Up In Smoke

Nitecap True Crime presents
Up In Smoke

Arson and Murder seem to go hand in hand
In this episode, we stoke the coals under two cases, both of which 
invoke terror and tragedy

A Cheshire family ends up intertwined in a horrific plot by two sick and twisted home invaders and a story of a father, who burns his house down with his children trapped inside... or did he? 

 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

911, what is your emergency? I just found a body. I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_05 0:10

Government official.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

You are listening to Nightcap, a true crime podcast.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

If the mystery of murder intrigues you, or if you find crime quite a curiosity. Welcome home.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Pour yourself a drink, sit back, and buckle up. It's gonna get dark.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Be warned, this podcast does contain explicit content and graphic descriptions of real life accounts and cases.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Well, well, well. Look who's back for more. Before we get started, I have a little joke for you. They call me the fireman. Mainly because I turned the hose on.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Stop it. I don't get it. Hey, hey Brittany, who gets who gets turned on? Hose. Oh.

SPEAKER_05 1:12

God damn it. It's stupid. Oh my god. Oh my god. I took oh, I was like, does that mean a penis? I don't understand. How does it okay? You want one more? Yeah. Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

If you play with fire, you'll end up burnt. If you play with a firefighter, you'll end up wet.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Oh god. Oh my god. No, that reminds me of that uh meme that's circling or circulating around on Facebook right now. That was like, I'm way too fucking high to be in Home Depot right now, like trying to find a hose, but I can't get myself to ask him where the hose is at.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Because I know I'm gonna laugh.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Anyhow. You guys ready for our seventh episode, Up in Smoke? Well, we've got some smoldering cases for you guys tonight. I'm Gavin.

SPEAKER_04 2:13

I'm Susie. And I'm Britney. Find yourself a hose or a drink. It's gonna get bloody hot. What are you drinking over there, Susie?

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Um, well, we've taken a lot of Admiral Nelson shots with the technical difficulties that we were facing for two hours.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Particular difficulties before this.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

So I've had some of that, but I I brought it back to the uh 1936 stubby bottle of the course banquet. Stubby, you say? It's called the stubby bottle. Look at it.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

It is stubby.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

It's stubby. That's what I'm drinking. What are you sipping over there, Britt?

SPEAKER_04 2:49

I am drinking Partake Burling's blonde, non-alcoholic ale. I stocked up on Partake, so I'm enjoying that. We're waiting for our sponsor, Partake, because she's drinking every week. I, you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Gavin, what label are you gonna read for us tonight? Well, I am drinking bad granny, hard cider, because I can't get enough of this hard cider crap. This one is black currant, semi-dry currant. I don't know how to say that word. Me neither. It's I've never I've in my whole life, I've never like seen that ever. So yeah, this can on it, it says she's so bad, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

The granny on the can is so creepy, too. She's got like neck wrinkles. And just see, she's sitting in a wooden chair, too.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Oh, there she is.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

But anyhow, it's delicious. I don't know what current means.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Isn't that a fruit?

SPEAKER_01 3:42

I was just gonna say, I think it might be a fruit.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Berry is not a fruit.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Well, I mean, I I think it's maybe it's apple juice, isn't it? I don't know. It's boozy apple juice. That's all I got from this, guys. I'm sorry. You don't have to sponsor me.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Okay. Does it taste good at least?

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Okay, good. It's delicious. Awesome. What's up, bad granny? That's your sponsor for the night, and it was sloppy as fuck.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

You don't have the paintings.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

We're gonna do that one for free.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

This one's on the You're welcome. Anyhow. Hey Britt, give us the facts on arson.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

I got you, boo-boo. So, traditionally, arson has been defined as the malicious burning of the dwelling of another. That definition is very specific and a little outdated. Many modern statutes have now expanded upon it, including commercial and industrial buildings, in addition to family homes or apartment buildings. Also, it can be like a vehicle or just someone else's property. Doesn't necessarily have to just be a building. It's considered a violent crime and is treated as a felony in most states. There are three classifications of arson: there's cereal arson, spree arson, and mass arson. Damn. Cereal arson is as many as three fires set at different locations, and each fire has a cooling off period between the sets. So very similar to like a cereal killer, right? Mm-hmm. Actually, I mean, yeah, they're all basically just the same as so spree arson is as many as three fires at different locations with no cooling off period between sets, and mass arson is multiple fires set at the same time at the set location. So pretty much the same as cereal spree and mass killers. Fire, big fire or bigger fire. Yeah. There are six motive classifications that are associated with fire setters. They're vandalism, excitement, revenge, crime concealment, profit, or extremism. So those are all, I think, pretty self-explanatory what those are. Uh fire. All kinds of fires. And I guess fire. It was reported in 2019 that 86% of arsonists are male, and about half of all intentional fires are set by children. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

That is is not surprising.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Horrifying. I mean, that's almost like, oh my God. Can I pop on a tangent on that one? Let's hear it. Because everybody loves my childhood stories. Here we go. So my dad uh is there a goose in this one? No, surprisingly enough. Henry? Just me and my brother. But my dad bought us a box of strike anywhere matches, and we lived on the mountain on property. So he comes home, he gives us these, you know, white-tipped matches, and he's like, watch this, you know, strikes it on a tree, strikes it on a rock. You can strike them anywhere. Yeah, strike anywhere matches. And he's like, go have fun. So literally, yeah, I don't know how old we were. I was maybe eight. Johnny was maybe 10. Your dad gave you and Johnny a box of matches.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah. And told you two to go have fun.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Yeah, pretty, pretty much. So Johnny and I were playing with matches, we're doing the damn thing. It's all fun and games, but my hair was down to like my belly button and uh struck that strike in our match and my fucking hair. Oh my god. Real fucking bad. Yeah. I mean, I got him back one time though because they let us play with fireworks by ourselves after that. And you know those punks that you have that like they're not lighters because they're like, we're not gonna give you lighters, but we're gonna let you play with fireworks. We're just gonna give you a punk. Johnny and I started fighting over the punk. Uh I won the fight. I jabbed him square on the eyeball with it.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

