Desperate hours

Dr. William Petit is unconscious in the basement. Tied to a pole.

His daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11 are tied to their beds upstairs.

Jennifer Hawke-Petit is downstairs. She's been raped by Hayes, the older of the two convicts.

Michaela has been raped by Komisarjevsky.

This is the scene authorities believe is taking place inside the Petit home by 6 a.m. on Monday morning, July 23, 2007.

Steven Hayes has returned with the four containers of gasoline.

Murphy: Is the family doomed at this moment?
Altimari: You know, still unclear. Obviously, if he's going to buy gasoline, they have made some decisions on what they're going to do.

But that would come later. First Hayes goes on a final errand, this time with Jennifer Hawke-Petit. Mrs. Hawke-Petit has been described as steely strong. Her husband might already be dead. Her two young daughters are in the control of a man who's already sexually attacked one of them. It was now up to her to try to save her family.

It was 9 a.m. Cheshire was awake on a summer Monday, neighbors walking their dogs. It's less than a 10-minute drive from the Petit home to the Bank of America branch where the next part of the scheme would unfold. Hayes drives Mrs. Hawke-Petit and forces her to withdraw money from her joint account.

It's about 9:20 a.m.

Altimari: They get to the bank. And she goes in -- he stays outside -- and goes in and tries to withdraw $15,000 from their account.

The bank teller hesitates for a moment. It's an odd request, that much cash.

Altimari: And it's at this point that she communicates to them in some way that "My family's being held hostage. I need this money to give to the guys."

Mrs. Hawke-Petit receives the $15,000 and leaves. Debbie Biggins -- who'd come to the bank to open an account that morning -- remembers glimpsing an ashen female customer and a frantic-looking teller with a piece of paper.

Debbie Biggins: I remember the manager taking that piece of paper, whatever it was and she almost ran right down to her office and the next thing I know I turned around and saw a gun in a holster and the police were in the building. I mean, it was like, just time froze. Seconds. And then they were out I don't know, seconds, minutes. I don't even know. They weren't even there that long, it was just long enough to get whatever information they needed and they were history.

Mrs. Hawke-Petit and Hayes were likely back at the Petit home by 9:30 a.m.

Altimari: About the next 25 to 30 minutes … This becomes from what was already a horror story to, you know, likely the worst crime that's ever been committed in Connecticut.

If Mrs. Hawke-Petit thought that the $15,000 cash would buy her family's release, their very lives, she was wrong. She'd only been back in the house for moments.

Altimari: Hayes kills Mrs. Petit, strangles her on the first floor.

At this moment, it's believed that Dr. Petit has come to in the basement where he's still bound hand and foot.

Altimari: Mr. Petit apparently hears his wife literally begging for her life and then he, she goes silent and that's when he breaks free at least with his hands, enough that he's able to literally hop out of the house.

Dr. Petit hobbles across the yard, screaming his neighbor's name. The doctor is so bloodied about the head that he is unrecognizable. The neighbor calls 911.

But the police have already started to arrive, dispatched from the earlier 911 call from the bank.

The Cheshire police are a low key presence at 9:45 a.m. Some patrol cars waiting for the SWAT team to assemble. No one wants to pull a Dirty Harry and kick in the door on a potential hostage-taking situation.

It's a caution the police officers will second-guess in their nightmares because at that point the two girls are still alive.

But only for a few minutes more. There's yet another 911 call from Sorghum Mill Drive. Someone has seen smoke coming from the Petit house. The fire department is dispatched at 9:59 a.m.

Murphy: One of the two has torched the gasoline?
Altimari: Yes. Has now lit the bedrooms on fire.
Murphy: With the girls upstairs ... Mrs. Petit is dead?
Altimari: Mrs. Petit is already dead. They do spread gasoline around her body as well but they literally light the bedrooms on fire while the girls are still alive.
Murphy: Tied to their beds?
Altimari: Tied to their beds.

With the house exploding around them, Komisarjevksy and Hayes bolt out the door.

Altimari: Get in the Pacifica. They smash into a cruiser at the bottom of a driveway, almost hit a detective that was there and then smash into two cruisers that were set up as a roadblock about 100 yards away. And that's where they're captured.

Firefighters try to knock the gasoline fueled flames down with little success. It will be awhile before anyone can understand just how awful it was, imagining the seven hours of unmitigated terror.

Bill Glass (former cop): They're saying there's one victim. Then there's two victims. Then there's possibly four victims. It keeps escalating. And when it turns out that it's a triple-murder, it's bad. There's nothing else worse and then when, you know everything comes out, it's real bad."

Hayley -- the big strong girl on the rowing team -- had actually gotten free of her ropes and was found outside the bathroom.

Her sister died in her bed. The medical examiner ruled both girls died of smoke inhalation.

Mrs. Hawke Petit's body was found lying on a coffee-table.

Mother and daughters had been massacred. In custody were a pair of lifetime losers -- both fathers themselves -- still under paroled supervision.

Bill Glass: Without even knowing the name, I told my boss: I said, if Joshua Komisarjevsky's out of jail, he had something to do with this. I said, "Mark that name down." And three hours later, they released his name.

Shock, grief and finger-pointing were overlapping in Cheshire, forming a single fist of rage.

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