Wife, 2 daughters dead after doctor's family held hostage

CHESHIRE, Connecticut (AP) -- At least two men broke into a prominent doctor's home early Monday, kidnapped a female family member to withdraw money from a bank and then killed his wife and their two daughters, police said.

Dr. William Petit Jr., who was severely injured, told police his family had been held hostage for hours before one member, who was not identified, was taken to the bank with a suspect.

Bank employees were suspicious of the transaction and called police, who surrounded Petit's home, authorities said.

A town police officer saw two men leaving the home as it was engulfed in flames, authorities said. The men sped away in a station wagon, striking several police cruisers before they were captured.

Petit's wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their two daughters, Hayley and Michaela, were found dead in the home, said a law enforcement official with firsthand knowledge of the investigation.

The official confirmed the deaths on the condition of anonymity because autopsy results were still pending.

Authorities would not release the names of the suspects. The two men are due Tuesday in Meriden Superior Court.

Petit, 50, a well-known diabetes specialist, was in stable condition at St. Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, though it was not released how he was injured.

"It is a shocking day for everyone. It's just beyond anyone's understanding," said Larry Tanner, president and chief executive officer of The Hospital of Central Connecticut.

Petit is the medical director of the Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate at The Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain. His wife of 22 years worked at the Cheshire Academy, a boarding school as co-director of its health center.

Their upper-middle class neighborhood includes Colonial homes with well-kept lawns in the New Haven suburb.

Neighbor Walter Ryan was walking his dog when he saw the flames coming from the home and then watched as police, with guns drawn, moved through yards and shouted, "'Get out of the car!"'

The Rev. Ronald A. Rising, a neighbor, said he has known the family for more than 10 years.

"They're just a lovely family," he said. "It's just awful to think it would happen to a family like that in this community. You don't think about those things happening."

Neighbor Laura Parisi, a friend of the Petits' older daughter, Hayley, said the 17-year-old had just graduated from the prestigious Miss Porter's School in Farmington and was accepted at Dartmouth.

"It's just insane," Parisi said of the deaths. "I can't even describe it." E-mail to a friend

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