I've heard this story, but from the other perspective.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah, from the other crow. Yeah, yeah. So I I jacked him in the eyeball. I felt really not really that bad about it. I mean, I won that. If I as the youngest sibling, I was like, yeah, fuck you, Johnny. You suck. But I got him. I didn't get him right in the eyeball, I just got him right above like the teared up area.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Noise.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Yeah, jacked him square quick. But my parents obviously thought it was play with fire, which is why I I light a lot of candles in my house now. I haven't burnt anything down yet.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

All right, I got one for you. Okay. So I was pretty young, maybe six or seven, maybe a little bit older. I don't know. Anyhow, it was the 90s. Baby Gabby. So I'm sitting in the back uh mud room. I'm playing the piano, and I noticed that all of a sudden I see a big old plume of smoke coming from my dad's little, interestingly engineered sheds, which, if I remember correctly, consisted of some stuff, and then on top of that stuff that made up the walls was like a truck bed canopy, and that's where he stored his lawnmower. Oh no. Oh so I went to my mom's bedroom and she was in her bathroom getting ready for something, and I told her that the thing with the lawnmower in it is on fire, and she's like, Call 911. And so I go get the phone, call 911, give her the phone, and come to find out, it was my little brother Justin, who had lit something. We don't know exactly what it was that he lit on fire in there, but yeah, he he burnt the lawnmower to the ground and the little shack that it lived in. Oh no. Oh my god. And I'm pretty sure that was the day that I realized I was gay. Because firefighters are hot.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

What? Stop it!

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Oh my god, stop it.

SPEAKER_05 9:45

I wasn't expecting that.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Me neither. Wasn't expecting any of these tangents. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Oh, great. All right. Well, now that we're done telling our childhood fire stories, what are the rest of the facts?

SPEAKER_04 10:05

Um, I just have one more. So apparently the number of arsons had been on the decline for a few years. However, in 2020, the number of arson offenses increased 19.2% in the first six months of 2020 when compared to the figures for the first six months of 2019. And so even though like violent crimes in general were down because people were like trapped inside their houses, um, yeah, arsons were up. And I mean, that was that includes like the time when a lot of like the Black Lives Matter protests started and um and all that stuff. So that could have yeah, that's what I got. Nice, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Did you find any information on like arson murders?

SPEAKER_03 10:56

No, no, well, it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

That's okay. We always gotta bring it back to murder around here at night.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah, we just cannot stop talking about murdering people. I tried to find a case that was just like straight up arson, and I was like, everybody died. You did what?

SPEAKER_04 11:14

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

I didn't understand the assignment. No, you you did understand it. We just didn't clarify it. You did good.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

You get four stars.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

You are welcome.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

I'll go first. Alright, Gab, what you got for us? What you got? You guys ready for this? Yes. I love not.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

My coffee shot's kicking in. Perfect. Alright. My case I named a fire in Cheshire.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

Aw, that's romantic.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Not really. Nothing. That sounds like close.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Yeah, that sounds really romantic.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

So. Cheshire, Connecticut, located in New Haven County, is home to roughly 30,000 people. A quaint town where most people enjoy a relaxed small town feel. Kind of like where I live. Ranked among one of the top small towns by Money Magazine, Cheshire residents seem to enjoy living there from what I gathered. Their city website kind of sucked me in and made me kind of want to go for a little visit. I'm not gonna lie. Let's go. I know. Jennifer Hawk Pettit, 48, a nurse and co-director of the Health Center at Cheshire Academy, a private boarding school, lived with her husband, Dr. William Pettit, an endocrinologist, and their two daughters, Haley 17 and Michaela 11. Jennifer was a woman of faith and spent a great deal of her time in the church, where she directed Sunday school and even served on several church committees. She loved to read and enjoyed playing piano in her spare time, sharing that love of music with her two girls as any good mother would. Haley was a dedicated student, athlete, and leader in school, and all around a great friend. She found out that her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Sweet Haley wanted to do something to help, so she directed her energy into raising fifty thousand fucking dollars in support of MS research.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Oh my god. Good for her.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Yeah, a little teenager did that. That's pretty amazing. Michaela was your typical preteen. She looked up to and adored her older sister. She loved preparing meals for her family and shared the same love of music that her mother had. You know, pretty typical kids. Typical family, typical home life, sweet, casual, all American, cute as fuck. Late afternoon, July 22nd, 2007, Jennifer and Michaela left home to go grocery shopping at a local store in Cheshire. They had picked up some groceries for dinner so that Michaela could cook her family dinner, as you know, she loved to do so much. What Jennifer and Michaela didn't know was that two atrocious men, 44-year-old Stephen Hayes and 26-year-old Joshua Komisarjevsky, had already put a hit on them. Joshua had followed Jennifer and Michaela home and cased the family house. Stephen Hayes, a career criminal, spent much of his energy being, let's call it like it is, a complete fucking fuck up. From the time he was 16 years old, he was charged for an array of fuckery, like writing bad checks to petty larceny. A police officer who had once arrested Stephen called him a human vacuum cleaner. He'd steal anything he could get his hands on. Joshua, and I'm only going to use these Twat Waffles' first fucking names. Don't want to keep saying it because it took eight takes just for me to be able to say it right the first time. But Joshua, no better, began burglarizing homes at the ripe old age of 14 fucking years old.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Got a hobby, bro.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Fourteen. During his crime career, he had burglarized up to 18 homes and was quite a methodical little fuck about it too. Using night vision goggles during his nighttime break-ins, it is suspected that he had stolen more than$20,000 worth of property over the years. Holy shit. Mm-hmm. Prior to their plot, these two little fucks sticks, Stephen and Joshua, had exchanged text messages. I'm chomping at the bit to get started. Need a margarita soon, Hayes texted Stephen. We still on, Joshua replied. I'm putting the kid to bed. Hold your horses. To which Stephen sent back, Dude, the horses want to get loose.

