Saturday, September 15, 2012

Chevonne Thomas' 911 Call


Excerpts from Chevonne Thomas' 911 call to a Camden, N.J., dispatcher in which she says she stabbed her 2-year-old son; Police said Thomas decapitated the child, then fatally stabbed herself.
New Jersey officials say Thomas had recently regained custody of the boy and had been getting counseling. She had a history of substance abuse and mental health disorders.
Chevonne Thomas: Hell no, hell no, hell no. Keep thinking that. Keep thinking that.
Dispatcher: 911 where's your emergency.
Thomas: Yes, somebody just stabbed my baby. Please get here.
Note that "somebody", gender neutral, just stabbed "my" baby.  
Note that the caller asks for help, but not for the baby.  That "somebody" stabbed her baby is truthful. 
Dispatcher: They just did what?
Thomas: Stabbed my baby
Dispatcher: Do they know who it was, ma'am?
Thomas: Yes, it's my ex, it's my boyfriend. My current boyfriend.
Note the answer is "yes" but then gives different answers:
1.  my ex
2.  my boyfriend
3.  my current boyfriend
None of the three responses use a name.  
Dispatcher: What's your address?
Thomas: 1415 Kaighn. You know what?  I did it. I'm lying. I'm lying. I'm lying. I'm lying. I did it.
Note the question. 
Note "I did it" and then "I'm lying" is stated four times, making "I'm lying" (present tense) to be sensitive.  She then repeats, "I did it."
Dispatcher: Do you need an ambulance, ma'am?
Thomas: No. I mean, no. He don't need, no.
This is why she did not ask for help for the baby:  he doesn't need help.  She called to report herself. 
Dispatcher: What's your name?
Thomas: Chevonne Thomas. Chevonne Thomas.
---
Dispatcher: Chevonne, you said your baby was stabbed. Is this your son? How old is he?
Thomas: Yes, yes, yes, yes. My son is 2. He is 2.
ownership (again) with "my" but no nam. 
Dispatcher: He was the one that was stabbed?
Thomas: Yes.
Dispatcher: He was stabbed with what?
Thomas: A knife.
Dispatcher: Is he bleeding? Where is he bleeding? Is he bleeding from anywhere?
Thomas: No. I mean he is, but not much.
Dispatcher: From where.
Thomas: Not much.
Dispatcher: Chevonne, where is he bleeding from?
Thomas: Not much. He's not bleeding that much. Not bleeding that much.
"not bleeding that much" is repeated; sensitive.  (same as above).  This may be that if he is dead, his heart is no longer pumping blood out. 
Dispatcher: Where's your boyfriend at?
Thomas: I think ... I knew it. I knew it.
Dispatcher: Chevonne, Where's he at?
Thomas: My boyfriend is, he's gonna come in the back door. He's gonna come in the back door.
Dispatcher: Who did it? Your boyfriend stabbed him?
Thomas: Yes.
The "yes or no" question is the easiest to lie to. 
Dispatcher: Who else is in the house?
Thomas: I knew it. Nobody. Nobody at all. Nobody. Nobody at all.
"I knew it" is not known what she knew but it may be something related to the boyfriend. 
Dispatcher: And your boyfriend is outside?
Thomas: Yep. Yep.
Dispatcher: You guys were fighting?
Thomas: Yep. Yep.
Dispatcher: Aright, we're going to send officers out there, OK?
Thomas: Yep, yep. Yep.
Dispatcher: You're at 1415 Kaighn Avenue, right?
Thomas: Yep, yep, yep.
Dispatcher: All right, we're going to send somebody out there.
Thomas: You better, wait, wait. You know what? I don't even want to play this. I did it. OK? I did it. I did it. I did it.
Dispatcher: Stay on the phone, OK?
Thomas: I keep trying to make it, I'm about to, no, I have to find some money, I got to. I got to try to find some money. I got to, I got to, I got to. I don't care.
---
Dispatcher: Chevonne, what's the problem?
Thomas: I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.
Dispatcher: You knew what?
Thomas: I knew it. I know. I knew it, I knew it.
Dispatcher: You knew what, Chevonne? What did you know? You need the police?
Thomas: Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, uh-UH, uh-UH. Nope. Nope.
Dispatcher: Do you need the police?
Thomas: Nope. mm-MM. mm-MM. I don't need nothing.
Dispatcher: Do you need the police?
Thomas: Nope. Um-um. I don't need nothing. I don't need nothing.
Dispatcher: How old are you, Chevonne?
Thomas: I don't need nothing. I'm 33.
Dispatcher: 33?
Thomas: 33 years old.
Dispatcher: Where do you live at?
Thomas: 1058. 1058.
Dispatcher: Where?
Dispatcher: 1058 what?
Thomas: 10. 10.
Dispatcher: 1058 what? Chevonne? Who lives at 1415 Kaighn?
Thomas: Nobody. Not me. My boyfriend is right here. He's right.
Still no name used.  This is distancing language. 
Dispatcher: Can I speak to him?
Thomas: (indecipherable)
Dispatcher: Do you take medicine?
Thomas: I used to.
Dispatcher: What kind did you take?
Thomas: Prozac.
Dispatcher: Prozac. OK, you don't take it anymore?
Thomas: Nope. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I do.
Dispatcher: Do you still take it?
Thomas: I still take it.
Notice the reflective language making "I still take it" unreliable as she entered into the language of the dispatcher. 
Dispatcher: Did you take it today?
Thomas: I still take it. I still take it. No. no, no. I did, no. I didn't take it today, but I should have. I should have. I should have took it today.
Dispatcher: Ok, where are you? She didn't take her Prozac today.
Thomas: I did. I did. I did. Keep playing.

