Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Teen crushed to death as 911 operator, police ignore desperate plea for help

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Teen crushed to death as 911 operator, police ignore desperate plea for help · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph Channel
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Speaker 1: one two. Imagine your boy calling and calling and calling
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Speaker 1: nine one one as his life slowly slips away and
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Speaker 1: nothing happens. Kyle Plush a boy found dead in his
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Speaker 1: family's van. It was parked in a lot of a
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Speaker 1: private school in Madisonville, Ohio. The corner says the boy
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Speaker 1: was crushed dead by the third row seat of the van,
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Speaker 1: but he used sirie to call nine one one just
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Speaker 1: after three pm, saying he was trapped in a Honda van.
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Speaker 1: Directed police too. Y Am, the boy is dead, crushed
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Speaker 1: in the back of the van by a vance seat.
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Speaker 1: I Nancy Grace, this is crime Stories. Thank you for
1:11
Speaker 1: being with us. May it never happen again. Listen to
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Speaker 1: Kyle's nine one one call. Oh nine is the address
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Speaker 1: on the Seven Hills parking on Where are you? I
1:44
Speaker 1: can barely stand to hear it. There you hear the boy,
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Speaker 1: Kyle Plush, begging, begging police to come to him. I
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Speaker 1: don't understand how it happened. Um. I know that he
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Speaker 1: was part an overflow parking lot within plain sight, but
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Speaker 1: cops didn't check it. Then later that night, the mom
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Speaker 1: calls nine one one to report her boy missing, saying
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Speaker 1: he failed to show up at a tennis match or
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Speaker 1: to come home. Listen, my son never came from home
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Speaker 1: from school, and we thought he was at a tennis match.
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Speaker 1: Sixteen years old. He was driving a gold Hunda van.
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Speaker 1: He said, you need to hear the tennis match to
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Speaker 1: via a delta. He never went to the tennis match.
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Speaker 1: One of my friends called the coach and just a
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Speaker 1: few minutes ago, and the coach study never went to
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Speaker 1: the tennis match. I don't understand how everything went so sideways.
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Speaker 1: Let me go first to forensics expert, Professor of Forensics
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Speaker 1: at Jacksonville State University, Joseph Scott Morgan, Joe Scott, Please
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Speaker 1: in regular people talk, what happened to this boy? How
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Speaker 1: long did it take for him to die? He had
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Speaker 1: the wherewithal took, say Siri, call nine one one. He
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Speaker 1: could do that. He called nine one one. He told
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Speaker 1: them exactly where he was and quote, I don't have
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Speaker 1: much time left. I'm dying. Yeah, he's slowly, slowly running
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Speaker 1: out of breath at this point, Nancy, Uh, he's essentially
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Speaker 1: inverted or upside down, head down, laying over the back,
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Speaker 1: of the seat. The seat has given away, and he
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Speaker 1: is essentially being crushed by not just a seat, but
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Speaker 1: on his own weight of his lower body is compressing him.
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Speaker 1: And in uh, in our terms in forensic pathology, we
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Speaker 1: refer to this as a as a positional asphyxia death,
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Speaker 1: which means that due to the position that you're in,
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Speaker 1: this facilitates your inability to take oxygen into your body.
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Speaker 1: And that's what happened to this poork it, Nancy. Just
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Speaker 1: imagine a gigantic weight being pressed on your chest so
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Speaker 1: that every time you exhale that that space becomes more
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Speaker 1: diminished in there that handles oxygen. He slowly runs out
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Speaker 1: of oxygen. He hasn't awareness long enough to be able
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Speaker 1: to call via serie to get the call into nine
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Speaker 1: one one. But when he said please help me, I'm dying,
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Speaker 1: he wasn't kidding. And this is not a quick death, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: This is slow languishing. Uh, just an impending kind of
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Speaker 1: horrible position to be in. And he received no relief,
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Speaker 1: no help, nothing. He was Uh, he was well. That
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Speaker 1: first time on call was not the end of it.
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Speaker 1: He calls back, Hello, where are you? Probably much time
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Speaker 1: of life to tell my mom, did I love her
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Speaker 1: if I die? Yes, to try to joke joke, I'm
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Speaker 1: trapped inside my old in the pelopor Tarking where Steven
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Speaker 1: Hair kill death JN Dollas, there's immediate list. I'm almost dead,
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Speaker 1: he calls back. Now the dispatch says she couldn't hear anything,
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Speaker 1: but plus can be heard speaking when you listen to
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Speaker 1: the call, and the boy is desperate. He's saying, this
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Speaker 1: is not a joke. I'm almost dead. I probably don't
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Speaker 1: have much time left, so tell my mom I love
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Speaker 1: her if I die. I can hardly even take that
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Speaker 1: in thinking about my boy or girl. And I'm looking
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Speaker 1: at all of the the graphics of it looks like
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Speaker 1: he may have gone to the back of the van.
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Speaker 1: This is a Honda van, a Honda Odyssey van. It
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Speaker 1: looks like which I am, my children have done a
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Speaker 1: million times before, and I can guarantee you that we
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Speaker 1: won't ever do it again. It looks like he went
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Speaker 1: to the back the third seat. Okay, you've got the
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Speaker 1: driver's seat in mini van or and suv. You've got
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Speaker 1: the middle seat where the children typically said. Then you've
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Speaker 1: got a third seat, which we call the wormhole, and
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Speaker 1: It looks like he was facing the back of the van,
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Speaker 1: like he was going to reach down into the back trunk,
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Speaker 1: you know, by reaching over the third seat, like maybe
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Speaker 1: to reach down and get a ball or his backpack.
