- Apr 14, 2001
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Florida Child Tells 911 Her Parents Are Dead
Girl Calls 911 After Finding Parents Murdered
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. (March 31) - As her parents lay mortally wounded, a 5-year-old girl called 911, telling an emergency dispatcher, "I think they're dead." Police said Aeneas and Julie Hernlen were shot to death early Monday by a man who mistakenly believed the couple had turned him in for drug possession. Their daughter, Tia, was not harmed.
Investigators said the gunman, David Edward Johnson, 33, committed suicide later Monday. The Hernlens had nothing to do with his drug arrest late last year, authorities said.
Little Tia Hernlen first told the dispatcher that she saw a bullet on the floor, her father was bleeding and he "fell off the bed."
When the dispatcher, Donna Choufani, asked where her mother was, the child answered, "She is, I don't know, I think they're dead."
"What do you mean sweetheart?," Choufani asked calmly.
"I don't know," Tia replied.
The operator told her someone would come over to her house and asked Tia if anyone else was home, her age and her pets - a dog and three cats.
At one point, Choufani asked, "Are you the only one there besides Mommy and Daddy?
Said Tia: "Well, I said `Mommy' and `Daddy,' and they didn't even answer."
"Can you send a deputy down here?" she said at another point. The dispatcher instructed the girl to unlock her front door.
Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson praised the girl's composure and Choufani's professionalism.
"She was an amazing little girl," Johnson said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "The information she gave us and the manner she gave it to us, we wish we could get that out of adults."
The sheriff said Tia is being cared for by other relatives.
Tia gave details on the cars parked outside and the color of the house, telling Choufani, "it's yellow, all yellow house, of green, green with it, a little bit of green, and a pink door." Her mom picked the door's color, the girl said.
"You are so smart for 5 years old," Choufani told her. "Wow!"
Girl Calls 911 After Finding Parents Murdered
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. (March 31) - As her parents lay mortally wounded, a 5-year-old girl called 911, telling an emergency dispatcher, "I think they're dead." Police said Aeneas and Julie Hernlen were shot to death early Monday by a man who mistakenly believed the couple had turned him in for drug possession. Their daughter, Tia, was not harmed.
Investigators said the gunman, David Edward Johnson, 33, committed suicide later Monday. The Hernlens had nothing to do with his drug arrest late last year, authorities said.
Little Tia Hernlen first told the dispatcher that she saw a bullet on the floor, her father was bleeding and he "fell off the bed."
When the dispatcher, Donna Choufani, asked where her mother was, the child answered, "She is, I don't know, I think they're dead."
"What do you mean sweetheart?," Choufani asked calmly.
"I don't know," Tia replied.
The operator told her someone would come over to her house and asked Tia if anyone else was home, her age and her pets - a dog and three cats.
At one point, Choufani asked, "Are you the only one there besides Mommy and Daddy?
Said Tia: "Well, I said `Mommy' and `Daddy,' and they didn't even answer."
"Can you send a deputy down here?" she said at another point. The dispatcher instructed the girl to unlock her front door.
Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson praised the girl's composure and Choufani's professionalism.
"She was an amazing little girl," Johnson said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "The information she gave us and the manner she gave it to us, we wish we could get that out of adults."
The sheriff said Tia is being cared for by other relatives.
Tia gave details on the cars parked outside and the color of the house, telling Choufani, "it's yellow, all yellow house, of green, green with it, a little bit of green, and a pink door." Her mom picked the door's color, the girl said.
"You are so smart for 5 years old," Choufani told her. "Wow!"
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