To help catch killer, girls' kin relive 911 call
Crime: Recording captures anguish in Weleetka case

 
By Johnny Johnson | Modified: July 22, 2008 at 6:03 am | Published: July 22, 2008   

OKEMAH — She heaves uncontrollably as she holds her cell phone and tries to dial those three numbers she always hoped she'd never need.

The phone rings twice before an Okmulgee County emergency dispatcher answers the 911 call.

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Weleetka 911 call released

Jul 21OSBI spokeswoman Jessica Brown pleads for a witness to...

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The conversation that follows is painful — apparently even for the dispatcher who is no stranger to dire situations and grief-stricken callers.

"What happened now, ma'am?”

"I don't know — they went for a walk and they're both down here dead!” the frantic woman screams.

"They're down there dead?” the dispatcher clarifies.

"They're dead!” the woman howls.

In the seconds that follow, the dispatcher tries to get information to pinpoint where the woman lives. The woman begs for help — help from the dispatcher, help from God, help from anyone.

But it's already too late.

Releasing the call
"Breaks your heart, doesn't it?” Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jessica Brown said, referring to the woman's raw emotional response to losing two girls who were gunned down in a firestorm of bullets.

Six weeks ago, Brown said the family of Taylor Paschal-Placker had asked investigators not to release the tape of the 911 call made by Taylor's grandmother on June 8, after Taylor and her best friend, Skyla Whitaker, were found shot to death up the road from Taylor's house. At the time, authorities said family members thought it would be too hard to relive it — they just weren't sure they could take it.

Despite open records requests and media inquiries, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said it would not turn over the recording because of the family's request.

When pressed, officials said the emotional tape was part of the investigation and that releasing it would not further that investigation.

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