended Cheshire
United Methodist Church on this Sunday like many others they went to the 9 30 a.m church service
um this it was just the three just three of the four family members though Bill Jennifer an 11 year old Michaela now
seventeen-year-old Haley as we had said who had just graduated high school she had stayed the weekend with some friends
you know everyone her age was spending much time together that summer before they all went off to college right
pretty typical after church the three members of the pet that family went home and Haley returned home from the weekend
with her friends it was a beautiful summer day bill and his father went to the country club to play a round of golf
Jennifer and the two girls piled into her van and drove off for an afternoon at the beach
that evening Jennifer called Bill to tell him that on the way home from the beach they had went to the Stop and Shop
grocery store this is a local grocery store and picked up some groceries Michaela as she did many nights wanted
to cook the family dinner with her mother's help so Jennifer was asking Bill to stop at a local farmers market
on his way home to pick up some fresh veggies to go with the meal bill got home and that night the Pettit
family had dinner together in the sun room of their home on that quiet street in Cheshire
after dinner Bill read the newspaper laying on a couch in the sun room the girls sat in the family room watching TV
and at 11 PM the girls turned off the TV they went upstairs to bed locking the doors and turning off the downstairs
lights Bill had fallen asleep on the couch in the sunroom with the newspaper on his
chest Michaela went and she got into bed with her mother and the two read a book
together now this brings us to Monday July 23rd it's sometime between 2 and 3 A.M bill
is not really sure what is going on he's not even sure if he is awake he can't see anything but he's being hit in the
head with a baseball bat he's in a lot of pain while he's on the couch when he can finally pull it together he
can see the black silhouette of two men standing in front of him one with an arm
reaching out to Bill and in his hand is a gun its Barrel is pointed at bill and the gun is right in front of Bill's face
the men tell Bill to get up and they tie his hands together first with zip ties and then with rope
they put some kind of cloth over Bill's head and then they force him to the floor
so again he cannot see then they tie his ankles again first with these zip ties and then with rope
they tell Bill that they are they're just here for the money right we're just here for the money and then we will
leave they asked bill but we just smashed your face and a baseball bat yeah they asked
Bill where uh the safe is Bill tells them that they they do not have a safe uh he can he can hear one of the men
walking out of the room and he hears that man tell the other if he moves put two bullets in him
one of the men goes upstairs where he finds Michaela still in her mother's bed uh he wakes them and he tells them the
same thing he told Bill that hey we are just here for the money he pulls Michaela out of the room and he
puts her into her room the men then cover the mother and the daughter's Faces by putting pillowcases over their
heads each is tied to their own bed the feet and wrist bound to the bedpost after this bill can hear the men
searching through his home at some point the men are once again standing over top
of Bill Bill by this point is really unsure of what time this could be uh bill has been beaten very badly uh so
badly that it's hard for him to say if he has lost Consciousness at any point anyway they cut the zip ties that are
around Bill's ankles well he he has you know three to four inch gaps in his skull
and he's bleeding pretty badly yeah he's been he's been hit in the the front and
the back of his head um and it's it's kind of even hard to say how many times he's been struck in
the head with this baseball bat yeah because his whole you know forehead is basically split open uh and so I mean he
could have been going in and out of Consciousness the whole time yeah they they cut the zip ties that are around
Bill's ankles uh they pull him up to his feet and then they Usher him to the kitchen and then down the basement steps
so the the basement steps are directly off of the kitchen here his hands are still tied together at this point and
his face is still covered the pettits the Pettit family their basement is unfinished
um so it's kind of easy for us to Picture This basement right you have a concrete floor cold concrete walls those
steel support posts in the center portions of the basement the men then remove the zip ties from Bill's wrist
they sit him down uh his back is up against one of those support posts in the basement then they put his arms
behind him and around the post and zip tie his wrist together once again they zip tie his ankles together and tie rope
around both his wrist and ankles and then they leave him um you know but before they leave him
they cover his face with like an old quilt that they found lying around in the basement yeah
um so once again bill can hear the men uh but he cannot see them so at this point he can hear them
rummaging through the home uh apparently looking for valuables uh they are opening up closet doors they're pulling
out drawers uh but they are finding very little Bill's trying to figure this whole thing
out he he gets the idea that he should start moving up and down on the pole he wants to create friction against the
rope and the zip ties that are on his wrist here's here's what he can figure out
right bill has no firearms uh in the home and he didn't have zip ties or rope in his