SPEAKER_05 15:28

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 15:30

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_01 15:32

In the early morning hours of July 23rd, the very next day, Stephen and Joshua returned to the Pettit's home. Wearing dark clothing, face masks, and rubber gloves, the two gained entry into the home by way of an unlocked basement door. Next to the open door, propped up next to the basement stairs, Joshua armed himself with a baseball bat. As they made their way upstairs, they found Dr. Pettit, the father, sleeping on a couch in the family's sunroom. He had a late night working, so he decided he was going to sleep upstairs and didn't want to disturb his wife. Joshua entered the sunroom and began to strike Dr. Pettit four to five times with the baseball bat. Can you just imagine what it would be like to be woken up being hit in the fucking face with a baseball bat? Incapacitated, Joshua and Hayes tied Dr. Pettit's wrists and ankles with zip ties and rope. One of the men said to the other, if he moves, put two bullets in him. The pair made their way to each room, covering up the mouths of the sleeping mother and children and gently shaking them awake. Now this was the part of this whole story that just kind of like irked me. They were able to beat the crap out of their father with a baseball bat without waking anybody up, and went upstairs and gently fucking shook them awake. Gently. So they bound and restrained Jennifer, Haley, and Michaela to each of their respective bedrooms by tying their wrists and ankles to the bedposts, as well as covering their heads with pillowcases. At one point, Joshua entered Michaela's bedroom and attempted to make small talk, talking about school, even getting her a glass of water. Once they had finished restraining all the family members, Joshua and Stephen turned the family's home upside down in hopes of finding cash. Stephen took Michaela's fucking piggy bank of all things. Like literally a little kid's fucking piggy bank. Really? Quarters, dimes, pennies. That's how fucking petty and ridiculous these two men are. Oh my god. The two fuckwits came up pretty empty-handed and were unsatisfied with their loot. While they ransacked the home, they found a bank book with an available balance of around forty thousand dollars. Their plan continues to evolve. Stephen and Joshua moved Dr. Pettit downstairs into the basement where they tied him to a support beam. Also, I didn't add this in my notes, but it was very interesting to hear that they had actually, Joshua, if I remember correctly, put down like blankets and pillows for him because he was concerned about Dr. Pettit's like comfortability after they had feed him with a shit fucking baseball bat.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

The two decided that they were going to coerce Jennifer to withdraw$15,000 from the family's bank account. Stephen had also become increasingly obsessed and paranoid about leaving DNA evidence behind, given that they had spent a considerable amount of time in the home already, amongst other reasons that we'll get to in just a couple minutes. Joshua tells him that fire burns everything. Shortly thereafter, surveillance footage from a gas station captures Stephen filling up two gas cans that they stole from the home. While Stephen was out of the house, Joshua had gone completely off plan. Went back to Michaela's room. Using a pair of scissors, Joshua cut Michaela's shirt and bottoms off of her and raped her. Even photographing and recording the rape on his phone.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Joshua even went to the extreme of changing Michaela's clothes to get rid of DNA. Once Stephen arrived back at the house around 8 a.m., he untied Jennifer, escorted her to the bank, and instructed her to withdraw the$15,000 when the bank opened. When Jennifer approached the bank counter, she informed the teller that her family is being held hostage in their home and there were two men threatening to kill her and her family. The bank teller informed the bank manager, and the bank manager called 911 to report the situation to police while Jennifer was still at the counter. Jennifer told the teller that the home invaders were being nice and that she believed they only wanted money. The bank manager described what was happening to dispatch in real time as Jennifer walked out of the bank cash in hand. Jennifer got in the vehicle, as any mother would do when her family's lives are at stake, and she and Fuckstick drove back to the house. Police at this time were assessing the situation and attempting to devise a plan. Law enforcement had set up a perimeter near the home, trying not to alert the home invaders. Unfortunately, in the time it took police to figure out what was going on and what they were going to do about it, Stephen and Joshua's plan began to fray at the ends and in the middle. Things escalated quite quickly. Joshua provoked Stephen into raping Jennifer on the living room floor. Shortly after that fucked up situation began, Joshua interrupted Stephen and announced that Dr. Pettit had escaped. And there were kind of conflicting reports here. Joshua had noticed that there was an unmarked police car out front. There was also another report that Joshua had noticed that there was a man standing behind a tree. Oh, so they're catching on. Yes. One way or another, shit's going down. They realize they're kind of getting caught. Oh fuck. In a fury and a panic, Hayes strangled Jennifer to death. The two began pouring the gasoline Stephen had purchased a few hours prior onto Jennifer's lifeless body, and then throughout the home, including onto the two girls upstairs who were still bound to their beds. They then lit the match and fled the scene in the family's car. The home went up in flames quickly. Haley was able to free herself of her restraints and ran out of the bedroom, but unfortunately died of smoke inhalation. Michaela also succumbed to smoke inhalation. Dr. Pettit was able to crawl to a neighbor's yard. This man, still bound by his ankles, crawled through a basement window and was able to make it to his neighbor's house. When he got to his neighbor's house, screaming for them, they didn't even recognize him due to the trauma to his face.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Stephen and Joshua didn't even make it but one block before police were able to pursue and arrest them after they crashed into a police car.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Good.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Cause you know, criminals of the year fucking award right here. The entire ordeal. Lasted about seven hours. Their original plan was to only break in, retrain the family, steal as much as they could, and then leave. However, this is far from what actually took place. In the coming days, weeks and months following the murder arson, one thing stood out to the public, and that was that law enforcement had taken far too long to respond and act. Now, this is the part where you're going to get mad, because this is the part where I wanted to literally fucking scratch the skin off my fucking face. I was so pissed. While Jennifer was being raped, the police were just outside. While Steven strangled Jennifer and she took her last breath, the police were just outside. While Stephen and Joshua poured gasoline over Jennifer's body, her two daughters and the home, police were just outside. While they lit the fire, police were just outside. So fucked up. The family as well as the public criticized the Cheshire Police Department. Meanwhile, the police department had put in place a gag order on the case. Because obviously they fucked up somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

