The Chesire Murders: The Petit Family | Murdered at First Sight | Forensic Files

Jen and Bill were such awesome parents. They located to Cheshire and decided to raise their girls there and I think had
like a beautiful life there. My aunt was Jennifer Pettit and my cousins were Haley and Michaela.
I think my earliest memory is being at their house in Connecticut. Michaela was just like my very best
friend. Haley would make sure we were all like kept in line. It couldn't be more like siblings when
we were all together. On July 22nd, 2007, I was sitting here and my sister had given me a call. She was at the beach.
When I picked up the phone, I said, "So, how are you?" And she said, "I'm great.
There's not a cloud in the sky. It is the most beautiful blue sky. It is just the most perfect day.
There's your emergency. >> I'm the banking center manager at Bank of America. We have a lady who is in our
bank right now who says her husband and children are being held at their house. Her name Jennifer Pettit.
>> We clearly have a fire fatality. I know that there's bodies inside, but how many
deaths are we looking at? The activities at the home took the police by surprise.
>> None of those officers had ever encountered a scene like they encountered inside that house. It was
pretty clear right from the beginning that this was going to be a terrible story.
>> For this to occur to this family is the worst thing most people could ever imagine.
It was outrage that these guys could do something this horrendous to wipe out an
innocent family. >> They were wonderful human beings. And we lost a lot in losing these three women.
>> These women did everything that they were told to do. So it was hard. >> This was a all-American family living in
a beautiful suburban town. And then horror came to their house. >> I miss all of the future that we had,
like the the future memories, the future fun events. My mom should have gotten to
be with my aunt. And I feel so sad that she doesn't get to have that. >> I don't know how anyone can do this.
Like, you're not human to me if you do things like this. [Music] [Music] This one's when the girls came to visit
us and Jen and Uncle Billy and we had I believe it was an anniversary dinner party for our parents
and the four of you are standing on the stairwell here and then you're up in the bonus room on
this brightly colored floral couch we had. >> You probably picked out our outfits.
Would you like chat with her about like I'm going to dress her in this and you're going to dress her in that? Like
they coordinate well. Did you guys pre-plan things like that? >> I think we always just made sure we
thought you had cute clothes on. [Music] >> This is the one where they're out catching fireflies and we're standing on
the porch. My like first clear memory is like playing with fireflies and catching them
with all of them in my grandparents front yard in Pennsylvania and it was really sweet.
[Music] As a Methodist minister's family, you tend to move around a lot. I feel like Jen and I were a lot closer
because we always knew we'd be there for each other. As an older sibling, she was constantly
giving me advice and she had a lot of finesse about how to dress, how to wear her hair, what looked pretty.
I think Jen was very caring about other people and their feelings. I feel like that's kind of what guided her into
being interested in becoming a nurse. She was working at children's hospital in Pittsburgh. And she said, "I'm going
to go out with this guy. He's in med school here. His name is Bill. He's taking me to a place downtown called
Tramps." And I was like, "Wait, I got to get this." Like, you're going out with a
guy named Bill and he's taking you to like a nightclub named Tramps. I was like, "I don't know, Jen. this guy
just doesn't sound good to me. Like he just might be a loser. She went out with him and she had a really good time. And
it was just a success story after that. When they got pregnant with Haley, I couldn't wait for it because I'd never
had a child. When I first met Haley, I could see how Jen and Bill just loved her so much.
I just loved rocking her when she was a newborn. And I think I loved her like she was my own.
After Jennifer had Haley, two years later, I was pregnant with Evan. And then 2 years after I had my daughter
Lydia. 2 years later, Jen had Michaela. They started to just call her KK or KK Rose
Bud. >> Hi. Show me what you have there. Can you show me in the morning before you go how you ride the zipline
so nicely? KK was super softspoken, but I think she went out of her way to look out for other people. She would be
the person that would look around and be like, "Oh, you're by yourself. I'm going
to make sure that you're included." She was just like my little best friend. [Music]
There wasn't anything Haley wasn't good at. She was like classic older child. I never got to have an older sister and I
never got to have a younger sister. And that's what it felt like when we were all together.