home so those items he could figure out that the men had brought with them the bat that the men used to beat bill
in the head he believed probably had belonged to him that they had found it someplace before they had attacked him
right at some point he can hear birds singing and chirping outside Bill knew that this meant that at that point it
would have been about 4 45 a.m in the morning he then hears something in the basement
click on this is the irrigation kicking on so he knows that the irrigation at his home comes on at 5 30 A.M remember
bill has lived here for about 20 years so even though he is he's in this concussed fog uh he's doing his best to
try to figure this whole strange and painful situation to which he he woke to he's trying to figure this thing out
right so he's doing his best to monitor the situation even though he is bound and
helpless in his own basement and by now he has lost a lot of blood and he's he's
very weak at this point well and also if anybody's been cuffed with you know ties before I mean that cuts your wrist
really bad so even though you're trying to create that friction to against the pole to release yourself you know it's
probably cutting up your wrist pretty bad well at some point he can hear his wife
speaking with the men this means Bill believes them to be in the kitchen as he could not hear them
before and the kitchen is the closest room to Bill now we said that the burglars had not
made the Big Score as they had thought I mean you gotta you gotta picture this situation like the captain said this is
a nice neighborhood this is an upper class neighborhood this is a big home it's a little bit beyond nice yeah so
when you view the home from the outside these guys are thinking oh there's diamonds and gold and stacks of cash
inside well if you look at a lot of the average houses in in Cheshire it's like it almost looks like somebody built a
house and then they build another house and then they connected them that's the normal size of houses there
you know what I find funny here and well not funny is not the right word but um maybe unique is is the better word
um Bill he's he's a very successful doctor right um he's he's considered like a specialist in diabetes especially
for the area his wife a nurse she may have have become a stay-at-home mom at some point I'm not I'm not certain
um and then we have the kids we have the kids who are very uh smart kids um and the thing is though even though they're
we have two very successful smart parents yeah they seem to me to be pretty modest and reasonable
people like they don't seem to be they're not living above their means they're not they don't they don't have a
bunch of fancy uh possessions right um the house is not extravagant um these seem to be very down to earth
uh successful people the house is still pretty big though it is it is a nice it's not but like I said the normal
house in Cheshire is like a house connected by another house and that would be your house and their house was
definitely modest compared to those well they do have the the well-manicured lawn
they have the you know the Nice Landscaping outside which I believe um Jennifer bill and the kids spent time
on those things together uh as far as the upkeep of their home um now so we had said that the burglars
had not made the big score that they were hoping for by this point the men had confiscated Bill's wallet and
Haley's wallet as well now Bill's wallet had no cat cash zero dollars in it right
uh Haley's the she's the oldest daughter had a hundred and three dollars uh cash
and a bunch of small gift cards to like local stores and shops um these she had received as presents
for her recent graduation um the two had also found a big ball a big jar of full of change and they had
emptied the jar into a bag so they could take it with them so a pretty pathetic score for these two house burglars
so we said that bill could hear his wife Jennifer speaking with the two men she is calmly and politely telling the men
that if they are going to go to the bank she would need to get her purse for her
identification and she would also need her husband's uh Bill's checkbook right so the burglars had ransacked the house
finding very little right but one thing they did find was a bank book and according to the bank book The petits
had an account with about thirty thousand dollars in it the two men had decided on a plan that at 9 00 a.m the
bank would open and after the bank is open one guy is going to drive Mrs Pettit to the bank where she will
withdraw fifteen thousand dollars and this is at what time um did they've come up with this plan
right um I do not know what time this is uh but it would would have been after 5 30
a.m when Bill heard the irrigation click on right so for whatever reason the two of these
guys that have broken into the home and terrorized this family they come up with
this number of fifteen thousand dollars that they're going to withdraw from the pettit's bank account with Miss Mrs
Pettit uh in tow when the bank opens up at 9 A.M meanwhile it's weird that you just want to have her withdraw the full
amount yeah I I don't know the reasoning behind that but meanwhile the other man
the plan is for the other man to stay behind at the pet at home so the two bad guys will have the ability to
communicate with each other via their cell phones if Mrs Pettit tries anything funny uh then the man left behind at the
home will kill her husband and two children so now the men and the Pettit family to
which they have taken captive they are just waiting for 9 A.M to happen in the meantime Bill hears his wife
leaving a message for Bill's nurse and assistant this message is just um Bill's wife Jennifer explaining that