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Speaker 1: And he was reaching over at waist level, and the
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Speaker 1: seat went backwards with him and it crushed him at
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Speaker 1: the way waiste between the seat and the back door
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Speaker 1: of the van of the suv. He's crushed upside down
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Speaker 1: and he can't move up, and he can't move down.
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Speaker 1: He's crushed at the waist, hanging upside down with his
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Speaker 1: feet up in the air, with his back against the
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Speaker 1: back of the suv and his front facing the seat
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Speaker 1: that has now collapsed backwards. Is there any easier way
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Speaker 1: to say it with me? Crime Stories investigative reporter Pamela
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Speaker 1: fur Is there a better way to explain? His feet
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Speaker 1: are up in the air, his head is down, and
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Speaker 1: he's crushed and pinned at the waist by the seat
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Speaker 1: which is now tilted backwards. Pam, you you have the
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Speaker 1: best description, I think, uh there is. And what is
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Speaker 1: mind boggling is that the police officers that were dispatched
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Speaker 1: did not look far enough into the parking lots of
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Speaker 1: that school to find that van and to see him
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Speaker 1: in trouble like that. Uh, that's that's the part that
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Speaker 1: has this community in an uproar that these officers did
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Speaker 1: not act in time. I guess so. The corner says.
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Speaker 1: The boy is crushed dead by the third row seat.
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Speaker 1: Kyle used Syria to call nine one one just after
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Speaker 1: three o'clock getting out of school to tell them he's
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Speaker 1: trapped in a Honda van. He gives them the location.
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Speaker 1: Body cam video off the cops show the two police
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Speaker 1: responded and never left their patrol car when they went
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Speaker 1: to go look for the boy. Video shows they searched
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Speaker 1: for just three minutes before leaving the scene. Pull Ease
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Speaker 1: reports say they searched eleven minutes, three minutes. The boy's
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Speaker 1: van was in the overflow parking lot across the street,
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Speaker 1: which the officers never went to. That night, Little Kyle
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Speaker 1: is found dead at nine pm by his father, Ron
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Speaker 1: Hamilton's Can you even imagine? Take a listen to the
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Speaker 1: natural sound of the police body cams as they cruised
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Speaker 1: by the school responding to the nine one one call
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Speaker 1: one cops sing I don't see nobody, which I didn't
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Speaker 1: imagine I would music playing in the background. One officer commedy,
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Speaker 1: these kids drive better cars than you do. Listen better
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Speaker 1: card looking at scientist, little huddle of brower summer By,
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Speaker 1: don't imagine I would bind the grogle of bet who
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Speaker 1: got under cut, meddle of brower. You want me know
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Speaker 1: anyone's good spina, you know to Karen Stark New York
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Speaker 1: Psychologists joining us Karen. Under any other circumstances, it probably
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Speaker 1: would not be so offensive that one cops saying I
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Speaker 1: don't see nobody, which I didn't imagine I would. Or
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Speaker 1: these kids drive better cars than you do. Under other circumstances,
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Speaker 1: you know, that would be okay. But here it highlights
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Speaker 1: the fact they really didn't look for the boys. There's
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Speaker 1: nothing in these particular circumstances that is okay. There's nothing
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Speaker 1: that's right about what they're doing, because it wasn't a joke.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't a kid who was trying to engage the
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Speaker 1: police and and waste their time. He was dying and
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Speaker 1: they were there. It's it's such a tragedy. It's a terrible,
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Speaker 1: terrible story. I could see, Nancy, how it would bring
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Speaker 1: up what if this happened to my kids? Because you
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Speaker 1: hear this poor boy who's who's pleading for help, and
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Speaker 1: the police are not taking it seriously, making any kind
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Speaker 1: of an effort to find him. None And the whole
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Speaker 1: time in the nine one one call, it's not just
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Speaker 1: the cops who didn't get out of the they didn't
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Speaker 1: first go even go to the right parking lot and
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Speaker 1: look for the Honda okay number one, number two. This
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Speaker 1: is gonna overflow parking lot number two. The nine one
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Speaker 1: one operator did not convey the right messages to the
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Speaker 1: responding officers. The boy said, I'm going to die here.
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Speaker 1: He is trying to bang on the interior of the
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Speaker 1: car during the fine one one calls. Let's listen to child,
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Speaker 1: the little boy now dad begging for help on this
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Speaker 1: nine one one call. Listen again. What can we learn
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Speaker 1: is the address of work and left held hab nine
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Speaker 1: one wild the seven Hills were parking lot and where
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Speaker 1: are you? Hello? Where are you? Probably don't have much
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Speaker 1: time left. You're tell my mom that I love her
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Speaker 1: if I died you you rita hill. This is night
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Speaker 1: a joke. I'm snapping tide. My old turned on to
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Speaker 1: them in the Saltworth parking lot A seven Hills kills
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Speaker 1: them JN Dollas, there's immediate list. I'm almost dead. I
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Speaker 1: can hardly stand to listen to it. There are two
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Speaker 1: videos taken from the body cam cameras which are mandatorially
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Speaker 1: turned on, and that shows the officers pulling into the
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Speaker 1: parking lot south of the Seven Hill School Reseal shop.
