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The Petit Family Nightmare
Innocence Lost
You are more likely to be a victim of violent crime in some areas of the country than in others, but the sad and frightening truth is that safety is just an illusion. We only have so much control over what happens in our lives.
We assume that home is a safe place. We lock the doors, pull the blinds, and hope that our castle is impenetrable. In the case of the Cheshire Murders, evil was waiting for the right moment to pounce on the Petit family, and it entered the home and destroyed the lives of four people by sneaking in through an open window.
All in a big, fancy house on a quiet, boring street.
Evil Meets Evil
In the summer of 2006, two men with a long history of non-violent crimes met and became friends in a drug treatment center. It appeared they were taking their sobriety seriously, attending Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings together.
Steven Hayes, 47, had a long history of substance abuse and disciplinary problems in jail. He had already attempted rehab once, but that came to a screeching halt when Hayes discovered crack cocaine. That detour morphed into an 11-day burglary spree, interrupted periodically by crack binges.
Hayes’ literal partner in crime, Joshua Komisarjevsky, 30, was a crystal meth and cocaine addict who had been hooked on his drugs of choice since age 19. He broke into upscale homes and stole whatever he could get his hands on to support his habit.
There was nothing in either man’s criminal history to suggest they were capable of the level of brutality that eventually landed them on death row in one of the most violent cases in Connecticut history, and one of the most infamous cases in the United States.
The Good Life
Dr. William “Bill” Petit, Jr., 50, his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and the couple’s two daughters, 17-year-old…