And that is pretty much I'm my from my assumption why I was not able to find like the dirty deets on this. Yep. Fuck. I searched high and low and I could not find any of the court documents. Oh my god. Nothing. Fucking police, man. The court cases for Stephen and Joshua were long, over a decade long. And brought to light a bunch of notoriety on the subject of the death sentence. Connecticut was in the process of getting rid of the death sentence penalty. However, this case needed justice. This family needed justice. Days prior to one of Stephen's trial dates, Stephen took a handful of pills he had scrolled away and ended up in a coma. Fortunately, he recovered and was found to be fit to stand trial.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yeah, fuck it.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

The state and the jury will decide Stephen's guilt and his fate, not Stephen. The defense in both trials for Stephen and Joshua hit hard, trying every angle they could possibly swing. But in 2010 and 2011, with tremendous amounts of pressure and teetering justice, the juries came to a rare landmark verdict, sentencing Stephen Hayes as well as Joshua Kommissarjevsky Fuck that guy to death. Guilty of a mile-long list of charges including premeditated murder, arson, rape, all of the fucking things. Fuck those guys.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Oh my God, seriously. That's fucking brutal.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

In 2012, Connecticut abolished the death penalty for all future cases. And in 2016, a Supreme Court justice vacated the death sentence originally imposed on the triple homicide and resentenced them to six consecutive life terms in prison with no chance of parole.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

So these guys weren't sentenced to death for this?

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Believe it or not, they're still trying for retrials to this.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Oh my fuck. Oh no. So they literally just they were right there on the line.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

So get this. The family's very they're very religious. They believe in God. They prayed every night, saying that what whatever the outcome of this trial is, it's God's will. That's that's what you know God wanted. So they were for the most part proponents of the death penalty.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Like they were adamant on these guys getting death because of what they did. Yep. And so were the process. I would have done the same fucking thing. I would have done the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

So William, the father, has since remarried and welcomed a new child into the world. He has also retired from the medical field and created the Pedit Foundation in his late wife and children's names. And the home where this horrible event took place has since been demolished and turned into a beautiful garden for family and friends to visit and remember Jennifer, Haley, and Michaela.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

I saw it, the property where everything had been demolished and like put down grass and they there's this beautiful centerpiece kind of island with an archway in the middle of it, and there's plaques, and it's beautiful. I couldn't think of a better uh thing to do. With the property. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

And that's my fucked up case.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Holy shit, Gavin.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yeah, whoops. And that was not the case I w I originally picked.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

That's so fucking brutal. That's not something you would wish on your worst your worst enemy.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

I really could have gone into more detail. I know we we try not to spare the details, but it would just it gets really not really convoluted, but I would have had to it would have taken me weeks to write this. Just having more background story be um for the the two perpetrators would have filled in a lot of information, but literally this would not be a you know 45 to 55 minute episode. It would have been a multi-episode ideal.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

I felt the same for my case too. I mean, sometimes like we give as much details as we can, but realistically, if we were gonna dive as much as we could into this, like it would take hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Yep. Well, that's all I wrote.

SPEAKER_04 27:07

Hello, hello, it's Brittany. Since I pussed out on Gavin's case, I figured I'd pop in to tell you guys about our amazing sponsor, 52, a tale of loneliness. It's a six children's book from author Johnny De Palma and is inspired by the true story of the 52 Hertz Whale. It's a beautiful story about being different and learning to love yourself and understand how special it is to be different. The book is beautifully written and illustrated and is the perfect bedtime story. If that wasn't enough, it has a companion audiobook that is narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Patton Oswald. And because my brain works the way it does, I'd like to tell you how I can tie a children's book about a whale to true crime. Ready? Patton Oswald was married to the late Michelle McNamara. Michelle McNamara wrote the book I'll Be Gone in the Dark. That book, along with Michelle's tireless research, helped lead to the arrest of the Golden State Killer. See? Pretty impressive, right? Right now, Nightcap listeners can get their own copy of 52 for an amazingly discounted price by going to Okiebees.com. That's O-A-K-I-E-B-E-E-S.com and searching for the book 52. You can also follow the link in our show notes and on our sponsor page at nightcaptrucrime.com. Alrighty, I'm gonna get back to Susie and Gavin and see if maybe I could just like not cry during this next case.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Bye. Susie, what do you have for us?