Hi. >> I had to get you on video before you go home. >> Lydia, did you have fun with your
cousins? >> You liked sleeping with that one? You girls had a big slumber party in here,
huh? >> Yep. [Music] The last time that I saw Haley, Michaela, and Auntie Jen, all of us went
to our boat in Carolina Beach. And we just spent every day like sun up to sun down at the beach. And it's the
same beach that my mom grew up going to with Auntie Jen. Haley would make sure we were all kept
in line and like everyone had sunscreen on and we were all ready to go and play.
And my brother would always want to go off and do some sporty thing. Her and Evan could just like hang. She could
like rough and tough with any of the boys. I'm sure she could kick his butt like up and down in every sport. So, it
was I feel like he had a best friend there, too. I was sitting here and my sister had
given me a call. She said, "It was so fun when Haley and Michaela and I all came down and visited your boat. like we
really want to come back and bring Billy. >> I'd been texting back and forth with
Michaela excited about it and calling her about it. We kept kind of going between all of us and the more excited I
could get Michaela, the more she would then go to her mom and be like, "We're so excited. We're going to make sure
this happens." I remember hanging up and being like, "Okay, talk tomorrow. Love you." Like
just real fast. Like things weren't done. Like our conversations weren't over. Um but that was it. Like Yeah.
[Music] In 2007, Cheshire was the kind of town where people would feel comfortable if
they didn't lock their doors. >> Cheshire is one of those places that felt like it was picture perfect. Like
you just couldn't imagine that you weren't safe. Was there crime there? Yes. But it was typically very low-level type
things. I cannot recall in my 39 years of being a prosecutor, you know, this something like this never
happens there. It just doesn't. [Music] There's your emergency. >> I'm the banking center manager at Bank
of America. We have a lady who is in our bank right now who says her husband and
children are being held at their house. Her name Jennifer Pettit. >> The 911 call was from the bank manager
and I think the police didn't really understand what it was. It took them 5 minutes to respond to the
bank. And in that time frame, Jennifer left the bank, got in the car, and they drove back to the house.
The police arrived uh shortly after receiving the call from the bank teller. They surrounded the house in different
locations. Approximately 5 to 10 minutes later, they observed some flames coming
from the house. I got a call from one of my co-workers and she said, "Just wanted you to know
we have a report of a house fire in Cheshire. It sounds pretty bad." By the time I got there, I knew very
clearly this was far more than just a house fire. At the time, I was a reporter at the
Harford Current and I got a phone call from a state police source that this was going to be a bad case. over the
scanner. You could hear that they were trying to get in because they knew there were people in there.
>> It was difficult for anybody to know where to turn first. >> We had people running down there, you
know, photographers and reporters running down to the scene. So, it was a pretty hectic situation.
[Music] I'm watching them desperately trying to get in the doors and they can't. That
tells me there is somebody still inside. They would not be so frantic to get in if they were not trying to save a life.
Then we start hearing smatterings of they've got people they're putting in handcuffs.
>> The police had arrested two people leaving the scene at a high rate of speed.
There was a roadblock. They tried to smash through the road block and didn't succeed. And they were arrested at
gunpoint while the fire was burning. >> As reporters, we're all just beginning to get bits and pieces of information.
Things changed very fast, not just for us, but for all of the first responders. Neighbors are telling me they think at
least some of the family members were still in the house. But then another neighbor said to me that an ambulance
was in the area of the back of the Pettit house and that Dr. Pettit came out of the basement and they're not sure
what that was all about. >> Mercy, are you please? Yes. I got Bill Pett here who hurt my neighbor. The
neighbor at first didn't recognize him. He was screaming for help. He had multiple head injuries that were
bleeding. His hands were bleeding. His wrists were bleeding. When they they got him to the hospital, they determined he
had lost almost seven pints of blood. From the information that we were given, Dr. Pettit had fallen asleep in the sun
room watching TV. In the middle of the night, he woke up, found himself being struck by hard
object in the head numerous times. Uh, he began bleeding profusely. It was in his eyes. He couldn't see, but he could
make out there were two people. He had heard a voice saying, "If he moves, shoot him. Put a couple of bullets in
him." He was led downstairs into the basement. His hands and ankles were bound with plastic zip ties. He was tied
up to a support uh pole. During the 6 hours or so that they were in the house, police believe he was
unconscious because of the beating. [Music] I was only 13 when everything happened.