bill is not feeling well right uh he won't be able to go into work to that day she will need to call and cancel all
of Bill's appointments Bill hearing this is hoping that this would be a red flag
I don't know that it would be but his his reasoning is you know he'd had this practice for many many years and he he
couldn't recall having called off before if he had ever been sick to the point of
canceling appointments it may have happened once uh so Bill hearing this is hoping this could be a potential red
flag that somebody on the outside might contact the home or call the home anyway uh one of the men goes out to
Bill pettit's garage there he finds some empty washer fluid jugs uh the man then
drives Jennifer Pettit she has a Chrysler Pacifica van right he drives this van to a nearby gas station the man
fills the two empty washer fluid jugs with gasoline ten dollars worth uh he does not put any gas in the van at all
he pays cash for the ten dollars worth of gas and then he drives back to the pet at home
twice throughout the night Bill heard remember he cannot see anything because they have covered his head but twice
throughout the night he heard someone come down the steps the pennants have a refrigerator in their basement
inside this refrigerator is mainly soda and beer well twice he had heard someone
come down the steps open up the fridge and crack open a can now Bill gets a little Hope from hearing this whole plan
of going to the bank um you know this is a bad idea yeah I mean here's he considers it to be a bit
of a dumb move by these men you know because they're going to have to go out into public with Jennifer
um you know so bill is hoping that this is an opportunity that the men could make a mistake maybe someone at the bank
can become aware that Jennifer is in trouble maybe the police get notified and are sent to the home
um but at some point he hears um what sounds like the man one of the men returning to the home and a little
bit later he now I'm guessing this is sometime near 9 A.M because Bill can hear what sounds to be like his wife and
one of the men leaving the home he's assuming that they're going to the bank right and that's exactly what's taking
place so as directed Jennifer walks into the Bank of America after she's driven there by one of the men in her own van
and her Chrysler Pacifica van this is their local branch of uh Bank of America she walks in there and she tries to
appear calm even though her family has been tied up and terrorized for hours and you know basically under the control
of these two Mad Men Who had broken into their home in the middle of the night so
Jennifer walks calmly into the bank and just like we all have before she weigh related for the next available teller
well when the teller comes over ask if she can help her with anything Jennifer requested a withdrawal of fifteen
thousand dollars which as a teller you kind of go whoa that's a big withdrawal yeah and the teller asked Jennifer for
identification Jennifer explained that she did not have any but she would still need to withdraw
the money the teller then tells Jennifer I need to see your ID and I will need your husband
to be present as well to approve a withdrawal of this amount that is when Jennifer as calm as she
could she explained to the teller that there are two men who have broken into my home and taken my family hostage
if she does not give them fifteen thousand dollars right away they are going to kill her daughters and her
husband yeah the teller then turned and went to the branch manager the teller whispered
um what she knew to the manager uh the manager approached Jennifer Pettit and asked her for ID Jennifer held her
pocketbook open showing that she had no identification with her she explained to
the manager that the two men had taken her ID cards and would not let her have them Jennifer then showed the manager
pictures of her two daughters and then told her how the men would kill them and her husband if she did not bring them
this money right away and then what does the manager do well the the Amanda the manager is supposed to assess the
situation as quickly as possible you know to figure out is this some kind of scam or is this is this somebody that's
in trouble right that we need to help out here so you would think that this Branch would actually know who the
petits were yeah I I didn't get that impression that they did but um but you know maybe Bill
didn't do his banking at the local branch maybe he went somewhere closer to work who knows yeah and the the thing
here is the manager basically says having seen the pictures of the two daughters and then the look on
Jennifer's face the look in her eyes she could tell something was not right for Jennifer that day and so she very
quickly approved the transaction uh the tele the teller started to process this transaction uh and eventually would give
Jennifer the money this is cash money uh meanwhile the manager called 9-1-1 and just as calmly as Jennifer had
walked into the bank uh she walked out she then walked out with the money we'll get right back into
this after this quick beer break not now [Music] all right cheers mates happy Halloween
happy Halloween so we have this situation where two men break into the Pettit family home in the middle of the
night probably between two and three a.m and we have four people in the home Bill
his wife his two daughters and they devised this plan because they don't find much of value in the home
they devise this plan that they're going to drive Mrs Pettit to the bank and they're going to have her withdraw
fifteen thousand dollars and if she returns to them with the money they say they're going to leave they will leave
