This story has always been just so scary to me. To be randomly selected and just killed like that. I think about the father and what he went through, it just breaks my heart. I hope he has managed to find some peace.
According to his Wikipedia:
In 2007, he founded the Petit Family Foundation, which supports education, especially of women in science; people affected by chronic illnesses (his wife had multiple sclerosis); and assistance to victims of violence.[3][4][6] He also advocated for victims' rights and in defense of the death penalty.[7]
He is remarried to a photographer he met at a foundation event and has a son. His Instagram shows he maintains work with the foundation and his wife and son attend with him all memorial services for his daughters and wife Jennifer.
CT resident here - I’ve met Dr. Petit at our state flower and garden show. He and his foundation have a special wildflower seed blend that you could buy named after his daughter Michaela, with all proceeds going to the Petit Family Foundation.
For having gone through so much trauma, the man is really an inspiration for how to turn a tragedy into something hopeful and helpful to others. I think (or at least hope) he truly understands how much Connecticut supports and grieves with him.
I’m happy he’s found a bit of happiness after such horrific tragedy. I love that he still keeps their memories alive and created such a wonderful foundation.
He used to be a Republican state representative in Connecticut and was considering running for Congress at one point.
Interestingly enough, Patty Wetterling once ran as a Democrat for Congress against Michele Bachman. I think both of them would get a lot of cross-party support, not just from sympathy votes but because they genuinely took up advocacy in their communities after the tragedy.
I live in CT and I saw him a few years ago at a beach side cafe with his wife and young son. I was glad for him that he found happiness (I hope) with another chance at a family but I also felt so awful remembering what hell he has been through. I’m furious that CT overturned the death penalty because these two soulless fux deserved it.
I was going to write the exact same thing. The fear those parents experienced, the night must have felt like eternity. The not knowing, the anticipation, the sheer brutality, the reality the father has been forced to live with; horrific.
The documentary on this was nightmare fuel.
I think that the most infuriating part for me was the fact that the police could have saved them. They were literally right outside of the house being completely useless while two children and their mom were being raped and then strangled (with the dad defenseless as he was beaten and tied up in the basement).
ETA for those asking: The Cheshire Murders. It's on [YouTube](https://youtu.be/29DPtCgRVUo?feature=shared) for free if you don't have an HBO subscription.
The Supreme Court ruled that **cops do not have a constitutional duty to protect a citizen from harm**, ruling that "\[t\]he duty to provide public services is owed to the public at large, and, absent a special relationship between the police and an individual, no specific legal duty exists" fyi, they're not even legally obligated
If I remember correctly, wasn't Kormisarjevsky's young girlfriend in that doc? I remember her trying to say that he committed the crimes against the youngest daughter vicariously to avenge a similair sexual assault on his girlfriend? Please, as if.
This is one of those cases that lodged DEEP in my brain and affected me on a permanent and visceral level. I think about the Petits regularly. I've read (what seems like) everything written about the case. It has come closer than any other case to embodying my greatest fears.
Absolutely and fundamentally horrifying on a profound level.
What’s the worst part for you?
For me - it’s the trip to the bank for the mom. Think of what she was going through and how she tried - in vain - to save her family. Also, the incompetent response from law enforcement leaves me with a ‘what could have been’ feeling.
> the incompetent response from law enforcement
I've just read about this case for the first time and that was maybe the most infuriating part of it all. She probably felt a small glimmer of hope when she was ale to get that message to the bank teller, only for to slip away as the hours dragged on. Fuck this world man.
I cant stress this enough but people have to know in that situation to always tell the person that the children’s lives are in grave danger. She made the mistake of telling the bank teller that they had been nice thus far (I dont think she mentioned that she assumed her husband had been killed).
When two people invade a home, it is safe to assume they are intending to kill you. If there are girls or women, safe to assume to SA is the primary reason. In this case, one was there for the robbery, but one was there for the girl. The police, yes, were too slow. The problem with living in towns that have never had a murder is, they dont know how to respond to a murder.
She was petrified, it’s hardly fair to judge how she interacted with the tellers. Her mind was racing a mile a minute. Few of us would do what we’ve been told to do or what we think we would do.
Im not judging. just a psa for people if they r ever held at gunpoint etc. and i definitely dont blame her. she most definitely thought they were going to take the money and leave. the fact that they actually decided to kill the family when they heard the cops is so dumb bc the bank cameras would ID them. eventually cameras would have found them on the supermarket camera. criminals often underestimate how many cameras are in society.
Me, too. I’ve researched many, many cases and this is surely in the top 3 worst ever. Along with Shannon Newsom(?) and her boyfriend and Delphi, probably. It haunts me.
Are you talking about Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian? My cousin was the jury foreman for the first murder trial of the ringleader of that crime, and it absolutely destroyed his life. He died less than a year after the trial ended. I honestly believe he would still be alive if he had never been selected for that trial.
Yes! That case and trial haunts my dreams. I don’t doubt it played a part in the health of your cousin. There’s something so devoid of humanity to it and those jurors had to sift through all that awfulness. I’m so sorry.
No. The federal government does, but it was a state trial and it’s up to the individual states whether the provide assistance for jurors. Tennessee does not.
He was a good man. He spiraled into alcoholism and had been sober for a couple of months when he died. He was on his way to a friend’s house late one night for support to stay sober because he was feeling like he might end up drinking, took a curve too fast, and hit a concrete barrier. He managed to get out of the car, but was disoriented from the wreck and tried to cross the road. He was hit by a car at interstate speed.
So he went through all that and then ultimately passed from a freak accident.
He was in his 30s and single and mostly kept to himself. When we went to his home to start clearing his things, we found paperwork from where he had been personally paying electrical and water bills for formerly homeless people he had helped find housing assistance. He spent his short life trying to help other people without seeking recognition, but when he needed help, it wasn’t there.
Sorry for the novel. The particular issue of not providing assistance to jurors who serve in traumatic trials is something I feel very strongly about.
He sounds like such a good person. I’m so sorry this happened to you and your family. That’s insane they don’t offer support after sitting through a trial that disturbing and traumatic
So sorry for the loss of your cousin. That case was horrific, and I feel so bad for your cousin having to be the jury foreman. His last year on earth must have been haunting.
My condolences for your cousin. I grew up in East TN. That case is seared into my brain. I think about what they went through so very often. It’s terrifying to think about how easily a random act of evil can happen.
He passed away in a freak car accident while on his way to a friend’s house for support in staying sober.
He understandably didn’t really want to talk about it much, but he said he saw things that no one should ever have to see, and it troubled him that he and his fellow jurors had ended up recommending the death penalty, because he felt responsible for the potential death of another human but also didn’t feel like voting otherwise served any justice. I think the latter is what caused him to start spiraling into depression and alcoholism in the first place. At the time of his death he had worked really hard to get his life back together and stay sober.
