00:00:10
[Music] [Applause] thank you foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are
00:00:48
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is the man that's been stuck in the upside down he
00:00:54
is the captain thank you thank you thank you it's good to be seen it's very good
00:00:59
to be seen after all the binging I did this weekend on Netflix and it's good to see you
00:01:07
foreign because today my friend we are drinking Lonesome boat man ale by the brilliant
00:01:15
guys and girls over outer light Brewing Company in Connecticut garage grade 4 out of five bottle caps Lonesome Boatman
00:01:23
ale is a Red Ale it's very complex Red Ale bready toasty and hoppy perfect for these colder months and Lonesome Boatman
00:01:30
ale was brought to us by first up we have Christopher in West Fork Arkansas and a big shout out to Lauren in
00:01:37
Syracuse New York and a big thank you to Celeste in Island Lake Illinois and a big wheel like yojib to Mike and
00:01:44
Chesterfield Michigan and to the beautiful people and Parts Unknown we want to thank Daniel Angela and Sharon
00:01:51
yeah but if they don't have their parts Unknown t-shirts they're kicked out okay
00:01:55
I'm locking the doors if you don't have a shirt and your ID badge and some at least some shoes on no open-toed sandals
00:02:06
spread and fungus you're kicked out of Parts Unknown alright get your shoes on and last but
00:02:12
not least all the way from the Gold Coast we have Paul and Pacific Pines Queensland Australia so cheers mates and
00:02:20
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
00:02:25
buy the Nick around for next week's show go to True Crime garage.com and click on
00:02:30
the Donate button or maybe you want to buy the kernel around who's that anyway everybody gather round grab a chair grab
00:02:37
a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] and children are being held at their
00:03:02
house the people are in a car outside the bank she is getting fifteen thousand dollars to bring out to them that if the
00:03:10
police are told they will kill the children and the husband they have their faces covered she is petrified they told
00:03:18
us they wouldn't hurt anybody if she got back there with the money she believes him I think she's walking out now
00:03:24
foreign Jennifer Hawk was born in September of 1958. now in 1985 she met William Pettit
00:03:48
who was a third year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh he went by Bill we'll call him bill so bill was
00:03:56
tall he was a tall guy six foot four he played basketball in high school and his
00:04:01
freshman year in college before deciding to focus on his studies so the two men Jennifer a new nurse and Bill was on
00:04:09
pediatric rotation at Children's Hospital their first date this was a very casual one with dinner and drinks
00:04:20
Bill brought his parents along for the date well that's that's a move you don't normally see yeah not not a common thing
00:04:29
here I eat my parents I guess this was not a planned move um you know this wasn't Bill like trying
00:04:35
to take this this first date this early relationship immediately to the next level I guess Bill was from you know
00:04:43
even when he was a child but more so as an adult he was very close with his mother and father and too close some
00:04:51
said well to the point where they were like they were good friends right they would hang out together so bill is
00:04:57
getting ready to go out on this date getting ready to go pick up Jennifer and go to dinner when his father called and
00:05:04
just said casually you know hey what are you doing this evening and Bill Bill's like well I'm getting ready to go out uh
00:05:10
to dinner and have some drinks you want to join me and so it turns out that the four of
00:05:16
them have dinner and drinks together bill would later later say that this worked out very well for him uh because
00:05:23
his parents presence did not make Jennifer nervous at all um so everybody she had a great time
00:05:29
everybody had a great time and Bill's father insisted that he paid the check at the end of the night so Bill jokingly
00:05:37
says that that made Jennifer a cheap date they they pretty quickly Fell in Love Jennifer and Bill and would
00:05:44
eventually marry Jennifer and Bill they purchased a home in 1987. this was a corner lot on
00:05:52
sorghum Mill Drive in Cheshire Connecticut this is a quiet street and a quiet neighborhood you know the type of
00:06:00
street that not many travel down unless you live there unless you were visiting somebody that lived there you would not
00:06:06
drive down sorghum Mill Drive now this is a pretty ritzy area yes this would be an upper class uh town
00:06:15
and upper class neighborhood their daughter Haley was born just about two years later in 1989. their second
00:06:23
daughter Michaela was born in 1995. now sometime during this time period Jennifer Pettit was diagnosed with
00:06:32
multiple sclerosis Haley the older of the two daughters she was an active fundraiser for MS and
00:06:40
Michaela she loved to cook uh it was no secret that she loved to cook the grandparents she cooked with and for the
00:06:47
grandparents she cooked with and for her parents now basketball remained in Bill's life and became a part of his
00:06:54
family's life Bill held two season tickets to both the women's and men's University of Connecticut basketball
00:07:02
teams and he often took his daughters to the games now in 2007 Haley the oldest daughter
00:07:11
she graduated from Miss Porter's school and she was scheduled to attend Dartmouth College
00:07:17
Michaela attended Chase Collegiate School right so that's just a little bit of the background of this family
00:07:24
beautiful family smart individuals uh upper class Neighborhood Doctor nurse smart kids and that kind of brings us up