her and her family uh after this action takes place well they take her to the bank and of course the bank surveillance
cameras they capture the transaction which shows Jennifer Pettit as she informed the teller as to her situation
as we had said the bank manager then called 9-1-1 reported the details to the police while Jennifer was still with the
teller the manager reported to the 911 dispatcher in real time as Jennifer left the bank and was then picked up by the
van driven by one of the men who had broken into her home the bank manager described the man and
described his clothing as he drove away with Jennifer well I described the car as well but a lot of people you know
have speculated why didn't Jennifer try to stay in the bank longer uh she was actually in there longer than
actually originally planned by the Invaders and so she she kind of she tried to give as much information as she
could and stay in there a little bit longer but you know you also have you you have that fear in the back of your
mind that you know if if I don't make this transaction quickly he's going to assume something's up and he he's One
Call Away or one text away from possibly my family being murdered yeah and we played the 911
of this episode this was Mary Lyons uh that did the 9-1-1 call she was the manager there she tells the 9-1-1
operator basically we have a lady in our bank that says her husband and children
are being held in their house the people who are waiting outside there are people
that are waiting for her outside of the bank in a car she's getting fifteen thousand dollars to bring to them if the
police are told they will kill her children and her husband they have their faces covered and she meaning Jennifer
is petrified they told her they would not hurt anyone if she gets back there with the money and Jennifer believes
them the Cheshire police responded to this 9-1-1 call by sending an unmarked car several unmarked cars in fact two
the pettit's neighborhood they began calling officers and sending marked cars to the neighborhood as well
the marked cars were to block off traffic in and out of the neighborhood once the police started to arrive on
scene they would establish and build a perimeter around the house this would be after they do a couple of
these drive-bys to see if they can gain any knowledge regarding the type of activity that may be going on inside
right um the how and of course uh the why and of course to see if they could learn
anything about the two perpetrators one they don't know if it's just two correct
they're they're told to but you don't know that and we we don't know how little you know even though Jennifer
told the bank teller and the manager what's going on we don't know how little she knows you know there's a situation
where it's a big home she's seen two people there could be other people in that home
well when they first do the uh drive-by when the police first do the drive-by in
the unmarked car they see that the Chrysler Pacifica van that was driven to the bank had already
returned to the house and it is in the driveway they can see no lights or activity in the windows of the home
right but their curtains aren't drawn you you can see into the house yeah and I actually
um we have a situation where I believe Jennifer's sister stated that um and this is how kind of modest the
petits were she said you know they had this big beautiful home and my sister didn't even really own any curtains
um didn't put curtains in the window um and so they see no lights they see no activity as the captain pointed out
there there's not a whole lot obstructing their View um we have the officer in charge uh he has
the telephone number for the Pettit house right and he also has cell phone numbers for the members of the Pettit
family but he has to go off of what information he has you know what has been reported
to them the men had threatened Mrs Pettit and her family but according to Mrs Pettit according to Jennifer they
had been nice uh also they were going to leave they were going to leave it once they got their money
um but the other information they had is that they would kill the family if the police had found out about the situation
right and keep in mind that this is a very small town Cheshire is pretty small I mean the population at this point is
well you know not well under but it's definitely under thirty thousand right so it's a pretty small community so what
kind of technology and what kind of training did this police force have yeah and these type of Hostage situations
they're not common you know and especially you would you would guess in a town of of that size that this may be
something they've not dealt with before and so basically that's what you're working with here you have the situation
where they've been nice the perpetrators have been nice they're going to leave once they get the money we know they
have the money but they're going to kill the family if the police finds out what's going on
so that's what you have to try to form a game plan with and the officer in charge
now he starts sending officers to position themselves he's sending them to positions in the wooded area behind the
Pettit family home right so let's go back into the house for a second here right because by now it's got to be near
10 a.m this is Bill guessing bill is still tied up to the steel support poll in his basement
he has been beaten in the head with that baseball bat his wrists are still bound
behind his back and around the pole yeah but let's not go with what he thinks I mean the call came into the police at 9
24. so um by the time they head back this is before 10 o'clock right um and he's still tied up with those zip
