Death on a 911 Call

Dum Dum DUM

Mystery mob! 

This week’s tale has it all:

A 911 call. An undisclosed location. A scream. A hang up. A 30-YEAR MYSTERY.

I can see you salivating for more! But before we get into this week’s Nib Nib, we have to solve Wednesday’s whodunnit: 

A detective, who was only days away from discovering the identity of a top brass mob boss, has suddenly gone missing. She left behind a single note: 5508 51 7718. Currently there are 3 suspects: Bill, Lucky, and Greg.

Can you crack the detective’s code?

Answer: Bill. Or more specifically, turning those numbers upside down becomes “BILL IS BOSS” in a crude numerical text. Good on all you 80s/90s folks who used those school calculator skills to solve it!

Now back to it. Let’s put our 911 operator headsets on and take that emergency call. 

The Phone Call

As the story goes, a woman named Ruth Price made an incredibly troubling 911 phone call. There’s no exact date for when it happened, but the recording is available online. (Warning: it’s VERY disturbing to listen to...but hey it’s Halloween month so get your scary on!) 

To summarize, she says her name is Ruth Price and that she lives alone and is an old lady. Then she tells the 911 operator that a man is prowling around her property. But before any other relevant information can be gleaned, the caller goes quiet. 

Then come the scream. Horrifying and sickening. Then the line goes dead. 

It is assumed the man killed the caller while the operator listened helplessly. 

The internet is full of little mysteries, and this particular one is tragic. Assuming it’s true of course…

Just a hoax? 

Whenever this tale is talked about in internet circles, the discussion quickly finds its way to the question of authenticity. Is this a genuine recording of a 911 call? Or is it merely a convincing fake? 

The largest indicator of hoax is the lack of any tangible information. No one knows where this woman lived. No one knows what exactly happened. No one really knows anything other than that this recording exists. 

You’d think that given a potential murder took place, that someone - media, armchair detective, police, etc - would have stumbled upon something. But nope. Nada.

However, it’s entirely possible that this took place pre-internet which means information would be more difficult to obtain. Someone looking for clues would have had to scour real newspapers like some caveman! 

Plus, there is one bit of evidence that surfaced which would bake up the pre-internet timing - a training exercise in the 1990s:  

Training Day 

On Reddit, one user claims this audio is the real deal. They said it was played for them in the early 1990s as part of a 911 dispatcher training exercise. The recording was used as an example of how NOT to take a call. 

Apparently this, and a few other calls, were the impetus needed to switch operator protocol to immediately asking for location before trying to obtain any other info. (Certainly would have helped Ruth!)

This Redditor A) was the first to say the woman’s last name was Price and B) claimed that the call came in 1988, backing up the pre-internet theory.

This Redditor’s story is also backed by another anonymous source, using the name “HNDLC3” on a forum called Officer.com in June 2002:

“I’ve heard this one before. This is the tape that has stuck with me these last few years. It has reminded me not to treat every call as “routine.” During my dispatcher class, our instructor pointed out how the dispatcher sounded disinterested in this lady’s problem. Had she not cut her off from giving her address the police may have been there sooner. I don’t know if the agency had ANI/ALI or E-911 when this happened, but our instructor said that it took a while to find her, obviously too late.” (HNDLC3 on Officer.com).

The real Ruth Price? 

So this may have taken place before the internet, but that doesn’t mean people today can’t use the internet to help search. 

The website FindAGrave.com has a listing for someone named Ruth Price (b1905-d1988) in Shady Grove Cemetery in Polk County, Missouri. The date of death certainly correlates to the Redditor who claimed the call came from 1988. And if the Ruth Price in the recording was born in 1905 - as the gravestone suggests - then she would have been ~80 years old when the incident happened…she did refer to herself as “an old lady.”

Hoax or Horror? Let’s sum up

Hoax evidence: 

• No known articles of this event

• 911 operator’s handling is terrible. She doesn’t ask great questions or try to get the location. She also doesn’t say or do anything when the potential murder is literally happening on the call. 

• It’s illegal to release a 911 audio that depicts someone dying

• Despite it sounding like Ruth dropped the phone, her voice is still somehow clear?

Horror evidence: 

• This call is mentioned in an obscure post online way back in 2002 by a former 911 operator, claiming it was used to train dispatchers

• Call mentioned later on by a user on Reddit with the same training exercise story, and this person also claimed the woman’s last name was Price

• Ruth Price “Find a Grave” with dates to back up the Redditor

• Her speaking pattern and fear both seem genuine, rather than acted out. (Or she’s just an incredible actor I guess)

Dial in and take a long-distance call

So what do we think, Hoax or Horror? Let us know in the comments. And if you want to research further to figure it out, too bad. There’s truly not any info out there that we haven’t shared here.

So instead, here’s the audio clip in full once more. 

As always, 

Stay ‘spicious 

-Andy & Mark

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