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Speaker 1: The van Kyle z Van was parking the parking lot
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Speaker 1: north of the shop, on the very same side of
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Speaker 1: the road that costs him, make a U turn and
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Speaker 1: return to the road before look turning into the other
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Speaker 1: parking lot. They leave declaring it was a prank. Call
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Speaker 1: to Joseph's got Morgan forensics expert, how did it happen
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Speaker 1: in this two thousand two Honda Odyssey. And this is
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Speaker 1: a warning, guys. This is a warning to everybody that
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Speaker 1: has an SUV or a minivan, including me. And I'm
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Speaker 1: not going to tell my children all the details, but
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Speaker 1: I'm showing them this diagram that I've looked up on
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Speaker 1: dailymail dot com. And it does, of course doesn't show
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Speaker 1: Kyle himself, but it shows a diagram of what happened.
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Speaker 1: Jo Scott explained to me technically how this boy died.
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Speaker 1: I don't think I can bear hearing anymore about the
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Speaker 1: cops so close to his van and not getting out
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Speaker 1: to save him. Yeah, it's it's heartbreaking, Nancy. The the weight,
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Speaker 1: you know, let's just think about it just for a second.
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Speaker 1: The upper portion of our torsos weighs more than say,
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Speaker 1: below the waist. So when Kyle goes into the rear
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Speaker 1: of this of this vehicle, he essentially lays over the
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Speaker 1: back of the top of the seat. Okay, and this
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Speaker 1: it looks like he's bending over it to reach down
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Speaker 1: in the back to get something. And this is something
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Speaker 1: that many of I've done it. You know, I've done it.
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Speaker 1: I've done an millions, because it's it's a matter of convenience.
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Speaker 1: He's he's trying to grab something apparently. Well, Joe Scott,
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Speaker 1: I thought that's why they built it that way, for
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Speaker 1: you to be able to lean over the third the
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Speaker 1: back row seat and lean into the trunk to get
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Speaker 1: whatever it was you put back there. I thought that's
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Speaker 1: why they had it that way. You would think that
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Speaker 1: that it would meet some kind of weight standard that
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Speaker 1: it could bear up. And Kyle is not a big kid.
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Speaker 1: The only thing that I can think of is that
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Speaker 1: the van is older. Maybe maybe it had given away
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Speaker 1: when of the latches that holds it in place, and
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Speaker 1: for whatever reason, it tipped backwards. So he is essentially
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Speaker 1: compressed between the back of the seat, the back door,
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Speaker 1: and the floor plays into this, the floorboard back there
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Speaker 1: as well, and all the while it's his own weight,
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Speaker 1: it's his own weight of his upper body that has
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Speaker 1: put him into this position. I am actually amazed, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: that he still had the wherewithal and the breath in
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Speaker 1: his body to be able to call Siri. And that's
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Speaker 1: what kind of is striking to this, Uh, that that
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Speaker 1: he was able to still communicate that effectively. And then
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Speaker 1: what does he say at the end, I'm probably dying.
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Speaker 1: And that's that's what's so heartbreaking about this. So it's
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Speaker 1: it is a word of warning. Uh, you know, I
17:20
Speaker 1: think in retrospect, you know, maybe it would have been
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Speaker 1: better to go round to the rear of the Here's
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Speaker 1: the other thing, though, listen to this. Joe Scott and
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Speaker 1: Karen Stark with me. Everybody just got Morgan forensics expert,
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Speaker 1: Karen Stark, New York psychologists and Pamela for Crime Stories
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Speaker 1: investigative reporter Kyle gets trapped and the third row seat
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Speaker 1: of the Honda Odyssey minivan. While reaching to pick up
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Speaker 1: his tennis gear in the back seat, the seat gives away.
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Speaker 1: He falls over the seat upside down and is crushed.
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Speaker 1: Three fourteen, he calls nine one one saying he's trapped.
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna die here. He says, I'm stuck in a
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Speaker 1: van outside seven he'll parking lot. That's three four two
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Speaker 1: officers are dispatched. They arrive. That's just twelve minutes later.
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Speaker 1: They start looking for the van. He calls again at
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Speaker 1: three thirty five, saying this is not a joke. Tell
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Speaker 1: my mom I love her if I die now. The
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Speaker 1: nine one despatch says she couldn't hear him, but when
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Speaker 1: you play it back, you can hear him. Three seven
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Speaker 1: Police officers say they think it's a prank, and they
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Speaker 1: end the search. Twenty three minutes have passed since he
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Speaker 1: first called, and they're ending the search. Sheriff's deputies called
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Speaker 1: the communications center at three forty four and asked for
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Speaker 1: info on the van. The cops says he located it
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Speaker 1: but didn't see anybody in it. Nine pm, the father
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Speaker 1: finds him in the app used to locate his iPhone.
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Speaker 1: I just there were so many ways this could have
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Speaker 1: been stopped. Pamela fur It seems to me that when
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Speaker 1: they isolate his phone call by using GPS technology to
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Speaker 1: narrow down his location, it supports his call. It took
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Speaker 1: them to the Seventh Hills School. That's where he's saying
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Speaker 1: he's calling. That's where GPS says he's calling. Couldn't they
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Speaker 1: put two and two together? Right? They knew he was
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Speaker 1: somewhere on that property, but yet they didn't take the
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Speaker 1: time to get out of their car and actually look
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Speaker 1: or drive around the extended parking lot. The other thing
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Speaker 1: that is alarming to a lot of people. Amber Smith
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Speaker 1: is the second dispatcher on that second call. She says
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Speaker 1: that her computer froze and therefore she didn't get to
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Speaker 1: put the information into that computer system about it being
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Speaker 1: a gold Honda, about you know, I'm about to die,
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Speaker 1: tell my mother I love her. She didn't have to
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Speaker 1: put that information into the computer system. So they're saying
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Speaker 1: she didn't get to you know what, I'm not buying
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Speaker 1: that how long did it stay frozen? But that's the question,
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Speaker 1: so I'm not buying. And what she could have done
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Speaker 1: is just picked up the two way radio and said, Okay,
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Speaker 1: the computer systems down, but here's the information that I have.