SPEAKER_02 28:36

It's hard to follow that case, Gavin. Sorry. That's alright. That's alright. I'm going to dive in on the case, including Cameron Todd, Willingham. So I'm gonna start out with the devastation. Two days before Christmas in 1991, firefighters responded to a house fire in Corsicana, Texas. I don't know. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but Corsicana.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

And does that uh ring a bell for anybody? Yeah, right. Torture Terrors?

SPEAKER_04 29:05

Right. Was that actually like the city that it was in?

SPEAKER_02 29:09

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was. Oh. Yes, I'm bringing it back to her. Poor Lois was kidnapped from. Bringing it back to Corsicana, Texas. Um, the firefighters had no idea the devastation they were about to witness when they arrived. Outside of the house stood Cameron Todd Willingham, a father of three, and the husband to Stacey Keichendal. Inside the house that was vigorously burning was Amber Kaikendal and Carmen and Cameron Willingham. Amber was only two years old. And the other two were one-year-old twin girls. Hmm. They lost their little innocent lives in the fire that burnt their home down.

SPEAKER_03 29:46

Wait a minute. Was this that case that you reflex? What are you guys doing with these cases these years? Oh my god, yes.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

I brought it back because I mean no, but yes. Yeah. Wait, wait. I had mentioned this case, yeah, a couple episodes ago because I torture terrors. I had just watched it on uh ID Discovery, and I had no idea the rabbit hole I was getting into because I watched this one episode and I was like, yeah, I got an idea. No, I had no idea. So um their cause of death was acute carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of smoke inhalation. Investigation was started into the fire and the deaths of the three little girls, and the state fire marshal concluded that accelerant, you know, some combustible liquid, was used and caused the fire to begin. The floors, the front threshold, and the front concrete porch were burned, which they claim that this only occurs when accelerant was used to purposefully burn those areas. The purpose behind doing so is typically to impede the firemen in their attempts to rescue anybody inside the structure.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Oh fuck.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Right. Todd Willingham, which his name is Cameron Todd, but he went by Todd. Todd Willingham was arrested on January 8th, 1992 for arson and the murders of his three daughters. The case soon went to trial after he pleaded not guilty. During the trial, neighbor witnesses say that they saw Todd crouched down in the front yard while the home was burning, and despite their pleas and attempts to tell him to go back in and get his babies, he refused. They say that when the fire blew out the windows, Willingham, quote unquote, hollered about his car and ran to move it away from the fryer to avoid any damage. What the fuck? Um Yeah, like he put it in neutral and tried to back it up away from the fire.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

But he wouldn't run into his house to save his kids.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

Supposedly. What the fuck? And I'm gonna say supposedly a lot because this case is very up in the air. So uh a firefighter at the scene also testified that Willingham was also upset that his dartboard had been burned. I'm sorry, why? Right. So he was worried about his car and his dartboard, according to witness accounts. I'm gonna say this multiple times because this is all according to witness statements. So a little backstory on Todd. He was 23 at the time of the fire. He was born January 9th, 1968, which he was arrested a day before his birthday, actually. He had quite a violent background. He was convicted of numerous felonies and misdemeanors, including burglary, just two months prior to the fire. Willingham had told authorities that the fire started while he and his daughters were sleeping inside the home around 11 a.m. He awoke by hearing his oldest daughter screaming for him. He claims to have tried to rescue the little girls, but the flames were too much and he had to evacuate. The children's mother was not home at the time of the fire, and she was away at the Salvation Army thrift store getting the girls' Christmas presents, because this was, you know, a couple days before Christmas. Willingham said of his children, quote unquote, I just don't understand why anybody would take them, you know? We had three of the most pretty babies anybody could have ever asked for. He went on, me and Stacy have been together for four years, but off and on, we get into a fight and we split up for a while. And I think those babies is what brought us so close together. Neither one of us could live without them kids. Thinking of Amber, he said, To tell you the honest to God truth, I wish his oldest daughter wouldn't have woke me up. So he wanted to go down with the ship. So that he claims, right? Witnesses also testified that Todd was verbally and physically abusive to his wife. They even said that one time he beat his pregnant wife in hopes of causing a miscarriage. And he did so with a corded phone. So think your think your old phones with like the big top and the big bottom and like a banana handle, you know. And like so they said that he beat his pregnant wife the second time that she was pregnant with twins in hopes of a miscarriage.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