00:07:34
to 2007. yeah Haley was getting ready to go off to attend Dartmouth I would be lucky to be allowed to sweep the floors
00:07:42
at Dartmouth College they actually declined they turned me down for that um now our story takes place in the
00:07:49
summer of 2007 starting with Sunday July 22nd the Pettit family attended Cheshire
00:07:56
United Methodist Church on this Sunday like many others they went to the 9 30 a.m church service
00:08:06
um this it was just the three just three of the four family members though Bill Jennifer an 11 year old Michaela now
00:08:14
seventeen-year-old Haley as we had said who had just graduated high school she had stayed the weekend with some friends
00:08:21
you know everyone her age was spending much time together that summer before they all went off to college right
00:08:28
pretty typical after church the three members of the pet that family went home and Haley returned home from the weekend
00:08:35
with her friends it was a beautiful summer day bill and his father went to the country club to play a round of golf
00:08:43
Jennifer and the two girls piled into her van and drove off for an afternoon at the beach
00:08:49
that evening Jennifer called Bill to tell him that on the way home from the beach they had went to the Stop and Shop
00:08:58
grocery store this is a local grocery store and picked up some groceries Michaela as she did many nights wanted
00:09:05
to cook the family dinner with her mother's help so Jennifer was asking Bill to stop at a local farmers market
00:09:13
on his way home to pick up some fresh veggies to go with the meal bill got home and that night the Pettit
00:09:21
family had dinner together in the sun room of their home on that quiet street in Cheshire
00:09:27
after dinner Bill read the newspaper laying on a couch in the sun room the girls sat in the family room watching TV
00:09:34
and at 11 PM the girls turned off the TV they went upstairs to bed locking the doors and turning off the downstairs
00:09:43
lights Bill had fallen asleep on the couch in the sunroom with the newspaper on his
00:09:49
chest Michaela went and she got into bed with her mother and the two read a book
00:09:55
together now this brings us to Monday July 23rd it's sometime between 2 and 3 A.M bill
00:10:05
is not really sure what is going on he's not even sure if he is awake he can't see anything but he's being hit in the
00:10:14
head with a baseball bat he's in a lot of pain while he's on the couch when he can finally pull it together he
00:10:23
can see the black silhouette of two men standing in front of him one with an arm
00:10:27
reaching out to Bill and in his hand is a gun its Barrel is pointed at bill and the gun is right in front of Bill's face
00:10:36
the men tell Bill to get up and they tie his hands together first with zip ties and then with rope
00:10:43
they put some kind of cloth over Bill's head and then they force him to the floor
00:10:48
so again he cannot see then they tie his ankles again first with these zip ties and then with rope
00:10:56
they tell Bill that they are they're just here for the money right we're just here for the money and then we will
00:11:02
leave they asked bill but we just smashed your face and a baseball bat yeah they asked
00:11:08
Bill where uh the safe is Bill tells them that they they do not have a safe uh he can he can hear one of the men
00:11:16
walking out of the room and he hears that man tell the other if he moves put two bullets in him
00:11:25
one of the men goes upstairs where he finds Michaela still in her mother's bed uh he wakes them and he tells them the
00:11:33
same thing he told Bill that hey we are just here for the money he pulls Michaela out of the room and he
00:11:40
puts her into her room the men then cover the mother and the daughter's Faces by putting pillowcases over their
00:11:48
heads each is tied to their own bed the feet and wrist bound to the bedpost after this bill can hear the men
00:11:58
searching through his home at some point the men are once again standing over top
00:12:04
of Bill Bill by this point is really unsure of what time this could be uh bill has been beaten very badly uh so
00:12:13
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
00:12:21
around Bill's ankles well he he has you know three to four inch gaps in his skull
00:12:27
and he's bleeding pretty badly yeah he's been he's been hit in the the front and
00:12:33
the back of his head um and it's it's kind of even hard to say how many times he's been struck in
00:12:40
the head with this baseball bat yeah because his whole you know forehead is basically split open uh and so I mean he
00:12:47
could have been going in and out of Consciousness the whole time yeah they they cut the zip ties that are around
00:12:55
Bill's ankles uh they pull him up to his feet and then they Usher him to the kitchen and then down the basement steps
00:13:03
so the the basement steps are directly off of the kitchen here his hands are still tied together at this point and
00:13:10
his face is still covered the pettits the Pettit family their basement is unfinished
00:13:18
um so it's kind of easy for us to Picture This basement right you have a concrete floor cold concrete walls those
00:13:24
steel support posts in the center portions of the basement the men then remove the zip ties from Bill's wrist
00:13:32
they sit him down uh his back is up against one of those support posts in the basement then they put his arms
00:13:40
behind him and around the post and zip tie his wrist together once again they zip tie his ankles together and tie rope
00:13:49
around both his wrist and ankles and then they leave him um you know but before they leave him
00:13:57
they cover his face with like an old quilt that they found lying around in the basement yeah
00:14:03
um so once again bill can hear the men uh but he cannot see them so at this point he can hear them
