The Cheshire Murders Page #2

Since I had about 3 minutes

of experience at that point.

But it became clear

pretty quickly that, uh,

she knew more about pediatrics

and how to care for kids

than I had ever known.

One of the nice things...

Billy had never smelled smoke.

He had never seen a fire.

He had said that the only

thing he ever heard

of my sister was her, like,

pleading nicely with these two men,

"Can you please

let me get my purse,"

"or they'll know that

something is up at the bank."

He had his legs tied together and he

hopped up the outside basement steps.

And he said,

"But sometimes I wish.

"I would've just

gone to the inside

"because then maybe,

even if I had died in there,"

"I could've done something."

And I said, "No, Billy. You

couldn't have done anything."

"Attached to a pole with

your hands and feet tied

"in the basement with about

6 to 8, 3 to 4 inch"

"openings in your skull?"

And we knew that the police did not help

my brother-in-law out of the house.

So the chances that he lived,

surviving the blood loss,

are just miraculous in my mind.

Joining me

on the phone right now is.

Lieutenant Jay Markella,

the Public Information Officer

for the Cheshire

Police Department.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Very little detail coming

out about exactly what happened.

Was it when police showed up that

they found the house on fire

and caught these suspects?

Because they were caught

leaving the burning house.

Yeah. It worked out

so officers arrived on scene

just as the suspects

were leaving the residence.

Okay. I don't know how far

we should go back, but...

I'm a very

detective-like person.

I like to know details,

and until I know the details

around things, it's hard

to figure things out.

I would like to know why

my sister and Steven Hayes

weren't stopped at the bank?

Why she wasn't held at the bank?

There were some police

officers that, off the record,

said to people in the town

that they heard the girls

screaming in the end.

Did they try to enter or

did they not try to enter?

And why weren't there policemen

looking in the windows?

My sister had no blinds

on her windows.

I just want the facts.

And nobody has told us

what really happened.

And today,

a state prosecutor said

he'll seek the death penalty

for Komisarjevsky and Hayes.

Today, the state charged the men with six

counts each of capital felony murder.

I was driving back

from the Adirondacks with my wife,

coming through the Berkshires.

Not a care in the world.

And I get a cell phone call.

Probably why I turned

pale was because,

you know, I had

a sense as a lawyer

where this was headed

right from the beginning.

You know, capital case, death

penalty case, high profile.

And in my own head,

I knew right away

that that case was

coming in to this office

and that I'd be involved.

Steven Hayes

and Mr. Komisarjevsky

were coming into Meriden

court for arraignment.

Right from the first

time that we met,

Steven Hayes was

suicidal, depressed.

Just doesn't really understand

how this all happened.

His record is lengthy.

He's got all these burglaries.

Most involve car burglaries.

In this state, burglary

includes the break-in of a car.

And they were all daytime.

He'd sit and watch. People would park

their cars. They'd go walking on a trail.

Break into their car and take a

laptop or a radio or a phone.

So you were not

dealing with someone

who had the kind of classic

history of violence

and all of a sudden

stepped into the big time

in terms of the next level of violence.

You just didn't have it.

There was no reason that anyone would

ever look at that history and think,

"Well, this guy's gonna do

something really bad one day."

The first time

that I found out about my dad.

I was probably about

five years old.

He would, like,

take me to the movies

and he really tried to be

that father figure to me,

but for whatever reason, he just

couldn't stay out of trouble

and so when he

went back to jail,

like, he would write to me

and I would write back

and that was our way

of communicating.

"Dear Alicia, hello, honey,

and how are you doing?

"I haven't heard

from you in a while

"and neither has Grandma.

"I want so bad

never to hurt you again

"and I feel like I am

because I'm still here.

"Every day, I wake up wondering

if today will be the day

"that my name is called."

"The stress is

almost unbearable..."

When I first found out

about the incident,

I just came back

from the police academy.

And my mind was just like... I told him

to call me if something was wrong.

I needed to talk to him. I

needed to get answers from him.

What made him get together with

this one guy and do what they did?

Whose idea was it?

Was it just one or was it

both or did it just happen?

It's just like,

there's no easy answer,

and I might not like the

answer I get, but it's all...

It's all just, "Why?"

The details of 26-year-old

Joshua Komisarjevsky's past

are more in-depth, and some

say even more disturbing.

His rap sheet reveals a...

We were

right in the kitchen here

and we got a call

from my brother Ben,

and he said, "I think

Josh has been involved"

"in this home invasion."

And I said to him,

I said, "Home invasion?"

"This was a murder."

"And Josh was involved?"

So you see the name spelled out,

the Komisarjevsky name,

and you sit there and you

hold your head in your hands

and you can't believe it.

And you want to cry.

This young man's a monster,

and that is not the way

that we as members

of this family behave.

We spent all

of our time in Cheshire

and we lived in a home that was

a home of arts and letters.

This is my aunt

Vera Komisarjevsky,

one of the foremost actresses

in the Russian stage,

and there's a theater in St.

Petersburg that's named after her.

And this is my father

Theodore Komisarjevsky,

theater director,

architect, costume designer.

When we drove up to Cheshire,

my brother's house was

just swarmed with media

knocking on the door, trying

to get statements from them.

I think it's hard for anybody to be able

to deal with that kind of a situation,

but probably more so for them

because they were individuals

who basically had

withdrawn from many

aspects of public life.

They ultimately posted a notice

on the outside of their door,

but that was it.

And from that time on,

they've had nothing to say.

It was so disappointing,

because I knew I was the last

person, therapeutically,

that met with Josh

and could really

paint a picture of him

in a different light.

And I knew that the media and

most people's opinion of him

would go against what

I saw and what I knew.

Josh just wanted to do

better things with his life.

Staying clean,

reconnecting with his family,

and possibly going forward with an

education, to become an architect.

I saw someone who created

some beautiful designs.

These sketches.

I mean, this kid was amazing.

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