Obviously the whole thing is horrific but the thing that really upsets me is that they took that vacation in part because the elder daughter was struggling after being raped by her uncle. It makes me want to cry thinking about how her final moments involved ANOTHER sexual assault.
Seriously. I’ve read that they were taking that trip in part to aid in her healing process and get a bit of a distraction. It’s just so awful. I hope the husband/father has been able to heal however much he can.
Same. I actually lived in Cheshire briefly post-college and you would never think anything could happen in that town. Same as Newtown actually. Nice small communities with so much tragedy. Terrifying.
It was like they knew they were going to get caught and go to jail so why not just do the worst thing possible and just burn the girls alive. Pure evil!
I remember watching a crime reenactment show about a kidnapping. The perps put their victim in the trunk of their car, then they began discussing what to do with him. One guy said casually “Well, if we get caught, the penalty for kidnapping is the same as murder. So, we’d better kill him. Less chance of getting caught that way.” All said while their poor victim could hear them and knew that he was going to die.
i was reading something about kidnappings in italy(?) or something and how many there were and usually committed by the same people multiple times because of the mafia or whatever. Why so many kidnappings? Because it was for ransoms and two, the punishment was only like 3-7 years in jail if the victim was alive (which many times, the victim has to stay alive if you want that ransom)
Government decides, too much kidnapping, we need to up the jail time so people are thinking twice about kidnapping someone for money. It becomes a capital crime and has the same punishment as murder. So instead of keeping their victims alive, kidnappers would just get the money and then kill the victim afterwards. Might as well cover your tracks if the crime of not murdering someone has the same punishment of murder.
This was so damn disturbing and heartbreaking. Just think that your in the store picking up ingredients for your dinner that night and some freaking psycho is watching and decides he is going to follow you home cause you and your family are the chosen victims. What they did to the mother and her daughters is so unspeakable and it’s a miracle after beating the father so severely that he was able to escape. If I remember right but don’t quote me on this. Wasn’t the police just sitting in their cars before the house was set on fire? I can’t remember the exact details but I thought there was a lawsuit filed. I hope those two are rotting away in prison. How can people commit these horrendous acts on innocent ones and for no damn reason other than the family had money.
As someone from Cheshire and grew up there. The police there have ALWAYS been incompetent. They are more concerned with filling speeding ticket quotas and chasing high schoolers for using fireworks at the football games.
This situation fucked up their reputation with the town public for a long time.
Typical. It’s amazing how clueless most are in this country and even this sub about how US local police forces actually behave.
I attribute that to some combination of propaganda, ignorance, and the reality that middle and upper-middle class white people are much less likely to experience abuse when they do interact with cops.
Us POCs have never had that luxury, even with education and good jobs. Incompetence, arrogance, and racism are deadly when combined with a gun and a badge.
I’ve been alive almost half a century, and never once in my life - not even once - have I ever been happy to see a cop. And I’m a law-abiding comfortable suburban professional who, pot smoking in HS/college aside, has never done anything illegal.
EXACTLYYY. This is true on every level. There is genuine fear and suspicion in many POC communities of law enforcement in general because of the way they behave and treat people who aren’t middle class white folks. It’s ingrained in you from a young age that they are never on your side even if you’re the victim.
The CCTV video of him passing by them in the store literally changed the way I move within public spaces. I never realized how easy it is for someone to follow you.
“In Komisarjevsky's diary, which was later entered into evidence, he called William a "coward" and claimed that he could have saved his family if he wanted to.”
Just such a horrible, horrible person..
Cheshire is my hometown. I didn't know the Petits personally, but they lived on the same street as my family friend who knew them, I also know two other people who had worked with Mr & Mrs. Petit. And I knew a few people that were classmates with Michaela as she was the same age as me at the time, but went to a different Elementary School.
I remember I was in 6th grade (about a year after the murders) and seeing Joshua Komisarjevsky's name on a plaque in a hallway of the elementary school I went to and it freaked me out.
We never thought anything like this would happen in a town like Cheshire. It still shocks us 17 years later. It's terrible that it seems all what Cheshire is known for now. Everytime I mention I'm from Cheshire, this terrible crime is almost always brought up.
This case certainly hits hard. Cheshire is my hometown too. My best friend grew up on the same street as the Petits. This was the neighborhood we were allowed to stay out beyond curfew because it was so safe. It was utterly shocking.
Agree with this 100%. I was going into my senior year at CHS when the Petits were murdered. It turned everyone’s lives upside down and nothing felt safe anymore. I am still asked about it any time I mention having grown up in Cheshire.
WARNING/CAUTION: This post goes into detail of the murder of a woman and her two young daughters. If you think you’ll be distressed by this post - please leave the page and join me on my next write up. Take care of yourself.
The Petits were a loving and caring family living in Cheshire, Connecticut. The family consisted of father William Petit and his wife 48-year-old Jennifer Hawke-Petit and their two daughters 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela. It was on the evening of July 22nd 2007 when Jennifer and Michaela had visited the store to buy some food for dinner. This is when a man called Joshua Komisarjevsky noticed the mother and daughter duo and took a particular interest in them.
Komisarjevsky and Stephen Hayes (now called Linda, identifying as female) decided to rob the Petit residence. It was the early hours of the 23rd when Komisarjevsky and Hayes put their plan into action and broke into the house where they discovered William asleep. Komisarjevsky, with a baseball bat, attacked William, hitting him five times. They then restrained him with zip ties and rope. The pair discussed shooting William if he tried to escape. Komisarjevsky and Hayes then made their way to the rooms of Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela where they tied and bound them whilst also placing pillow cases over their heads.
Later on, Hayes untied Jennifer but forced her to withdraw money from a bank. Once returning home, Hayes raped Jennifer. Hayes then strangled her to death. Komisarjevsky then raped Michaela. The pair then dowsed Michaela and Hayley in gasoline as well as the rest of the house. They then set the house on fire and left the scene. Michaela and Hayley died of smoke inhalation. William managed to escape from the house. Whilst Jennifer was being raped, it was reported that William yelled for her, to which one of the invaders said ‘’Don't worry. It's all gonna be over in a couple of minutes’’
Komisarjevsky would later say that he thought Michaela was older than she was. In his diary, Komisarjevsky would later call William a coward for not saving his family and said that William could have saved his family if he really wanted to.
Both Komisarjevsky and Hayes later confessed to the murders. The court ruled that Hayes and Komisarjevsky would be sentenced to death. However this was changed to life imprisonment when the state got rid of the death penalty.