00:14:10
rummaging through the home uh apparently looking for valuables uh they are opening up closet doors they're pulling
00:14:17
out drawers uh but they are finding very little Bill's trying to figure this whole thing
00:14:24
out he he gets the idea that he should start moving up and down on the pole he wants to create friction against the
00:14:33
rope and the zip ties that are on his wrist here's here's what he can figure out
00:14:38
right bill has no firearms uh in the home and he didn't have zip ties or rope in his
00:14:45
home so those items he could figure out that the men had brought with them the bat that the men used to beat bill
00:14:53
in the head he believed probably had belonged to him that they had found it someplace before they had attacked him
00:15:01
right at some point he can hear birds singing and chirping outside Bill knew that this meant that at that point it
00:15:10
would have been about 4 45 a.m in the morning he then hears something in the basement
00:15:17
click on this is the irrigation kicking on so he knows that the irrigation at his home comes on at 5 30 A.M remember
00:15:26
bill has lived here for about 20 years so even though he is he's in this concussed fog uh he's doing his best to
00:15:35
try to figure this whole strange and painful situation to which he he woke to he's trying to figure this thing out
00:15:42
right so he's doing his best to monitor the situation even though he is bound and
00:15:48
helpless in his own basement and by now he has lost a lot of blood and he's he's
00:15:53
very weak at this point well and also if anybody's been cuffed with you know ties before I mean that cuts your wrist
00:16:01
really bad so even though you're trying to create that friction to against the pole to release yourself you know it's
00:16:09
probably cutting up your wrist pretty bad well at some point he can hear his wife
00:16:14
speaking with the men this means Bill believes them to be in the kitchen as he could not hear them
00:16:22
before and the kitchen is the closest room to Bill now we said that the burglars had not
00:16:28
made the Big Score as they had thought I mean you gotta you gotta picture this situation like the captain said this is
00:16:35
a nice neighborhood this is an upper class neighborhood this is a big home it's a little bit beyond nice yeah so
00:16:43
when you view the home from the outside these guys are thinking oh there's diamonds and gold and stacks of cash
00:16:49
inside well if you look at a lot of the average houses in in Cheshire it's like it almost looks like somebody built a
00:16:58
house and then they build another house and then they connected them that's the normal size of houses there
00:17:05
you know what I find funny here and well not funny is not the right word but um maybe unique is is the better word
00:17:14
um Bill he's he's a very successful doctor right um he's he's considered like a specialist in diabetes especially
00:17:21
for the area his wife a nurse she may have have become a stay-at-home mom at some point I'm not I'm not certain
00:17:29
um and then we have the kids we have the kids who are very uh smart kids um and the thing is though even though they're
00:17:39
we have two very successful smart parents yeah they seem to me to be pretty modest and reasonable
00:17:47
people like they don't seem to be they're not living above their means they're not they don't they don't have a
00:17:53
bunch of fancy uh possessions right um the house is not extravagant um these seem to be very down to earth
00:18:01
uh successful people the house is still pretty big though it is it is a nice it's not but like I said the normal
00:18:09
house in Cheshire is like a house connected by another house and that would be your house and their house was
00:18:16
definitely modest compared to those well they do have the the well-manicured lawn
00:18:20
they have the you know the Nice Landscaping outside which I believe um Jennifer bill and the kids spent time
00:18:28
on those things together uh as far as the upkeep of their home um now so we had said that the burglars
00:18:36
had not made the big score that they were hoping for by this point the men had confiscated Bill's wallet and
00:18:44
Haley's wallet as well now Bill's wallet had no cat cash zero dollars in it right
00:18:49
uh Haley's the she's the oldest daughter had a hundred and three dollars uh cash
00:18:56
and a bunch of small gift cards to like local stores and shops um these she had received as presents
00:19:05
for her recent graduation um the two had also found a big ball a big jar of full of change and they had
00:19:14
emptied the jar into a bag so they could take it with them so a pretty pathetic score for these two house burglars
00:19:23
so we said that bill could hear his wife Jennifer speaking with the two men she is calmly and politely telling the men
00:19:31
that if they are going to go to the bank she would need to get her purse for her
00:19:37
identification and she would also need her husband's uh Bill's checkbook right so the burglars had ransacked the house
00:19:46
finding very little right but one thing they did find was a bank book and according to the bank book The petits
00:19:54
had an account with about thirty thousand dollars in it the two men had decided on a plan that at 9 00 a.m the
00:20:02
bank would open and after the bank is open one guy is going to drive Mrs Pettit to the bank where she will
00:20:11
withdraw fifteen thousand dollars and this is at what time um did they've come up with this plan
00:20:18
right um I do not know what time this is uh but it would would have been after 5 30
00:20:24
a.m when Bill heard the irrigation click on right so for whatever reason the two of these
00:20:32
guys that have broken into the home and terrorized this family they come up with
00:20:36
