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GameChanger [Music] [Applause] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:42
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is the man that's been stuck in the upside down he is the
00:01:49
captain thank you thank you thank you it's good to be seen it's very good to be seen after all the binging I did this
00:01:56
weekend on Netflix and it's good to see you [Music] well it's good to see you Captain
00:02:05
because today my friend we are drinking Lonesome Boatman ale by the brilliant guys and girls over outer light Brewing
00:02:12
Company in Connecticut garage grade four out of five bottle caps Lonesome Boatman
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ale is a Red Ale it's very complex Red Ale Brey toasty and hoppy perfect for these colder months and Lonesome Boatman
00:02:25
ale was brought to us by first up we have Christopher in West Fork Arkansas and a big shout out to Lauren in
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Syracuse New York and a big thank you to Celeste in Island Lake Illinois and a big we like your jib to Mike and
00:02:39
Chesterfield Michigan and to the beautiful people in Parts Unknown we want to thank Daniel Angela and Sharon
00:02:45
yeah but if they don't have their parts Unknown to shirts they're kicked out okay I'm locking the doors if you don't
00:02:52
have a shirt and your ID badge and some at least some shoes on no open toad sandals spread in
00:03:02
fungus you're kicked out of Parts Unknown all right get your shoes on and last but not least all the way from the
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Gold Coast we have Paul in Pacific Pines Queensland Australia so cheers mates and
00:03:14
thanks to everybody for filling up the fridge for this week's show if you want to buy the captain around or you want to
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buy the Nick around for next week's show go to True Crim garage.com and click on
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the Donate button or maybe you want to buy the kernel around who's that anyway everybody get GA around grab a chair
00:03:31
grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Applause] [Music] crime we have a lady who is in our bank
00:03:50
right now who says that her husband and children are being held at their house the people are in a car outside
00:03:59
the the bank she is getting $115,000 to bring out to them that if the police are told they will kill the
00:04:06
children and the husband they have their faces covered she is petrified they told
00:04:12
us they wouldn't hurt anybody if she got back there with the money she believes them she I think she's walking out
00:04:21
now now now Jennifer Hawke was born in September of 1958 now in 1985 she met William Pettit
00:04:43
who was a third-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh he went by Bill we'll call him bill so bill was
00:04:50
tall he was a tall guy 6'4 he played basketball in high school and his freshman year in college before deciding
00:04:57
to focus on his studies so the two met Jennifer a new nurse and Bill was on pediatric rotation at
00:05:06
Children's Hospital MH their first date uh this was a very casual one uh with dinner and drinks uh Bill brought his
00:05:15
parents along for the date well that's that's a move you don't normally see yeah not not not a common thing here
00:05:24
meet my parents I guess this was not a planned move um you know this wasn't Bill like trying to take this this first
00:05:32
date this early relationship immediately to the next level I guess Bill was from
00:05:37
you know even when he was a child but more so as an adult he was very close with his mother and father M maybe too
00:05:45
close some said well to the point where they were like they were good friends right uh they would hang out together so
00:05:51
bill is getting ready to go out on this date getting ready to go pick up Jennifer and go to dinner when his
00:05:57
father called and just said casually you know hey what are you doing this evening
00:06:01
and Bill Bill's like well I'm getting ready to go out uh to dinner and have some drinks you want to join me and so
00:06:08
it turns out that the four of them have dinner and drinks together bill would later later say that this worked out
00:06:15
very well for him uh because his parents presence did not make Jennifer nervous at all um so everybody she had a great
00:06:23
time everybody had a great time and Bill's father insisted that he pay the check at the end of the night so Bill
00:06:31
jokingly says that that made Jennifer a cheap date they they pretty quickly Fell
00:06:37
in Love Jennifer and Bill and would eventually marry Jennifer and Bill they purchased a
00:06:42
home in 1987 this was a corner lot on sorghum Mill Drive in chesher Connecticut this
00:06:50
is a quiet street and a quiet neighborhood you know the type of street that not many travel down unless you
00:06:57
lived there or unless you were visiting somebody that lived lived there you would not drive down sorghum Mill Drive
00:07:03
now this is a pretty ritzy area yes this would be uh an upper class uh town and upper class neighborhood their daughter
00:07:12
Haley was born just about 2 years later in 1989 their second daughter Michaela was
00:07:18
born in 1995 now sometime during this time period Jennifer pedit was diagnosed with
00:07:26
multiple sclerosis Haley the older of the two daughters she was an active fundraiser
00:07:32
for MS and Michaela she loved to cook uh it was no secret that she loved to cook
00:07:38
the grandparents she cooked with and for the grandparents she cooked with and for
00:07:43
her parents now basketball remained in Bill's life and became a part of his family's life uh Bill held two season
00:07:52
tickets to both the women's and men's University of Connecticut basketball teams and he often took his daughter's
00:07:59
to the games now in 2007 Haley the oldest daughter she graduated from Miss Porter school and
00:08:08
she was scheduled to attend Dartmouth College Michaela attended Chase Collegiate School right so that's just a
00:08:16