ties in the Rope we should point out that the zip ties are so tight around his wrist that they are actually slicing
into his skin right like I said before his feet are bound with the zip ties as well and the Rope the men who put them
there for some reason they put this cloth over his head obviously so he couldn't see but they've also thrown
some type of quilt over top of him as well so what he can see are really only Shadows throughout the night right and
at this point but they also oddly place down pillows because it's a hard concrete floor so again I think that's
some evidence that you know their motive is money and and not murder now they have uh he's lost a lot of blood like we
said from his head wounds bill has spent hours moving up and down on the pole and
twisting his wrist and His Hands hoping the friction and the twisting will eventually wear on the zip ties so he
can break free and like the captain said for some strange reason they put those cushions under him the cushions by this
point are now stained red with Bill's blood and Bill's eyes Sting from the blood and the sweat that are running
into them bill can hear noises from upstairs but he is unsure of what he is hearing here's some kind of some
thumping he says that it sounds like somebody was throwing you know like a a 20 pound bag of sand onto the ground
onto the floor above him he tries to yell out um and when he does he he then hears a
voice from the upstairs yelled back at him that says don't worry this will all be over in a couple of minutes
well Bill takes this to mean that the men terrorizing his family will soon shoot all four of them
and then leave them dead in their home Bill works hard and faster to try to weaken the restraints around his wrist
and arms finally after trying for hours the zip ties on his wrist they break and
the Rope comes loose Bill reaches down but he cannot break the plastic ties around his ankles
the pet at home on sorghum Mill Drive has two doors that lead to the basement one like we said at the top of the
flight of stairs which leads to the kitchen right the other is this it's a Cellar door that leads to the backyard
up to the Cellar Door is a a shorter flight of stairs bill is going to attempt to make it up these stairs and
out the Cellar Door and over to the neighbor's home hoping that he can notify the neighbor what's going on and
call 9-1-1 and notify the police bill goes over to the stairs and one step at a time he pulls himself up and
then pushes open the Cellar Door by this time it's raining outside he swings his legs onto the lawn and
then through a series of rolling and crawling he somehow makes his way this is just a little more than 50 feet away
from this door over to his neighbor's home um his neighbor Dave a Bill's still lying on the ground he
pounds on Dave's Garage Door after several attempts the door finally opens and there's Dave Dave has known
bill for like 18 years by this point remember we said Bill lived in the home for 20 years before this this incident
took place but but Dave looks at Bill and he cannot recognize him bill is so badly beaten and covered in blood that
Dave shouts at bill can I help you can I help you sir and Bill louder than Dave yells back Dave it's me Dave it's me
it's Bill it's Bill call 9-1-1 call 9-1-1 now remember by this time we have police officers that are stationed and
positioned all around the pet at home and throughout the neighborhood right so I assume some of these officers actually
saw a bill coming out of the house yeah yeah one of them who has been watching the pet at home I'm not sure if it was
one from the street or from behind a tree in the backyard of sorghum Mill Drive he approached
teaches the two men this being bill and his neighbor Dave he approaches the two men with his gun drawn aiming the gun at
the bloodied man bill on the ground and the officer the officer orders Bill to stay down
and then a second officer appears out of the rain one of the officers shouts at Bill who is in the house to which Bill
replies the girls the officer yells again who is in the house and Bill yells back the girls the girls are in the
house right and this I I think shows lack of training well very quickly after this this takes place
a call on the police radio reports that there is a man at the neighbor's home yelling and it's believed that the man
is from the Pettit house right now the officer in charge he stationed close to and and with a good view of the pet at
home he hears this call go out on his radio he's actually Reaching For His Radio to request more information
when he sees someone fleeing the pet at home running with a bag in his hand toward the van in the driveway
and another call goes out on the police radio announcing that the suspects are on the move the officer in charge then
sees a second man wearing a hat fleeing the home the younger thinner suspect gets in the driver's side and the older
heavier suspect gets in the passenger side of the vehicle the driver slams the vehicle into
reverse this is the Chrysler Pacifica van and the Pacifica goes flying backing out of
the Pettit driveway yeah and I would just want to be clear that this is the pettit's car yes Jennifer pettit's van
that was driven to the to the bank by the perpetrators now they're fleeing in her van as well but we have a couple
problems happening here so we have the suspects leaving in the pettit's vehicle we gotta stop them
but uh cops also heard screams from inside the house and also the house is now on fire yeah
um and I don't know that they that all of the the officers have recognized this by this point uh the officer in charge
says that he has not seen the fire he's kind of focusing on this van at this point which is right in front of him and