this number of fifteen thousand dollars that they're going to withdraw from the pettit's bank account with Miss Mrs
00:20:43
Pettit uh in tow when the bank opens up at 9 A.M meanwhile it's weird that you just want to have her withdraw the full
00:20:51
amount yeah I I don't know the reasoning behind that but meanwhile the other man
00:20:57
the plan is for the other man to stay behind at the pet at home so the two bad guys will have the ability to
00:21:04
communicate with each other via their cell phones if Mrs Pettit tries anything funny uh then the man left behind at the
00:21:13
home will kill her husband and two children so now the men and the Pettit family to
00:21:20
which they have taken captive they are just waiting for 9 A.M to happen in the meantime Bill hears his wife
00:21:28
leaving a message for Bill's nurse and assistant this message is just um Bill's wife Jennifer explaining that
00:21:36
bill is not feeling well right uh he won't be able to go into work to that day she will need to call and cancel all
00:21:45
of Bill's appointments Bill hearing this is hoping that this would be a red flag
00:21:51
I don't know that it would be but his his reasoning is you know he'd had this practice for many many years and he he
00:21:59
couldn't recall having called off before if he had ever been sick to the point of
00:22:04
canceling appointments it may have happened once uh so Bill hearing this is hoping this could be a potential red
00:22:10
flag that somebody on the outside might contact the home or call the home anyway uh one of the men goes out to
00:22:19
Bill pettit's garage there he finds some empty washer fluid jugs uh the man then
00:22:27
drives Jennifer Pettit she has a Chrysler Pacifica van right he drives this van to a nearby gas station the man
00:22:37
fills the two empty washer fluid jugs with gasoline ten dollars worth uh he does not put any gas in the van at all
00:22:46
he pays cash for the ten dollars worth of gas and then he drives back to the pet at home
00:22:54
twice throughout the night Bill heard remember he cannot see anything because they have covered his head but twice
00:23:01
throughout the night he heard someone come down the steps the pennants have a refrigerator in their basement
00:23:08
inside this refrigerator is mainly soda and beer well twice he had heard someone
00:23:14
come down the steps open up the fridge and crack open a can now Bill gets a little Hope from hearing this whole plan
00:23:23
of going to the bank um you know this is a bad idea yeah I mean here's he considers it to be a bit
00:23:32
of a dumb move by these men you know because they're going to have to go out into public with Jennifer
00:23:39
um you know so bill is hoping that this is an opportunity that the men could make a mistake maybe someone at the bank
00:23:46
can become aware that Jennifer is in trouble maybe the police get notified and are sent to the home
00:23:53
um but at some point he hears um what sounds like the man one of the men returning to the home and a little
00:24:02
bit later he now I'm guessing this is sometime near 9 A.M because Bill can hear what sounds to be like his wife and
00:24:11
one of the men leaving the home he's assuming that they're going to the bank right and that's exactly what's taking
00:24:17
place so as directed Jennifer walks into the Bank of America after she's driven there by one of the men in her own van
00:24:26
and her Chrysler Pacifica van this is their local branch of uh Bank of America she walks in there and she tries to
00:24:35
appear calm even though her family has been tied up and terrorized for hours and you know basically under the control
00:24:44
of these two Mad Men Who had broken into their home in the middle of the night so
00:24:49
Jennifer walks calmly into the bank and just like we all have before she weigh related for the next available teller
00:24:58
well when the teller comes over ask if she can help her with anything Jennifer requested a withdrawal of fifteen
00:25:06
thousand dollars which as a teller you kind of go whoa that's a big withdrawal yeah and the teller asked Jennifer for
00:25:13
identification Jennifer explained that she did not have any but she would still need to withdraw
00:25:20
the money the teller then tells Jennifer I need to see your ID and I will need your husband
00:25:26
to be present as well to approve a withdrawal of this amount that is when Jennifer as calm as she
00:25:35
could she explained to the teller that there are two men who have broken into my home and taken my family hostage
00:25:45
if she does not give them fifteen thousand dollars right away they are going to kill her daughters and her
00:25:52
husband yeah the teller then turned and went to the branch manager the teller whispered
00:26:00
um what she knew to the manager uh the manager approached Jennifer Pettit and asked her for ID Jennifer held her
00:26:10
pocketbook open showing that she had no identification with her she explained to
00:26:16
the manager that the two men had taken her ID cards and would not let her have them Jennifer then showed the manager
00:26:24
pictures of her two daughters and then told her how the men would kill them and her husband if she did not bring them
00:26:32
this money right away and then what does the manager do well the the Amanda the manager is supposed to assess the
00:26:42
situation as quickly as possible you know to figure out is this some kind of scam or is this is this somebody that's
00:26:48
in trouble right that we need to help out here so you would think that this Branch would actually know who the
00:26:54
petits were yeah I I didn't get that impression that they did but um but you know maybe Bill
00:27:02
didn't do his banking at the local branch maybe he went somewhere closer to work who knows yeah and the the thing
00:27:09
here is the manager basically says having seen the pictures of the two daughters and then the look on