little bit of the background of this family beautiful family smart individuals uh upper class neighborhood
00:08:23
uh doctor nurse smart kids and that kind of brings us up to 200 seven yeah Haley
00:08:30
was getting ready to go off to attend Dartmouth I would be lucky to be allowed to sweep the floors at Dartmouth College
00:08:38
they actually declined they turn me down for that um now our story takes place in
00:08:43
the summer of 2007 um starting with Sunday July 22nd uh the Pettit family attended chesher United Methodist Church
00:08:53
on this Sunday like many others uh they went to the 9:30 a.m. church service um this it was just the three just three
00:09:03
of the four family members though Bill Jennifer and 11-year-old Michaela now 17-year-old Haley as we had said who had
00:09:11
just graduated high school she had stayed the weekend with some friends you know everyone her age was spending much
00:09:18
time together that summer before they all went off to college right pretty typical after church the three members
00:09:25
of the Pettit family went home and Haley returned home from the weekend with her
00:09:30
friends it was a beautiful summer day uh bill and his father went to the country
00:09:35
club to play a round of golf Jennifer and the two girls piled into her van and drove off for an afternoon at the beach
00:09:44
that evening Jennifer called Bill to tell him that on the way home from the beach they had went to the Stop and Shop
00:09:52
grocery store this is a local grocery store and picked up some groceries Michaela as she did many nights wanted
00:09:59
to cook the family dinner uh with her mother's help so Jennifer was asking Bill to stop at a local farmers market
00:10:08
on his way home to pick up some fresh veggies to go with the meal bill got home and that night the petet family had
00:10:15
dinner together in the sunro of their home on that quiet street in chesher after dinner Bill read the newspaper
00:10:23
laying on a couch in the sunro the girls sat in the family room watching TV and at 11:00 p.m. the girls turned off
00:10:31
the TV they went upstairs to bed locking the doors and turning off the downstairs
00:10:38
lights Bill had fallen asleep on the couch in the sunro um with the newspaper on his chest Michaela went and she got
00:10:46
into bed with her mother and the two read a book together now this brings us to Monday July
00:10:55
23rd it's sometime between 2: and 3:00 a.m. bill is not really sure what is going on he's not even sure if he is
00:11:03
awake he can't see anything but he's being hit in the head with a baseball bat he's in a lot of pain well he's on
00:11:12
the couch mhm when he can finally pull it together he can see the black silhouette of two men standing in front
00:11:20
of him one with an arm reaching out to Bill and in his hand is a gun its Barrel is pointed at bill and the gun is right
00:11:28
in front of Bill's face the men tell Bill to get up and they tie his hands together first with zip ties and then
00:11:36
with rope they put some kind of cloth over Bill's head and then they force him to the floor so again he cannot see then
00:11:45
they tie his ankles again first with these zip ties and then with rope they tell Bill that they are they're just
00:11:52
here for the money right we're just here for the money and then we will leave they asked bill but we just smashed your
00:12:00
face in with baseball bat yeah they ask Bill where uh the safe is Bill tells them that they they do not have a safe
00:12:08
uh he can he can hear one of the men walking out of the room and he hears that man tell the other if he moves put
00:12:17
two bullets in him one of the men goes upstairs where he finds Michaela still in her mother's bed uh he wakes them and
00:12:26
he tells them the same thing he told Bill that hey we are just here for the money he pulls Michaela out of the room
00:12:33
and he puts her into her room the men then cover the mother and the daughter's faces uh by putting pillowcases over
00:12:42
their heads each is tied to their own bed the feet and wrist bound to the bed post after this bill can hear the men
00:12:52
searching through his home at some point the men are once again standing over top
00:12:58
of bill bill by this point is really unsure of what time this could be uh bill has been beaten very badly uh so
00:13:07
badly that it's hard for him to say if he has lost Consciousness at any point anyway they cut the zip ties that are
00:13:15
around Bill's ankles well he he has you know three to 4 in gaps in his skull and
00:13:22
he's bleeding pretty badly yeah he's been he's been hit in the the front and the back of of his head um and it's it's
00:13:31
kind of even hard to say how many times he's been struck in the head with this baseball bat yeah cuz his whole you know
00:13:38
forehead is basically split open uh and so I mean he could have been going in and out of Consciousness the whole time
00:13:45
mhm yeah they they cut the zip ties that are around Bill's ankles uh they pull him up to his feet and then they Usher
00:13:53
him to the kitchen and then down the basement steps so the the basement steps are directly off of the kitchen here his
00:14:02
hands are still tied together at this point and his face is still covered mhm the pettits the Pettit family their
00:14:09
basement is unfinished um so it's kind of easy for us to Picture This basement right you have a concrete floor cold
00:14:17
concrete walls those steel support Post in the center portions of the basement the men then remove the zip ties from
00:14:26
Bill's wrist they sit him down uh his back is up against one of those support posts in the basement then they put his
00:14:34
arms behind him and around the post and zip tie his wrist together once again they zip tie his ankles together and tie
00:14:43
rope around both his wrist and ankles and then they leave him um you know but before they leave him they cover his
00:14:52
face with like an old quilt that they found lying around in the basement yeah um so once again bill can hear the men
00:15:00
uh but he cannot see them so at this point he can hear them rumaging through the home uh apparently looking for
00:15:08
