!!Warning!! <-- Record Long Post -->
I am disturbed on sooo many levels about this.
Audio Files:
We want to warn you these recordings may be extremely disturbing to some users. You will hear gunshots and children crying in the background of the second 911 call from Tonya Studer just moments before her death. Because 22WSBT obtained these tapes by exercising the Freedom of Information Act, we believe you have the right to hear the tapes to help put into context what happened. However, it is your choice to listen to them.
Tonya Studer’s 911 Call to LaPorte County Dispatch (4/28/06)
Tonya Studer's 911 Call to Berrien County Dispatch
New Details Emerge In Double Murder Investigation
We’re learning new, shocking information about the double murder inside a Berrien County home Friday afternoon.
Police say Gary Studer shot and killed his wife, Tonya, and her mother, Vickiann Dewey, at Dewey’s home. But an hour earlier, a woman says she helped Tonya Studer make a frantic call to 911 in LaPorte, where Studer lived.
Kieran McHugh says Studer told the dispatcher her husband was trying to kill her. But she says police were never dispatched.
“She repeated a couple of times, ‘He’s gonna kill me, he’s coming back, he’ll be here any minute, he’ll be back any time’,” McHugh told NEWS22. “The 911 officer said, ‘We can’t send an officer unless you’re in imminent danger’.”
The LaPorte County Dispatch Center would not comment on the 911 call. It has turned the tapes over to the Chikaming Township, Michigan, Police Department.
Sheriff Explains Situation Leading Up To Double Murder
We’re learning more about the LaPorte County Dispatch Center’s lack of response to a 911 call.
Tonya Studer made the call one hour before she and her mother were murdered April 28th. Police say Gary Studer shot 24-year-old Tonya Studer and her mother, Vicki Dewey, at Dewey’s Berrien County home.
The LaPorte County Sheriff says the couple was known for having problems in their marriage. Jim Arnold says officers had been out to the Studer home a number of times before the shootings. Police reports also show Tonya complained to police about her mother disrupting her marriage the day before the shooting.
That same week court documents show that Tonya Studer asked a judge to lift a protective order against her husband. And police say they had been to the Studer home numerous times, but they never saw any bruises on Tonya, and never found any guns in their home.
“We all wish this would've never happened,” Arnold told NEWS22. “But you know what, there comes a time when people have to assume responsibility -- if you’re in a bad situation you’ve got to take the proper course of action.”
Sheriff Arnold says the couple seemed to go back-and-forth on whether they would stay together. He also said dispatch and police take all of these calls seriously.
Second 911 Tape Records Double Murder in Berrien County
It's a case that's raised questions about the handling of emergency calls and situations involving domestic violence.
Gary Studer is accused of killing his wife, Tonya, and her mother in late April at her mother’s Michigan home. That day Tonya had called the LaPorte County Dispatch Center, saying her husband had threatened to kill her. About an hour later she called 911 again, this time in Berrien County.
Moments after she pleaded for help, dispatchers heard gunshots and radioed Chikaming Township Police. On the way to the scene the responding officer told dispatchers he had spoken to Tonya on the police non-emergency line shortly before the emergency call.
Officers found Tonya and her mother shot to death. They arrested Gary as he was leaving the house with his two young children.
Audio Files:
We want to warn you these recordings may be extremely disturbing to some users. You will hear gunshots and children crying in the background of the second 911 call from Tonya Studer just moments before her death. Because 22WSBT obtained these tapes by exercising the Freedom of Information Act, we believe you have the right to hear the tapes to help put into context what happened. However, it is your choice to listen to them.
Tonya Studer’s 911 Call to LaPorte County Dispatch (4/28/06)
Tonya Studer's 911 Call to Berrien County Dispatch
Shelter Concerned Over Lack of Response Before Double Murder
New concerns about the apparent lack of response to a 911 call from one of the victims in a double murder.
Tonya Studer and her mother were the victims. Tonya's husband, Gary Studer, is charged with the murders.
Witnesses say Tonya called 911 about an hour before the murders, but there was apparently no response to the call.
