The Cheshire, Connecticut, home invasion murders occurred on July 23, 2007, when Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes invaded the residence of the Petit family in Cheshire, Connecticut, United States. Dr. William Petit was severely injured. His wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit and his two daughters, 17-year-old Hayley Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit, were all murdered.

Upon entering the Petits' home, Komisarjevsky beat Dr. Petit with a baseball bat. He and Hayes then restrained Dr. Petit in the basement. Hawke-Petit and her daughters were also restrained. Hayes later kidnapped Hawke-Petit and forced her to withdraw money at a bank. After returning to the home, he raped her and strangled her to death. Michaela was raped by Komisarjevsky. Hayes and Komisarjevsky then decided to burn down the house to destroy evidence. While Hayley and Michaela were tied to their beds, the two men doused them and the house with gasoline. They then set the house on fire, leaving the daughters to die of smoke inhalation.

The case garnered a significant amount of attention in Connecticut, with the Hartford Courant citing it as "possibly the most widely publicized crime in the state's history". The murders received national and international attention as well, and had a significant impact on Connecticut's death penalty, ultimately delaying its abolition.

Hayes was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death in 2010. Komisarjevsky was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to death in 2012. In August 2015, the Connecticut Supreme Court, in defiance of the General Assembly which had abolished the death penalty only for future cases, ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional and commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment, even if that sentencing took place prior to the date that the death penalty was abolished.

-Description via Wikipedia