After a tour in Iraq as a helicopter mechanic, Pietrzak returned to the United States, where he met and married Jenkins.
Together, they owned and lived in a house in Winchester, a census-designated place in Riverside County, California, located near the Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, where Pietrzak worked.
On October 15, 2008, four Marines entered the Pietrzak home, sexually assaulted Jenkins-Pietrzak and tortured the couple before killing them.
According to the New York Daily News, "the words N----- Lover were found on the wall near the master bedroom and on a bathroom mirror, Riverside County Homicide Investigator Benjamin Ramirez testified."
After meeting with the families of the deceased, District Attorney Rod Pacheco decided to seek the death penalty on January 22, 2009.
[4] Jan Paweł Pietrzak, named after Pope John Paul II,[5] was born in either Kłodzko[6] or Bielawa, Poland.
Jenkins, who worked for the local Black Infant Care Center,[8] was initially reluctant to date a Marine.
[16] On November 6, CNN television news journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell reported that the four Marines under arrest were African American and raised the possibility of race as a motivation.
They additionally face one charge each of sexual penetration with a foreign object, and the District Attorney's office will decide if to pursue death sentences.
"[18] At about the same time, District Attorney Rod Pacheco emphasized the robbery motive, commenting, "To burglarize their home and then to treat them in the way they did before they died and to murder them — it's hard for our minds to comprehend this kind of savagery.
"[10] By mid-November, the Riverside County Sheriff's Central Homicide unit responded to the race motivation issue, stating "There's nothing to suggest what happened was a racial crime.
[20][21] Despite the conclusion proposed by the investigators, the couple's parents and many in the general populace, as shown by blogs and posts over the Internet, continue to believe that there was a possible racial motive, particularly since Jenkins-Pietrzak was sexually assaulted, and there was evidence of premeditation in the murders (as 'Chillin waitin 4 da killin' was posted on a perpetrator's MySpace page before the murders)[14][19][22] Anti-miscegenation racial epithets in the form of "Nigger Lover" were found on the wall near the master bedroom and on a bathroom mirror.
[13][25] Pietrzak's mother, Henryka Pietrzak-Varga has repeatedly stated she believes the murders were racially motivated, as her son and daughter-in-law were not affluent individuals.
On November 11, 2008 (Veteran's Day), Pietrzak's mother composed a formal letter to president-elect Barack Obama in which she discussed what her son and daughter-in-law had endured, and the possible primary motive for the murders.
"[26] Seven months later on July 27, 2009, the Obama administration responded with generic form letter of the type issued to all soldiers killed in combat.
[27] When knowledge of this indirect, insincere reply reached the news media, the Obama administration issued an apology.
[13] On August 12, 2009, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Judith Clark ordered the four defendants to be tried for the deaths of the Pietrzaks.
[38] Three of the defendants, Kevin Darnell Cox, 25, Emrys Justin John, 23, and Tyrone Miller, 25, went on trial for murder and related charges on Monday, April 8, 2013, at 9 a.m. at the Riverside Hall of Justice.