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Speaker 1: You're looking for a gold van, you know. But she
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Speaker 1: she didn't. She could have picked up a cell phone
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Speaker 1: and called those officers. And as you said, a moment ago,
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Speaker 1: a deputy did call and ask for more information about
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Speaker 1: the van. Why wasn't that information given? Uh so, Uh,
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Speaker 1: No one's buying it. The family is not buying it,
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Speaker 1: and many people in the community are not buying that excuse.
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Speaker 1: Now she has been put on leave. Amber Smith, the
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Speaker 1: second dispatcher who took the call, But the officers have
20:50
Speaker 1: not been put on leave. And again a lot of
20:52
Speaker 1: people are upset that they didn't even get out of
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Speaker 1: the vehicle. And in the uh, the audio that you
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Speaker 1: played earlier, you can hear music in the background. These
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Speaker 1: officers are listening to music. So I would think it
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Speaker 1: would be very difficult if they're listening to music to
21:07
Speaker 1: hear a man screaming help help help that we heard
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Speaker 1: on the call. How can they hear a kid screaming
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Speaker 1: help help help. If they're listening to music in their
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Speaker 1: patrol car. It gets even worse because then the dad
21:23
Speaker 1: goes to the Cincinnati council meeting. And in that Cincinnati
21:29
Speaker 1: council meeting that Tuesday night, a day after Kyle's funeral,
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Speaker 1: to your five hours worth of testimony, and then Councilman
21:39
Speaker 1: Wendell Young says, at the end of the meeting, the
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Speaker 1: day you lost your son, everything that could possibly go
21:45
Speaker 1: wrong went wrong. I don't know any level of finger
21:50
Speaker 1: pointing or witch hunting that's going to change that. I
21:55
Speaker 1: suspect there'll be attempts to do what the law allows
21:57
Speaker 1: to be done in some way to make up for
21:59
Speaker 1: what happened with you, But there's no amount of money
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Speaker 1: that's going to make you happy. He said that to
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Speaker 1: the father, Councilman Wendell Young. Kyle's father, ron Plus yells out,
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Speaker 1: this isn't about money, and then the team's uncle, Robert,
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Speaker 1: gets out of a seat, yelling and pointing his finger
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Speaker 1: at Wendell Young. You know what, stop it. This is
22:23
Speaker 1: the most intensive thing I've ever heard. You guys were
22:26
Speaker 1: doing wonderful n till this guy started talking. You've crossed
22:29
Speaker 1: the line. You crossed the line. The father, the uncle,
22:33
Speaker 1: the aunt, the grandmother's storm out. Listen to this. I
22:36
Speaker 1: suspect that there will be attempts two do what the
22:42
Speaker 1: law allows to be done, to try to in some way, uh,
22:49
Speaker 1: make up for what happened with you. But there's no
22:53
Speaker 1: amount of money it's gonna make you happy. There's no
22:58
Speaker 1: amount of that. I believe that if you couldn't hear.
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Speaker 1: That's when Kyle Plush's father, Ron said, it's not about
23:04
Speaker 1: the money. Although Mr Plush was visibly upset, council member
23:09
Speaker 1: Wendell Young continued to talk, there's no amount of blame
23:14
Speaker 1: that's going to make the situation better. Plush, his uncle
23:16
Speaker 1: Robert couldn't hold back his emotions at the end. At
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Speaker 1: the end of the day, At the end, wonderful you can.
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Speaker 1: Kyle's father, uncle, aunt, and grandma left, and Young kept going.
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Speaker 1: At the end of the day, what I wanted to
23:40
Speaker 1: say simply is that I hope that we are able
23:44
Speaker 1: to find a solution that again makes certain we don't
23:49
Speaker 1: suffer this again. What was he thinking, Pamela for what happened? Yeah,
23:55
Speaker 1: good question for him to say something like that so insensitively.
24:00
Speaker 1: All they were trying to do is get to the
24:01
Speaker 1: bottom of who failed when it came to his son
24:05
Speaker 1: calling for help, and these officers were on the property.
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Speaker 1: They could have saved their son and it didn't happen.
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Speaker 1: They wanted to know where the communication breakdown was and
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Speaker 1: get answers from the city council, who basically is the
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Speaker 1: uh that's who the police officers answer to. And that's
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Speaker 1: what the family members wanted to do was get some
24:27
Speaker 1: answers and for the city council member to be that insensitive.
24:31
Speaker 1: For my understanding, the mayor was not too happy about
24:34
Speaker 1: it either, and the mayor is calling for a complete,
24:38
Speaker 1: not only investigation, but they want the city councilman to
24:42
Speaker 1: be reprimanded. For sure. Youngest since apologized to the family,
24:45
Speaker 1: but you know what, you can't take that back. He
24:47
Speaker 1: needs to be off the Cincinnati City Council now. He
24:53
Speaker 1: needs to hang his head in shame. I am extremely
24:56
Speaker 1: sorry that the language I used caused him a sational
25:00
Speaker 1: hurt and pain, and again I just want to offer
25:03
Speaker 1: my sincere apologies for that. In hindsight, I would not
25:07
Speaker 1: have mentioned the word money. Um. I did not mean
25:11
Speaker 1: to imply that they were seeking money. I know that's
25:14
Speaker 1: the way they took it, and I understand that. But
25:17
Speaker 1: what I was really trying to say is that no
25:19
Speaker 1: amount of apology, no amount of money. Nothing we have
25:23
Speaker 1: I could ease the pain of having lost their son.
