http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/nyregion/25petit.html
PLAINVILLE, Conn., July 24 — The family had become so ingrained in the fabric of life in this small town in central Connecticut that people had started tweaking the name of the place as a good-natured joke, but also as a sincere tribute. They called it “Petitville.”
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The New York Times
Cheshire is a prosperous suburb 15 miles north of New Haven.
Dr. William A. Petit Jr., an endocrinologist, had a practice in downtown Plainville, in a red-brick building on Whiting Street steps from the now shuttered Petit’s General Store, which his father, William Petit Sr., had run for years.
Mr. Petit, 73, served on the town council off and on from the late 1960s through the 1990s, and recently became chairman of the Plainville Chamber of Commerce. His daughter, Johanna Chapman, was on the Town Council.
“You think of Plainville, and you think of the Petits,” said Deborah Tom, the president of the Rotary Club, who runs a sign shop in town.
On Tuesday, two bouquets of yellow carnations and white roses were left in the grass below Dr. Petit’s office sign, small symbols of this town’s sudden pain. The day before, the authorities said, Dr. Petit’s wife of 22 years, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were killed after being held hostage in their home in nearby Cheshire by two men. Dr. Petit, 50, survived and was in serious but stable condition on Tuesday with a head injury.
As he recuperated at St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, the residents of Plainville and Cheshire, 15 miles apart, were linked by their concern for him, and by shock.
“Everybody is stunned — beyond stunned,” said Christopher J. Wazorko, who serves on the Plainville Town Council with Ms. Chapman and works closely with Dr. Petit’s father. “We’re all having a difficult time putting into words what we’re feeling,” he said. “You see some of these things on TV. It happens in other communities, in other states. And this one has hit pretty close to home.”
Plainville is the kind of place that takes pride in living up to its name. It is an old-fashioned town in Hartford County, made up of 9.6 square miles and 17,000 people. The big event each year is the hot-air balloon festival. Criminal activity, town officials say, usually involves traffic violations.
Many people settle down here for good, and their children do the same. Some of Dr. Petit’s patients, who included relatives of council members and diner waitresses, were the children of his high school classmates. Dr. Petit is the medical director of the Joslin Diabetes Center at the Hospital of Central Connecticut and is also Plainville’s health director.
“We paid him a small stipend, but he did it, I think, out of a sense of community,” said Robert Lee, Plainville’s town manager.
Mr. Wazorko, the chairman of the town council, said that if he had to estimate the amount of time the elder Mr. Petit, his wife, Barbara, and their children had volunteered to Plainville over the decades, the total would be measured in years rather than hours. “You cannot underestimate it,” he said.
Members of the Petit family released a brief statement on Tuesday, asking members of the news media to respect their privacy.
“Our precious family members have been the victims of horrible, senseless, violent assaults,” it read. “We are understandably in shock and overwhelmed with sadness as we attempt to gather together to support one another and recognize these wonderful, giving, beautiful individuals who have been so cruelly taken from us.”
Friends said that Dr. Petit’s parents doted on their grandchildren, who in turn seemed to have picked up the zest for volunteerism from their grandparents.
Ms. Hawke-Petit was told by doctors eight years ago that she had multiple sclerosis. The family, particularly Hayley, became involved in raising money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Hayley Petit, who had planned to attend Dartmouth College in the fall, frequently spoke about the disease at the Rotary Club, where her grandfather has been a member since 1967. She also led a fund-raising team called Hayley’s Hope in an annual walk in Cheshire, collecting more than $50,000 over the last eight years.
The Petits were the top family fund-raising team in Connecticut, said Karen E. Butler, a spokeswoman for the society’s Greater Connecticut chapter. Michaela Petit had planned to raise money with a team called Michaela’s Miracles.
Hayley Petit wanted to be a doctor, said Maria Laskaris, dean of admissions at Dartmouth. She said that Ms. Petit, in her application for admission, wrote that medicine had been her career ambition ever since her father gave her a child-size medical bag and instruments for her fourth birthday.
On Tuesday, at Dr. Petit’s office here, a man delivering flowers asked the receptionist if Dr. Petit had recovered enough to know that his family had been murdered.
“Yes,” she replied softly, “he knows.”
Stacey Stowe and Kristin Hussey contributed reporting.
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