Police in Dallas are conducting an internal investigation after discovering that a 32-year-old woman who was found murdered on Sunday had called 911 two days before.
The woman, Deanna (Cook) Patrick, was "found deceased in the bathtub of her residence," police said. Delvecchio Patrick, her 35-year-old ex-husband, was arrested and charged with murder.
The department "is currently conducting a comprehensive review of an August 17, 2012 911 call from the victim," the Dallas Police Department wrote on its Facebook page on Monday:
The Department's preliminary review has determined that the 911 call originated from a cell phone. As a result, the 911 call-taker did not know the exact address of the caller. The 911 call taker attempted to obtain the address from the caller, while simultaneously conducting a search of previous calls from the same cell phone number to determine an associated address. The call taker also notified the 911 on-duty supervisor of the ongoing issue. The call was forwarded to the dispatcher but could not be dispatched to field officers until an address was determined. Once the address was confirmed, the 911 call taker updated the call information so the call could be dispatched. The process of obtaining the address and updating the call information took approximately 9 minutes.
Once obtaining an address, the dispatcher gave the call to the first available police field element. The officers that received the call arrived at the location and knocked at the door. When no one answered, they requested a call-back of the caller which went to voicemail. They also checked the perimeter windows of the home and spoke with neighbors who reported that they had not heard any disturbance.
The Department is seeking to determine if the nature of the call was sufficiently communicated through each step of the process to the responding officers and the appropriateness of their response based on the information provided.
Dallas police did not release the contents of the 911 call, saying it could interfere with the ongoing investigation. But according to The Dallas Morning News' crime blog, Patrick called 911 to report her husband was attacking her:
According to police records, Deanna Cook called 911 about 10:54 a.m. Friday. She could be heard screaming for her ex-husband to stop attacking her. "Delvecchio, why are you doing this?" Cook yelled, according to police records.
"Red, please stop, I didn't do anything to you," she said, referring to him by his nickname. ...
Two days later, as Cook's family grew concerned about her well-being, they went to the home and found her dead.
Delvecchio Patrick, the blog noted, "has a history of alleged domestic violence against his wife, Dallas County court records show."
Patrick's bail was set at $500,000. He is currently being held in the Dallas County Jail.