Cheshire Slayers Murder Jennifer Hawke-Petit and Her Two Daughters

(Cheshire, CT, July 23, 2007) Jennifer Hawke-Petit was finishing up her weekly shopping with her two daughters, Haley (17) and Michaela (11).  It was a weekly routine for her, and most of the items had been picked up in a half-aware daze as she watched her children bicker.  Still, despite going through the chore on auto-pilot, Jennifer did not have reason to take note as two men, one bulky and menacing and the other stringy followed her from the aisles to the cash register, and later in an van back to her home.  That night Jennifer made sure her children went to bed at an appropriate time and said good night to her husband and went to sleep herself, all with as much comfort as any other night.  Partway through the night, Michaela joined her in bed, having had a bad dream.  After falling asleep once more, Jennifer didn’t wake when the noises on the porch began around 2 a.m.

Jennifer was only awoken when the door opened and she saw the two men entering her own room.  Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky were both wearing black masks and carried baseball bats and rope.  They yelled and waved their limbs in a flurry of motion.  Jennifer, still drowsy from sleep was not able to discern she was being attacked before the men were on her, holding her limbs down to the mattress.  She soon found her arms wrapped in rough rope and pulled taught against the headboard.  Her legs were similarly lengthened to their limits and the knots pressed against her ankles.  She remembered only once she saw the men leaving with a third figure that Michaela had been with her.  As her senses began to come back to her she could hear the screams of her daughter and, when she listened closely, the noise from the friction of the ropes.  Down the hall she heard the door to Haley’s room open, a similar set of screaming, crying, and rustling of sheets and rope.  After that point the only signs of the attackers’ presence were the sounds of them searching the house, presumably for money.

In the morning, Jennifer was approached by Hayes, who unbound her and took her to the van.  He forced her to drive while gripping the baseball bat tightly in his hands.  They arrived at a bank, where he forced her to withdraw $15,000 and despite his threats, Jennifer discretely notified the teller that her family was being held hostage.  Then they returned to the house.  Jennifer was thrown back into the bedroom at which point she heard the two attackers arguing over what should be done next.  When Hayes returned he had a new look in his eye.  As he ripped her clothes away and began to satisfy himself, all Jennifer could do was listen to Michaela’s cries from a nearby room and the grunting that was coming from Komisarjevsky beside her.  Tears began to swim out of Jennifer’s eyes, blocking her view when one of the ropes passed in front of her face.  When the rope tightened around her neck she had run out of energy to struggle and the life passed from her quite easily.

Despite the efforts of Hayes and Komisarjevsky to burn the house with gasoline from a nearby gas station, the escape of Hawke-Petit’s husband William after a beating and binding of his own resulted in the eventual capture and confession on the part of the two killers.  While Hayes has been convicted and Komisarjevsky awaits trial, Petit is only mildly comforted, having no replacement for the three members of his family who are now lost.