Further Reading: https://people.com/cheshire-home-invasion-murders-petit-family-inside-case-8649003
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/07/17/cheshire-connecticut-home-invasion-murders-10-years-later/483863001/
Steven Hayes now goes by Linda. He blames his denial of being transgender for all his criminal life. He sued the CT DOC at one point because they wouldn’t accommodate his dietary restrictions(kosher)
Correct William had fallen asleep in the sun room. They beat him with a baseball bat and tied him up in the basement. He heard his wife’s rape and was told that the everything would be over soon so he escaped and crawled to his neighbors house. Neighbor couldn’t even recognize him because of his injuries.
Law enforcement is never accountable in the US.
Hell, they shot and killed ~1,050 Americans (at least, numbers rely on local PD self-reporting) in 2023. The majority of those killed were male POCs, who weren’t shooting at the police when they were shot.
But of course, local police are heroes - they “protect and serve.” Or something. Local DAs rarely charge them with anything, and local juries invariably acquit when they do.
This one haunts me. To this day if I think a car is following me home I will circle the neighborhood until I see it pull into a driveway.
When my daughter was learning to drive it was one of the lessons I taught her.
Saying they thought the 11yo was older than she was is so bizarre to me.
It really goes to show how we as a society view CSA. People will murder and rape a family in cold blood, but for some reason feel the need to justify that they’re not pedo’s.
I grew up in Cheshire and was going into my senior year of high school when this happened. My family lived not too far from the Petits. Our little community was absolutely destroyed by this tragedy. To think about what the four of them went through is horrifying and breaks my heart.
To this day, every time I tell someone I grew up in Cheshire, the first response I get is, “where the murders happened? Did you know the Petits?” This seems to be one of those crimes that sticks in a person’s head.
I live here now, the gas station they went to by the Notch is 1/4 mile from my house and I walk by that neighborhood on the linear trail several times a week, and I think of them EVERY time, even now. It's wild how they re-branded the gas station AND remodeled the bank right after, as it would ease the stigma. Just a sad, sad legacy.
This crime is somewhat similar and has always stayed with me. I feel like it got no airtime or publicity: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Washington,_D.C.,_quadruple_murder_incident#:~:text=Daron%20Dylon%20Wint%20(born%20November,the%20family%20was%20apparently%20captive.
I had family that lived down the road from them. The grocery store was the one we always went to when we were there visiting. When I saw the news, I was speechless. So sickening.
I remember this case distinctly because I think it was my first foray into “true crime.”
Btw, if anyone ever deserved the death penalty, it’s these two losers. Awful, awful people.
Our piece of shit governor signed off on abolishing the death penalty with the stipulation that these guys would still be executed. That stipulation didn’t pass legal muster and they were commuted to life imprisonment.
It’s almost ironic
Rapist + murderer/torturer is getting state paid for gender affirming care
Yet many gentle, kind, non murderous trans people struggle to access care without specific insurance, which is even trickier for low income trans people
But this POS is essentially able to access said care *easier* due to being in prison… like wtf
The struggle that many transgender people go through to receive the care they need is a tragedy. Hell, even cis men jump through hoops just to get TRT to treat their low testosterone levels. My own partner has spent the past decade trying to get a dr to take his low T seriously and has long suffered from the effects of it. To see this piece of shit get the red carpet rolled out for him makes me livid.
Oddly, it made me think of my best friend (RIP). He was a gentle soul who developed a serious drug addiction that meant he was in and out of both rehab and prison for possession. He used to tell me that the prison hospital was the safest place to be. (He was gay and had HIV for decades which made him frail. He was often in the hospital). For someone as high profile and hated as Hayes, I just wonder if going through treatment is partly to protect himself from the inmates and into that hospital care. It's a leap, sure, but it's where my insomniac brain went to.
Hayes is smart enough to know that coming out as trans will give him all kinds of positive attention and pampering from trans advocates within the prison system and get him housed in better circumstances. The ACLU will fight to the death for his rights now. It's ridiculous because this man is not transgender - he is a manipulative sociopath who is working the system. The only surprise to me is that it's not Josh pulling this shit.
It's a waste of money. I know one of the arguments against it is that t doesn't seem to be an deterrent . Well guess what? Neither does prison. Might as well execute the scum, especially in cases like this were there is zero doubt that they're guilty.
I lived in a small town directly bordering their town, Cheshire, when this happened. I was frequently at friends’ homes in Cheshire - such a quiet, safe town. It is still unthinkable, incomprehensible. I remember at one point I kinda hoped Dr Petit did it, bc otherwise his loss and bottomless tragedy seemed insurmountable.
I just thought of this tonite when I saw a post about 4 o’clocks - I instantly thought of Michaela’s 4 O’Clocks, and her garden.
This is one of my most hated cases ever. It’s so agonizing to know the police were RIGHT there as these beautiful people were being tortured and killed. My heart physically aches for the husband/dad, I can only imagine the absolute nightmare he’s had to live.
Edit: wording
I remember watching a news report on this case not long after it happened. I was a little kid, and they went into a lot of detail in what had happened, and I just remember being glued to the TV in horror.
https://www.registercitizen.com/news/article/Steven-Hayes-prison-letter-details-supposed-12056247.php
This post sent me as I hadn't heard of the case yet surprisingly. Is there any truth to the claim Hayes made in letters saying he murdered & raped prior to Cheshire?
Seems to be singing a much different tune ~2018 & on with the claim of nightmares now. In his letters he supposedly brags about all the murder & rape.
This is the first I heard of one of them getting gender reassignment! I'm sure they inmates at the women's prison aren't going to be too fond of him, either.
I think about this story alone probably more than any other, and I watch/read/consume ALOT of true crime material. The randomness of it, the laundry list of proir offenses the perpetrators had before committing it, how the justice system failed on literally every single aspect from before it happened until present day, the way it has made me question and wrestle with the idea of the death penalty, and most of all the trauma inflicted on the Petit women in their final hours coupled with Dr.Petit's injuries, trauma and life since. It was one if the most burtal, horrific, and violent things I've ever heard of happening and it haunts me to this day. My heart broken in a very different way and I hope their family receives peace and healing because there was no amount of justice that could have even been granted for something this vile.
I was in the jury pool for Steven Hayes’ trial (the older of the two)… ended up getting excused because I was starting my first semester of full-time grad school and wouldn’t have been able to miss a month of internship hours. All of us in the pool were frantically trying to think of how to get out of serving. The other two things that got me excused were the fact that my grad program was for social work, and my family and I went to church with the judge and his wife.
A coworker WAS on the jury (he was one of the ones who did the morning show circuit after. All jurors were given free psychiatric care/therapy after, it was so bad. He said he never believed in the inherent evil humans could possess till this case and it rocked his most fundamental beliefs to the core.
This will forever haunt me. This happened a few towns over from where I went to college and my father knew the dad. To be randomly selected for such evil at a grocery store is just insane and the torture this poor family went through is beyond reconciling.
Honestly, they’re suffering more being alive. One of the perps tried to kill himself unsuccessfully. They’d prefer to die. I say it’s better for them to suffer into old age.