valuables uh they are opening up closet doors they're pulling out drawers uh but
00:15:14
they are finding very little bill is trying to figure this whole thing out he he gets the idea that he should start
00:15:22
moving up and down on the pole he wants to create friction against the rope and the zip ties That on his wrist mhm
00:15:31
here's here's what he can figure out right bill has no firearms uh in the home and he didn't have zip ties or rope
00:15:39
in his home so those items he could figure out that the men had brought with them the bat that the men used to beat
00:15:47
bill in the head he believed probably had belonged to him that they had found it someplace before they had attacked
00:15:55
him right at some point he can hear bir birds singing and chirping outside Bill knew that this meant that at that point
00:16:04
it would have been about 4:45 a.m. in the morning mhm he then hears something in the basement click on
00:16:13
this is the irrigation kicking on so he knows that the irrigation at his home comes on at 5:30 a.m. remember bill has
00:16:21
lived here for about 20 years so even though he is he's in this concussed fog uh he's doing his best to try to figure
00:16:31
this whole strange and painful situation to which he he woke to he's trying to figure this thing out right so he's
00:16:38
doing his best to monitor the situation even though he is bound and helpless in his own basement and by now he has lost
00:16:46
a lot of blood and he's he's very weak at this point well and also if anybody's been cuffed with you know ties before I
00:16:54
mean that cuts your wrist really bad so even though you're trying to create that
00:16:59
friction to against the pole to release yourself you know it's probably cutting up your wrist pretty bad well at some
00:17:06
point he can hear his wife speaking with the men this means Bill believes them to
00:17:13
be in the kitchen as he could not hear them before and the kitchen is the closest room to bill now we said that
00:17:21
the burglars had not made the Big Score as they had thought I mean you got to you got to picture this situation like
00:17:28
the Captain said this is a nice neighborhood this is an upper class neighborhood this is a big home it's a
00:17:34
little bit beyond nice yeah so when you view the home from the outside these guys are thinking oh there's diamonds
00:17:42
and gold and stacks of cash inside well if you look at a lot of the average houses in in Cheshire it's like it
00:17:50
almost looks like somebody built a house and then they built another house and then they connected them that's the norm
00:17:58
size of houses there you know what I find funny here and well not funny is not the right word but um maybe unique
00:18:06
is is the better word um Bill he's he's a very successful doctor right um he's he's considered like a specialist in
00:18:15
diabetes especially for the area his wife a nurse she may have have become a stay-at-home mom at some point I'm not
00:18:21
I'm not certain um and then we have the kids who we have the kids who are very uh smart kids
00:18:28
um and the thing is though even though there we have two very successful smart parents yeah they seem to me to be
00:18:39
pretty modest and reasonable people like they don't seem to be they're not living above their
00:18:45
means they're not they don't they don't have a bunch of fancy uh possessions right um the house is not extravagant um
00:18:54
these seem to be very downto Earth uh successful people the house is still pretty big though it is it is a nice one
00:19:01
it's not like but like I said the normal house in Cheshire is like a house connected by another house and that
00:19:08
would be your house and their house was definitely modest compared to those well
00:19:12
they do have the the well-manicured lawn they have the you know the Nice Landscaping outside which I believe um
00:19:19
Jennifer bill and the kids spent time on those things together uh as far as the upkeep of their home um now so we had
00:19:29
said that the burglars had not made the big score that they were hoping for by this point the men had confiscated
00:19:37
Bill's wallet and Haley's wallet as well now Bill's wallet had no cash zero dollars in it right uh Haley's the she's
00:19:46
the oldest daughter had $103 uh cash and a bunch of small gift cards to like local stores and shops M
00:19:56
um these she had Reed received as presents for her recent graduation um the two had also found a
00:20:04
big bar a big jar of full of change and they had emptied the jar into a bag so they could take it with them so a pretty
00:20:13
pathetic score for these two house burglar so we said that bill could hear his wife Jennifer speaking with the two
00:20:21
men she is calmly and politely telling the men that if they are going to go to the bank
00:20:28
she would need to get her purse for her identification and she would also need her husband's uh Bill's checkbook right
00:20:38
so the burglars had ransacked the house finding very little right but one thing they did find was a bank book and
00:20:45
according to the bank book The pedits had an account with about $30,000 in it the two men had decided on a plan that
00:20:54
at 900 a.m. the bank would open and after the bank is open one guy is going to drive Mrs Pettit to the bank where
00:21:04
she will withdraw $155,000 and this is at what time um that they've come up with this plan
00:21:12
right um I do not know what time this is uh but it would would have been after 5:30 a.m. when Bill heard the irrigation
00:21:21
click on so for whatever reason the two of these guys that have broken into the home and this family they come up with
00:21:30
this number of $155,000 that they're going to withdraw um from the pettit's bank account with
00:21:37
Miss Mrs Pettit uh in tow when the bank opens up at 9:00 a.m. meanwhile it's weird that you just want to have her
00:21:44
withdraw the full amount yeah I I I don't know the reasoning behind that but meanwhile the other man the plan is for
00:21:52
the other man to stay behind at the pet at home so the two bad guys will have the ability to communicate with each
00:21:59