Electronics from the 90s, man. That shit was heavy.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Brutal, right? So one of Todd's friends also testified and said that he once that Todd once bragged about killing a dog in a brutal fashion. He was happy about it. An inmate that Willingham was jailed with claimed that Todd confessed to starting the fire to hide evidence that the children had been badly abused. So this was like an informant that they found at the prison, and he said that well, he claimed that Willing that Todd was confessing to this. And he was confessing because the children showed signs of bad abuse, and so he thought he would just burn them down to the ground as an accident. You know, this is what this inmate had said. The state had Dr. James Grigson testify against Todd Willingham, saying that Todd fits the profile of a s of a quote unquote sociopath whose conduct becomes more violent over time and who lacks a conscience. He explained that people who display this form of sociopathy commonly have no regard for other human beings at all. Todd Willingham refused an offer to plead guilty for a life sentence because they gave him that option. You plead guilty, we'll give you a life sentence because he's in Texas. Texas holds near and true to that you know death sentence. They they like that shit in Texas. I don't know if that's still a thing now. I would have to fact-check myself, but I know Texas like likes that shit. So he was given a plea deal to um plead guilty, and they would only give him a life sentence instead of the death sentence. But he denied that. With all of the evidence from the fire marshal and witness accounts, Todd Willingham was found guilty of capital murder and was sentenced to death because of everything that happened, obviously. But this is where shit gets crazy. So, like, I kind of condense all of that because I didn't want to go into the detail about like how they you know these one and two-year-olds like burned to death. I didn't want to talk like a lot about that. You know, condense that down because the real kicker kind of happens after the fact. So after conviction, Cameron Todd Willingham spent years on Death Row and he maintained that he was innocent the whole time. He said, dude's a liar in an interview from Death Row referring to the fire marshal. Willingham suggested that maybe a lantern spilled fluid off of a shelf and that his two-year-old daughter accidentally started the fire because she was quote unquote fascinated with everything. What year was this? That he said that? No, that this happened 1991 in December. A lantern. Yeah, a lantern with fluid in it. But my parents had lanterns still.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Susie, your family is a different breed.

SPEAKER_02 36:24

Yeah, you're right. You're right. Okay. But so that's what he said. But he said, um, either that or someone came with the intent to kill me and the children. He doesn't say my children, he said the children. So he tried over and over again appealing and reopening his case, but was denied every fucking time. Like the habeas corpus, or I don't know if I'm saying the habeas habeas, he tried that. He tried to appeal his case. I mean, he was fighting for his innocence like this entire time, and he got denied like on multiple occasions here. Like these the state of Texas, Texas just basically wrote him off. Like, you're fucking bad here. Thirteen years later, while this guy was still on death row, days before his execution, Todd's attorneys sent the governor and the Board of Pardon and Parole a report they had acquired from Gerald Hearst, who was a nationally recognized Arson expert. In the report, Hearst had analyzed that Willingham's conviction was based on incorrect forensic analysis. Officials received the report, but did not act on it at all. Like they got it, they didn't even read it, they were like, fuck you. He'd already been tonight so many times. They were like, we're not doing it, you know. So after that, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, on February 17th, 2004, 13 years after the fire that killed the three little girls. But we're gonna get back into that. So on top of the report being ignored after his execution, the Innocence Project, which is somewhat of an entity to try to, you know, they I assume that they're anti-death sentence. You know, they believe that there's too many people that are innocent that get put on death row for no reason. So the Innocent Project assembled five of the nation's leading independent arson experts to review the evidence of the Willinghams case. And that group of five issued a 48-page report finding that none of the scientific analysis used in the trial against Willingham was even valid. Was this before he was executed? No, this is after. This is after. So the the one report that they had was from um Gerald Hurst, who was like a top dog, and he went all through that and he was like, there was no ill intent in this. He had basically said, like, this fire was caused by, from what I understood, like faulty wiring and nothing of the sort, you know? Didn't you say that like the front porch and stuff had been like? Right. That's what the state fire marshal or the city fire marshal had said.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

But there's including Hearst, six arson experts after that that went, mmm, they don't know. They said that there wasn't any signs of arson at all. So it's really up for interpretation. Like I'm giving it a very like speculation of a case or an open speculation of a case on this one because I had uh initially watched this episode where I learned this from, and I was like, that motherfucker, like what a sick bitch, you know? And then I also, but it's very two-sided. So I couldn't dig too deep on this case because I could either dig deep on one side and give you guys all the dirty, nasty, fucking horrible monster of a man this was details, or I can dig into the innocence project that was like this man didn't do this at all. So I couldn't dig on either side. So I really had to stay on the top on this one. So I tried to give everybody a lot of details of what happened and kind of both sides because I really had no choice. I mean, I didn't want to be biased on this one, and I'm still not, I have no fucking idea. I dig it. Right. So that group had issued a 48-page report finding that none of the scientific analysis used in the trial against Willingham was even valid. And the Innocence Project formally submitted this case to the Tech Texas Forensic Science Commission asking that the state entity would launch a full investigation into the results and outcome of Willingham's case, as well as another arson case in Texas where identical evidence was used to sentence another man to death. Which is weird. In the results of that other case, the Innocence Project actually got the man, whose name was Ernest Willis, exonerated and he was freed from prison because the forensic evidence wasn't valid. So they got this guy out before he died. And they had submitted these cases at the same time because they were like pretty identical. Like this other guy was under fire for arson. So in Willingham's case, it obviously was too late to save his life. But in 2008, the Texas Forensic Science Commission did agree to investigate the case. The review of this case, however, was interrupted several times and continues to this day. So sorry, a little spoiler alert. I'm not gonna give you guys the uh answer to this one because it's still open. Damn. Sad. An investigative report was also written in the New Yorker. The New Yorker. I always want to say not mean to say. No, I did. I did. It's the New Yorker. It's the fucking New Yorker, okay? Sorry to anybody listening in New York. I love you guys. Your accent is too good, okay? So it was also written in the New Yorker on September 7th, 2009. So this is obviously, you know, a couple of years after he was already executed. And it was titled Trial by Fire. Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man? It was a 16,000-word article by David Grant, and it included in it that all of the evidence used against Todd Willingham was invalid, including the forensic analysis, the informant's testimony about Willingham's quote unquote confession, other witness statements, and additional circumstantial evidence. And I I read this article and it's written like a fucking novel. So it's like hard for me, like when something's written like that, that I'm like, where are the facts? You know, because it's it's written like a fucking book. I'm like, mm-hmm. Okay, I'm like differentiate like what's important in the design. Right. And I mean, I I looked at every side of this case, like this side, that side, this side, that side. And while I was writing my case, I was like, this side, that side, this side, that side to try to like, you know, be unbiased about as much as I could. But that that article literally was written like a fucking book. So then after that, there was a movie, a Hollywood movie titled Trial by Fire with some pretty big names in it. I watched it, we'll get into that. So this wasn't just like I mean, there was a documentary, there was this movie, there was a New Yorker fucking article, New Yorker, sorry. Sorry. There was a lot done in this case, so I couldn't really pick a side, but okay. I literally found article after article about this case, and each one was either promoting his innocence or spelling him out to be an absolute monster. There was no in-between on this one. There wasn't like, we don't know. He was either like they did this wrong or he fucked up and he's horrible. That's all I got from this. And like I said, that movie came out tried by fire, and the whole movie was wrapped around his innocence. The entire movie. You watch it in the beginning, he finds out his kids died, and he's like, My babies, no. The whole entire movie, you're like feeling for him because you're like, he didn't do it, he didn't do it, he didn't do it. That's how they made it out to be. So, but his wife, Stacy, after the movie was put out, she felt like she was portrayed as such a fucking asshole that she like grabbed onto anything that she could to like tell her own story. And so she Actually, aired on an episode of Evil Lives Here on Investigation Discovery.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