My mom was trying to convince me to do some kind of math worksheet or something and I remember trying to distract her by
being like, "Well, why don't we call into Jen?" And then our home phone rang and it was my uncle's sister.
I remember handing my mom the phone and before she picked up the phone, she said, "Something happened to the girls."
cuz I'm thinking in my mind like why would you be calling me like you never call me? You would only call me if they
can't. Something must be wrong. And I said, "Are they dead?" And she said, "How did you know?"
She said, "Well, there were these two men and they like came into their home in the night. They like broke in somehow
through the basement, tied the girls to their beds, and they beat Billy really badly." And I was like, "You mean he's
still alive?" And she said, "Well, for now, I remember going out on my deck and just
thinking, "Oh my goodness, like I have to call my parents and I have to tell them that not just their daughter whom
they love dearly is dead, but their two grandchildren are also gone." And I just screamed, this
guttural scream. [Music] >> I sat next to her as she told my grandparents what had happened to their
daughter and their grandkids. [Music] That's tough. [Music] I remember when we got to Connecticut,
we were staying with my uncle's sister. It just felt like this like terrible movie that we were in.
I had fears of being in public. I thought, if two men could do this, how do we know we're not in the company
of people that can do other horrible things to us? We went on to see Billy in the hospital
because it was really all we wanted to do was just to like see him. I remember going to the hospital and
seeing my uncle for the first time and just being like, I cannot believe that he's alive. Like touching and holding my
hand like I can't believe you look like that and you're responding and you're alive. Like that was a miracle in
itself. seeing him there laying in that bed and hearing him saying, "I'm so sorry. Like,
it's me and not her laying here. I know you would rather wish it would be her and not me." And I was like, "No, Billy,
don't think like that. We wish it could have been all of you. But at least you're here."
>> It was clear that he was having a very, very difficult time dealing with what
happened. And that's understandable. I mean, he's lost everything. >> They said he'd lost so many pints of
blood that he really shouldn't have lived. >> The two people arrested were Steven
Hayes and Joshua Cerjeski. Both of them had extensive criminal records. Hayes had a raft of petty larsenies and
burglaries. The last one that had put him in prison was for breaking into a home through a window. Joshua Thomaseski
was 26 at the time. >> He was known to the Cheshire Police Department as someone who was a problem.
>> He prided himself on breaking into people's houses at night and literally watching them sleep.
>> It gave him a feeling of superiority over others. and he liked that feeling of power. He had been sentenced to a
significant sentence in jail. >> Thomas Ojeski and Hayes had been released early from prison. So
technically both of them still should have been in jail when this occurred. >> Once released, they both met up at a
halfway house and decided that they were going to hang out together and commit crime.
These guys had broken in and brutally murdered this family. It could have been any house in any suburb in Connecticut
where this happened and people were freaked out. [Music] Commerce Ojeski and Steven Hayes did
confess to certain aspects of the crime. They both fully admitted, "Hey, look, I'm a burglar. I broke into the house.
We were planning to steal money." Both of their stories was, "Well, it was the other guy who started the fire. He's the
one who killed these people, and it was never supposed to get that far. [Music] They broke into the house at 3:00 a.m.,
hit Dr. pet it with a bat, tied them up in the basement, tied up all the girls in their bedrooms.
The perpetrators found a bank statement, and it was at that point they directed Mrs. Pettit that she was to go to the
bank and withdraw the $15,000. Jennifer Pettit went to the bank with Steven Hayes and she managed to pass a
note to the teller saying, "My family is being held hostage. Call the police." Steven told Mrs. Pettit that if she did
anything to alert a teller that they would kill her children and her husband. So even with that very credible threat
being laid, she still took the risk to try to save her family. >> I think she looked distraught. I know
she probably had the fear of what was happening to the girls back at the house on her mind. I don't know
if she knew what was going on with Billy because he was kind of absent and in the basement.
Dr. Pettit also provided us with some new information concerning the event >> right at the time when Jennifer and
Steven Hayes returned from the bank. >> Dr. Pettit heard like a thud as he described it. It sounded like a
body or something hitting the floor above him. Dr. Dr. Pettit really didn't know what
was going on upstairs. He didn't know. He also heard a voice saying, "Don't worry, it'll be over in a few minutes."