Officials at Safe Shelter, a women's shelter in Benton Harbor, are concerned that other women will get the wrong message about calling for help.
"This could actually work against victims of crime,” says Safe Shelter’s Rebecca Carter. “People call and say if this is what happens. I'd be better off not calling."
"Some victims may say I’m not going to risk. He may find out and nobody comes anyway. He may hurt me worst."
Carter says she hopes this incident reminds everyone to treat each domestic violence situation as if the victim could be killed.
Tonya Studer’s 911 Call to LaPorte County Dispatch (4/28/06)
The LaPorte County Regional Dispatch Center has released the 911 tapes from the afternoon two women were murdered.
On Friday, April 28, 24-year-old Tonya Studer and her mother, Vickiann Dewey, were shot and killed by Tonya’s estranged husband, Gary.
Studer made the frantic call from a school just an hour before police say Gary gunned her and her mother down. Some say the Dispatch Center ignored the call and never sent an officer to the scene, possibly costing the women their lives.
Here is a transcript of that call:
DISPATCHER: “911, what's the address of the emergency?”
STUDER: “Um, the Renaissance School on U.S. 20.”
DISPATCHER: “What’s the phone number you’re calling from?”
STUDER: “Ma’am, I’m not exactly sure. I’m from across the street.”
DISPATCHER: “OK, what’s the problem, ma’am?”
STUDER: “4093 U.S. 12, um, it’s 20, isn't it? U.S. Highway 20.”
DISPATCHER: “Uh-huh.”
STUDER: “OK, my husband and I have been arguing for the last few months, I went back to try and make, um, amends and try and get my children out of the house, and my mother just took and went to her husband’s work, and my husband followed her so I could get out of the house. I took off out of the house, I ran across the street with my two children, I’m at the Renaissance School. He told me this morning that he would kill me if I ever tried to leave. He’s got guns in the house and I am scared. There is windows and I don’t know what to do. I know I need my mother to come get me.”
DISPATCHER: “OK, ma’am, just a minute. What is it you need an officer to do?”
STUDER: “I need an officer to be here right now, because I’m scared that if he goes by that he might try to do something stupid.”
DISPATCHER: “If who goes by where?”
STUDER: “My husband. When he comes back, I’m scared. I don’t have a ride out of here right now. All my stuff, my baby stuff is in the house.”
DISPATCHER: “OK, I still don’t understand what you want an officer to do, if your husband’s not there, what’s the problem?”
STUDER: (in background): “I'm on the phone with 911.”
STUDER: (to dispatcher): “I need an...” (unclear voice in background)
STUDER (to dispatcher): “I just need an officer to be here, should I call LaPorte County Sheriff’s...”
DISPATCHER: “What do you want an officer there for, is what I’m asking.”
STUDER: “I am asking for an officer to be here so I am safe.”
DISPATCHER: “But your husband is not there, correct?”
STUDER: “Not yet, he just left.”
DISPATCHER: “OK.”
STUDER: “He will be back. And I ran across the street with our two children, and I am scared to death that he might try to do something stupid.”
DISPATCHER: “OK. (pause) For an officer to come there, there has to be an immediate threat, you understand what I’m saying? Your husband is not there.”
STUDER: “Well, he’s threatening to kill me...”
DISPATCHER: “Ma’am, the officer cannot stand there and just wait, just in case your husband comes back.”
STUDER: “OK.”
DISPATCHER: “I’m sorry, they can’t do that. But what they can do, is if you go back to the house and the husband comes back...”
STUDER: “I’m not gonna put my life or my kids’ life...”
DISPATCHER: “I’m not asking you to do that. I’m trying to explain to you why an officer cannot just sit there and wait for your husband to come back.”
STUDER: “OK, I understand.”
DISPATCHER: “You have, you have a ride to go somewhere else?”
STUDER: “No, I don’t as of right of this moment, no.”
DISPATCHER: “OK, you can’t contact your mom who’s on the phone right now?”
