An UNLOCKED DOOR

CHESHIRE - The two men police allege orchestrated the home invasion that resulted in the death of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters on Monday followed their victims home from a local supermarket Sunday evening, just hours before the family's horrific ordeal began, sources said Wednesday.

As Petit and her 11-year-old daughter, Michaela, were leaving the Stop & Shop in the Maplecroft Plaza a few miles from their 300 Sorghum Mill Drive home, Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were watching.

The two men followed the Petits as they drove home in their white Mercedes Benz sedan and then returned to the house just hours later, slipping in an unlocked back door, sources said.
They set the house on fire before leaving hours later after a brutal rampage.

With authorities revealing few details of the investigation, and the seemingly random nature of the crime, many in this town of 28,000 remain on edge.

"Since this happened, I'm afraid to go into my basement at night," said Jill Veiga, who is a next door neighbor to the Petit family.

Petit, 48, was strangled and daughers Michaela and Hayley, 17, died of smoke inhalation, according to the state medical examiner. All three deaths were ruled homicides. Dr. William Petit Jr., 50, who was beaten and bound in the basement, managed to escape. He remained hospitalized Wednesday in serious but stable condition.

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It appears that the men walked to the Petit's home from Quarry Village in the middle of the night, sources said, carrying what they needed with them, including the gasoline that was later used to set fire to the house.

Sources say the two men gained access to the home via an unlocked door at the rear of the house about 3 a.m. Monday. Later in the morning, one of the intruders forced Hawke-Petit to go to a local Bank of America branch, where she withdrew $15,000. Police say it was while she was withdrawing the money that Hawke-Petit was able to indicate to a teller that something was wrong. The bank notified police, and officers were simultaneously dispatched to the bank and the Petit home at 9:30 a.m. When police arrived at the home a few minutes later, the suspects were fleeing the burning house after pouring gasoline inside.

William Petit staggered from the home as officers arrived, the victim of an apparent baseball bat beating to his head and body. The two girls were reportedly tied to their beds, and at least some of the females were sexually assaulted.

The entire state of Connecticut is basically a suburb of New York City. How in the name of heaven do you live there without locking your doors at night and having, 1 - a burglar alarm and 2 - a firearm?

They got in through an unlocked door? If the door had been locked an a sign outside the house had identified it as being protected by a monitored alarm system the two scumbags would have gone on to the next place that looked like a soft target and left the Petits alone.

Also note that they brought the gasoline with them. They intended to burn the house down with the family inside. They saw Mrs. Petit and her 11-year-old daughter and thought they looked good for a bit of rape and robbery and didn't plan on leaving witnesses.

I'm not going to wax poetic about how these two pieces of filth deserve to die and what the method of execution should be. I'll just say this. These people did not have to die.

If Dr. and Mrs. Petit had possessed the foresight to protect themselves and their family with good sturdy locked doors and windows, a monitored alarm system - that they bothered to turn on at night, and firearms which the entire family were trained to use and had access to they would be alive today.