A Connecticut mom and her innocent daughters didn’t have to die — bungling cops cost them their lives!
That’s the shocking conclusion of experts who examined new evidence in the horrific murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her girls, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11.
Recently uncovered tapes show Cheshire, Conn., police had the opportunity to stop at least one of the family’s killers on the morning of July 23, 2007, but incredibly let the monster go!
Later, lawmen instructed the police department’s negotiator NOT to go to the home where the gals were being held hostage prior to the vicious slayings!
Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela were killed by petty criminals Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes — who followed the 48-year-old mother home from a supermarket on July 22.
The monsters waited until about 2 a.m. on the following day to break into the $500,000 home where Jennifer lived with her daughters and husband, Dr. William Petit. Once inside, the thugs savagely beat Petit — who was sleeping on a couch in the sun room — with a baseball bat, tied him up and dragged him unconscious to the basement.
They then went upstairs, bound the females and raped Jennifer and Michaela. The men then rifled through the upstairs, searching for cash, and found a checkbook listing a balance of $30,000. They decided to wait until mid-morning and then drive Jennifer to the Bank of America, where she was told to withdraw $15,000 in cash.
While Komisarjevsky stayed behind with the girls, Hayes drove Jennifer to the bank, where she got the cash — and managed to alert bank employees to her family’s plight.
The bank manager called 911 at 9:21 a.m. Jennifer left the bank at 9:24 a.m. and got into the car with Hayes. One minute later, a dispatcher called police Sgt. Chris Cote, who was just around the corner, and told him to locate and intercept the car.
At the same time, the police force’s SWAT team was told NOT to report for duty — and its hostage negotiator was instructed NOT to go to the Petit home.
This indicates police may have “doubted the veracity” of Jennifer’s claim that her family was being held hostage, said a source.
It got worse.
ANOTHER officer, who was near the Petit home, “was told not to approach the house,” the source said.
Cote, meanwhile, did not stop the car, which Hayes drove back to the Petit home. The reason Cote failed to act hasn’t been disclosed by lawmen!
While Hayes was gone, the badly injured Petit had managed to escape — but that didn’t stop the rampage.
Hayes raped and strangled Jennifer — and then Michaela and Hayley were tied to their beds with pillow cases over their heads and burned alive.
By the time cops finally gathered outside, the house was in flames. Hayes and Komisarjevsky made a break for freedom in the same Chrysler Pacifica that Hayes drove to the bank. The car nearly hit Cote before crashing into a police roadblock down the street.
The heartless beasts were convicted of murder and were set to be executed — but their sentences were commuted to life in prison after Connecticut abolished the death penalty.
Petit survived, despite losing seven pints of blood, and in ensuing years he says he “seriously considered suicide many times.” He remarried, to photographer Christine Paluf in 2012 — and on Nov. 23, 2013, she gave birth to William Petit III.
But questions remain as to how and why the police failed to save Jennifer and her daughters on that awful morning.
“We now know that Cheshire police officers had a chance to intercept the car carrying Jennifer Hawke-Petit to her death,” one source said. “Why that didn’t happen is one of the several open and troubling questions about the case.”
“It is clear that police bungled this disaster from the beginning,” added another commentator. “The police ‘allowed’ this murder to take place, and they are at fault for being so stupid!”