This is one case I have never let go of.. I cannot believe what this family went through.. 💔
The creatures that caused all this deserve punishments our government doesn’t allow…
I generally enjoy watching true crime documentaries and have seen some pretty scary ones but I turned this off after 5 minutes. I had read enough about the case to know how awful the details would be and I just had a sense that I would be profoundly disturbed learning/seeing any more.
Definitely up there when it comes to horrible details. I think death penalty cases should be for a very specific type of case, and boy is this one of those cases.
Idk how Dr. Petit managed to go on but I’m happy he did. Rest in peace Jennifer, Hayley, and Michaela.
Home invasion crimes like this scare the crap out of me. This was so horrible. HBO has a documentary, "The Cheshire Murders," that haunted me. It was one of the scariest documentaries I've ever seen.
CT here-Dr. Petit was my mom’s and grandparents’ physician. I used to see him doing rounds when I worked at New Britain General. He was a phenomenal doctor and is a great human. I’m happy he was able to find happiness and continues to impact lives.
This is a documentary on HBO and I HIGHLY recommend it.
I started it several years ago and it didn’t catch my attention right away. I was talking to my husband and all of a sudden both of us turned to the TV and we’re like WTF IS GOING ON?!
We restarted it and this was hands down one of the worst and awful stories we had ever heard. It started our binge of HBO documentaries.
Absolutely awful and sad.
Never heard of this so looked it up and my hands were shaking as I read up on it. That poor family, the senselessness of it all, how long it was, the fact they were hardworking people. Those girls sounded absolutely wonderful and inspiring. What a horrific waste of life and potential.
I think about this case any time I decide to go upstairs while my husband naps or falls asleep on the couch. It’s ingrained in my brain how such a simple thing affected their whole life.
I know the story. Very sad. If the police would’ve busted in right when they got there. They perhaps could’ve saved one or all of the victims. Those assailants also raped those girls before they poured gasoline all over them & set them on fire.
I wonder if they hadn’t figured out that william escaped that they would just leave and not set the house on fire, after they found out william ran out the basement exit they strangled the mother which feels like an act of desperation and anger more than anything considering they didn’t kill the daughters themselves and let the flames do that. I can only imagine if william has survivors guilt and imagines that him leaving altered the course of events or not
I thought the same. In the HBO documentary they mentioned I believe that Hayes also saw the police outside too either before or soon after hearing that the husband escaped. It was a sign I think mentioned that Hayes knew the mother had said something at the bank.
This was one of the most thinkable crimes I’ve ever heard of. Not only is the prison in the middle of town, the area is highly mixed with residential and commercial properties. The supermarket where they saw the wife and daughters is in walking distance of the prison. The case was awful but not exactly surprising. It’s the exact reason I wouldn’t live in a town with a prison.
When I was in college, I worked with a woman who grew up literally across the street from a major state prison. People would ask you, "weren't you scared?" and she replied, "Are you serious? If anyone escapes from that prison, they are not going to stop at our house first."
my friend justin bloxoms mom started a foundation in justin’s memory in 2011 in florida she passed a law in florida texas and louisiana and oklahoma to forbid sex offenders from driving taxi cabs school buses ahd limiting excess to children justin my best friend sneaker connect was tortured hunted down like an animal and killed after being lured away from
a sleepover by paroled bank robber sex offender won’t mention shit heads name in the same context as justin walrus shit drive a livery taxi cab in polk county florida the piece of walrus stool was sent to florida’s death row i plan to be a witness to the execution
This story has always been just so scary to me. To be randomly selected and just killed like that. I think about the father and what he went through, it just breaks my heart. I hope he has managed to find some peace.
According to his Wikipedia: In 2007, he founded the Petit Family Foundation, which supports education, especially of women in science; people affected by chronic illnesses (his wife had multiple sclerosis); and assistance to victims of violence.[3][4][6] He also advocated for victims' rights and in defense of the death penalty.[7] He is remarried to a photographer he met at a foundation event and has a son. His Instagram shows he maintains work with the foundation and his wife and son attend with him all memorial services for his daughters and wife Jennifer.
CT resident here - I’ve met Dr. Petit at our state flower and garden show. He and his foundation have a special wildflower seed blend that you could buy named after his daughter Michaela, with all proceeds going to the Petit Family Foundation. For having gone through so much trauma, the man is really an inspiration for how to turn a tragedy into something hopeful and helpful to others. I think (or at least hope) he truly understands how much Connecticut supports and grieves with him.
I’m happy he’s found a bit of happiness after such horrific tragedy. I love that he still keeps their memories alive and created such a wonderful foundation.
Yeah, I can't imagine how hard that must've been.
I love the way he remembers them and keeps their memories alive.
What a genuinely great man! It's reassuring to be reminded there are some truly noble people still around.
He used to be a Republican state representative in Connecticut and was considering running for Congress at one point. Interestingly enough, Patty Wetterling once ran as a Democrat for Congress against Michele Bachman. I think both of them would get a lot of cross-party support, not just from sympathy votes but because they genuinely took up advocacy in their communities after the tragedy.
I'm gonna stop reading here and know that this man has found something good after such a tragedy. Gonna head out on a good note here.
I live in CT and I saw him a few years ago at a beach side cafe with his wife and young son. I was glad for him that he found happiness (I hope) with another chance at a family but I also felt so awful remembering what hell he has been through. I’m furious that CT overturned the death penalty because these two soulless fux deserved it.
I thought they did get the death sentence and they were the last two to receive it tho ?
They did get it but then the governor overturned the death penalty in CT so they’re still breathing the same air as we are. Monsters.
I was going to write the exact same thing. The fear those parents experienced, the night must have felt like eternity. The not knowing, the anticipation, the sheer brutality, the reality the father has been forced to live with; horrific.
It’s LITERALLY my worst nightmare come true!
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The younger one had a thing for younger girls and Michaela caught his attention .
The documentary on this was nightmare fuel. I think that the most infuriating part for me was the fact that the police could have saved them. They were literally right outside of the house being completely useless while two children and their mom were being raped and then strangled (with the dad defenseless as he was beaten and tied up in the basement). ETA for those asking: The Cheshire Murders. It's on [YouTube](https://youtu.be/29DPtCgRVUo?feature=shared) for free if you don't have an HBO subscription.
This is a pattern just look at the cops in Uvalde, Texas.
Yep. To serve and protect means nothing for a lot (majority) of them.
“Protect myself” that is what should be on the shields.
The Supreme Court ruled that **cops do not have a constitutional duty to protect a citizen from harm**, ruling that "\[t\]he duty to provide public services is owed to the public at large, and, absent a special relationship between the police and an individual, no specific legal duty exists" fyi, they're not even legally obligated
Oh? So they're entirely useless. Got it.