>> Jennifer was killed in the living room right above where he was tied up. So that's part of what he heard.
>> It was at that point when he realized he needed to do something and he had to get
out of there. As a medical doctor, he knew the extreme amount of blood he had lost that his
blood pressure was actually lowered as a result. He was trying to take steps such
as standing up just to raise his blood pressure enough that he had a hope of getting help for his wife and children.
>> He was able to break free and he ran out the back bulkhead that the two guys had
come in, which was still open. He could barely stand up or walk. He literally log rolled to a neighbor's
house. >> Back upstairs, they started spreading the gasoline around the living room, on
the stairs, into bedrooms, and then lit the fire as they were running out of the
house. >> They were running at the same time that Jennifer had just been murdered. And
Bill is out the back door. And it's all happening at once, but the girls were still alive.
[Music] >> To think that these young girls were restrained and having gasoline poured in
their bedrooms knowing that eventually someone's going to light a fire. I I I can't imagine what that was like.
[Music] [Music] So these are Wet and Wild. The four of you on laying on a towel.
>> That's so cute. And this one you all went to get cotton candy. So you're stuffing your mouths
with cotton candy. Look at her face. >> She's so happy. Michaela was a lot of fun. She always
like had this cute little smirky grin that I could relate to. What do we have in here? two sleeping
cousins. >> Haley was so strong, so smart, all of the like perfect first child things.
[Music] Haley was just like brilliant and was just like insane at athletics. >> She was definitely on a path to
something greater and to think that that was all cut short was just so sad. [Music]
I wanted to go to their home because I wanted to see that it was all real and it did all happen. The outside didn't
portray really what happened inside the home. >> Going into that house is not something
I'll ever forget. Upon going into the front door, you were confronted with just a black charred mess
and the smell of smoke and burnt material. It's all you could smell. The most disturbing of all though was
going up those stairs because we knew when we went in there that two young girls had died on that
second floor. And that was very hard to uh to deal with. It was quite evident that there had been
accelerants poured. You could see the pore patterns on the floor. >> The police literally tracked the
gasoline that was left up the stairwell into the rooms of the two girls. This leaves a very different mark than if
there was just a regular fire occurring. So they could actually see the exact pathway the fire took.
There were ties still attached to the beds. >> Haley was able to untie herself and like
she got out of her like restraints and instead of going to leave, she went to go try to untie Michaela.
It was clear that she was running to her sister's room when she was overcome by the fire and the smoke and her body was
found at the top of the stairs, not too far from the entrance to Michaela's room. Michaela never was able to get
free. >> I'm sure Haley was trying to figure out a way to get Michaela out of her
bindings and she would never have left that home without her little sister. Haley was just 17 years old and Michaela
was only 11. These two offenders had no intention of leaving these victims alive.
Going into the house, as difficult as it was, it was a necessary thing. The two people arrested had given
versions of what happened and it was necessary to go into the house to see whether or not the evidence that was
found in the house matched up with what they were telling police. >> Police wanted there to be no ambiguity
on this. They wanted as much physical and forensic evidence to make sure they were both found guilty in court.
There are a number of feelings that go through your head when you go to a crime scene such as this.
Anger, frustration that it couldn't have been stopped, and sadness of the tragedy that
the community had lost three vibrant young women. Uh yeah, I had a family [Music]
Yeah, it was hard. When you have a young daughter who's the same age as the younger victim here, it
kind of hits home. [Music] When the memorial service happened, Bill had been in the hospital still and so we
didn't know if doctors were going to release him to even come. I remember seeing Billy before he came
to the church. We observed a doctor removing the stitches from his head. I just remember thinking,
he's so black and blue. watching my uncle leave the hospital and sitting behind him and like still seeing
all like the stitches and like the open wounds in his head and like it's unreal to picture that he was like, "Okay, like
I have to be there for my family now." >> I remember when I saw Billy get up to speak just thinking, "Oh my gosh, like
he's really getting up. He's going to do this." I couldn't believe it. >> There was a collective gasp in the room.
