CINCINNATI -- Kyle Jacob Plush called 911 twice hours before he was found dead inside his car at Seven Hills School.
Plush, 16, first called 911 at 3:16 p.m. Tuesday. He cried for help and repeatedly told the operator he could not hear what she was saying.
“I can’t hear you … I need help, I’m gonna die here,” Plush said.
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The first unit, with two Cincinnati officers, was dispatched to respond at 3:23 p.m. They arrived minutes later, reported not seeing anything and attempted to call Plush’s phone. There was no answer.
A Hamilton County sheriff's deputy checked the area again at 3:48 p.m. to no avail.
At some point, Plush called 911 a second time. It is not clear the exact time he made this second call.
"This is not a joke," he said. "I am trapped inside a gold Honda Odyssey van in the parking lot of Seven Hills ... Send officers immediately. I'm almost dead."
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A passerby called police at 8:56 p.m., and dispatch requested police and ambulance minutes later.
Nick Francis, director of Experiential Learning at Seven Hills School, said in a 911 call a security guard contacted him and told him to call 911 because they found a kid in his car. Francis told the dispatcher he wasn’t at the school, but they had been “missing a kid.”
“I got a call from a security guy there because we were trying to find this kid, and he just all of a sudden called me, 'Nick we found him. Call 911, he's in his car,’” Francis told the dispatcher.
Around 9 p.m., according to police, a family member discovered Plush dead inside his 2004 Honda Odyssey -- a death Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco would rule accidental "asphyxia caused by chest compression."
Something -- neither Sammarco nor Lt. Steve Saunders indicated what -- had pressed so hard against Plush's chest that he suffocated.
Here's a timeline of what unfolded:
- 3:16 p.m. Plush calls 911
- 3:23 p.m. Call ends, and dispatcher assigns first unit to respond
- 3:26 p.m. First unit arrives on scene
- 3:37 p.m. Officers call back Plush’s phone and got voicemail; their assignment is marked complete
- 3:48 p.m. Deputy checks again
- 8:56 p.m. Passerby calls 911
- 8:58 p.m. Duplicate calls come in*
- 8:59 p.m. Dispatch advises a missing child was found in a vehicle -- Police and ambulance requested
- 9:11 p.m. Hamilton County officials put up crime scene tape
- 9:42 p.m. Officials direct traffic away from scene
- 11:55 p.m. Cincinnati Police Department closes incident
- 12:19 a.m. Criminal Investigations Section clears scene
(Information from Incident Detail Report)
WCPO is not publishing Plush's 911 calls due to their graphic, disturbing nature and out of respect to his family.