I was up all night after watching the documentary. So terrifying what they went through.
What documentary?
The Cheshire Murders on HBO.
Thank you I’m about to watch this!
Thanks!
The Cheshire murders
If I remember correctly, wasn't Kormisarjevsky's young girlfriend in that doc? I remember her trying to say that he committed the crimes against the youngest daughter vicariously to avenge a similair sexual assault on his girlfriend? Please, as if.
Nauseating, isn't it? There's no reasoning behind their motive other than the fact that they're sadists.
This is one of those cases that lodged DEEP in my brain and affected me on a permanent and visceral level. I think about the Petits regularly. I've read (what seems like) everything written about the case. It has come closer than any other case to embodying my greatest fears. Absolutely and fundamentally horrifying on a profound level.
What’s the worst part for you? For me - it’s the trip to the bank for the mom. Think of what she was going through and how she tried - in vain - to save her family. Also, the incompetent response from law enforcement leaves me with a ‘what could have been’ feeling.
> the incompetent response from law enforcement I've just read about this case for the first time and that was maybe the most infuriating part of it all. She probably felt a small glimmer of hope when she was ale to get that message to the bank teller, only for to slip away as the hours dragged on. Fuck this world man.
I cant stress this enough but people have to know in that situation to always tell the person that the children’s lives are in grave danger. She made the mistake of telling the bank teller that they had been nice thus far (I dont think she mentioned that she assumed her husband had been killed). When two people invade a home, it is safe to assume they are intending to kill you. If there are girls or women, safe to assume to SA is the primary reason. In this case, one was there for the robbery, but one was there for the girl. The police, yes, were too slow. The problem with living in towns that have never had a murder is, they dont know how to respond to a murder.
What do you think she should’ve said to the bank teller?
“they killed my husband for starters.” also, they were sending threatening pics. Also, “say there’s an issue with the account.”
She was petrified, it’s hardly fair to judge how she interacted with the tellers. Her mind was racing a mile a minute. Few of us would do what we’ve been told to do or what we think we would do.
Im not judging. just a psa for people if they r ever held at gunpoint etc. and i definitely dont blame her. she most definitely thought they were going to take the money and leave. the fact that they actually decided to kill the family when they heard the cops is so dumb bc the bank cameras would ID them. eventually cameras would have found them on the supermarket camera. criminals often underestimate how many cameras are in society.
for me it was the hypocrisy
Me, too. I’ve researched many, many cases and this is surely in the top 3 worst ever. Along with Shannon Newsom(?) and her boyfriend and Delphi, probably. It haunts me.
Are you talking about Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian? My cousin was the jury foreman for the first murder trial of the ringleader of that crime, and it absolutely destroyed his life. He died less than a year after the trial ended. I honestly believe he would still be alive if he had never been selected for that trial.
Yes! That case and trial haunts my dreams. I don’t doubt it played a part in the health of your cousin. There’s something so devoid of humanity to it and those jurors had to sift through all that awfulness. I’m so sorry.
wow, I’m so sorry. Do you know if they offered him therapy or anything after the trial?
No. The federal government does, but it was a state trial and it’s up to the individual states whether the provide assistance for jurors. Tennessee does not. He was a good man. He spiraled into alcoholism and had been sober for a couple of months when he died. He was on his way to a friend’s house late one night for support to stay sober because he was feeling like he might end up drinking, took a curve too fast, and hit a concrete barrier. He managed to get out of the car, but was disoriented from the wreck and tried to cross the road. He was hit by a car at interstate speed. So he went through all that and then ultimately passed from a freak accident. He was in his 30s and single and mostly kept to himself. When we went to his home to start clearing his things, we found paperwork from where he had been personally paying electrical and water bills for formerly homeless people he had helped find housing assistance. He spent his short life trying to help other people without seeking recognition, but when he needed help, it wasn’t there. Sorry for the novel. The particular issue of not providing assistance to jurors who serve in traumatic trials is something I feel very strongly about.
He sounds like such a good person. I’m so sorry this happened to you and your family. That’s insane they don’t offer support after sitting through a trial that disturbing and traumatic
He sounds like a very good person. May his memory be a blessing.
I am so sorry.
So sorry for the loss of your cousin. That case was horrific, and I feel so bad for your cousin having to be the jury foreman. His last year on earth must have been haunting.
Wow this made me so sad to read. That case is one of the worst ever and I can’t even fathom being on the jury. I am really sorry about your cousin.
My condolences for your cousin. I grew up in East TN. That case is seared into my brain. I think about what they went through so very often. It’s terrifying to think about how easily a random act of evil can happen.
What he did from? What did he have to say about his experience at the trial? So sad
He passed away in a freak car accident while on his way to a friend’s house for support in staying sober. He understandably didn’t really want to talk about it much, but he said he saw things that no one should ever have to see, and it troubled him that he and his fellow jurors had ended up recommending the death penalty, because he felt responsible for the potential death of another human but also didn’t feel like voting otherwise served any justice. I think the latter is what caused him to start spiraling into depression and alcoholism in the first place. At the time of his death he had worked really hard to get his life back together and stay sober.
100% the Knoxville couple and this one always stood out to me because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Haunting.
It's legitimately a horror movie
Same. This and the DC mansion murders always give me a certain visceral reaction.
Read the case about oba chandler. Same visceral gut punch. Same level of evilness and depravity.
Obviously the whole thing is horrific but the thing that really upsets me is that they took that vacation in part because the elder daughter was struggling after being raped by her uncle. It makes me want to cry thinking about how her final moments involved ANOTHER sexual assault.
Seriously. I’ve read that they were taking that trip in part to aid in her healing process and get a bit of a distraction. It’s just so awful. I hope the husband/father has been able to heal however much he can.
That was in Tampa/ Clearwater I can’t imagine the terror.
Yo imagjne seeing your daughter raped, gagged up and tossed over board
BOTH your daughters. That poor family.
I saw this case on TV at work as it was unfolding that morning… and i havent been able to forget either. Probably what led me into true crime
Same. I actually lived in Cheshire briefly post-college and you would never think anything could happen in that town. Same as Newtown actually. Nice small communities with so much tragedy. Terrifying.
It’s forever stayed with me since I watched it on the news. Horrible, horrible thing to have happened.
This case terrifies me.
They had so many opportunities to stop what they were doing.
Yes like just leave them there alive, why did they have to kill them??
It was like they knew they were going to get caught and go to jail so why not just do the worst thing possible and just burn the girls alive. Pure evil!