He talks about Michaela as like the kid that would go out of her way to like take care of the FLKs and he like
explained it as like funny looking kid. KK was just showing those like little things that she was going to be a great
human. He was immensely proud of his daughters and I think he relished every moment
with them. I remembered him talking about Haley and just like how strong and athletic she
was and how close she was to her dad was really special. I wanted someone to love me the way that
he like loved my aunt. He was talking about her like she was glowing. It was very clear that his family was
the center of his world, that Jennifer was his best friend. His general message was when you leave here, remember who
they were and let that guide you to do things in their memory that exhibits their kindness and their compassion and
their excitement for life. You know, it was a message of this was a horrible thing, but this
cannot be how we remember them. We have to remember who they really were. If we can keep doing the good that they
would have, then that's the best that we can do. [Music] Because this was a death penalty case,
it took several years for them to actually go to trial. The trials were held in New Haven's Puria Court.
Each of them were blaming the other for basically escalating the event which led
to the murders and so they had to be tried separately. >> Hayes went to trial on September 13th,
2010. >> Steven Hayes was tried on 17 counts. Those involved assault charges, kidnapping,
home invasion, and felony murder. as well as arson murder. >> Commiy went on trial about a year later
in September of 2011. Joshua Commer Jesi was tried for the same crimes as Steven Hayes.
[Music] It was clear that the case really started the night before when Joshua Okamajeski happened to go to the stop
shop at the same time as Michaela and Jennifer to get supplies to make some pasta dinner.
>> Kasujeski saw Michaela in the grocery store and immediately took a liking to her.
>> He had a weird infatuation with young girls. He followed him home and watched
the house for a bit and then called Hayes and told him to come down to Cheshure that they were going to make a
big score. He sexually assaulted Michaela after hours of having her be tied up. This, I
think, was the primary goal. The robbery was actually just a an additional thing
that they were able to get out of this horrific crime. The sexual assault on Michaela took
place while he had sent Hayes and Mrs. Pettit to the bank. When Steven Hayes got back from the bank with Mrs. Pettit,
Thomas kept pressuring him. I assaulted the girl. Now you have to assault the mother. Steven Hayes did uh strangle her
to death after sexually assaulting her. They were intent on getting rid of whatever evidence could connect them to
those sexual assaults and that was a big reason for the fire to cover up their culpability.
There was accelerant on both of the defendants on their footwear on their pants and so forth.
As far as we were concerned, they were both entered up to their eyeballs. I think some people never heard autopsy
results before, especially involving a crime. It's always hard. >> Haley and Michaela Pettit both had died
from smoke inhilation. They had also suffered burns from the fire having direct contact with the flames.
>> I think one thing that did seemed to really strike people was that Haley had managed to get free and make it to the
top of the stairs before she collapsed. She'd fought so hard to save Michaela and just didn't quite make it.
There was extensive accelerants that were poured on that stairway. That clearly showed the intention of the
perpetrators was to make sure that no one was going to be able to escape down the stairway.
Jennifer's body had been extensively burned, which appears to be an effort to destroy evidence of a sexual assault.
Despite the fact that it was said numerous times by these defendants that there was no intent to do that, they did
it. It's kind of a an explanation that doesn't really make much sense. There were 12 jurors in total. They all
had to agree unanimously that the defendant was guilty. They found Steven Hayes guilty of 16
charges. He was found not guilty of the arson. >> And that's because the jury was not
convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he's the one that set the match that lit
the fire that started the arson. >> But they felt that the death penalty was the appropriate penalty.
>> Joshua was convicted on all 17 counts and sentenced to death. I was satisfied with the verdicts. I
thought justice was done. >> Not long after Joshua was convicted, Connecticut did decide to eliminate the
death penalty. And so their cases were commuted into a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of
parole, which means they will die in jail. >> Three young women are gone and it's a
loss. It's a big loss to the community. It was a big loss to the family. It's just unfortunate that they never had the
opportunity to do the good things that they were destined to do. Uh, and that's tragic.
[Music] When we finally did get the 911 records and the dispatch, it showed that police
were outside the house for roughly 26 minutes. how that could have changed the trajectory of this horrific case. I'm
sure that just weighs on the rest of the family members. Did it have to happen like this?
There were no blinds and no curtains on my sister's windows. How could they not have seen what was going on there? You
could have just looked in and seen that my sister was like already laying there.
But at least you could have saved the girls. they were outside their house and they
should have done something. I can't like harp on that because it destroys me, but
that stuff matters. When people are taken hostage and there's a intruder in a home, the police
are always concerned. Is this person armed? Will they just shoot and kill the hostages immediately?