STUDER: “Yes, I have got contact with her right now. I need to talk with her and tell her to come get me. But he is going to follow her back, ma’am, please understand that, it was a complete surprise to make him leave the house so I could get the children out safely.”
DISPATCHER: “I do understand that. I’m just trying to make you realize that without something going on right now, I can’t have my officers sitting there waiting for your husband to come back.”
STUDER: “Yes, ma’am, I understand.”
DISPATCHER: “If he comes back when your mom comes to get you, call us back.”
STUDER: “OK.”
DISPATCHER: “OK?”
STUDER: “All right. Thank you.”
DISPATCHER: “Mmm-hmm.”
END OF CALL
Would police have come to Studer's aid if she had used different words to ask for help? According the director of the Laporte County Emergency Dispatch Center if Studer had said, "I need to file a police report," or "I need to go to a shelter," police would have been dispatched.
Director Brent Soller says that the sheriff's department made a decision last September that kept dispatch from sending police to Studer.
Four days after Studer and her mother were shot to death, LaPorte Dispatch changed its policy. It now says all 911 calls where someone is requesting the help of police, fire or ems, the proper agency will be dispatched.
NEWS22 spoke with the Berrien County Communications Center late Friday. They’re the ones who received a second 911 call from Tonya Studer, right before she was murdered. An officer responded in two minutes.
They told us their dispatchers are not authorized to screen calls. Every call is forwarded to an officer.
Tonya Studer's 911 Call to Berrien County Dispatch
The 911 call made by Tonya Studer to Berrien County dispatchers, moments before she was shot and killed:
Background: 2 gun shots heard (Studer entering residence by shooting through sliding glass door)
Tonya: “911, 14530. He’s got guns, he’s going to kill us now. Get here. 14530 Red Arrow Highway now.”
Dispatcher: “Ma’am?”
Tonya: “14530 Red Arrow Highway. Right now. Get here now. He’s got guns.”
First Dispatcher: “Who is this?”
Tonya: “Tonya Studer.”
First Dispatcher: “What apartment is that?”
Tonya: “I don’t know. I’ve got kids. 14530. He’s killing my mom now. (GUN SHOT HEARD) Get here now. Get here now. Now. (She pauses.) Now.”
First Dispatcher: “Stay on the line.”
Tonya: “No, I can’t. I gotta, I can’t.”
(Inaudible)
First Dispatcher: “Oh, God.”
Second Dispatcher (in background) : “I’ve got it, Dan. I’ve got it, Dan.”
First Dispatcher: “Ok, where’s it at? Is it Coloma?”
Second Dispatcher: “No, at Chikaming, at Red Arrow Highway there.”
First Dispatcher: “Ok.”
Second Dispatcher: “What’s going on there?”
Third Dispatcher: “Ma’am. Who’s got the gun? Ma’am?”
First Dispatcher: (Dispatching police) “Berrien County Priority Call, Berrien County Priority Call. Chikaming Township. 14530 Red Arrow Highway. Tonya Studer, the caller says man with a gun (five shots heard and faint screaming)
Third Dispatcher: “Ma’am? Ma’am?”
First Dispatcher: “Answer primary.”
Officer Todd Taylor: “No one can answer. I’m in route.”
First Dispatcher: “10-4.”
Third Dispatcher: “Ma’am?”
(Inaudible talk between dispatchers)
Officer: “Alright, I just got off the phone with her about a half hour ago. It was Tonya Studer, her ex-husband threatened to kill her. It happened down in Indiana.”
Third Dispatcher: “I got a baby crying, that’s all I can hear.”
Three-year-old: “Daddy, Daddy.”
Officer: “I think it was the mother, Tonya Studer’s the daughter.” (Next part inaudible.)
Third Dispatcher: “The babies are still crying.”
Three-year-old: “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy.”
Officer: “Alright, Berrien Dispatch 9-1-1, you got anything further? I’m rolling up on it now.”
Third Dispatcher: “All I can hear is the baby crying, saying, Daddy.”
