Scroll to the bottom of this story for a timeline of events.
On the day a 16-year old boy was crushed to death in his car, he gave police all the information they needed to save him.
He told them he was trapped.
He pleaded for help.
He gave his location and the make, model and color of the van he was in.
So what went wrong? Why didn’t police find him? And why did Kyle Plush die?
Plush, a sophomore at Seven Hills School in Madisonville, was found by his father at about 9 p.m. Tuesday. Cincinnati police say they are still investigating what happened, but the Hamilton County coroner said Plush died by asphyxia due to chest compression.
Tuesday’s tragedy involved a lot of moving parts and a series of everything going exactly wrong. If just one thing had been different – if someone had seen Plush trying to get his tennis gear from the backseat; if a police officer had spotted the van; if the second 911 operator, who has since been put on leave, had given officers Plush's description of the van – a 16-year-old boy might not be dead.
This was a horrific tragedy," Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said during a Thursday afternoon press conference. "Police officers, firefighters and even our emergency dispatch personnel, you get into this because you want to help. And something went wrong here. And we need to find out why we weren't able to provide that help."
Here's what happened – and didn't happen – based on 911 and dispatch radio recordings, the incident report, Enquirer interviews and that press conference.
Plush was on the Seven Hills tennis team and was supposed to play in a match Tuesday evening. He was in his van, reaching to get his tennis gear when he was pinned by the third-row seat.
He made two 911 calls, one at 3:16 p.m. and another at 3:35 p.m., and was on the phone with the operators for nearly six minutes, based on call recordings.
Both sides clearly had trouble hearing each other.
"I can't hear you," Plush said in the first call. "I'm at Seven Hills. I'm going to die here."
The operator kept repeating herself: “Hello? Hello?”
Still, she managed to understand where Plush was and what was wrong. She sent officers to the school parking lot, where Plush was suffocating.
Two officers arrived on scene 3:26 p.m. They were there for 11 minutes, patrolling the area to look for anyone in distress.
While they were in the parking lot, Plush was making his second 911 call.
"I probably don't have much time left," he said, this time talking to a different operator. "Just tell my mom that I love her if I die. This is not a joke."
In that second call, Plush gave more specific details of the van he was trapped in, including its color, make and model. That information was never relayed to officers on the scene.
At 3:37 p.m., the officers closed the incident and went back into service.
A short while later, a Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputy who was at the school to direct traffic said he wanted to look again.
“Your guys couldn’t find any van with anybody stuck in it,” he told an operator in a four-and-a-half minute phone call, “but I just wanted to go around and double-check one more time.”
The deputy said he had only seen one van in the lot during his check but didn't find anybody in it. Chief Isaac said later that that was probably the van Plush was in.
The deputy and the operator continued talking about Plush’s 911 calls and what might have been happening.
“(He) was unable to hear me and just kept repeating, ‘Help, help, I’m stuck. I’m in the Seven Hills Parking lot,’” the operator said. “It was really hard to hear (him). It sounded like (he) was kind of far away from the phone.”
“That’s weird,” the deputy responded.
“Yeah, it was really a strange call,” the operator said
They also talked about whether the whole thing might be a prank. Around the same time Plush was calling 911, the deputy had run into a woman at the school who was getting in his way. He wondered if that woman was up to something – especially since the first officers who looked for the van didn’t find anything awry.
It's unclear whether police notified the school of the incident.
Four hours later, around 8 p.m., a Seven Hills classmate called Plush's family to say that Plush had not shown up for the tennis match. The family used Plush's phone to track his location, and it led them to the school.
Just before 9 p.m., Ronald Plush found his son's body, in the van his son had described, in the lot police had searched.
TIMELINE
- Around 3 p.m. Tuesday: Plush was parked outside Seven Hills School. He was on the tennis team, and he was supposed to be playing in a match that evening. He was trying to get his tennis gear from the back of his van when he was pinned by the third-row seat.
- 3:16 p.m.: Plush called 911. It's not yet clear if he was put on hold or got right through to an operator right away. When the call was answered, Plush told the operator he was trapped in his van at Seven Hills School. “I’m going to die here,” he said. The call was disconnected, and the operator tried less than a minute later to call back. It went to voicemail.
- 3:26 p.m.: Two officers arrived at the school to investigate. They patrolled the area, looking for anyone in distress. They did not find Plush.
- 3:35 p.m.: Plush called 911 for the second time, repeating his plea for help. He told this operator he was trapped in a gold, Honda Odyssey van at Seven Hills Hillsdale. He told her he was almost dead, and he asked her to tell his mother he loved her. The updated vehicle description was never passed on to officers at the school. The operator on the second call has been put on leave.
- 3:37 p.m.: The officers at the school finished their search without finding Plush. They marked the incident closed and went back into service.
- 3:48 p.m.: A Hamilton County Sheriff's deputy, who was at the school helping with traffic, decided to search the lot again. He, too, came up empty.
- 8 p.m.: A classmate contacted Plush's family, telling them Plush never showed up for his tennis match. Plush's family called the police and used Plush's phone to track his location. Plush's father went to the school and found his son's body in the van.
- 8:59 p.m.: Police and fire units responded to the scene after multiple calls. They were unable to revive him.