A lot of illogical thinking happens and that's what police are afraid of and they take extra precautions to make sure
that they're protecting the lives of these victims so these terrible outcomes don't occur. However,
there are rules that allow police to deviate from that because they think there is imminent danger or time is of
the essence. There's a crime ongoing and if they don't do it immediately then in
fact lives or evidence could be lost. But in this small town where they hardly ever experienced this, they probably
weren't that well verssed in these types of rules. >> The fire was lit right before the
defendants fled the scene. So certainly had the police gone in there before the fire was lit, good chance the girls
would have been saved. But it's very difficult when you're presented with a situation and you
simply don't have all the facts to make a decision that could end up costing people's lives.
The police afterwards felt terrible. They might have been saved. The pettit women and unfortunately it didn't turn
out that way. [Music] Billy, my brother-in-law, was like, "What would you do with that property if
you were me?" I'm like, "That house just needs to be taken down. Nobody wants to
try to refurbish a house where that awful thing happened." >> He turned it into a memorial garden for
them and people in the community helped tend it and it is beautiful. After the verdicts, I felt we should go.
Yeah. And uh it was kind of like to get some closure for myself. It's uh a peaceful place. I think it's a
place that people go to remember the family that lived there [Music] to remember the pet the Pettit girls and
Mrs. Pettit and uh kind of reflect on their lives. They were extraordinary people and so uh
they'll always be in my thoughts. Cheshure carries this. It was a tremendously traumatic event. They'd
never had anything like this and haven't had anything like it since then. [Music]
I still do feel like I'm lucky that I have such special people to grieve. And I think that all comes from like
watching my mom handle it because she lost everybody. Like it felt like she was like left behind kind of. and she
met it with grace. >> At my daughter's wedding, she was given very small charm that I keep on the
mirror in my car and it had like a picture of the three girls in the middle of it. It was wrapped with a ribbon at
the bottom of my daughter's bouquet. So, we felt like walking down the aisle, the
girls were right there with her. [Music] Who's getting ready to go home? >> We can have a great time.
>> Hey, what'd you get? Back seat book. [Music] >> Go Santi Chen back for Connecticut.
Bye. >> Bye. Bye-bye. >> This past summer, we finally like buried my aunt's ashes. Like, it took this long
because my grandparents wish was like them to all be buried together. And I like got to hold my husband's hand
through all of that and be like, he got to see, I guess, that side of everything.
And that was my like full circle moment where like I got to show Sullivan where I grew up and made all these memories
with my cousins and we got to catch the fireflies and like do all of the things.
The positive things that I think of when I see my daughter with her son are things like what a great mother my
sister was to her daughters and what a good family they had and how they worked very hard at trying to educate their
daughters to make them be the best people they could be. >> It's been so long since I've gotten to
like have them and be around them and like listen to them laugh. I love I always get called like a mini
Jennifer. I thought she was like this perfect beautiful human. I just wanted to be
her. Like I love that we match and look similar, but like I would have loved the comparison now.
Like I would have loved to get to stand next to her and take those pictures. Yeah.
[Music] [Music]

11-year-old Michaela and her mother are unwittingly targeted at a supermarket by two strangers, culminating in their horrific deaths.

Murdered At First Sight is a true crime documentary series that tells the first-hand stories of the most complex and hard-to-solve homicide cases: murders committed by strangers.

Brief Summary

The Pettit family tragedy reveals the horror of a home invasion that led to the deaths of Jennifer and her daughters in Cheshire, Connecticut.

Key points

A Beautiful Life in Cheshire. Jen and Bill created a loving home for their daughters in Cheshire.
The Emergency Call. A bank manager calls 911, revealing a family in peril.
The Tragic Turn. A horrific scene unfolds as police discover a fire and fatalities.
A Mother's Last Act. Jennifer Pettit risks everything to save her family during a hostage situation.
Haley's Last Effort. Haley fought to save her sister Michaela, ultimately succumbing to the fire herself.
The Tragic Loss of the Pettit Family. Three young women lost their lives in a horrific crime, leaving a community devastated.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It couldn't be more like siblings when we were all together.

Reflecting on family bonds.

1:00WatchSep 21, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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