Second Dispatcher: “Someone put the phone down. And you could hear a bunch of people crying. I could definitely hear shots being fired in the phone.” (next inaudible)
Officer: “Ok, Do you have a description on the vehicle. He could be heading south to New Buffalo. The guy lives in LaPorte.”
Second Dispatcher: “They didn’t mention anything about vehicles, did they?”
First Dispatcher: “No, they didn’t.”
Third Dispatcher: “No.”
Second Dispatcher: “No mention of vehicles or anything. She just said something about a gun and then she put down the phone and all we could hear what was going on in the background.”
Officer (talking to another officer) “The suspect’s Gary Studer. I see a maroon pick up truck, and I see a white what looks like a van parked in the rear of the house.”
Third Dispatcher: “They’re still in the house.”
Second Dispatcher: “It sounds like they might still be in the house by the open the 911 line.”
Officer: “Ok. Standby while I check the car parked in the driveway.”
Third Dispatcher: “He’s still in there. I can hear him talking.”
Second Dispatcher: “We’ve got an open 911 line. We can hear people talking. It sounds like a male.”
Third Dispatcher: “It’s a male he’s talking to the, he’s talking to the kid.”
Second Dispatcher: “It sounds like a male talking to the kid.”
Third Dispatcher: “I haven’t heard her at all.”
Second Dispatcher: “We haven’t heard her.”
(inaudible)
Gary Studer In Court For Double Murder
The LaPorte County man accused of killing his wife and her mother made his first official court appearance Thursday.
Gary Studer is accused of killing his wife, Tonya, and her mother on April 28th at her mother’s Berrien County apartment. Thursday’s hearing was to determine if there was enough evidence to hold Studer over for trial.
The judge heard from several witnesses, including Studer’s stepmother, who testified that Gary had called her from the Indiana-Michigan state line saying he had a gun and was going to kill Tonya and her mother.
Also testifying Thursday was Chickaming Township Police officer Todd Taylor, who was first on the scene. Taylor said Gary Studer admitted he killed his wife and her mother, and called it a crime of passion.
The judge held Studer over for six counts, including open murder and felony murder. He also ordered a forensic test be performed on Studer to determine if a brain injury from a car accident had impaired his judgment.
Studer will go before a jury October 3rd.
Could Different 911 Training Have Led To Different Outcome?
Some concerns were raised after hearing the first 911 call that Tonya Studer made from LaPorte.
Police said they had been to the Studer house a lot for calls and had never seen any signs of violence. But people who were with Studer the day she died say when she made the 911 call in LaPorte, police should have responded.
Experts at the YWCA of St. Joseph County say they actually work with police and dispatchers. They do training with officers on how to deal with victims of domestic violence.
Workers say they're seeing a rise in domestic violence, and they say what happened to Studer is a prime example of how dangerous a domestic violence situation can be.
Executive director Linda Baechle says they are seeing more and more deadly confrontations between husbands and wives. She says Studer may have gotten an officer after the first 911 if dispatchers had been trained differently.
“The victim can't be relied on to always provide all the information the dispatcher needs in order to make a determination whether or not an officer is dispatched to the scene,” Baechle told NEWS22.
The people in charge of the LaPorte County Dispatch Center say the call was handled according to their policy at the time. Officers in LaPorte say they couple had a history of calling 911, but they never actually saw any weapons or signs of violence.
Friend Remembers Tonya Studer’s Last Moment
The friend of the woman murdered by her husband after calling 911 says her last conversations were of panic and fear.
Tom Sexton drove Tonya Studer and her children to her mother's house after she tried to get help from police.
She had called 911 from a school near her estranged husband's house after she left with her two children.
A LaPorte County dispatcher told Studer that police could not help her. Studer and her mother were both shot to death about an hour after that call.
He says he thinks the murders happened only moments after he dropped Tonya off.
"I kept thinking that it wasn't real. I kept thinking they were going to call me later and say that she's alright. They never did,” says Sexton.
Sexton says that he had been friends with Studer and her husband for years. He says he began dating Studer after she separated from her husband 2 months ago.
