Follow-Up to Connecticut

Back in July of 2007 I commented on the shocking and tragic case of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters. In the months since, things have moved forward with details emerging and the cases also progressing.

Naturally the two lowlifes who were apprehended in the victims' SUV are pleading innocent to strangling to death Jennifer Hawke-Petit, tieing her two daughters up, setting fire to the house, killing the two daughters, and auto theft. Somehow I dont think they are going to get off.

As I said details are emerging since a redacted copy of the police call log has been secured by the media. What emerges from my reading is a teller at the bank doing the right thing, the police following their procedures, and a father trying to do what he can to save his family. Unfortuately that bane of every soldier called the fog of war came into play.

William Petit had no way of knowing the police were already surrounding his house and all he probably could think of was to get to a neighbor's house and call the police. Meanwhile a call from Bank of America over the suspicious withdrawl of $15,000 caused the police to start their surveillance of the house to acquire information and gather the proper team to neogotiate with the criminals or to rush in for a rescue. As the police were doing this, William Petit made his desperate bid for freedom to rescue his family. And here is where I think things really came apart. The killers found that William Petit had escaped, got spooked into killing and torching the house, and then tried to flee in the SUV before William Petit could summon the police. Luckily for the whole community, the cops were there to stop these wicked men from causing even more grief.

If the court system had been more dilligent, then perhaps these two would not have met in a half-way house and decided to become partners. One or both would have been incarcerated for being repeat offenders. And William Petit would not now be a grieving husband and father who has seen his entire life obliterated. But that is all in the past made of what-ifs, the reality is they are now in jail awaiting trial and I hope a jury of their peers orders them locked away for life without parole.

Lets keep William Petit and all who knew Jennifer, Hayley, and Michaela in our thoughts and prayers.