I've been obsessed with that show.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

It's a good one. It was a season premiere of this one, and I actually watched it while I was waiting for my nephew to be born at my brother's house. This is where I heard about this case.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

I totally skipped it because I'm weird and I will only watch episodes that intrigue me. This one is pretty fucking intriguing.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Because it has the bitch on there. Like she's like interviewing and saying shit. I'm gonna watch it. Oh, it's great. It's great. And so um she completely believes and drew her ex-husband out to be an absolute guilty bastard. Like she went into like he beats me, he was horrible to me, like I was gonna fucking leave him. And I told him that. And I didn't mention in the script before, but I'm gonna mention it now that there was a refrigerator, too. They had two refrigerators in their house. One of them was unplugged or whatever, and it was placed against the back door, like in front of the back door. And in that ID discovery show, she was like, he had put that there, and I didn't know why. He was like blocking an exit. And you know, the fire marshals and shit said that this was obviously methodical because he had blocked the back door for an exit, you know, lottie fucking duh. I'm really gonna touch on both sides here. Because at the same time, like I said, with the front porch being on fire, there was a barbecue right there with, you know, what do you use to get your coals on fire with, you know, that spray bottle, you know, to get your coals on fire. And so that easily could have happened if it had caught flame, that thing could have spilled over, blew up right there in the front porch, you know. And so there was really like no way of knowing. But with the New Yorker and this Hollywood movie being like, this guy's fucking innocent, and the innocence project really gripped onto him, and they were like, he's fucking innocent. But at the same time, you watch this ID Discovery the whole entire time. They're showing pictures of him, and you're like, that guy, obviously fucking sociopathing and seed in his eyes. Like, that's what I was doing. I was like, this motherfucker. And she makes it out for you to believe that he killed all the babies, and she was like, after that, he was like, It's okay, we can have more. We can have another Amber, we can have another Carmen, we can have another Cameron, like it's okay. That's what she said in the show. All right, no, thank you. But like it's like it doesn't matter that they're dead, we can have another one because she was like, he didn't want to let me go. And I was threatening to I was threatening to leave him, and so he killed my babies, and he told me we can have more. He just wanted to keep me close. But you watched the Hollywood film and you're like, This fucking guy, you know, like I feel so bad for him. Like, he didn't kill his babies. He loves his babies, like they're the light of his life, they're the prettiest babies on the planet. Whole fucking thing. Now we go back to the execution. Cameron Todd Willingham's final meal, which I always find this really interesting for some reason. I'm sick. I fucking I love to know what people's last final meals are. I'm like, what did you want? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

Super Susie, what what would your last meal be?

SPEAKER_02 46:55

Oh god, I've been thinking about that for like three days and I have no idea. I'm pretty sure it'd be like a ribeye steak, medium rare, mashed potatoes, asparagus. But I also feel like I'd throw in some like McDonald's chicken nuggets because I really love them. I'd be one of those people that like just ordered like a smorgasbord of shit. That I'm like, I want to take one bite of all of these things. I couldn't pick. I love food way too much.

SPEAKER_00 47:18

What about you, Britt?

SPEAKER_03 47:20

Tortellini.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

Tortellini, she says.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

Oh now I really want cheese. Tortellini with the red sauce. Is that like a right now craving?

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Or like if you were like they were gonna tell you you're gonna die tomorrow. So what are you gonna eat? That would be tortelline. Tortellini.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

I love tortellini. Solid. Alright, well, we're taking her to tomatoes when she gets here, then. So Cameron Todd Willingham's final meal was three barbecued pork ribs, two orders of onion rings, fried okra, three beef enchiladas with cheese, and two slices of lemon pie.

SPEAKER_01 48:02

That's in a collective menu.