Audio Files:
We want to warn you these recordings may be extremely disturbing to some users. You will hear gunshots and children crying in the background of the second 911 call from Tonya Studer just moments before her death. Because 22WSBT obtained these tapes by exercising the Freedom of Information Act, we believe you have the right to hear the tapes to help put into context what happened. However, it is your choice to listen to them.
Tonya Studer’s 911 Call to LaPorte County Dispatch (4/28/06)
Tonya Studer's 911 Call to Berrien County Dispatch
New Details Emerge In Double Murder Investigation
We’re learning new, shocking information about the double murder inside a Berrien County home Friday afternoon.
Police say Gary Studer shot and killed his wife, Tonya, and her mother, Vickiann Dewey, at Dewey’s home. But an hour earlier, a woman says she helped Tonya Studer make a frantic call to 911 in LaPorte, where Studer lived.
Kieran McHugh says Studer told the dispatcher her husband was trying to kill her. But she says police were never dispatched.
“She repeated a couple of times, ‘He’s gonna kill me, he’s coming back, he’ll be here any minute, he’ll be back any time’,” McHugh told NEWS22. “The 911 officer said, ‘We can’t send an officer unless you’re in imminent danger’.”
The LaPorte County Dispatch Center would not comment on the 911 call. It has turned the tapes over to the Chikaming Township, Michigan, Police Department.
Sheriff Explains Situation Leading Up To Double Murder
We’re learning more about the LaPorte County Dispatch Center’s lack of response to a 911 call.
Tonya Studer made the call one hour before she and her mother were murdered April 28th. Police say Gary Studer shot 24-year-old Tonya Studer and her mother, Vicki Dewey, at Dewey’s Berrien County home.
The LaPorte County Sheriff says the couple was known for having problems in their marriage. Jim Arnold says officers had been out to the Studer home a number of times before the shootings. Police reports also show Tonya complained to police about her mother disrupting her marriage the day before the shooting.
That same week court documents show that Tonya Studer asked a judge to lift a protective order against her husband. And police say they had been to the Studer home numerous times, but they never saw any bruises on Tonya, and never found any guns in their home.
“We all wish this would've never happened,” Arnold told NEWS22. “But you know what, there comes a time when people have to assume responsibility -- if you’re in a bad situation you’ve got to take the proper course of action.”
Sheriff Arnold says the couple seemed to go back-and-forth on whether they would stay together. He also said dispatch and police take all of these calls seriously.
Second 911 Tape Records Double Murder in Berrien County
It's a case that's raised questions about the handling of emergency calls and situations involving domestic violence.
Gary Studer is accused of killing his wife, Tonya, and her mother in late April at her mother’s Michigan home. That day Tonya had called the LaPorte County Dispatch Center, saying her husband had threatened to kill her. About an hour later she called 911 again, this time in Berrien County.
Moments after she pleaded for help, dispatchers heard gunshots and radioed Chikaming Township Police. On the way to the scene the responding officer told dispatchers he had spoken to Tonya on the police non-emergency line shortly before the emergency call.
Officers found Tonya and her mother shot to death. They arrested Gary as he was leaving the house with his two young children.
Audio Files:
We want to warn you these recordings may be extremely disturbing to some users. You will hear gunshots and children crying in the background of the second 911 call from Tonya Studer just moments before her death. Because 22WSBT obtained these tapes by exercising the Freedom of Information Act, we believe you have the right to hear the tapes to help put into context what happened. However, it is your choice to listen to them.
Tonya Studer’s 911 Call to LaPorte County Dispatch (4/28/06)
Tonya Studer's 911 Call to Berrien County Dispatch
Shelter Concerned Over Lack of Response Before Double Murder
New concerns about the apparent lack of response to a 911 call from one of the victims in a double murder.
Tonya Studer and her mother were the victims. Tonya's husband, Gary Studer, is charged with the murders.
Witnesses say Tonya called 911 about an hour before the murders, but there was apparently no response to the call.