other via their cell phones if Mrs Pettit tries anything funny uh then the man left behind at the home will kill
00:22:08
her husband and two children so now the men and the Pettit family to which they have taken captive they are just waiting
00:22:17
for 9:00 a.m. to happen in the meantime Bill hears his wife leaving a message for Bill's nurse and assistant this
00:22:26
message is just um Bill's wife Jennifer explaining that bill is not feeling well
00:22:32
right uh he won't be able to go into work to that day uh she will need to call and cancel all of Bill's
00:22:40
appointments um Bill hearing this is hoping that this would be a red flag I don't know that it would be but his his
00:22:47
reasoning is you know he' had this practice for many many years and he he couldn't recall having called off before
00:22:56
um if he had ever been sick to the point point of canceling appointments it may have happened once uh so Bill hearing
00:23:02
this is hoping this could be a potential red flag that that somebody on the outside might contact the home or call
00:23:08
the home anyway uh one of the men goes out to Bill pettit's garage there he finds
00:23:17
some empty washer fluid jugs uh the man then drives Jennifer Pettit she has a Chrysler Pacifica van right uh he drives
00:23:27
this van to a nearby gas station the man fills the two empty washer fluid jugs with gasoline $10 worth uh he does not
00:23:38
put any gas in the van at all he pays cash for the $10 worth of gas and then he drives back to the pet at
00:23:47
home twice throughout the night Bill herd um remember he cannot see anything because they have covered his head but
00:23:55
twice throughout the night he heard someone come down down the steps uh the pettits have a refrigerator in their
00:24:02
basement uh inside this refrigerator is mainly soda and beer well twice he had heard someone come down the steps open
00:24:10
up the fridge and crack open a can now Bill gets a little Hope from hearing this whole plan of going to the bank um
00:24:20
you know is this a bad idea yeah I mean here's he considers it to be a bit of a dumb move by these men you know because
00:24:28
they're going to have to go out into public with Jennifer um you know so bill is hoping that this is an opportunity
00:24:36
that the men could make a mistake uh maybe someone at the bank can become aware that Jennifer is in trouble maybe
00:24:44
the police get notified and are sent to the home um but at some point he hears um what sounds like the man one of the
00:24:53
men returning to the home and a little bit later he now I'm guessing this is sometime near 9:00 a.m. because Bill can
00:25:02
hear what sounds to be like his wife and one of the men leaving the home he's assuming that they're going to the bank
00:25:09
right and that's exactly what's taking place so as directed Jennifer walks into the Bank of America after she's driven
00:25:18
there by one of the men in her own van in her Chrysler Pacific a van uh this is their local branch of uh Bank of America
00:25:27
she walks in there and she tries to appear calm even though her family has been tied up and terrorized for hours
00:25:35
and you know basically under the control of these two Mad Men Who had broken into
00:25:41
their home in the middle of the night so Jennifer walks calmly into the bank and
00:25:46
just like we all have before she waited for the next available teller well when the teller comes over
00:25:54
ask if she can help her with anything uh Jennifer requested a withdrawal of $155,000 which as a teller you kind of
00:26:03
go whoa that's a big withdrawal yeah and the teller asked Jennifer for identification Jennifer explained that
00:26:10
she did not have any but she would still need to withdraw the money the teller then tells Jennifer I need to see your
00:26:18
ID and I will need your husband to be present as well to approve a withdrawal of this
00:26:26
amount that is when Jennifer as calm as she could she explained to the teller that there are two men who have broken
00:26:35
into my home and taken my family hostage if she does not give them $115,000 right away they are going to
00:26:44
kill her daughters and her husband yeah the teller then turned and went to the branch manager the teller whispered um
00:26:55
what she knew to the manager manager uh the manager approached Jennifer Pettit and asked her for ID Jennifer held her
00:27:05
pocketbook open showing that she had no identification with her uh she explained
00:27:10
to the manager that the two men had taken her ID cards and would not let her have them Jennifer then showed the
00:27:18
manager pictures of her two daughters and then told her how the men would kill them and her husband if she did not
00:27:26
bring them this money right away and then what does the manager do well the the man the manager is supposed to
00:27:35
assess the situation as quickly as possible you know to figure out is this some kind of scam or is this is this
00:27:42
somebody that's in trouble right that we need to help out here so you would think
00:27:46
that this Branch would actually know who the pedits were yeah I I didn't get that
00:27:51
impression that they did but um maybe they but you know maybe Bill didn't do his bank Bing at the local branch maybe
00:27:59
he went somewhere closer to work who knows yeah and the the thing here is the manager basically says having seen the
00:28:06
pictures of the two daughters and then the look on Jennifer's face the look in her eyes she could tell something was
00:28:15
not right for Jennifer that day and so she very quickly approved the transaction uh the tell the teller
00:28:24
started to process this transaction uh and eventually would give Jennifer the money this is cash money uh meanwhile
00:28:32
the manager called 911 and just as calmly as Jennifer had walked into the bank uh she walked out
00:28:42
she then walked out with the money we'll get right back into this after this quick beer
00:28:48
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freedom [Music] now all right cheers mates happy Halloween happy Halloween so we have
00:31:08
this situation where two men break into the pett family home in the middle of the night probably between 2 and 3 a.m.