SPEAKER_02 48:05

I would do the same thing. I'd be like, I'm that all sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

Yeah. Right. Like I'm hungry.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

So his last words before execution, because they always write these two down. The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for twelve years for something I did not do. From God's dust I came, and to dust I will return, so the earth shall become my throne. I gotta go, road dog.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 48:39

Not done yet. He then he then expressed to his ex-wife and mother of his children, who was eight feet away behind the window witnessing his execution, he said to her, I hope you rotten hell, bitch, and attempted to flip her off while his wrists were strapped to the table. Oh shit, what? Right. Cause during all those all those little appeals that he tried to do and on the first go round of his trial, his wife stood up for him. She said that there was no way he would kill his babies. He loved his babies more than anybody on this planet. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. When she did that ID discovery episode, she then had said, I lied on the stand for him, and I was wrong for doing so. She claimed that last visit that she had visited him before he was executed, that he had confessed to her that he did kill the children and why. But there's mixed signals there because he was also trying to beg her for her support for an appeal on his case to stop him from being executed because he was quote unquote wrongfully accused. And she said that while he was trying to convince her to stand up for him again, he had admitted and confessed to uh murdering their children. So I'm gonna come all the way back around and I'm gonna say literally, I don't know what's up or what's down in this case. Holy crap. I have no idea what actually happened. Because my first taste in my mouth was watching her ID discovery fucking episode, and they acted it out in their little cheesy fucking way of like doing the actor reenactments, made him out to be this horrible fucking person. I mean, he beat his wife, he admitted to that he was like, I was a shit husband, you know, I was a pile of crap husband and all the words of it, but like I loved my babies, whatever. The whole ID Discovery episode, he was horrible. You're convinced by the end of it. I'm like, this motherfucker really beat his wife multiple times and killed their babies to keep her there. Because she was like, he was so scared that I was gonna leave that he killed my fucking babies. You watch the movie Trial by Fire that Hollywood did. They put facts on the end of that bitch and then put quotes of the governor defending the fucking death sentence on the end of it. Do you feel bad that you might have, you know, uh put some innocent man, you know, to death because of this ruling or like just because of this law that you can like do this, you know? And he's like, No, I don't feel bad because this is like what people rightfully deserve. So literally you can sit back on both sides of this case and I've been on a roller coaster. It sounds like you need to be like, I have zero opinion about this case. I do not know. It doesn't make sense to me. I have no fucking idea. I wouldn't believe scientists and like those arson experts when they say that this wasn't arson, but you go back to the other side of the trial and they say that there was accelerant placed under not only in the house, but under each of the baby's beds, and that their bedroom, the kid's bedroom, was the only one that went up in flames. It's it's insane. I mean, like Gavin said, like if I was gonna really like give you guys every aspect of every side of this case, it would have taken me days to do so because there was so much on both sides of the shit. There was witnesses changing their accounts, like they told the authorities one thing's on one thing on scene and then changed it on trial. There was just so much evidence that was like flip-flopped and gone the other way. Like it almost looks like a witch hunt towards this man, but also at the same time, you're like, he's a woman beater and he admitted to that and he was horrible and has a record, so it's like it's not hard to see that he could be capable of this. It's so fucking up in the air. I'm gonna tell you guys right now, like, if you are interested in this, literally go and watch Trial by Fire. It's on Hulu, it's a Hollywood remake of all this shit. You can read Trial by Fire in The New Yorker, you can go on ID Discovery and listen to this wife's very fresh accounted version of her story and her admittance of this, of her claiming that she lied on the stand for her husband and her husband had confessed to it because she did a damn good job because I believed her the first time go around. I'm not picking the side case, I'm not gonna do it. All I know is those babies did not deserve to die, whether it was on accident, whether it was on purpose. No two-year-old or one-year-old, no child deserves to die ever. And I don't stand behind it at all. It's a tragedy, regardless of who was at fault. And I feel for those baby girls. Sad. Sad as fuck. But I'm done now. That's my case. Well, fuck. Yeah. Susie. Damn. Huh. Yeah, Gavin, huh? These cases really are smoking.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

Are you a dog dad joke?

SPEAKER_02 53:49

I'm not the only one. Yeah. You're not the only one with dog dad. Dog dad jokes.

SPEAKER_04 53:55

Well, we really burned the house down with this one. We hope you guys like this episode. I fucking hated it. But if you would like to learn more about these cases, please check out our show notes or our website blog for our sources and links.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

Make sure to tune in next Monday for our eighth episode, Foreign Fiascos. We hear every day about the awful things that happen here in the U.S. So next week we've decided to take a trip across the pond and around the globe to places we've never been, maybe never even heard of. Real foreign cases that might make you rethink that post-COVID vacation.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

All right, and let's give a big bitchy thank you to Darby and Hardy for becoming our newest bad bitches on Patreon. We fucking love you, bitches. Seriously, we love you. It's great. If you're not sick of us yet and would like more content, subscribe to our Patreon by going to www.patreon.com forward slash nightcap TCP to get exclusive sidecard episodes like Pillow Talk, where we go over new and noteworthy cases like that crazy ass Florida man you guys always hear about. That's a weird one. And we also play some silly murder games that even you can play along at home.

SPEAKER_05 55:20

Thanks for hanging with us tonight. Bye the chip. Bye. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_03 55:28

Left me hanging on that one. No way we didn't. Shut up. Give me fine. The finger guns.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

Thank you, see the finger guns. That's okay, they can hear him. Quote unquote air finger guns.

SPEAKER_05 55:43

Pow pow.

SPEAKER_00 55:48

God. We're so stupid.

SPEAKER_02 55:54

I drop my Dorito.