00:27:16
Jennifer's face the look in her eyes she could tell something was not right for Jennifer that day and so she very
00:27:25
quickly approved the transaction uh the tele the teller started to process this transaction uh and eventually would give
00:27:34
Jennifer the money this is cash money uh meanwhile the manager called 9-1-1 and just as calmly as Jennifer had
00:27:44
walked into the bank uh she walked out she then walked out with the money we'll get right back into
00:27:50
this after this quick beer break not now [Music] all right cheers mates happy Halloween
00:28:13
happy Halloween so we have this situation where two men break into the Pettit family home in the middle of the
00:28:21
night probably between two and three a.m and we have four people in the home Bill
00:28:27
his wife his two daughters and they devised this plan because they don't find much of value in the home
00:28:34
they devise this plan that they're going to drive Mrs Pettit to the bank and they're going to have her withdraw
00:28:41
fifteen thousand dollars and if she returns to them with the money they say they're going to leave they will leave
00:28:49
her and her family uh after this action takes place well they take her to the bank and of course the bank surveillance
00:28:56
cameras they capture the transaction which shows Jennifer Pettit as she informed the teller as to her situation
00:29:04
as we had said the bank manager then called 9-1-1 reported the details to the police while Jennifer was still with the
00:29:12
teller the manager reported to the 911 dispatcher in real time as Jennifer left the bank and was then picked up by the
00:29:20
van driven by one of the men who had broken into her home the bank manager described the man and
00:29:27
described his clothing as he drove away with Jennifer well I described the car as well but a lot of people you know
00:29:35
have speculated why didn't Jennifer try to stay in the bank longer uh she was actually in there longer than
00:29:41
actually originally planned by the Invaders and so she she kind of she tried to give as much information as she
00:29:49
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
00:29:56
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
00:30:04
Call Away or one text away from possibly my family being murdered yeah and we played the 911
00:30:13
of this episode this was Mary Lyons uh that did the 9-1-1 call she was the manager there she tells the 9-1-1
00:30:21
operator basically we have a lady in our bank that says her husband and children
00:30:26
are being held in their house the people who are waiting outside there are people
00:30:32
that are waiting for her outside of the bank in a car she's getting fifteen thousand dollars to bring to them if the
00:30:39
police are told they will kill her children and her husband they have their faces covered and she meaning Jennifer
00:30:47
is petrified they told her they would not hurt anyone if she gets back there with the money and Jennifer believes
00:30:55
them the Cheshire police responded to this 9-1-1 call by sending an unmarked car several unmarked cars in fact two
00:31:05
the pettit's neighborhood they began calling officers and sending marked cars to the neighborhood as well
00:31:12
the marked cars were to block off traffic in and out of the neighborhood once the police started to arrive on
00:31:21
scene they would establish and build a perimeter around the house this would be after they do a couple of
00:31:27
these drive-bys to see if they can gain any knowledge regarding the type of activity that may be going on inside
00:31:34
right um the how and of course uh the why and of course to see if they could learn
00:31:41
anything about the two perpetrators one they don't know if it's just two correct
00:31:46
they're they're told to but you don't know that and we we don't know how little you know even though Jennifer
00:31:52
told the bank teller and the manager what's going on we don't know how little she knows you know there's a situation
00:31:59
where it's a big home she's seen two people there could be other people in that home
00:32:04
well when they first do the uh drive-by when the police first do the drive-by in
00:32:10
the unmarked car they see that the Chrysler Pacifica van that was driven to the bank had already
00:32:16
returned to the house and it is in the driveway they can see no lights or activity in the windows of the home
00:32:25
right but their curtains aren't drawn you you can see into the house yeah and I actually
00:32:31
um we have a situation where I believe Jennifer's sister stated that um and this is how kind of modest the
00:32:39
petits were she said you know they had this big beautiful home and my sister didn't even really own any curtains
00:32:46
um didn't put curtains in the window um and so they see no lights they see no activity as the captain pointed out
00:32:52
there there's not a whole lot obstructing their View um we have the officer in charge uh he has
00:33:02
the telephone number for the Pettit house right and he also has cell phone numbers for the members of the Pettit
00:33:09
family but he has to go off of what information he has you know what has been reported
00:33:16
to them the men had threatened Mrs Pettit and her family but according to Mrs Pettit according to Jennifer they
00:33:24
had been nice uh also they were going to leave they were going to leave it once they got their money
00:33:32
um but the other information they had is that they would kill the family if the police had found out about the situation
00:33:38
right and keep in mind that this is a very small town Cheshire is pretty small I mean the population at this point is
00:33:46
well you know not well under but it's definitely under thirty thousand right so it's a pretty small community so what
00:33:53