00:31:18
and we have four people in the home Bill his wife his two daughters and they devis this plan because they don't find
00:31:26
much of value in the home they devis this plan that they're going to drive Mrs Pettit to the bank and they're going
00:31:32
to have her withdraw $115,000 and if she returns to them with the money they say they're going to
00:31:40
leave they will leave her and her family uh after this action takes place well they take her to the bank and of course
00:31:48
the bank surveillance cameras they capture the transaction which shows Jennifer Pettit as she informed the
00:31:55
teller as to her situation uh as we had said the bank manager then called 911 reported the details to the
00:32:02
police while Jennifer was still with the teller the manager reported to the 911 dispatcher in real time as Jennifer left
00:32:11
the bank and was then picked up by the van driven by one of the men who had broken into her home the bank manager
00:32:18
described the man and described his clothing as he drove away with Jennifer well I describe the car as well but a
00:32:27
lot of people you know have speculated why didn't Jennifer try to stay in the bank longer uh she was actually in there
00:32:33
longer than actually originally planned by the Invaders and so she she kind of she tried to give as much information as
00:32:42
she could and stay in there a little bit longer but you know you also have you you have that fear in the back of your
00:32:49
mind that you know if if I don't make this transaction quickly he's going to assume something's up and he he's One
00:32:57
Call Away or one text away from possibly my family being murdered yeah and we played the 911 call for you at the
00:33:06
beginning of this episode this was Mary Lions uh that did the 911 call she was the manager there uh she tells the 911
00:33:14
operator basically we have a lady in our bank that says her husband and children
00:33:19
are being held in their house uh the people who are waiting out there are people that are waiting for her outside
00:33:26
of the bank in a car she's getting $115,000 to bring to them if the police are told they will kill her children and
00:33:34
her husband uh they have their faces covered and she meaning Jennifer is petrified they told her they would not
00:33:43
hurt anyone if she gets back there with the money and Jennifer believes them the
00:33:49
chesher police responded to this 911 call by sending an unmarked car several unmarked cars in fact back to the
00:33:58
pettit's neighborhood they began calling officers and sending marked cars to the
00:34:03
neighborhood as well the marked cars were to block off traffic in and out of the neighborhood once the police started
00:34:12
to arrive on scene they would establish and build a perimeter around the house this would be after they do a couple of
00:34:20
these Drive buys to see if they can gain any knowledge regarding the type of activity that may be going on on inside
00:34:28
right um the how and of course uh the why and of course to see if they could learn anything about the two
00:34:35
perpetrators well and they don't know if it's just two correct they're they're told to but you don't know that and we
00:34:42
we don't know how little you know even though Jennifer told the bank teller and the manager what's going on we don't
00:34:49
know how little she knows you know there's a situation where it's a big home she's seen two people there could
00:34:56
be other people in that home well when they first do the uh driveby when the police first do the driveby in the
00:35:02
unmarked car they see that the Chrysler Pacifica van that was driven to the bank
00:35:08
had already returned to the house and it is in the driveway M they can see no lights um or activity in the windows of
00:35:18
the home right but their curtains aren't drawn you you can see into the house yeah and I actually um we have a
00:35:25
situation where I believe Jennifer's sister stated that um and this is how kind of modest the pedits were she said
00:35:33
you know they had this big beautiful home and my sister didn't even really own any curtains um didn't put curtains
00:35:39
in the window um and so they see no lights they see no activity as the captain pointed out there there's not a
00:35:46
whole lot obstructing their view um we have the officer in charge uh he has the telephone number for the
00:35:56
Pettit house right and he also has cell phone numbers for the members of the Pettit
00:36:03
family but he has to go off of what information he has you know what has been reported to them the men had
00:36:11
threatened Mrs Pettit and her family but according to Mrs pet according to Jennifer they had been
00:36:18
nice uh also they were going to leave they were going to leave once they got their money um but the other information
00:36:26
had is that they would kill the family if the police had found out about the situation right and keep in mind that
00:36:33
this is a very small town Cheshire is pretty small I mean the population at this point is well you know not well
00:36:40
under but it's definitely under 30,000 right so it's a pretty small community so what kind of technology and what kind
00:36:48
of training did this police force have yeah and these type of Hostage situations they're not common you know
00:36:57
and especially you would you would guess in a town of of that size that this may
00:37:01
be something they've not dealt with before and so basically that's what you're working with here you have the
00:37:07
situation where that they've been nice the perpetrators have been nice they're going to leave once they get the money
00:37:13
we know they have the money but they're going to kill the family if the police finds out what's going on so that's what
00:37:20
you have to try to form a game plan with and the officer in charge now he starts