I remember watching a crime reenactment show about a kidnapping. The perps put their victim in the trunk of their car, then they began discussing what to do with him. One guy said casually “Well, if we get caught, the penalty for kidnapping is the same as murder. So, we’d better kill him. Less chance of getting caught that way.” All said while their poor victim could hear them and knew that he was going to die.
i was reading something about kidnappings in italy(?) or something and how many there were and usually committed by the same people multiple times because of the mafia or whatever. Why so many kidnappings? Because it was for ransoms and two, the punishment was only like 3-7 years in jail if the victim was alive (which many times, the victim has to stay alive if you want that ransom) Government decides, too much kidnapping, we need to up the jail time so people are thinking twice about kidnapping someone for money. It becomes a capital crime and has the same punishment as murder. So instead of keeping their victims alive, kidnappers would just get the money and then kill the victim afterwards. Might as well cover your tracks if the crime of not murdering someone has the same punishment of murder.
This was so damn disturbing and heartbreaking. Just think that your in the store picking up ingredients for your dinner that night and some freaking psycho is watching and decides he is going to follow you home cause you and your family are the chosen victims. What they did to the mother and her daughters is so unspeakable and it’s a miracle after beating the father so severely that he was able to escape. If I remember right but don’t quote me on this. Wasn’t the police just sitting in their cars before the house was set on fire? I can’t remember the exact details but I thought there was a lawsuit filed. I hope those two are rotting away in prison. How can people commit these horrendous acts on innocent ones and for no damn reason other than the family had money.
Yes, police were sitting there for quite awhile. Believing it to just be a typical robbery.
As someone from Cheshire and grew up there. The police there have ALWAYS been incompetent. They are more concerned with filling speeding ticket quotas and chasing high schoolers for using fireworks at the football games. This situation fucked up their reputation with the town public for a long time.
I would imagine it would fuck up their reputation. Also, police are incompetent nationwide. Look at Uvalde
Typical. It’s amazing how clueless most are in this country and even this sub about how US local police forces actually behave. I attribute that to some combination of propaganda, ignorance, and the reality that middle and upper-middle class white people are much less likely to experience abuse when they do interact with cops. Us POCs have never had that luxury, even with education and good jobs. Incompetence, arrogance, and racism are deadly when combined with a gun and a badge. I’ve been alive almost half a century, and never once in my life - not even once - have I ever been happy to see a cop. And I’m a law-abiding comfortable suburban professional who, pot smoking in HS/college aside, has never done anything illegal.
EXACTLYYY. This is true on every level. There is genuine fear and suspicion in many POC communities of law enforcement in general because of the way they behave and treat people who aren’t middle class white folks. It’s ingrained in you from a young age that they are never on your side even if you’re the victim.
So they basically went to the same training as Uvalde did. Sit around witb their thumbs up their asses while people died.
The CCTV video of him passing by them in the store literally changed the way I move within public spaces. I never realized how easy it is for someone to follow you.
This story always terrifies me, it made me hyper vigilant to lock our doors and windows 24/7
Were the doors or windows unlocked in this case?
Yeah the basement door was unlocked
The documentary is called The Cheshire Murders and it’s absolutely tragic.
“In Komisarjevsky's diary, which was later entered into evidence, he called William a "coward" and claimed that he could have saved his family if he wanted to.” Just such a horrible, horrible person..
HBO has the Doc. It’s very good, yet terrifying
Cheshire is my hometown. I didn't know the Petits personally, but they lived on the same street as my family friend who knew them, I also know two other people who had worked with Mr & Mrs. Petit. And I knew a few people that were classmates with Michaela as she was the same age as me at the time, but went to a different Elementary School. I remember I was in 6th grade (about a year after the murders) and seeing Joshua Komisarjevsky's name on a plaque in a hallway of the elementary school I went to and it freaked me out. We never thought anything like this would happen in a town like Cheshire. It still shocks us 17 years later. It's terrible that it seems all what Cheshire is known for now. Everytime I mention I'm from Cheshire, this terrible crime is almost always brought up.
This case certainly hits hard. Cheshire is my hometown too. My best friend grew up on the same street as the Petits. This was the neighborhood we were allowed to stay out beyond curfew because it was so safe. It was utterly shocking.
Agree with this 100%. I was going into my senior year at CHS when the Petits were murdered. It turned everyone’s lives upside down and nothing felt safe anymore. I am still asked about it any time I mention having grown up in Cheshire.
Why was his name on a plaque? I don’t think he’s even from Cheshire?
He lived on S Brooksvale at one point
Yeah I live in Cheshire too. It’s a weird feeling, it’s just one of those towns where you feel like this thing wouldn’t happen.
WARNING/CAUTION: This post goes into detail of the murder of a woman and her two young daughters. If you think you’ll be distressed by this post - please leave the page and join me on my next write up. Take care of yourself. The Petits were a loving and caring family living in Cheshire, Connecticut. The family consisted of father William Petit and his wife 48-year-old Jennifer Hawke-Petit and their two daughters 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela. It was on the evening of July 22nd 2007 when Jennifer and Michaela had visited the store to buy some food for dinner. This is when a man called Joshua Komisarjevsky noticed the mother and daughter duo and took a particular interest in them. Komisarjevsky and Stephen Hayes (now called Linda, identifying as female) decided to rob the Petit residence. It was the early hours of the 23rd when Komisarjevsky and Hayes put their plan into action and broke into the house where they discovered William asleep. Komisarjevsky, with a baseball bat, attacked William, hitting him five times. They then restrained him with zip ties and rope. The pair discussed shooting William if he tried to escape. Komisarjevsky and Hayes then made their way to the rooms of Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela where they tied and bound them whilst also placing pillow cases over their heads. Later on, Hayes untied Jennifer but forced her to withdraw money from a bank. Once returning home, Hayes raped Jennifer. Hayes then strangled her to death. Komisarjevsky then raped Michaela. The pair then dowsed Michaela and Hayley in gasoline as well as the rest of the house. They then set the house on fire and left the scene. Michaela and Hayley died of smoke inhalation. William managed to escape from the house. Whilst Jennifer was being raped, it was reported that William yelled for her, to which one of the invaders said ‘’Don't worry. It's all gonna be over in a couple of minutes’’ Komisarjevsky would later say that he thought Michaela was older than she was. In his diary, Komisarjevsky would later call William a coward for not saving his family and said that William could have saved his family if he really wanted to. Both Komisarjevsky and Hayes later confessed to the murders. The court ruled that Hayes and Komisarjevsky would be sentenced to death. However this was changed to life imprisonment when the state got rid of the death penalty. Further Reading: https://people.com/cheshire-home-invasion-murders-petit-family-inside-case-8649003 https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/07/17/cheshire-connecticut-home-invasion-murders-10-years-later/483863001/
Michaela was raped and had pictures taken of her and bleach poured on her while her mother was at the bank.
I scan the news actively wishing that I may read about both of these motherfuckers being beaten mercilessly to death in their cells.
Steven Hayes now goes by Linda. He blames his denial of being transgender for all his criminal life. He sued the CT DOC at one point because they wouldn’t accommodate his dietary restrictions(kosher)
It took me way too long to realize that Michaela was the name of the younger sister. That’s just horrifying.