25:26
Speaker 1: Now take a listen to Cincinnati Police Chief Elliott Isaac
25:30
Speaker 1: as he tries to explain away what happened and claiming
25:36
Speaker 1: they've launched an internal investigation. Okay, listen. At this time,
25:43
Speaker 1: I've directed an internal investigation into the events of this evening,
25:48
Speaker 1: the actions of all of our employees involved. We intended
25:53
Speaker 1: to a comprehensive investigation and review of everything that occurred.
25:58
Speaker 1: At this time. The all taker who received the second
26:02
Speaker 1: call has been placed on administrative leave, pinning the outcome
26:06
Speaker 1: of this investigation. We we have not done a formal
26:11
Speaker 1: interview of her at this point. We intend to do
26:14
Speaker 1: that and get those answers. The one thing that we
26:17
Speaker 1: do know is that on that second nine one one call,
26:22
Speaker 1: something has gone terribly wrong. This young man was crying
26:27
Speaker 1: out for help. We weren't able to get that information
26:31
Speaker 1: to the officers on the scene, and we need to
26:33
Speaker 1: find out why. I'm not certain at this point if
26:36
Speaker 1: we're talking about an equipment malfunction or some type of
26:40
Speaker 1: other user error possibly, but we're gonna do an investigation
26:44
Speaker 1: to get those answers. Apparently there there was some trouble
26:48
Speaker 1: on the line. Um, she did press the tone to
26:53
Speaker 1: indicate that she's having some trouble on the line. That
26:55
Speaker 1: could possibly be a call received from a hearing impaired person.
27:00
Speaker 1: But again, those are things that have have been conveyed Preliminarily,
27:03
Speaker 1: we want to get some formal asses as to what
27:05
Speaker 1: occurred Nancy. Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley says, if the investigative
27:10
Speaker 1: report assigned some of the blame for Kyle's death to
27:13
Speaker 1: the two police officers confirming they never got out of
27:17
Speaker 1: their patrol car to look for him, then there will
27:20
Speaker 1: be consequences for those officers. Well, they can say whatever
27:23
Speaker 1: they want to say in retrospect, but with the nine
27:26
Speaker 1: one one dispatch failing to do her job not once,
27:30
Speaker 1: but twice, the police officers not even bothering to get
27:33
Speaker 1: out of the car, and then the city council piling
27:37
Speaker 1: on with their horrific comments to the father just after
27:41
Speaker 1: his son's funeral, there's no way to make anything good
27:47
Speaker 1: out of this. You know, the old phrase turned lemons
27:50
Speaker 1: into lemonade. There there's not an elimonade here. There's no
27:52
Speaker 1: silver lining, but there is a warning to all the
27:56
Speaker 1: parents to everyone listening right now, look at the graphic
28:02
Speaker 1: the demonstration about what happened to this brave, beautiful, wonderful boy.
28:09
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28:16
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Speaker 1: com slash Nancy, enter your own name, get started. Imagine
29:29
Speaker 1: opening the front door and there is a clown in
29:34
Speaker 1: full regalia, clown suit, the big shoes, the painted face,
29:38
Speaker 1: with flowers and balloons for you. But then the clown
29:43
Speaker 1: raises a pistol to your face. And there, in your
29:48
Speaker 1: own home, at your front door, the home you've raised
29:51
Speaker 1: your children, You're shot dead. How did this happen to
29:56
Speaker 1: a wife and mother and then you years go by
30:01
Speaker 1: without the case ever being salked. I'm talking about a
30:06
Speaker 1: beautiful woman, a mother, a wife shot dead in her
30:11
Speaker 1: own home, an absolutely stunning woman, Marlene Warren uh strawberry
30:20
Speaker 1: blonde with big blue eyes, shot dead in her own home,
30:24
Speaker 1: fatally shot at her front door. This is after somebody
30:29
Speaker 1: shows up in a clown outfit to kill her. But
30:33
Speaker 1: why with orange wig and white gloves, a red nose,
30:38
Speaker 1: enough white makeup to cover the clowns faced face completely.
30:44
Speaker 1: How did the clown calmly walk away from the front door,
30:47
Speaker 1: get into an American sedan and drive away, not even speeding,
30:54
Speaker 1: not even concerned that the clown would be caught. That's
30:58
Speaker 1: a clue in itself. Fast forward now years later, years later,
31:09
Speaker 1: a public's grocery store receipt and here fibers thanks to
31:13
Speaker 1: the use of new DNA technology, here are fibers found
31:19
Speaker 1: in the getaway car. And workers at a costume rental
31:23
Speaker 1: store help capture the killer clown. And guess who it is.
31:30
Speaker 1: It's the wife's husband's then mistress. You know, Karen Stark,
31:38
Speaker 1: renowned psychologists joining us from New York. Karen, the employees
31:45
Speaker 1: where the husband worked way back when said they would
31:47
Speaker 1: kiss at work. They would go off in different rooms
31:51
Speaker 1: and have sex at the office. I mean, it was
31:53
Speaker 1: clear as the nose on our face right, certainly sounds
31:56
Speaker 1: like at Nancy. And and that's where the suspicion, I'm
32:02
Speaker 1: sure should have been, right at the very start. You
32:05
Speaker 1: look to the person that's closest and what's going on
32:09
Speaker 1: with them. They were so outrageous that they felt like
32:14
Speaker 1: they had the right, the entitlement to be able to
32:18
Speaker 1: be open in that way. And this woman seemed to
32:22
Speaker 1: believe that this clown costume would be the best idea
32:26
Speaker 1: to be able to keep prod this off. And she did,
32:29
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's very disturbing with me, is Allan
32:32
Speaker 1: deep the duke joining me from l A. Allen? Wasn't
32:36
Speaker 1: there financial incentive as well for his wife to be dead? Well?