00:37:25
sending officers to position themselves he's sending them to positions in the wooded area behind the Pettit family
00:37:33
home right so let's go back into the house for a second here right because by now it's got to be near 10: a.m. this is
00:37:41
Bill guessing bill is still tied up to the steel support pole in his basement um he has been beaten in the head with
00:37:49
that baseball bat his wrists are still bound behind his back and around the pole yeah but let's not go with what he
00:37:56
thinks I mean the call came into the police at 9:24 mhm so um by the time they head back uh this is before
00:38:05
10:00 right um and he's still tied up with those zip ties in the Rope we should point out that the zip ties are
00:38:13
so tight around his wrist that they are actually slicing into his skin right like I said before his feet are bound
00:38:20
with the zip ties as well and the Rope the men who put them there for some reason they put this cloth over his head
00:38:28
obviously so he couldn't see but they've also thrown some type of quilt over top
00:38:32
of him as well so what he can see are really only Shadows throughout the night and at this point but they also oddly
00:38:40
place down pillows mhm because it's a hard concrete floor so again I think that's some evidence that you know their
00:38:48
motive is money and and not murder now they have uh he's lost a lot of blood like we said from his head
00:38:55
wounds bill has spent hours moving up and down on the pole and twisting his wrist in his hands hoping the friction
00:39:04
in the twisting will eventually wear on the zip ties so he can break free and like the captain said for some strange
00:39:11
reason they put those cushions under him uh the cushions by this point are now stained red with Bill's blood right and
00:39:18
Bill's eyes Sting from the blood and the sweat that are running into them bill can hear noises from upstairs but he is
00:39:26
unsure of what he is hearing he hears some kind of some thumping he says that it sounds like somebody was throwing you
00:39:34
know like a a 20 lb bag of sand onto the ground onto the floor above him uh he tries to yell out um and when he does he
00:39:44
he then hears a voice from the upstairs yell back at him that says don't worry this will all be over in a couple of
00:39:52
minutes well Bill takes this to mean that the men terrorized his family will soon shoot all four of them and then
00:40:00
leave them dead in their home mhm Bill works hard and faster to try to weaken the restraints around his wrist and arms
00:40:10
finally after trying for hours the zip ties on his wrist they break and the Rope comes loose Bill reaches down but
00:40:18
he cannot break the plastic ties around his ankles the pet at home on soram Mill
00:40:24
Drive has two doors that lead to the basement one like we said at the top of the flight of stairs
00:40:31
um which leads to the kitchen right the other is this it's a Cellar door that leads to the
00:40:39
backyard up to the Cellar Door is a a shorter flight of stairs bill is going to attempt to make it up these stairs
00:40:49
and out the Cellar Door and over to the neighbor's home hoping that he can notify the neighbor what's going on on
00:40:56
and call 911 and notify the police bill goes over to the stairs and one step at a time he pulls himself up and then
00:41:05
pushes open the Cellar Door by this time it's raining outside he swings his legs
00:41:13
onto the lawn and then through a series of rolling and crawling he somehow makes
00:41:20
his way this is just a little more than 50 feet away from this door over to his neighbor's home um his neighbor Dave
00:41:28
Bill's still lying on the ground he pounds on Dave's Garage Door after several attempts the door finally opens
00:41:36
and there's Dave Dave has known bill for like 18 years by this point remember we
00:41:42
said Bill lived in the home for 20 years before this this incident took place but
00:41:48
but Dave looks at Bill and he cannot recognize him bill is so badly beaten and covered in blood that Dave shouts at
00:41:56
bill can I help you can I help you sir and Bill louder than Dave yells back Dave it's me Dave it's me it's Bill it's
00:42:05
Bill call 911 call 911 now remember by this time we have police officers that are stationed and positioned all around
00:42:13
the pet at home and throughout the neighborhood right so I assume some of these officers actually saw Bill coming
00:42:19
out of the house yeah yeah one of them who has been watching the pet at home um I'm not sure if it was one from the
00:42:26
Street or from behind a tree in the backyards of the H backyard of sorghum Mill Drive um he approaches the two men
00:42:35
uh this being bill and his neighbor Dave he approaches the two men with his gun drawn aiming the gun at the bloodied man
00:42:44
bill on the ground and the officer the officer orders Bill to stay down and then a second officer appears out of the
00:42:52
rain one of the officers shouts at Bill who is in the house to which Bill replies the girls the officer yells
00:43:01
again who is in the house and Bill yells back the girls the girls are in the house right and this I I think shows
00:43:11
lack of training well very quickly after this this takes place a call on the police radio reports
00:43:20
that there is a man at the neighbor's home yelling and it's believed that the man is from the pet house right now the
00:43:29
officer in charge he's stationed close to an and with a good view of the pet at home he hears this call go out on his
00:43:39
radio he's actually Reaching For His Radio to request more information when he sees someone fleeing the pet at home
00:43:48
running with a bag in his hand toward the van in the driveway and another call goes out on the police radio announcing