Officials at Safe Shelter, a women's shelter in Benton Harbor, are concerned that other women will get the wrong message about calling for help.
"This could actually work against victims of crime,” says Safe Shelter’s Rebecca Carter. “People call and say if this is what happens. I'd be better off not calling."
"Some victims may say I’m not going to risk. He may find out and nobody comes anyway. He may hurt me worst."
Carter says she hopes this incident reminds everyone to treat each domestic violence situation as if the victim could be killed.
Tonya Studer’s 911 Call to LaPorte County Dispatch (4/28/06)
The LaPorte County Regional Dispatch Center has released the 911 tapes from the afternoon two women were murdered.
On Friday, April 28, 24-year-old Tonya Studer and her mother, Vickiann Dewey, were shot and killed by Tonya’s estranged husband, Gary.
Studer made the frantic call from a school just an hour before police say Gary gunned her and her mother down. Some say the Dispatch Center ignored the call and never sent an officer to the scene, possibly costing the women their lives.
Here is a transcript of that call:
DISPATCHER: “911, what's the address of the emergency?”
STUDER: “Um, the Renaissance School on U.S. 20.”
DISPATCHER: “What’s the phone number you’re calling from?”
STUDER: “Ma’am, I’m not exactly sure. I’m from across the street.”
DISPATCHER: “OK, what’s the problem, ma’am?”
STUDER: “4093 U.S. 12, um, it’s 20, isn't it? U.S. Highway 20.”
DISPATCHER: “Uh-huh.”
STUDER: “OK, my husband and I have been arguing for the last few months, I went back to try and make, um, amends and try and get my children out of the house, and my mother just took and went to her husband’s work, and my husband followed her so I could get out of the house. I took off out of the house, I ran across the street with my two children, I’m at the Renaissance School. He told me this morning that he would kill me if I ever tried to leave. He’s got guns in the house and I am scared. There is windows and I don’t know what to do. I know I need my mother to come get me.”
DISPATCHER: “OK, ma’am, just a minute. What is it you need an officer to do?”
STUDER: “I need an officer to be here right now, because I’m scared that if he goes by that he might try to do something stupid.”
DISPATCHER: “If who goes by where?”
STUDER: “My husband. When he comes back, I’m scared. I don’t have a ride out of here right now. All my stuff, my baby stuff is in the house.”
DISPATCHER: “OK, I still don’t understand what you want an officer to do, if your husband’s not there, what’s the problem?”
STUDER: (in background): “I'm on the phone with 911.”
STUDER: (to dispatcher): “I need an...” (unclear voice in background)
STUDER (to dispatcher): “I just need an officer to be here, should I call LaPorte County Sheriff’s...”
DISPATCHER: “What do you want an officer there for, is what I’m asking.”
STUDER: “I am asking for an officer to be here so I am safe.”
DISPATCHER: “But your husband is not there, correct?”
STUDER: “Not yet, he just left.”
DISPATCHER: “OK.”
STUDER: “He will be back. And I ran across the street with our two children, and I am scared to death that he might try to do something stupid.”
DISPATCHER: “OK. (pause) For an officer to come there, there has to be an immediate threat, you understand what I’m saying? Your husband is not there.”
STUDER: “Well, he’s threatening to kill me...”
DISPATCHER: “Ma’am, the officer cannot stand there and just wait, just in case your husband comes back.”
STUDER: “OK.”
DISPATCHER: “I’m sorry, they can’t do that. But what they can do, is if you go back to the house and the husband comes back...”
STUDER: “I’m not gonna put my life or my kids’ life...”
DISPATCHER: “I’m not asking you to do that. I’m trying to explain to you why an officer cannot just sit there and wait for your husband to come back.”
STUDER: “OK, I understand.”
DISPATCHER: “You have, you have a ride to go somewhere else?”
STUDER: “No, I don’t as of right of this moment, no.”
DISPATCHER: “OK, you can’t contact your mom who’s on the phone right now?”