14 comments:

OldPsychNurse said...

This woman has a history of mental illness (depression), Her short answers are a symptom called "poverty of speech" or alogia. You can see this lack of additional, unprompted content in the above conversation. Poverty of speech arrives is an early sign of psychosis. People with severe depression can become psychotic.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Poverty+of+speech
http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/library/publications/year/misc/Psychosis_Identification.pdf

Apple said...

What the what

FYI if you are on medication for a psychiatric disorder and are feeling better, DO NOT STOP
TAKING YOUR MEDICATION.
You are in a better place, baby.

Tania Cadogan said...

So many red flags here, the repetitions, the denials and admissions.
I visualise her pacing, agitated,literally in two minds.

I recently had the 'pleasure' of dealing with a drunk alcoholic schizophrenic in the early hours.
I knew she was alcoholic, i didn't know about the schizophrenia. No one in our street knows apart from her mom who is disabled (parkinson's, her daughter is her carer)
She also has a bad stammer which gets worse when she is stressed, agitated or excited.

I listened and advised once i got her into my house (15 mins on a cold blowy night,i literally dragged her in) she told me her problems and was distressed. I advised she call keydoc as she hadn't taken her medication.
She wanted to do it from her house, i said do it from mine then i know you called (plus i could talk to them as she was stammering and distressed.
I did get her to go get her list of medication as i knew the dr would ask.
She called then blubbed so i took over, i said what meds she was on how much and how often and asked what if any she could take.
Eventually she calmed down and i sent her home to take her med, drop the others off so i knew she wouldn't overdose etc.
I also said she was to let me know later that day how she was and if she needed any help.
She dropped a note through my letterbox saying thanks and apologising.
I think she was scared and needed someone to talk to who wouldn't judge, criticise or panic.

With such people the listener doesn't know what is truth and what isn't, are they a danger to others or themselves, what has set them off.
I found in my case SA helped as i could see the deception. I didn't say you must, i gave her options and reasons why, and if she didn't i would.
It was a case of making the easy option the one i wanted her to do, adding a bit of humor that if she didn't do it this way i would have to do it and i would scare everyone waddling around in my pj's and so on.
It was tiring, she did as advised and all went well.
Now i know of her problems i know to watch for anything that is 'off' so to speak.
She also knows everything she said is in confidence, that way she knows she can trust me and is more likely to ask for help when she needs it.
Some people with mental health issues should be kept in a hospital, particularly those who don't take their meds like they should and are considrered a risk to themselves or others.
All too often they flip and the innocent get hurt or killed.
Care in the community works as long as the patient co-operates, when they don't that's where problems lie.

Vita said...

Dear God - the 911 Audio,
http://www.nj.com/camden/index.ssf/2012/08/frantic_911_call_from_camden_w.html

I saw this on the news, not knowing, this woman by name.
Her Son so precious. She decapitated him. She has records of mental illness. It is heard in the audio.