00:43:55
that the suspects are on the move the officer in charge then sees a second man wearing a hat fleeing the home the
00:44:04
younger thinner suspect gets in the driver's side and the older heavier suspect gets in the passenger side of
00:44:12
the vehicle the driver slams the vehicle into reverse this is the Chrysler Pacifica van and the Pacifica goes
00:44:21
flying backing out of the pedit driveway yeah and I would just want to be clear that this is the pettit's car yes
00:44:28
Jennifer pettit's van that was driven to the to the bank by the perpetrators now
00:44:33
they're fleeing in her van as well but we have a couple problems happening here so we have the suspects leaving in the
00:44:40
ped's vehicle we got to stop them but uh cops also heard screams from inside the
00:44:47
house and also the house is now on fire yeah um and I don't know that they that all of the the officers have recognize
00:44:56
this by this point uh the officer in charge says that he has not seen the fire he's kind of focusing on this van
00:45:03
at this point which is right in front of him and it violently backs out you know
00:45:08
at a very high rate of speed backing out of the Pettit driveway and into one of the officer cars the police near the
00:45:17
police vehicle they draw their guns and they aim them at the driver and passenger of this van the driver slams
00:45:24
the Pacifica into to drive into drive mode squeals the tires and rushes from in front of the driveway down the street
00:45:33
at a very high rate of speed and takes the corner ahead the officers can no longer see the Pacifica but they hear a
00:45:42
loud crash the two suspects had crashed the van into a parked into two parked police cruisers that had been set up to
00:45:52
stop traffic going in and out of the neighborhood both of the suspects are forced to the ground um they're being
00:46:00
asked by the officers who have guns on them who they are what was going on in the house who is in the house and then
00:46:09
the officers take the two suspects into custody they make arrest there and now they can focus on clearing the house at
00:46:18
10:15 a.m. Bill pettit's mother Barbara calls her husband this is Bill senior she tells him that the alarm company
00:46:27
from their son's house has called the smoke detectors triggered this call when no one at the home answered the alarm
00:46:36
company they then called the backup number listed right which was Bill's parents Bill senior was already out and
00:46:44
about that day he tried calling members of the family himself but he got their voicemail
00:46:51
greetings then since he was in the neighborhood he thought he would swing by Bill's medical office he gets there
00:46:59
and the nurse tells him that Jennifer had left a message that bill was sick and not coming in to work Bill senior
00:47:07
then decides to go to the pet at home because their home is relatively close to Bill's medical office so he wants to
00:47:15
go to the home and check on the house and check on his son as he gets near the home an ambulance and several police
00:47:24
cars pass him going opposite direction he then sees what looks to be Jennifer's Chrysler Pacific AV crashed and smashed
00:47:33
on the side of the road he can't get too close to the house because the police have set up a roadblock right he tells
00:47:42
one of the officers who he is you know I'm I'm I'm Bill pet Senor I'm I'm Bill's father uh and he tells him that
00:47:50
the crashed vehicle looks to be his daughter-in-law's vehicle and he needs to be let through the officer explains
00:47:58
that he will have to get someone to come over and speak with him well while Bill
00:48:04
senior Waits he's trying to piece this whole thing together why was Jennifer's van smashed and was Jennifer okay and
00:48:14
what did that have to do with the smoke alarm going off at the home or his or his son being sick and missing work at
00:48:23
this point the Pit's property I mean it's it's just a it's a giant crime scene and it's chaotic mhm well
00:48:29
eventually an officer approached Bill senior and explained to him that there has been a fire at the pettit's home he
00:48:38
tells him that your son is on his way to the hospital and there are three people
00:48:45
deceased in the home Bill Pettit Senor calls his family members first his wife and then his
00:48:52
daughter and tells them the terrible sad news he struggles to get the words out um he has to tell them that that his
00:49:00
wife's son Bill Junior and his daughter's brother is is near death and going to the hospital and all of the
00:49:11
girls are dead Bill Pettit Jr was rushed to the emergency room uh like we said he
00:49:19
had been beaten very badly beaten so badly in the face and head that his parents and sister when they arrived
00:49:28
they didn't recognize him he has bruises and cuts around his wrist and ankles and
00:49:34
he has lost a lot of blood he's lost seven pints of blood by this's lucky to be alive with losing that much blood and
00:49:43
then also just the the gash you know there he has some gashes on the back of his head which can't
00:49:49
really see because of his hair obviously MH but it's um it's the gash on the front of his face I mean it's you know I
00:49:57
mean not to make lightly of it but when you think of somebody dressing up you know a Halloween costume or something
00:50:03
you know putting a big fake gash on their head that's what it looks like yeah it's it's gruesome and it's big
00:50:10
yeah and in pictures uh pictures of Bill shortly after this took place like you said you can't really see the Damage
00:50:18
Done to the top or the back of his head um but you can see where there's large portions of his hair that is is missing
00:50:26
um you can tell that from the front pictures of him and the best way to describe this wound to the front of his
