Le Thu Nguyen, 21, was killed by her ex-fiance, Omar Green.
DENVER - A Denver woman believes her daughter would still be alive if an Aurora 911 dispatcher had taken calls for help more seriously. The mother is now suing the dispatcher.
Listen to the 911 call made by Susan DuVall.
Listen to the 911 call made by John Chauvin.
On the morning of July 20th, 2001, 21-year-old Le Thu Nguyen pulled into a strip mall parking lot near Chambers and Hampden in Aurora. She was on her way to work at a salon.
As she was pulling in, John Chauvin, who was waiting to start his shift at a Pizza shop, saw a man run across the parking lot. When Nguyen saw the man approaching her, Chauvin said she tried to drive her car away - tires squealing. At the same time, the man jumped through a passenger window of Nguyen's car.
Chauvin hustled into a nearby store and called 911. Here are portions of the transcript of that call:
Dispatcher: Aurora 911 is this an emergency?
Chauvin: I believe it is...
Dispatcher: What's going on?
Chauvin: This black guy jumps into this Asian lady's car, like she was squealing away from him. And then he parked it in the parking lot still (sic). He's still in the car with her.
The operator wasn't convinced it was an emergency. After getting some details, the dispatcher asks Chauvin the following questions:
Dispatcher: Are they yelling and screaming at each other? Are they talking? Are they fighting?
Chauvin: I, I think he's just telling her what to do.
Dispatcher: OK, so they're taking off right now?
Chauvin: Yeah.
Dispatcher: Which way are they leaving?
Chauvin: They are heading out on to Hampden it looks like.
Dispatcher: OK, if they come back in the lot give us a call and let us know, OK?
That was less than 50 seconds into the call. Chauvin was baffled that the operator was trying to end the call.
"I still can't believe that she didn't believe me that it was an emergency," Chauvin said after listening to the recording for the first time in years.
Realizing the 911 dispatcher was trying to end the call, Chauvin tried to press on - tried to convince her to send police.
Here are more outtakes from his call:
Chauvin: OK, would you like the car description?
Dispatcher: Well, they're - they're really not, I mean they're not fighting, they're not yelling, they're, they're nothing.
Chauvin: He jumped through her window while she was squealing away.
Dispatcher: OK, well you think she should be fighting or something. I mean, I can have the officers check the area, but that's about - I mean she would be fighting or screaming or something if she needed help.
Later the dispatcher says this:
Dispatcher: . they may have just been playing around.
Chauvin starts to say he doesn't think so, at which point the dispatcher appears to cut him off and ends the call by telling him that she'll have someone check the area.
But according to DuVall and her attorneys, crucial minutes passed and police didn't come. Meanwhile, the car - with the man and woman inside - drove off.
A woman from the salon saw Nguyen drive off - and saw the man inside the car. She believed the man was Nguyen's ex-fiance, Omar Green.
When police didn't respond to Chauvin's emergency call - the worried friend called Le Thu's mother, Susan DuVall.
DuVall again called 911. The same 911 dispatcher, Jeanette Price, answered the call.
Here are some outtakes from DuVall's call:
DuVall: I'm calling to report that my daughter has been car-jacked by her ex-fiance in the car.
DuVall went on to tell the dispatcher about previous abuse and a restraining order. The dispatcher still didn't sound convinced it was an emergency.
Dispatcher: I talked to people there. She was not fighting. She was not screaming. She did not ask for help, nothing.
DuVall: Right, we don't know whether he has a weapon or what.
Dispatcher: Is he known to carry a weapon?
DuVall: I don't know him as to, no, I don't. I just know, you know, threatening things that he's trying to do to her.
Dispatcher: I mean, (because) a lot of times they end up making back up together - they end up making up.
DuVall: Right, well that's not this case...
Dispatcher: OK, well we don't know because we haven't talked to her...
According to DuVall's attorneys, it was more than 20 minutes after the beginning of DuVall's call - and about 46 minutes after Chauvin's original call - when a police officer finally showed up.
But according to DuVall's lawsuit, police didn't initiate a search.
So family and friends started one on their own.
A day later - a friend found Le Thu's car and her body. Omar Green - father of Le Thu's two children - had killed her.
It was a murder that John Chauvin and Le Thu's mother believe could have been prevented if their 911 calls had been taken more seriously.
"I didn't know if I was speaking to a machine or a human, you know, the more and more I spoke to her I was convinced she wasn't going to respond to me," DuVall said.
9News asked Karen Duffala, a former captain with the Aurora Police Department who has experience working and overseeing emergency call centers, to listen to the 911 tapes. She told us that although dispatchers are trained to ask probative questions, in this case, the dispatcher should have sent police after the first call from John Chauvin.
"While there might be a simple explanation for any given situation, the fact that an uninvolved bystander was disturbed and concerned enough by the event to contact police is a key indicator that the event warrants investigation," Duffala told us.
Attorneys Gregory Gold of Greenwood Village and Jeffrey Hill of Colorado Springs are representing DuVall in her lawsuit against Price. They say because of Colorado Government Immunity laws, they have to prove more than negligence. They would have to prove that Price's conduct was "willful and wanton." They've argued in court filings that Price's actions rise to that level, and that she showed a "conscious disregard" for Le Thu Nguyen's safety.
9News tried to get interviews with Jeanette Price and officials with the City of Aurora, but a representative for the city said they would have to decline our interview requests because of the pending litigation. City Attorney Charlie Richardson did give us a brief statement. He said the city disagrees with the plaintiffs on some legal issues, but that everyone in the city understands how Nguyen's family feels about this tragedy.
If you want to hear the entire un-edited 911 phone calls from the morning of the abduction, we've got them streamed below.
Woman suing 911 dispatcher over daughter's death
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