it violently backs out you know at a very high rate of speed backing out of the Pettit driveway and into one of the
officer's cars the police near the police vehicle they draw their guns and they aim them at the driver and
passenger of this van the driver slams the Pacifica into drive into drive mode squeals the tires and rushes from in
front of the driveway down the street at a very high rate of speed and takes the
corner ahead the officers can no longer see the Pacifica but they hear a loud crash the two suspects had crashed the
van into a parked into two parked police cruisers that had been set up to stop traffic going in and out of the
neighborhood both of the suspects are forced to the ground they're being asked by the officers who have guns on them
who they are or what was going on in the house who is in the house and then the officers take the two suspects into
custody they make arrests there and now they can focus on clearing the house at 10 15 a.m Bill pettit's mother
Barbara calls her husband this is Bill senior she tells him that the alarm company
from their son's house has called the smoke detectors triggered this call when no one at the home answered the
alarm company they then called the backup number listed right which was Bill's parents
Bill senior was already out and about that day he tried calling members of the family himself but he got their
voicemail greetings then since he was in the neighborhood he thought he would swing by Bill's medical
office he gets there and the nurse tells him that Jennifer had left a message that bill was sick and not coming into
work Bill senior then decides to go to the pet at home because their home is relatively close to Bill's medical
office so he wants to go to the home and check on the house and check on his son
as he gets near the home an ambulance and several police cars pass him going the opposite direction
he then sees what looks to be Jennifer's Chrysler Pacifica van crashed and smashed on the side of the road he can't
get too close to the house because the police have set up a roadblock right he tells one of the officers who he is you
know I'm I'm I'm Bill Pettit senior I'm I'm Bill's father and he tells them that
the crashed vehicle looks to be his daughter-in-law's vehicle and he needs to be let through
the officer explains that he will have to get someone to come over and speak with him
well while Bill senior Waits he's trying to piece this whole thing together why was Jennifer's van smashed and was
Jennifer okay and what did that have to do with the smoke alarm going off at the
home or his or his son being sick and missing work at this point the pettit's property I
mean it's just a it's a giant crime scene and it's chaotic well eventually an officer approached Bill senior
and explained to him that there has been a fire at the pettit's home he tells him
that your son is on his way to the hospital and there are three people deceased in the home
Bill Pettit senior calls his family members first his wife and then his daughter and tells them the terrible sad
news he struggles to get the words out um he has to tell them that his wife's son
Bill Jr and his daughter's brother is is near death and going to the hospital and all of the girls are dead
Bill Pettit Jr was rushed to the emergency room uh like we said he had been beaten very
badly beaten so badly in the face and head that his parents and sister when they arrived they didn't recognize him
he has bruises and cuts around his wrist and ankles and he has lost a lot of blood he's lost seven pints of blood but
he's lucky to be alive with losing that much blood and then also just the the gash that you know there he has some
gashes on the back of his head which you can't really see because of his hair obviously but it's um it's the gash on
the front of his face I mean it's you know I mean not to make lightly of it but when you think of somebody dressing
up you know a Halloween costume or something you know putting a big fake gash on their head that's what it looks
like yeah it's it's gruesome and it's big yeah and in pictures uh pictures of Bill shortly after this took place like
you said you can't really see the Damage Done to the top or the back of his head
but you can see where there's large portions of his hair that is missing um you can tell that from the front
pictures of him and the best best way to describe this wound to the front of his
head is it it basically runs from his hairline down to one of his eyebrows and it almost looks like somebody put a
zipper there right um and it's uh terrible terrible wound well and then like we said I mean with
these zip ties you know he was only Bound for you know a handful of hours but the
amount of damage and bruising they did to him is I mean it's pretty severe yeah and some of that he had to do to himself
to try to to eventually be able to weaken them to the point where he could escape from his own basement yeah and
then his wife's family is going to show up and I think one of the saddest things
reading was you know he loved his wife and his wife family shows up to see him in the
hospital and he's basically apologizing that he couldn't do any more to help that he didn't stop him that he left the
house and he wishes you know like we said there's two exits one outside the house to go get help to go to the
neighbor's house call 9-1-1 and the other option would have been to go upstairs and try to
attack these uh you and again you don't even know how many people I mean yeah two guys beat you up but you don't know
that there's only two guys and and he was apologizing to them and wishing he could have done more
I mean that would have been a sad sad situation yeah and her parents Jennifer's parents explained to Bill