kind of technology and what kind of training did this police force have yeah and these type of Hostage situations
00:34:03
they're not common you know and especially you would you would guess in a town of of that size that this may be
00:34:09
something they've not dealt with before and so basically that's what you're working with here you have the situation
00:34:15
where they've been nice the perpetrators have been nice they're going to leave once they get the money we know they
00:34:20
have the money but they're going to kill the family if the police finds out what's going on
00:34:26
so that's what you have to try to form a game plan with and the officer in charge
00:34:31
now he starts sending officers to position themselves he's sending them to positions in the wooded area behind the
00:34:39
Pettit family home right so let's go back into the house for a second here right because by now it's got to be near
00:34:47
10 a.m this is Bill guessing bill is still tied up to the steel support poll in his basement
00:34:54
he has been beaten in the head with that baseball bat his wrists are still bound
00:34:59
behind his back and around the pole yeah but let's not go with what he thinks I mean the call came into the police at 9
00:35:06
24. so um by the time they head back this is before 10 o'clock right um and he's still tied up with those zip
00:35:17
ties in the Rope we should point out that the zip ties are so tight around his wrist that they are actually slicing
00:35:23
into his skin right like I said before his feet are bound with the zip ties as well and the Rope the men who put them
00:35:32
there for some reason they put this cloth over his head obviously so he couldn't see but they've also thrown
00:35:37
some type of quilt over top of him as well so what he can see are really only Shadows throughout the night right and
00:35:46
at this point but they also oddly place down pillows because it's a hard concrete floor so again I think that's
00:35:53
some evidence that you know their motive is money and and not murder now they have uh he's lost a lot of blood like we
00:36:02
said from his head wounds bill has spent hours moving up and down on the pole and
00:36:07
twisting his wrist and His Hands hoping the friction and the twisting will eventually wear on the zip ties so he
00:36:14
can break free and like the captain said for some strange reason they put those cushions under him the cushions by this
00:36:22
point are now stained red with Bill's blood and Bill's eyes Sting from the blood and the sweat that are running
00:36:29
into them bill can hear noises from upstairs but he is unsure of what he is hearing here's some kind of some
00:36:38
thumping he says that it sounds like somebody was throwing you know like a a 20 pound bag of sand onto the ground
00:36:45
onto the floor above him he tries to yell out um and when he does he he then hears a
00:36:52
voice from the upstairs yelled back at him that says don't worry this will all be over in a couple of minutes
00:37:00
well Bill takes this to mean that the men terrorizing his family will soon shoot all four of them
00:37:07
and then leave them dead in their home Bill works hard and faster to try to weaken the restraints around his wrist
00:37:16
and arms finally after trying for hours the zip ties on his wrist they break and
00:37:22
the Rope comes loose Bill reaches down but he cannot break the plastic ties around his ankles
00:37:29
the pet at home on sorghum Mill Drive has two doors that lead to the basement one like we said at the top of the
00:37:37
flight of stairs which leads to the kitchen right the other is this it's a Cellar door that leads to the backyard
00:37:47
up to the Cellar Door is a a shorter flight of stairs bill is going to attempt to make it up these stairs and
00:37:56
out the Cellar Door and over to the neighbor's home hoping that he can notify the neighbor what's going on and
00:38:04
call 9-1-1 and notify the police bill goes over to the stairs and one step at a time he pulls himself up and
00:38:12
then pushes open the Cellar Door by this time it's raining outside he swings his legs onto the lawn and
00:38:22
then through a series of rolling and crawling he somehow makes his way this is just a little more than 50 feet away
00:38:30
from this door over to his neighbor's home um his neighbor Dave a Bill's still lying on the ground he
00:38:38
pounds on Dave's Garage Door after several attempts the door finally opens and there's Dave Dave has known
00:38:46
bill for like 18 years by this point remember we said Bill lived in the home for 20 years before this this incident
00:38:53
took place but but Dave looks at Bill and he cannot recognize him bill is so badly beaten and covered in blood that
00:39:02
Dave shouts at 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
00:39:11
it's Bill it's Bill call 9-1-1 call 9-1-1 now remember by this time we have police officers that are stationed and
00:39:19
positioned all around the pet at home and throughout the neighborhood right so I assume some of these officers actually
00:39:25
saw a bill coming out of the house yeah yeah one of them who has been watching the pet at home I'm not sure if it was
00:39:32
one from the street or from behind a tree in the backyard of sorghum Mill Drive he approached
00:39:40
teaches the two men this being bill and his neighbor Dave he approaches the two men with his gun drawn aiming the gun at
00:39:50
the bloodied man bill on the ground and the officer the officer orders Bill to stay down
00:39:57
and then a second officer appears out of the rain one of the officers shouts at Bill who is in the house to which Bill
00:40:05
replies the girls the officer yells again who is in the house and Bill yells back the girls the girls are in the
00:40:15
house right and this I I think shows lack of training well very quickly after this this takes place
00:40:24