00:50:33
head is it it basically runs from his hairline down to one of his eyebrows and it almost looks like somebody put a
00:50:40
zipper there right um and it's uh terrible terrible wound well and then like we said I mean with these zip ties
00:50:49
you know he was only Bound for you know a handful of hours but the amount of damage and bruising they did to him is I
00:50:57
mean is pretty severe yeah and some of that he had to do to himself to try to to eventually be able to weaken them to
00:51:04
the point where he could escape from his own basement yeah and then his wife's family's going to show up and I think
00:51:12
one of the saddest things reading was you know he loved his wife and his wife family shows up to see him in the
00:51:20
hospital and he's basically apologizing that he couldn't do any more to help that he didn't stop him that he left the
00:51:29
house and he wishes you know like we said there was two exits one outside the house to go get help to go to the
00:51:36
neighbor's house call 911 and the other option would have been to go upstairs and and try to attack these uh you and
00:51:45
again you don't even know how many people I mean you had two guys beat you up but you don't know that there's only
00:51:50
two guys and and he was apologizing to them and wishing he could done more I mean that would have been a sad sad
00:51:59
situation yeah and her parents Jennifer's parents explained to bill that you do you don't have anything that
00:52:06
you need to apologize to anybody for and we are lucky just to have you and you know thinking about that situation of
00:52:15
Bill being in the basement you have to again it's a similar situation where you you have to think about the cops outside
00:52:23
that are trying to build this perimeter you can only go off of what very little information you know Bill doesn't know
00:52:30
what's taking place upstairs in his home he doesn't know that his home is being surrounded by the police that they've
00:52:37
already been notified right what he does know is this at one point there's a gun
00:52:42
in his face he has no firearms on him he has you know if they choose to use that
00:52:48
gun he has no ability of Defending his family and secondly by this point he's lost seven pints of blood he's extremely
00:52:56
weak by this point this is a guy that that also suffered from low blood pressure um and we know losing that
00:53:03
amount of blood's going to cause that blood pressure to drop and drop and drop and drop to dangerously low numbers
00:53:09
right and like I was saying before it's he probably went in and out of Consciousness M multiple times and might
00:53:16
not even realized it mhm and by this point he's he's weak he's been beaten upon the head he can't get the toe off
00:53:26
around his ankles I think that that the thought here and it has to be the thought here
00:53:32
is that your best bet is to go and get some real help because what kind of real help is Bill going to be able to offer
00:53:40
other than that it once he got upstairs if he gets upstairs and he tries to defend his family it's very easy for
00:53:46
them to put one in his head put a bullet in his head and boom that that that help
00:53:51
ended right there well and I think that's the big big conundrum when it comes down to hostage situations anyways
00:53:59
you know do you fight back you know and does that cause more harm to yourself and to others or do you let it play out
00:54:09
and I think that's the question in every hostage situation I think that's a question that the police have to face as
00:54:14
well now remember Jennifer's van had been driven by the two men who had broke into the home crashed into the two
00:54:21
police cars that were blocking traffic and thankfully the police arrested those men so now we have two guys in custody
00:54:29
the police arrested Joshua carfi and he was the younger thinner uh suspect that we said was fleeing from
00:54:36
the house H Joshua was in his late 20s back in 2007 a career criminal in and out of trouble for most of his adult
00:54:46
life they also arrested Stephen Hayes he was the older more heavy set one Stephen
00:54:52
Hayes was almost 20 years older thann Joshua uh they arrested both those men on that day on Monday July
00:55:01
23rd now the damage that was done um as the captain had said the home was very badly destroyed uh by this fire
00:55:13
uh there was a fire that was set in several rooms of the home we have Bill Pettit Jr uh who had survived this
00:55:22
incident and sadly his wife Jennifer and his daughters Haley and Michaela did not
00:55:28
then the question becomes for the pedit family uh for the law enforcement for the
00:55:35
community why did this happen and what actually happened and what is going to be the punishment for these two
00:55:42
individuals and what could have been done differently to stop this type of situation
00:55:52
[Music] now all right we want to thank everybody for listening we want to thank you for
00:55:59
telling your friends about the show hopefully everybody has had a wonderful and safe and happy Halloween we have
00:56:05
much more to get to in tomorrow's episode The how and the why there's a lot of answers that we need here Captain
00:56:12
yeah and hopefully nobody found any razor blades in their Halloween candy all right Captain happy Halloween to you
00:56:18
to everybody out there until next time be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause]
00:56:41
[Music] you can start your day off right when you find a professional on Angie to
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get your plumbing right first connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well
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visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that