STUDER: “Yes, I have got contact with her right now. I need to talk with her and tell her to come get me. But he is going to follow her back, ma’am, please understand that, it was a complete surprise to make him leave the house so I could get the children out safely.”
DISPATCHER: “I do understand that. I’m just trying to make you realize that without something going on right now, I can’t have my officers sitting there waiting for your husband to come back.”
STUDER: “Yes, ma’am, I understand.”
DISPATCHER: “If he comes back when your mom comes to get you, call us back.”
STUDER: “OK.”
DISPATCHER: “OK?”
STUDER: “All right. Thank you.”
DISPATCHER: “Mmm-hmm.”
END OF CALL
Would police have come to Studer's aid if she had used different words to ask for help? According the director of the Laporte County Emergency Dispatch Center if Studer had said, "I need to file a police report," or "I need to go to a shelter," police would have been dispatched.
Director Brent Soller says that the sheriff's department made a decision last September that kept dispatch from sending police to Studer.
Four days after Studer and her mother were shot to death, LaPorte Dispatch changed its policy. It now says all 911 calls where someone is requesting the help of police, fire or ems, the proper agency will be dispatched.
NEWS22 spoke with the Berrien County Communications Center late Friday. They’re the ones who received a second 911 call from Tonya Studer, right before she was murdered. An officer responded in two minutes.
They told us their dispatchers are not authorized to screen calls. Every call is forwarded to an officer.
Tonya Studer's 911 Call to Berrien County Dispatch
The 911 call made by Tonya Studer to Berrien County dispatchers, moments before she was shot and killed:
Background: 2 gun shots heard (Studer entering residence by shooting through sliding glass door)
Tonya: “911, 14530. He’s got guns, he’s going to kill us now. Get here. 14530 Red Arrow Highway now.”
Dispatcher: “Ma’am?”
Tonya: “14530 Red Arrow Highway. Right now. Get here now. He’s got guns.”
First Dispatcher: “Who is this?”
Tonya: “Tonya Studer.”
First Dispatcher: “What apartment is that?”
Tonya: “I don’t know. I’ve got kids. 14530. He’s killing my mom now. (GUN SHOT HEARD) Get here now. Get here now. Now. (She pauses.) Now.”
First Dispatcher: “Stay on the line.”
Tonya: “No, I can’t. I gotta, I can’t.”
(Inaudible)
First Dispatcher: “Oh, God.”
Second Dispatcher (in background) : “I’ve got it, Dan. I’ve got it, Dan.”
First Dispatcher: “Ok, where’s it at? Is it Coloma?”
Second Dispatcher: “No, at Chikaming, at Red Arrow Highway there.”
First Dispatcher: “Ok.”
Second Dispatcher: “What’s going on there?”
Third Dispatcher: “Ma’am. Who’s got the gun? Ma’am?”
First Dispatcher: (Dispatching police) “Berrien County Priority Call, Berrien County Priority Call. Chikaming Township. 14530 Red Arrow Highway. Tonya Studer, the caller says man with a gun (five shots heard and faint screaming)
Third Dispatcher: “Ma’am? Ma’am?”
First Dispatcher: “Answer primary.”
Officer Todd Taylor: “No one can answer. I’m in route.”
First Dispatcher: “10-4.”
Third Dispatcher: “Ma’am?”
(Inaudible talk between dispatchers)
Officer: “Alright, I just got off the phone with her about a half hour ago. It was Tonya Studer, her ex-husband threatened to kill her. It happened down in Indiana.”
Third Dispatcher: “I got a baby crying, that’s all I can hear.”
Three-year-old: “Daddy, Daddy.”
Officer: “I think it was the mother, Tonya Studer’s the daughter.” (Next part inaudible.)
Third Dispatcher: “The babies are still crying.”
Three-year-old: “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy.”
Officer: “Alright, Berrien Dispatch 9-1-1, you got anything further? I’m rolling up on it now.”
Third Dispatcher: “All I can hear is the baby crying, saying, Daddy.”
