The father survived.
New phone calls from that day have now been released, including the first communications between police at the scene.
Officer1: "What kind of activity do we have at this house?" Officer2: "Nothing." Officer1: "Alright. I don't like this."
It was at the Petit family home that Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayle and Michaela were tied up, held captive and killed, and the house set on fire.
Dr. Williaml Petit, who had been beaten, was the sole survivor.
A series of phone calls and transmissions obtained by the Hartford Courant provide a glimpse into the initial response by Cheshire police, and raise questions whether more could have been done to save lives.
Officer: "What I want to do is set up a perimeter. As soon as everyone's geared up and what we're going to wind up doing is we're gonna have to make contact."
Police were called by a bank teller shortly after Hawke-Petit was forced to withdraw $15,000.
The family had been targeted for robbery by Stephen Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky.
But initially there's some skepticism.
Lieutenant: "Apparently she came into the bank. She tried to get some money out. One of the accounts was in the husband's name and then she says, "Well my kids are tied up at home." We don't know if they really are or she's trying to get money out of the bank."
While officers are responding to the house, others are rebuffed.
Officer: "Cheshire Police. Officer Miller."
Negotiator: "Hey Doug."
Officer: "Hey."
Negotiator: "I need to know if you want me in or not. I'm the hostage negotiator and I got paged."
Officer: "Hostage negotiator…(unintelligible)…Not at this time."
The police department has never conducted a review or issued a report about its actions that day.
Jennifer Hawke-Petit's sister recently appeared on the 'Katie' show.
Despite the lingering questions, the town manager turned down our interview request, saying any public comment would not serve any constructive purpose.