1415 Kaighns Avenue Wednesday Aug. 22, 2012, where the decapitated body of 2-year-old, Zahree Thomas, was found on the floor, authorities said. Horrified officers found the toddler's head in the freezer, said authorities. Chevonne Thomas, 33, the mother of Zahree, was still upstairs and since police didn't know whether she was armed, they backed out of the house and set up a perimeter around the house, said authorities.

Thomas was still on the line with a 911 dispatcher during this time. While police were preparing a secure entry into the house, its believed Thomas stabbed herself in the neck with a kitchen knife and died, authorities said. (Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger)

Vita said...

If it's not clear, she did not survive her own stabbing, she died. Awful.

Jazzie said...

http://www.nj.com/camden/index.ssf/2012/08/frantic_911_call_from_camden_w.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/grisly-child-murders-prompt-pcp-crackdown-jersey/story?id=17170850

Anonymous said...

A history of depression? She was 33. Prozac is what I read she was taking. Almost everyone took Prozac at one time as it had become so popular and the thing to do. She sounded as if she needed much more.

PCP is still around? Apparently they haven't made much progress in the illegal drug field. I remember people talking about that back when I was in high school-decades ago! One of my first bosses would brag about smoking it and how he and wife, who also worked at the same place met. It was nasty. When I saw a pic of that guy on bloggernews I thought about those two. The 70s weren't so great for them.

Lis said...

Wow, that's terrible. I wondered if she was saying "I knew it" because she knew she was going to lose it, or knew she was going to hurt her son?

Yukari said...

OT - the first reports about Raffaele Sollecito´s book are out. There are few quotes so far but some interesting items...

frames: "she was capable of murder"

<"I wasn't just nervous about setting eyes on her again," he writes. "I felt I was suffering from some sort of associative disorder, in which it became difficult for me to focus on my genuine and continuing fondness for Amanda without being overwhelmed by an instinctive, involuntary revulsion at everything the courts and the media had thrown at her."> "it became difficult for me to focus on my genuine and continuing fondness for Amanda without being overwhelmed by an instinctive, involuntary revulsion"

"the real one, and the distorted, she-devil version"

<"Our Italian adventure, one part love affair to 99 parts nightmare, was over at last," he wrote.>
"one part love affair to 99 parts nightmare"

It it obvious that he has little fondness for Amanda left after seeing her true face the night of the murder and in the courtroom afterwards, trying to blame him, but he still is forced to pretend that he has, and tries to blame the media, because they are still sitting in the same boat: They are both still legally accused of murder until the verdict of the second appeal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9545618/Raffaele-Sollecito-Im-unsure-where-Amanda-Knox-was-that-night.html

Yukari said...

Sollecito wrote about his first night in prison, saying he wavered between "great waves of indignation and a nagging sense of guilt." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/raffaele-sollecito-book-amanda-knox-boyfriend_n_1876763.html)

It is interesting - and telling, in my opinion - that the book will not be translated and published in Italy for the time being. At any rate, while I don´t think he or Amanda deserve to be supported by buying their books, from a statement analysis point of view they will be as interesting as the books by the McCanns and Ramseys...

sidewalk super said...

The New Jersey 911 operator did a decent job considering the caller.
How many of these empty creatures do we support with welfare and prozac? Was chevonne a product of drugged out pregnancy?
She sounds like the crazy in Arizona who may have dumped her picked-on child in the trash, and has finally been arrested, while her elderly mother is claiming the ever-so-trendy racial injustice excuse.

Re amanda and sollecito, those excerpts sound more like screen writing than recounting, he's going for book money with that excessively verbose phrasing..

Jazzie said...

At first when reading Chevonne's first 911 words:
Chevonne Thomas: "Hell no, hell no, hell no. Keep thinking that. Keep thinking that."
Dispatcher: "911 where's your emergency?"

I thought she was schizophrenic. She was already engaged in a conversation before the dispatcher asked "Where's your emergency?"
Then I read the article about NJ and concern of PCP of recent child murder cases. PCP can create hallucinations.
I don't know what to think. I know of my family's case where schizophrenic husband killed entire family (except one lone daughter who wasn't there that fateful day) then killed himself... with a kitchen knife.

Lis said...

SA worked even with a person who is obviously unhinged- that is impressive.

Anonymous said...

sidewalk super: Why in God's name would you use the death of a child as opportunity to make nasty, political comments? You are sick.