Second Dispatcher: “Someone put the phone down. And you could hear a bunch of people crying. I could definitely hear shots being fired in the phone.” (next inaudible)
Officer: “Ok, Do you have a description on the vehicle. He could be heading south to New Buffalo. The guy lives in LaPorte.”
Second Dispatcher: “They didn’t mention anything about vehicles, did they?”
First Dispatcher: “No, they didn’t.”
Third Dispatcher: “No.”
Second Dispatcher: “No mention of vehicles or anything. She just said something about a gun and then she put down the phone and all we could hear what was going on in the background.”
Officer (talking to another officer) “The suspect’s Gary Studer. I see a maroon pick up truck, and I see a white what looks like a van parked in the rear of the house.”
Third Dispatcher: “They’re still in the house.”
Second Dispatcher: “It sounds like they might still be in the house by the open the 911 line.”
Officer: “Ok. Standby while I check the car parked in the driveway.”
Third Dispatcher: “He’s still in there. I can hear him talking.”
Second Dispatcher: “We’ve got an open 911 line. We can hear people talking. It sounds like a male.”
Third Dispatcher: “It’s a male he’s talking to the, he’s talking to the kid.”
Second Dispatcher: “It sounds like a male talking to the kid.”
Third Dispatcher: “I haven’t heard her at all.”
Second Dispatcher: “We haven’t heard her.”
(inaudible)
Gary Studer In Court For Double Murder
The LaPorte County man accused of killing his wife and her mother made his first official court appearance Thursday.
Gary Studer is accused of killing his wife, Tonya, and her mother on April 28th at her mother’s Berrien County apartment. Thursday’s hearing was to determine if there was enough evidence to hold Studer over for trial.
The judge heard from several witnesses, including Studer’s stepmother, who testified that Gary had called her from the Indiana-Michigan state line saying he had a gun and was going to kill Tonya and her mother.
Also testifying Thursday was Chickaming Township Police officer Todd Taylor, who was first on the scene. Taylor said Gary Studer admitted he killed his wife and her mother, and called it a crime of passion.
The judge held Studer over for six counts, including open murder and felony murder. He also ordered a forensic test be performed on Studer to determine if a brain injury from a car accident had impaired his judgment.
Studer will go before a jury October 3rd.
Could Different 911 Training Have Led To Different Outcome?
Some concerns were raised after hearing the first 911 call that Tonya Studer made from LaPorte.
Police said they had been to the Studer house a lot for calls and had never seen any signs of violence. But people who were with Studer the day she died say when she made the 911 call in LaPorte, police should have responded.
Experts at the YWCA of St. Joseph County say they actually work with police and dispatchers. They do training with officers on how to deal with victims of domestic violence.
Workers say they're seeing a rise in domestic violence, and they say what happened to Studer is a prime example of how dangerous a domestic violence situation can be.
Executive director Linda Baechle says they are seeing more and more deadly confrontations between husbands and wives. She says Studer may have gotten an officer after the first 911 if dispatchers had been trained differently.
“The victim can't be relied on to always provide all the information the dispatcher needs in order to make a determination whether or not an officer is dispatched to the scene,” Baechle told NEWS22.
The people in charge of the LaPorte County Dispatch Center say the call was handled according to their policy at the time. Officers in LaPorte say they couple had a history of calling 911, but they never actually saw any weapons or signs of violence.
Friend Remembers Tonya Studer’s Last Moment
The friend of the woman murdered by her husband after calling 911 says her last conversations were of panic and fear.
Tom Sexton drove Tonya Studer and her children to her mother's house after she tried to get help from police.
She had called 911 from a school near her estranged husband's house after she left with her two children.
A LaPorte County dispatcher told Studer that police could not help her. Studer and her mother were both shot to death about an hour after that call.
He says he thinks the murders happened only moments after he dropped Tonya off.
"I kept thinking that it wasn't real. I kept thinking they were going to call me later and say that she's alright. They never did,” says Sexton.
Sexton says that he had been friends with Studer and her husband for years. He says he began dating Studer after she separated from her husband 2 months ago.