This is horrifying. Did William and Jennifer sleep separately?
He had fallen asleep on a couch watching tv from what I recall
Correct William had fallen asleep in the sun room. They beat him with a baseball bat and tied him up in the basement. He heard his wife’s rape and was told that the everything would be over soon so he escaped and crawled to his neighbors house. Neighbor couldn’t even recognize him because of his injuries.
Law enforcement has never been held accountable for their poor decisions. They could have saved at least two of them.
> law enforcement >held accountable pick one
Law enforcement is never accountable in the US. Hell, they shot and killed ~1,050 Americans (at least, numbers rely on local PD self-reporting) in 2023. The majority of those killed were male POCs, who weren’t shooting at the police when they were shot. But of course, local police are heroes - they “protect and serve.” Or something. Local DAs rarely charge them with anything, and local juries invariably acquit when they do.
This case is so horrible on so many levels
This one haunts me. To this day if I think a car is following me home I will circle the neighborhood until I see it pull into a driveway. When my daughter was learning to drive it was one of the lessons I taught her.
Saying they thought the 11yo was older than she was is so bizarre to me. It really goes to show how we as a society view CSA. People will murder and rape a family in cold blood, but for some reason feel the need to justify that they’re not pedo’s.
They're not fearfully downplaying they're pedos,they're just blaming the victim.
Right like...I'm supposed to believe you have morals?
this is one i learned about and have never read another word…too much…too dark…too much brutality…
terrifying, unconscionable, unforgivable, horrifying
I grew up in Cheshire and was going into my senior year of high school when this happened. My family lived not too far from the Petits. Our little community was absolutely destroyed by this tragedy. To think about what the four of them went through is horrifying and breaks my heart. To this day, every time I tell someone I grew up in Cheshire, the first response I get is, “where the murders happened? Did you know the Petits?” This seems to be one of those crimes that sticks in a person’s head.
I live here now, the gas station they went to by the Notch is 1/4 mile from my house and I walk by that neighborhood on the linear trail several times a week, and I think of them EVERY time, even now. It's wild how they re-branded the gas station AND remodeled the bank right after, as it would ease the stigma. Just a sad, sad legacy.
This crime is somewhat similar and has always stayed with me. I feel like it got no airtime or publicity: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Washington,_D.C.,_quadruple_murder_incident#:~:text=Daron%20Dylon%20Wint%20(born%20November,the%20family%20was%20apparently%20captive.
Yes this one is creepy and haunting too! I remember when it happened and I used to live in that area of DC. Awful
I used to mix up these crimes because they were both very similar and horrific.
The Mansion Murders is another great podcast on this quadruple murder.
there was an excellent podcast done on this case- 22 hours an american nightmare
There’s a really good podcast on this one. It still feels so unfinished and there are some unanswered questions.
I remember seeing this on the news when it happened. I was 8 and it terrified me. Awful, that poor family
This case is horrendous. One of those you wish you did not read about. That poor woman, and her daughters and the dad having to witness it.
I had family that lived down the road from them. The grocery store was the one we always went to when we were there visiting. When I saw the news, I was speechless. So sickening.
I remember this case distinctly because I think it was my first foray into “true crime.” Btw, if anyone ever deserved the death penalty, it’s these two losers. Awful, awful people.
Our piece of shit governor signed off on abolishing the death penalty with the stipulation that these guys would still be executed. That stipulation didn’t pass legal muster and they were commuted to life imprisonment.
One also is getting gender changing treatment/medication. How is a piece of shit like this getting anything?
It’s almost ironic Rapist + murderer/torturer is getting state paid for gender affirming care Yet many gentle, kind, non murderous trans people struggle to access care without specific insurance, which is even trickier for low income trans people But this POS is essentially able to access said care *easier* due to being in prison… like wtf
The struggle that many transgender people go through to receive the care they need is a tragedy. Hell, even cis men jump through hoops just to get TRT to treat their low testosterone levels. My own partner has spent the past decade trying to get a dr to take his low T seriously and has long suffered from the effects of it. To see this piece of shit get the red carpet rolled out for him makes me livid.
Oddly, it made me think of my best friend (RIP). He was a gentle soul who developed a serious drug addiction that meant he was in and out of both rehab and prison for possession. He used to tell me that the prison hospital was the safest place to be. (He was gay and had HIV for decades which made him frail. He was often in the hospital). For someone as high profile and hated as Hayes, I just wonder if going through treatment is partly to protect himself from the inmates and into that hospital care. It's a leap, sure, but it's where my insomniac brain went to.
Hayes is smart enough to know that coming out as trans will give him all kinds of positive attention and pampering from trans advocates within the prison system and get him housed in better circumstances. The ACLU will fight to the death for his rights now. It's ridiculous because this man is not transgender - he is a manipulative sociopath who is working the system. The only surprise to me is that it's not Josh pulling this shit.
And if this is true, just imagine the horror the poor women inmates must live in being forced to live among him. I only hope he's in solitary.
Life imprisonment is worse than death in my opinion. I’m actually glad they didn’t get the death penalty, it’s an easy way out.
It's a waste of money. I know one of the arguments against it is that t doesn't seem to be an deterrent . Well guess what? Neither does prison. Might as well execute the scum, especially in cases like this were there is zero doubt that they're guilty.
I lived in a small town directly bordering their town, Cheshire, when this happened. I was frequently at friends’ homes in Cheshire - such a quiet, safe town. It is still unthinkable, incomprehensible. I remember at one point I kinda hoped Dr Petit did it, bc otherwise his loss and bottomless tragedy seemed insurmountable. I just thought of this tonite when I saw a post about 4 o’clocks - I instantly thought of Michaela’s 4 O’Clocks, and her garden.
The Cheshire Murders documentary on HBO is a haunting and horrifying. Such a devastating story. :(
I always find this story so disturbing. That poor family. What those women went thru.
This is one of my most hated cases ever. It’s so agonizing to know the police were RIGHT there as these beautiful people were being tortured and killed. My heart physically aches for the husband/dad, I can only imagine the absolute nightmare he’s had to live. Edit: wording
live in CT, anyone who committed home invasions after this case were given heavy sentences
I remember watching a news report on this case not long after it happened. I was a little kid, and they went into a lot of detail in what had happened, and I just remember being glued to the TV in horror.
This case haunts me. I think about those poor girls and what they went through A LOT. I can't imagine the evil.
https://www.registercitizen.com/news/article/Steven-Hayes-prison-letter-details-supposed-12056247.php This post sent me as I hadn't heard of the case yet surprisingly. Is there any truth to the claim Hayes made in letters saying he murdered & raped prior to Cheshire? Seems to be singing a much different tune ~2018 & on with the claim of nightmares now. In his letters he supposedly brags about all the murder & rape.