that you do you don't have anything that you need to apologize to anybody for and we
are lucky just to have you and you know thinking about that situation of Bill being in the basement
you have to again it's a similar situation where you you have to think about the cops outside that are trying
to build this perimeter you can only go off of what very little information you know Bill doesn't know what's taking
place upstairs in his home he doesn't know that his home is being surrounded by the police that they've already been
notified right what he does know is this at one point there's a gun in his face he has no firearms on him he is you know
if they choose to use that gun he has no ability of Defending his family and secondly by this point he's lost
seven pints of blood he's extremely weak by this point this is a guy that that also suffered from low blood pressure
um and we know losing that amount of blood is going to cause that blood pressure to drop and drop and drop and
drop to dangerously low numbers right and like I was saying before it's he probably went in and out of
Consciousness multiple times and might not even realize that mm-hmm and by this point he's he's weak he's been beaten
upon the head he can't get the ties off around his ankles I think that that the thought here and
it has to be the thought here is that your best bet is to go and get some real help because what kind of real help is
Bill going to be able to offer other than that it once he got upstairs if he gets upstairs and he tries to defend his
family it's very easy for them to put one in his head put a bullet in his head and boom that that help ended right
there well and I think that's the big conundrum when it comes down to hostage situations anyways
you know do you fight back you know and does that cause more harm to yourself and to others or do you let
it play out and I think that's the question in every hostage situation I think that's a
question that the police have to face as well now remember Jennifer's van had been driven by the two men who had broke
into the home crashed into the two police cars that were blocking traffic and thankfully the police arrested those
men so now we have two guys in custody the police arrested Joshua Karma sajevski and he was the younger thinner
uh suspect that we said was fleeing from the house and Joshua was in his late 20s
back in 2007 a career criminal in and out of trouble for most of his adult life they also arrested Stephen Hayes he
was the older more heavy set one Stephen Hayes was almost 20 years older than Joshua
uh they arrested both those men on that day on Monday July 23rd now the damage that was done
um as the captain had said the home was very badly destroyed uh by this fire there was a fire that was set in several
rooms of the home we have Bill Pettit Jr who had survived this incident and sadly
his wife Jennifer and his daughters Haley and Michaela did not then the question becomes for the Pettit family
for the law enforcement for the community why did this happen and what actually happened and what is going to be the
punishment for these two individuals and what could have been done differently to
stop this type of situation [Music] all right we want to thank everybody for listening we want to thank you for
telling your friends about the show hopefully everybody has had a wonderful and safe and happy Halloween we have
much more to get to in tomorrow's episode The how and the why there's a lot of answers that we need here Captain
yeah and hopefully nobody found any razor blades in their Halloween candy all right Captain happy Halloween to you
to everybody out there until next time be good be kind and don't litter [Music] thank you
[Applause] [Music]

The Cheshire Murders /// Part 1 /// 154

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Two petty criminals met and became friends at a halfway house. This was to be part of rehabilitating both of these criminals with lengthy records back into society. After the friendship was formed the house burglar taught the car thief how to break into homes of well to do families. In July of 2007 the two men broke into the home of Dr. William Petit. Petit had lived at the home on Sorgham Mill drive in the quiet safe town of Cheshire, Connecticut for 20 years. At home with Dr. Petit that night was his wife and two daughters. The two men found Dr. Petit asleep on a couch in the sunroom. They beat him with a baseball bat. From there the two men went to ransack the house and terrorize the girls. This is the nightmarish true story of the Cheshire, Connecticut home invasion murders.Beer of the week - Lonesome Boatman Ale by Outer Light BrewingGarage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The Pettit family faces a tragic home invasion, leading to the deaths of Jennifer and her daughters while Bill survives to tell the story.

Key points

A Family's Background. The Pettit family is introduced, showcasing their life and struggles.
The Intrusion Begins. Bill wakes up to two men attacking him in his home.
The Plan Unfolds. The intruders devise a plan to extract money from the Pettits.
Jennifer's Bank Withdrawal. Jennifer Pettit walks into a bank under duress to withdraw $15,000 for her captors.
Bill's Escape Attempt. Bill Pettit manages to free himself and attempts to escape his captors to seek help.
Tragic News. Bill Pettit senior learns of the tragic events at his son's home, including fatalities.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a move you don't normally see.

Commenting on Bill bringing his parents on a first date.

4:25WatchNov 29, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.