32:41
Speaker 1: She owned a number of the family businesses. This was
32:44
Speaker 1: a successful family. They lived in a really upscale community.
32:48
Speaker 1: I mean this, this was the community where they had
32:50
Speaker 1: a landing strip and an airplane hangar at every home.
32:54
Speaker 1: So these these were people who had money, and they
32:57
Speaker 1: had some significant businesses, and they were the wife's name.
33:02
Speaker 1: But there's reason to believe the wife was on to
33:04
Speaker 1: something happening with her husband messing around and and and
33:08
Speaker 1: there's indications now that that she was ready to leave
33:11
Speaker 1: him kinda said goodbye to half of those assets. Alan,
33:15
Speaker 1: do you I mean at your age? You know, offense,
33:17
Speaker 1: but I would assume you're a Beatles fan, don't you
33:19
Speaker 1: know money can't buy you love. He starts talking about
33:23
Speaker 1: these big houses and airplane hangars. You know what. Of
33:27
Speaker 1: course the old saying here and start the love of
33:30
Speaker 1: money is the root of all evil, And that turns
33:34
Speaker 1: out to be true in this instance. There's no doubt
33:37
Speaker 1: about it. But what is just so incredible is that
33:42
Speaker 1: she felt that she could get away with wearing this
33:46
Speaker 1: clown costume, and it was so outrageous that she actually
33:51
Speaker 1: did get away with it, because how are you going
33:54
Speaker 1: in those days to trace the costume? Well, listen to this.
33:58
Speaker 1: Uh in the last hour, Joe Aarons and family friend
34:03
Speaker 1: Jeanie Pratt were actually in the home of the murdered mom,
34:06
Speaker 1: Marlene Warren, back at the time of the incident when
34:11
Speaker 1: she was murdered. And here they are talking to CBS
34:16
Speaker 1: reporter Peter van Zant with forty eight hours. Take a
34:19
Speaker 1: listen to this. What do you remember of I remember
34:24
Speaker 1: that being one of the most terrible days of my life.
34:27
Speaker 1: You're in the house with your mom, right, yes, what's
34:30
Speaker 1: going on? Well, typical morning. She and I were cooking
34:34
Speaker 1: breakfast that morning, joking, carrying on. Did Marlene have any
34:39
Speaker 1: enemies in this world? None? Everybody loved her. She was
34:45
Speaker 1: my everything, my mom, my friend. She was by everything.
34:50
Speaker 1: I was in the living room probably remember that lamp
34:53
Speaker 1: is I sat down the eats, there was a balloon
34:56
Speaker 1: and some clown coming at the door. Look at that client.
35:00
Speaker 1: She was going to that door. She was excited when
35:03
Speaker 1: your mother opened the door, did she say something, Oh,
35:07
Speaker 1: how pretty? At first we thought maybe it was a
35:09
Speaker 1: balloon pop. But when we saw her fall we knew
35:13
Speaker 1: something was definite least seriously wrong. We had no clue
35:18
Speaker 1: what was going on. It was like the whole world
35:21
Speaker 1: was in slow motion. Did the clowns say anything? Nothing,
35:26
Speaker 1: not a word. The clown slowly walked back to the
35:30
Speaker 1: car like no care in the world. You are listening
35:33
Speaker 1: to what happened the day that this young mom, Rolene
35:36
Speaker 1: Warren was shot down at her own front door. And
35:41
Speaker 1: it should have been a really big clue aland which
35:43
Speaker 1: we really haven't focused on as you and I have
35:46
Speaker 1: tried to unravel this. I mean, I always thought it
35:49
Speaker 1: was the mistress, uh, but the police didn't have the proof,
35:55
Speaker 1: the hard evidence. These hire fibers with advanced DNA technology
35:59
Speaker 1: gave them that. But the clue, Allan, the clown didn't run.
36:05
Speaker 1: The clown was in no hurry to get to the car.
36:08
Speaker 1: Why because she knew she would not be rented out
36:12
Speaker 1: by the husband. Yeah, she was very cold blooded. If
36:15
Speaker 1: this was a he or a she a lot of
36:18
Speaker 1: confidence and didn't even bother to screech away out of
36:22
Speaker 1: the driveway in the getaway car, just drove away. Take
36:25
Speaker 1: a listen as Errands and Pratt describe the aftermath of
36:29
Speaker 1: the murder. Gunshot, and she goes, yes, your mother is lying.
36:35
Speaker 1: Were on the floor right there. It was just a
36:38
Speaker 1: horrible feeling. Joe was living at home and his friends
36:42
Speaker 1: were over that morning, including Genie Pratt, who helped tend
36:46
Speaker 1: to Marlene. A neighbor called I was right next to
36:50
Speaker 1: her and our roll her to her side. Was a
36:52
Speaker 1: big hole in her cheek and upper lip. Joe, hobbled
36:56
Speaker 1: by a broken leg and cast followed the clown outside
37:00
Speaker 1: the shooter's car, a white Chrysler le Baron was parked
37:04
Speaker 1: in the driveway. The car was right here, the door
37:07
Speaker 1: was open, the car was running. I tried to get
37:09
Speaker 1: the clown to turn around. I called him every word
37:13
Speaker 1: in the book. The shooter looked back. Joe saw white
37:17
Speaker 1: and red clown makeup, a fuzzy orange wig, and the
37:21
Speaker 1: eyes of the person who had just shot his mother,
37:24
Speaker 1: just really dark brown eyes. The shooter calmly got in
37:29
Speaker 1: the car and drove away. Didn't even squeal. Attire just
37:33
Speaker 1: drove off like nothing happened. Joe made his way to
37:37
Speaker 1: his own car. Joey was running around, hurting and say
37:41
Speaker 1: oh for him, like you're not going anywhere by yourself.