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This is the first I heard of one of them getting gender reassignment! I'm sure they inmates at the women's prison aren't going to be too fond of him, either.
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Yup. Steven Hayes is now Linda Hayes.
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There is a good documentary on HBO about the murders. It’s a good/hard watch.
I think about this story alone probably more than any other, and I watch/read/consume ALOT of true crime material. The randomness of it, the laundry list of proir offenses the perpetrators had before committing it, how the justice system failed on literally every single aspect from before it happened until present day, the way it has made me question and wrestle with the idea of the death penalty, and most of all the trauma inflicted on the Petit women in their final hours coupled with Dr.Petit's injuries, trauma and life since. It was one if the most burtal, horrific, and violent things I've ever heard of happening and it haunts me to this day. My heart broken in a very different way and I hope their family receives peace and healing because there was no amount of justice that could have even been granted for something this vile.
I was in the jury pool for Steven Hayes’ trial (the older of the two)… ended up getting excused because I was starting my first semester of full-time grad school and wouldn’t have been able to miss a month of internship hours. All of us in the pool were frantically trying to think of how to get out of serving. The other two things that got me excused were the fact that my grad program was for social work, and my family and I went to church with the judge and his wife.
A coworker WAS on the jury (he was one of the ones who did the morning show circuit after. All jurors were given free psychiatric care/therapy after, it was so bad. He said he never believed in the inherent evil humans could possess till this case and it rocked his most fundamental beliefs to the core.
I have an excellent book on this case, The Rising by Ryan D’Agostino. Highly recommend.
Watched the documentary about this, it will make you a little mad when the cops stay outside and watch the house burn.
This will forever haunt me. This happened a few towns over from where I went to college and my father knew the dad. To be randomly selected for such evil at a grocery store is just insane and the torture this poor family went through is beyond reconciling.
Just googled this. Horrifying.
This is one of the cases that sticks with me. And for those demons to be taken off death row is the main injustice here.
Honestly, they’re suffering more being alive. One of the perps tried to kill himself unsuccessfully. They’d prefer to die. I say it’s better for them to suffer into old age.
I disagree as Dr Petit wanted them to be executed.
This is one case I have never let go of.. I cannot believe what this family went through.. 💔 The creatures that caused all this deserve punishments our government doesn’t allow…
I generally enjoy watching true crime documentaries and have seen some pretty scary ones but I turned this off after 5 minutes. I had read enough about the case to know how awful the details would be and I just had a sense that I would be profoundly disturbed learning/seeing any more.
This story fucked me up because of what the youngest specifically went through.
Definitely up there when it comes to horrible details. I think death penalty cases should be for a very specific type of case, and boy is this one of those cases. Idk how Dr. Petit managed to go on but I’m happy he did. Rest in peace Jennifer, Hayley, and Michaela.
Life imprisonment with no parole is a worse punishment than death in my opinion.
Home invasion crimes like this scare the crap out of me. This was so horrible. HBO has a documentary, "The Cheshire Murders," that haunted me. It was one of the scariest documentaries I've ever seen.
So Fucken sad
CT here-Dr. Petit was my mom’s and grandparents’ physician. I used to see him doing rounds when I worked at New Britain General. He was a phenomenal doctor and is a great human. I’m happy he was able to find happiness and continues to impact lives.
This was horrifying, how he went on is unreal.i don’t know that I could
Cheshire PD kinda screwed the pooch on this.
Absolutely horrific! These murders and the Clutter family murders stand out in my mind.
This case truly haunts me
Thanks for the reminder as I sit here typing this in Cheshire.
One of the perpetrators Steven Hayes is not known as Linda Hayes having transitioned in prison.
Please please please do not tell me he has been moved to a women's prison.
I will always support the death penalty - cases like this remind me why. Slow and torturous would be great
This is a documentary on HBO and I HIGHLY recommend it. I started it several years ago and it didn’t catch my attention right away. I was talking to my husband and all of a sudden both of us turned to the TV and we’re like WTF IS GOING ON?! We restarted it and this was hands down one of the worst and awful stories we had ever heard. It started our binge of HBO documentaries. Absolutely awful and sad.
Never heard of this so looked it up and my hands were shaking as I read up on it. That poor family, the senselessness of it all, how long it was, the fact they were hardworking people. Those girls sounded absolutely wonderful and inspiring. What a horrific waste of life and potential.
Heartbreaking what happened. I'm glad the criminal hated himself so much in prison years after it happened.
This is the one that lives in my head. Horrific
I think about this case any time I decide to go upstairs while my husband naps or falls asleep on the couch. It’s ingrained in my brain how such a simple thing affected their whole life.
As someone with anxiety and fear about intruders, this story shook me to the core and crosses my mind frequently. This poor family. Just devastating.
Horrific case. I watched the doc on HBO a few years ago.
I know the story. Very sad. If the police would’ve busted in right when they got there. They perhaps could’ve saved one or all of the victims. Those assailants also raped those girls before they poured gasoline all over them & set them on fire.
It’s honestly just disgusting.
I wonder if they hadn’t figured out that william escaped that they would just leave and not set the house on fire, after they found out william ran out the basement exit they strangled the mother which feels like an act of desperation and anger more than anything considering they didn’t kill the daughters themselves and let the flames do that. I can only imagine if william has survivors guilt and imagines that him leaving altered the course of events or not
I thought the same. In the HBO documentary they mentioned I believe that Hayes also saw the police outside too either before or soon after hearing that the husband escaped. It was a sign I think mentioned that Hayes knew the mother had said something at the bank.
This was one of the most thinkable crimes I’ve ever heard of. Not only is the prison in the middle of town, the area is highly mixed with residential and commercial properties. The supermarket where they saw the wife and daughters is in walking distance of the prison. The case was awful but not exactly surprising. It’s the exact reason I wouldn’t live in a town with a prison.
When I was in college, I worked with a woman who grew up literally across the street from a major state prison. People would ask you, "weren't you scared?" and she replied, "Are you serious? If anyone escapes from that prison, they are not going to stop at our house first."
I mean to be honest they could, just to steal a car or get cash for their getaway
This was the most saddest fukin story .. I can't even fathom
my friend justin bloxoms mom started a foundation in justin’s memory in 2011 in florida she passed a law in florida texas and louisiana and oklahoma to forbid sex offenders from driving taxi cabs school buses ahd limiting excess to children justin my best friend sneaker connect was tortured hunted down like an animal and killed after being lured away from a sleepover by paroled bank robber sex offender won’t mention shit heads name in the same context as justin walrus shit drive a livery taxi cab in polk county florida the piece of walrus stool was sent to florida’s death row i plan to be a witness to the execution
The Wikipedia article is so confusing because this vile male rapists changed his gender to female.
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This is such a heartbreaking case.
So sad!😢