Parts of a previously sealed document released Friday from the Brittany Zimmermann homicide investigation shows the 911 call she made on the day she was killed lasted 57 seconds, but sounds heard on the recording were not clear enough at the time for the dispatcher to hear anything indicating an emergency.
The report from an internal investigation into the 911 call by the Dane County Public Safety Communications Center says no evidence has been found that dispatcher Rita Gahagan heard but “chose not to react to sounds possibly indicating an emergency.”
The report says the location of the call was determined 24 seconds into the 57-second phone call and the given latitude and longitude coincides with Zimmermann’s address on West Doty Street, where she was strangled and stabbed to death April 2.
Inspection of computer-aided dispatch logs show that Zimmermann’s call was received at 12:20 p.m., 48 minutes before police were dispatched at 1:08 p.m. A landline call from Middleton was also received shortly thereafter, at 12:21 p.m.
Gahagan returned the landline call and not the wireless call from Zimmermann “due to an unintentional oversight likely due to her quickly moving on to handle subsequent calls.”
The call from Zimmermann’s phone was not documented either, violating policy.
Last week, several previously sealed search warrants pertaining to the Zimmermann homicide investigation were made public after officials failed to make a request to extend their seals.
In one of the warrants, a Madison police detective incorrectly stated on April 5 that the dispatcher called back immediately after the line went dead and a male with an accent answered who said he did not make the call.
The internal investigation report filed on May 5 corrects the detective’s statement with details from the CAD log that indicate the call back was actually to the abandoned landline call from Middleton.
The report says it is not able to determine which end of the first wireless call hung up first, but added there is no evidence indicating Gahagan ended the call.
The audio of the Zimmermann call has not been released, but the Wisconsin State Journal and several other media companies have a pending lawsuit against the Dane County Safety Communications Center to release it.
Media lawyer April Barker said the county should release the audio now that a statement by the previously mentioned Madison police detective was made public, saying the call “started with the sound of a woman screaming and … background sounds of a struggle for a short period of time.”
Madison Police Department investigators have also said the information contained in the recently unsealed warrants is dated and will likely not have any impact on the investigation.
The lawsuit also calls for the release of the full report from the county, including redacted portions, and information regarding why Gahagan failed to dispatch police.
A public court hearing is set for this Wednesday to determine if the audio will be released, but city district attorney Brian Blanchard sent a letter to the presiding judge to allow the city of Madison to intervene.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported during Blanchard’s motion he stated, “Given the graphic content of this tape, it is likely to inflame the passions of the ordinary citizen as to complicate the ability of the criminal courts to pick a jury once a suspect is brought to trial.”
Blanchard’s motion also says the release of the call will victimize not only the Zimmermann family, but any person who lost a loved one or friend in a homicide.
This article should have made clear that although the Dane County 911 Center received a call from University of Wisconsin student Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone the day she was killed, it has not been confirmed if Zimmermann herself was the one who placed the call.