37:44
Speaker 1: Gennie Pratt jumped in the car with him. I just
37:49
Speaker 1: punched it to try to catch up to that car.
37:52
Speaker 1: I never could never could catch it. It was like
37:56
Speaker 1: just disappeared. So I turned back and came back. That's
38:00
Speaker 1: just heartbreaking. As you hear them describe when the mom
38:03
Speaker 1: gets shot down, he describes seeing the clown's eyes through
38:08
Speaker 1: all that makeup as being dark brown, and sure enough,
38:12
Speaker 1: Sheila Keen, who later becomes Sheila Keen Warren when she
38:16
Speaker 1: marries Marline's then husband, has dark brown eyes. They were
38:22
Speaker 1: rumored to be having a secret sex relationship before they
38:26
Speaker 1: were married pretty quick, fairly soon after the murder. Now,
38:32
Speaker 1: this is what we know. Prosecutors have released evidence, and
38:36
Speaker 1: we know that they were having a hard time pinning
38:40
Speaker 1: anybody with the murder because she was wearing clown costume,
38:47
Speaker 1: white makeup, the wig, the outfit. We also know that
38:53
Speaker 1: she was there in the clown suit and nobody could
38:57
Speaker 1: identify really her height or any thing. Further than that,
39:01
Speaker 1: the people at the store were tracked down where she
39:04
Speaker 1: bought the balloons and flowers. A woman matching the mistress's
39:08
Speaker 1: description bought them, but they couldn't positively say it was her,
39:13
Speaker 1: so the prosecutor's hands were tied. Take a listen as
39:17
Speaker 1: Joe describes his mom in the hospital as he talks
39:21
Speaker 1: as he's speaking to CBS reporter Peter van Zante with
39:24
Speaker 1: forty eight Hours. Listen, first thing, I didn't grab her hand,
39:27
Speaker 1: you know, and try to talk to her, you know,
39:31
Speaker 1: just try to get some kind of response, you know,
39:34
Speaker 1: and there was nothing. I just want to see my mom.
39:38
Speaker 1: I just stayed in that room for hours at a
39:41
Speaker 1: time as his mother clung to life. Joe remained by
39:46
Speaker 1: her side at the hospital. What were you saying to her?
39:51
Speaker 1: I love you, Please don't leave, mom. I just keep saying, mom. Oh,
39:56
Speaker 1: you know. Karen Stark, renowned psychology, is joining us from
40:00
Speaker 1: New York. Karen. That reminds me so much of standing
40:07
Speaker 1: by my father in the bed at the hospital and
40:13
Speaker 1: right right beside his left ear, and I would whisper
40:18
Speaker 1: in his ear. Everybody else was saying, Mac, you can go,
40:21
Speaker 1: you can go. I was whispering, don't go, Daddy, don't go.
40:25
Speaker 1: Come back to me. Please let me make a cup
40:28
Speaker 1: of decaf, Please come back, don't go, And just looking
40:33
Speaker 1: for any hint that he could hear me. And I'm
40:36
Speaker 1: imagining this son by his mother, just begging her to
40:40
Speaker 1: come back. And that's trauma, Nancy. What you're remembering that
40:45
Speaker 1: part about telling your dad not to go, because it's
40:49
Speaker 1: very hard to let go of somebody that you love
40:53
Speaker 1: that much. And here about even though you understand that
40:59
Speaker 1: it's important to tell them that they can leave, here's
41:03
Speaker 1: the guy who's so traumatized and it's certainly untimely, and
41:08
Speaker 1: he's pleading with his mom to stay with him because
41:12
Speaker 1: he's devastated. This woman was not supposed to die. Nothing
41:16
Speaker 1: was supposed to happen to her. And if you think
41:18
Speaker 1: about the events and how they unfolded, it's so horrific
41:22
Speaker 1: that he'll be traumatized for the rest of his life.
41:25
Speaker 1: You know. I think about those moments, and it was
41:28
Speaker 1: not because of a violent act. You know, when my
41:32
Speaker 1: fiancee was murdered and died of a violent act, that's
41:36
Speaker 1: even harder to get over. I cannot imagine losing your
41:39
Speaker 1: mom to a violent act. And I was thinking about this, actually,
41:44
Speaker 1: I thought about it after Jackie put it in my
41:46
Speaker 1: head and with me in the studios Jackie Howard. Can
41:49
Speaker 1: you imagine Karen Stark, this mistress looking at herself in
41:56
Speaker 1: the mirror that morning as she was applying the white
42:00
Speaker 1: all makeup, knowing she was painting up, suiting up to
42:04
Speaker 1: go commit a murder. I would suspect Nancy. And I
42:08
Speaker 1: think that although this is hard for people listening to
42:12
Speaker 1: really understand, this person was putting on that clown makeup
42:16
Speaker 1: and excited. She was actually excited about what she was
42:20
Speaker 1: about to pull off. She wouldn't have been able to
42:23
Speaker 1: do it if she hadn't been. And that's what happens
42:25
Speaker 1: to someone who's associopath is able to commit a crime
42:29
Speaker 1: like that. They are really excited. The adrenaline is pumping
42:33
Speaker 1: with me. As private investigator Extraordinaire Vincent Hill, Vincent, I
42:39
Speaker 1: always suspected that the mistress did it, but the police
42:44
Speaker 1: said they just did not have enough hard evidence. Until now.
