William Petit engaged: Sole survivor of Conn. home invasion to wed volunteer at family foundation
(CBS/AP) NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Dr. William Petit, whose wife and daughters were murdered in a home invasion in 2007, is engaged to a woman who volunteered for the organization set up to honor their memory.
Pictures: Petit family murders
Petit, 55, became engaged over the weekend to photographer Christine Paluf, 34. Paluf volunteered for the Petit Family Foundation, created to help educate young people and help protect those affected by violence.
Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were both sentenced to death for their roles in the rape, murders and arson at the Petit home in Chesire, Conn. Hayes was convicted of raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and killing the two girls, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. Komisarjevsky was convicted of the killings and of sexually assaulting the younger child.
Petit has said he considered suicide many times after the deaths of his family. His late wife's mother, Marybelle Hawke, told the Associated Press that she had gotten to know Paluf and was happy to see a positive change in Petit, who she said had been "a blank person for a long time."
"We're really excited and pleased that they've become engaged," she said by telephone from her home in Florida. "I think that they seem to be very compatible."