a call on the police radio reports that there is a man at the neighbor's home yelling and it's believed that the man
00:40:34
is from the Pettit house right now the officer in charge he stationed close to and and with a good view of the pet at
00:40:43
home he hears this call go out on his radio he's actually Reaching For His Radio to request more information
00:40:52
when he sees someone fleeing the pet at home running with a bag in his hand toward the van in the driveway
00:40:59
and another call goes out on the police radio announcing that the suspects are on the move the officer in charge then
00:41:07
sees a second man wearing a hat fleeing the home the younger thinner suspect gets in the driver's side and the older
00:41:16
heavier suspect gets in the passenger side of the vehicle the driver slams the vehicle into
00:41:23
reverse this is the Chrysler Pacifica van and the Pacifica goes flying backing out of
00:41:31
the Pettit driveway yeah and I would just want to be clear that this is the pettit's car yes Jennifer pettit's van
00:41:37
that was driven to the to the bank by the perpetrators now they're fleeing in her van as well but we have a couple
00:41:43
problems happening here so we have the suspects leaving in the pettit's vehicle we gotta stop them
00:41:51
but uh cops also heard screams from inside the house and also the house is now on fire yeah
00:41:59
um and I don't know that they that all of the the officers have recognized this by this point uh the officer in charge
00:42:06
says that he has not seen the fire he's kind of focusing on this van at this point which is right in front of him and
00:42:13
it violently backs out you know at a very high rate of speed backing out of the Pettit driveway and into one of the
00:42:21
officer's cars the police near the police vehicle they draw their guns and they aim them at the driver and
00:42:28
passenger of this van the driver slams the Pacifica into drive into drive mode squeals the tires and rushes from in
00:42:38
front of the driveway down the street at a very high rate of speed and takes the
00:42:44
corner ahead the officers can no longer see the Pacifica but they hear a loud crash the two suspects had crashed the
00:42:53
van into a parked into two parked police cruisers that had been set up to stop traffic going in and out of the
00:43:02
neighborhood both of the suspects are forced to the ground they're being asked by the officers who have guns on them
00:43:10
who they are or what was going on in the house who is in the house and then the officers take the two suspects into
00:43:19
custody they make arrests there and now they can focus on clearing the house at 10 15 a.m Bill pettit's mother
00:43:28
Barbara calls her husband this is Bill senior she tells him that the alarm company
00:43:34
from their son's house has called the smoke detectors triggered this call when no one at the home answered the
00:43:43
alarm company they then called the backup number listed right which was Bill's parents
00:43:49
Bill senior was already out and about that day he tried calling members of the family himself but he got their
00:43:57
voicemail greetings then since he was in the neighborhood he thought he would swing by Bill's medical
00:44:04
office he gets there and the nurse tells him that Jennifer had left a message that bill was sick and not coming into
00:44:12
work Bill senior then decides to go to the pet at home because their home is relatively close to Bill's medical
00:44:20
office so he wants to go to the home and check on the house and check on his son
00:44:26
as he gets near the home an ambulance and several police cars pass him going the opposite direction
00:44:34
he then sees what looks to be Jennifer's Chrysler Pacifica van crashed and smashed on the side of the road he can't
00:44:43
get too close to the house because the police have set up a roadblock right he tells one of the officers who he is you
00:44:52
know I'm I'm I'm Bill Pettit senior I'm I'm Bill's father and he tells them that
00:44:58
the crashed vehicle looks to be his daughter-in-law's vehicle and he needs to be let through
00:45:04
the officer explains that he will have to get someone to come over and speak with him
00:45:10
well while Bill senior Waits he's trying to piece this whole thing together why was Jennifer's van smashed and was
00:45:19
Jennifer okay and what did that have to do with the smoke alarm going off at the
00:45:25
home or his or his son being sick and missing work at this point the pettit's property I
00:45:32
mean it's just a it's a giant crime scene and it's chaotic well eventually an officer approached Bill senior
00:45:40
and explained to him that there has been a fire at the pettit's home he tells him
00:45:46
that your son is on his way to the hospital and there are three people deceased in the home
00:45:55
Bill Pettit senior calls his family members first his wife and then his daughter and tells them the terrible sad
00:46:02
news he struggles to get the words out um he has to tell them that his wife's son
00:46:10
Bill Jr and his daughter's brother is is near death and going to the hospital and all of the girls are dead
00:46:21
Bill Pettit Jr was rushed to the emergency room uh like we said he had been beaten very
00:46:28
badly beaten so badly in the face and head that his parents and sister when they arrived they didn't recognize him
00:46:37
he has bruises and cuts around his wrist and ankles and he has lost a lot of blood he's lost seven pints of blood but
00:46:47
he's lucky to be alive with losing that much blood and then also just the the gash that you know there he has some
00:46:55
gashes on the back of his head which you can't really see because of his hair obviously but it's um it's the gash on
00:47:01
the front of his face I mean it's you know I mean not to make lightly of it but when you think of somebody dressing
00:47:08