42:49
Speaker 1: The evidence includes hair fiber found in the getaway car. Okay,
42:56
Speaker 1: before they could not really match that up because they
43:00
Speaker 1: didn't have the right DNA technology. It must have been mitochondrial. Uh,
43:05
Speaker 1: there was hair fiber. There are hair fibers in the
43:08
Speaker 1: getaway car. A public receipt, public grocery store receipt workers
43:12
Speaker 1: at a costume rental store who helped capture a quote
43:16
Speaker 1: killer clown twenty seven years after she shoots dead her
43:20
Speaker 1: husband's first wife, vincent Um, I would have been tempted
43:26
Speaker 1: to make a circumstantial case out of what I had.
43:29
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, it's great to have a circumstantial case,
43:33
Speaker 1: but it's even better, Nancy, to have that DNA evidence.
43:36
Speaker 1: And thankfully, you know, in eighteen there's so much advancement
43:40
Speaker 1: in DNA versus in nine when this first happened, So
43:45
Speaker 1: you know, investigators unfortunately then didn't want to try to
43:48
Speaker 1: prosecute this case for her to walk because you know,
43:52
Speaker 1: double jeopardy. But I think it's it's case moves forward
43:55
Speaker 1: with the advancements in DNA, I think we're going to
43:58
Speaker 1: see a conviction. Take a listen to Marlene's mother, Surely Twing,
44:05
Speaker 1: talking to Peter van Zan. She says, if anything happens
44:10
Speaker 1: to me, Mike did it. So there must have been
44:17
Speaker 1: one heck of a fight. What did that tell you?
44:20
Speaker 1: I told her she could come home. Oh if she
44:22
Speaker 1: had only come home, Karen Stark, psychologist, can I tell you?
44:28
Speaker 1: I can't because I don't know how many women have said,
44:32
Speaker 1: if I end up dead, he did it, all right,
44:37
Speaker 1: and sometimes vice versa. Alright, if I end up dead,
44:40
Speaker 1: she did it. But nobody does anything at the time
44:43
Speaker 1: because you really don't think some of the perp is
44:46
Speaker 1: capable of murder. That's right, Nancy, That's that's exactly what happens.
44:52
Speaker 1: And I can't understand that, can't you. I mean, your
44:55
Speaker 1: mind is been capable of grasping the fact that somebody
44:59
Speaker 1: that you love, that you live with would be able
45:02
Speaker 1: to do that, and yet deep in your unconscious you
45:06
Speaker 1: begin to suspect that something is really wrong, and if
45:10
Speaker 1: something happens to you, you want someone to know that
45:14
Speaker 1: the other person is responsible. It's a hard book that's
45:18
Speaker 1: relating to live in well. It culminates. Take a listen
45:21
Speaker 1: to Virginia police and Abington, Virginia woman has been arrested
45:24
Speaker 1: and charged with a twenty seven year old capital murder
45:27
Speaker 1: case that originated out of Palm Beach County, Florida. The
45:32
Speaker 1: Worston County, Virginia Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigative Division received information
45:36
Speaker 1: from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office that they had
45:39
Speaker 1: obtained information in lead king Sheila Keene Warren of Abington,
45:43
Speaker 1: Virginia to the homicide of Marlene Warren and proximately five
45:50
Speaker 1: thirty This afternoon, members of the Worston County, Virginia Sheriff's Office,
45:54
Speaker 1: along with members of the US United States Marshal Service,
45:57
Speaker 1: Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, and the On Beach State
46:00
Speaker 1: Attorney's Office arrested fifty four year old Sheila Keen Warren.
46:06
Speaker 1: She's been charged with first degree murder with the firearm
46:09
Speaker 1: of Marvelne and Warren. She's been transported to the Abington
46:13
Speaker 1: facility of the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abington, where
46:17
Speaker 1: she has awaiting extradition back to Palm Beach County Park.
46:22
Speaker 1: The subspect of the arrestie walked up to the front
46:26
Speaker 1: door with the balloons UH in her hand. UH. The
46:32
Speaker 1: deceased victim came to the front door and was shot
46:37
Speaker 1: at that location. I think anytime you have a cold
46:39
Speaker 1: case that goes on for that period of time and
46:42
Speaker 1: are able to bring it to a successful conclusion, because
46:44
Speaker 1: I know there's been hundreds, if not thousands of man
46:47
Speaker 1: hours they have put in in the last twenty seven years,
46:50
Speaker 1: and I think that shows the diligence of the uh
46:52
Speaker 1: Palm Beach State Attorney's Office as well as the Palm
46:55
Speaker 1: Beach Sheriff's Office that they didn't, you know, just because
46:58
Speaker 1: the case was getting colder and older. You know. Their
47:01
Speaker 1: deligence obviously proved that UH there was successful in the
47:05
Speaker 1: in the arrest Sheila Keene Warren, the mistress turned wife,
47:10
Speaker 1: was it worth it? She's now arrested on a charge
47:13
Speaker 1: our first degree murder and the shooting death of Marlene Warren.
47:20
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace Crime Stories signing off goodbye friend,