up you know a Halloween costume or something you know putting a big fake gash on their head that's what it looks
00:47:14
like yeah it's it's gruesome and it's big yeah and in pictures uh pictures of Bill shortly after this took place like
00:47:23
you said you can't really see the Damage Done to the top or the back of his head
00:47:28
but you can see where there's large portions of his hair that is missing um you can tell that from the front
00:47:35
pictures of him and the best best way to describe this wound to the front of his
00:47:40
head is it it basically runs from his hairline down to one of his eyebrows and it almost looks like somebody put a
00:47:48
zipper there right um and it's uh terrible terrible wound well and then like we said I mean with
00:47:55
these zip ties you know he was only Bound for you know a handful of hours but the
00:48:01
amount of damage and bruising they did to him is I mean it's pretty severe yeah and some of that he had to do to himself
00:48:08
to try to to eventually be able to weaken them to the point where he could escape from his own basement yeah and
00:48:16
then his wife's family is going to show up and I think one of the saddest things
00:48:20
reading was you know he loved his wife and his wife family shows up to see him in the
00:48:27
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
00:48:36
house and he wishes you know like we said there's two exits one outside the house to go get help to go to the
00:48:43
neighbor's house call 9-1-1 and the other option would have been to go upstairs and try to
00:48:50
attack these uh you and again you don't even know how many people I mean yeah two guys beat you up but you don't know
00:48:56
that there's only two guys and and he was apologizing to them and wishing he could have done more
00:49:03
I mean that would have been a sad sad situation yeah and her parents Jennifer's parents explained to Bill
00:49:10
that you do you don't have anything that you need to apologize to anybody for and we
00:49:17
are lucky just to have you and you know thinking about that situation of Bill being in the basement
00:49:25
you have to again it's a similar situation where you you have to think about the cops outside that are trying
00:49:31
to build this perimeter you can only go off of what very little information you know Bill doesn't know what's taking
00:49:38
place upstairs in his home he doesn't know that his home is being surrounded by the police that they've already been
00:49:45
notified right what he does know is this at one point there's a gun in his face he has no firearms on him he is you know
00:49:54
if they choose to use that gun he has no ability of Defending his family and secondly by this point he's lost
00:50:00
seven pints of blood he's extremely weak by this point this is a guy that that also suffered from low blood pressure
00:50:09
um and we know losing that amount of blood is going to cause that blood pressure to drop and drop and drop and
00:50:14
drop to dangerously low numbers right and like I was saying before it's he probably went in and out of
00:50:21
Consciousness multiple times and might not even realize that mm-hmm and by this point he's he's weak he's been beaten
00:50:29
upon the head he can't get the ties off around his ankles I think that that the thought here and
00:50:37
it has to be the thought here is that your best bet is to go and get some real help because what kind of real help is
00:50:46
Bill going to be able to offer other than that it once he got upstairs if he gets upstairs and he tries to defend his
00:50:52
family it's very easy for them to put one in his head put a bullet in his head and boom that that help ended right
00:50:59
there well and I think that's the big conundrum when it comes down to hostage situations anyways
00:51:06
you know do you fight back you know and does that cause more harm to yourself and to others or do you let
00:51:14
it play out and I think that's the question in every hostage situation I think that's a
00:51:19
question that the police have to face as well now remember Jennifer's van had been driven by the two men who had broke
00:51:25
into the home crashed into the two police cars that were blocking traffic and thankfully the police arrested those
00:51:33
men so now we have two guys in custody the police arrested Joshua Karma sajevski and he was the younger thinner
00:51:41
uh suspect that we said was fleeing from the house and Joshua was in his late 20s
00:51:48
back in 2007 a career criminal in and out of trouble for most of his adult life they also arrested Stephen Hayes he
00:51:56
was the older more heavy set one Stephen Hayes was almost 20 years older than Joshua
00:52:03
uh they arrested both those men on that day on Monday July 23rd now the damage that was done
00:52:12
um as the captain had said the home was very badly destroyed uh by this fire there was a fire that was set in several
00:52:22
rooms of the home we have Bill Pettit Jr who had survived this incident and sadly
00:52:31
his wife Jennifer and his daughters Haley and Michaela did not then the question becomes for the Pettit family
00:52:39
for the law enforcement for the community why did this happen and what actually happened and what is going to be the
00:52:48
punishment for these two individuals and what could have been done differently to
00:52:52
stop this type of situation [Music] all right we want to thank everybody for listening we want to thank you for
00:53:06
telling your friends about the show hopefully everybody has had a wonderful and safe and happy Halloween we have
00:53:12
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
00:53:19
yeah and hopefully nobody found any razor blades in their Halloween candy all right Captain happy Halloween to you
00:53:25
to everybody out there until next time be good be kind and don't litter [Music] thank you
00:53:45
[Applause] [Music]