Dispatcher praised for saving kidnap victim’s life after following ‘gut feeling’
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: ABC 7
A dispatcher has been credited for saving a kidnap victim's life after she decided to follow her 'gut feeling'.
Riverside County Sheriff's Department dispatcher Meghan Gonzalez has been doing her demanding job for four years now, handling countless calls in that time.
However, the 911 call she received on 2 May will certainly be one she'll never forget.
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"Nobody said anything, and so I had a really weird gut feeling about it," said Gonzalez in an interview with ABC 7.
At this point, some dispatchers might have put the phone down because of a potential hoax, but Gonzalez decided to listen for three minutes.
During this time, the dispatcher was taking in all the sounds and trying to get the caller to respond to her question.
"I said, 'If you have an emergency but cannot hear me, press a button.' I could hear a guy in the background, although I couldn't make out what he said. Just, something felt off about it and she ended hanging up as soon as I said that," she said.
As it became clear the woman on the other side of the phone couldn't speak, Gonzalez initiated a feature within RapidDeploy's Radius Mapping system which allowed her to communicate with the victim through text.
But crucially, it allowed Gonzalez to identify the caller's location, which became important after one text the dispatcher received from the woman.
"It said that she had been bitten, beaten, and she was naked in the back of a trunk," Gonzalez recalled.
At this point, the dispatcher realised it was a kidnapping in progress.
The victim was able to text she had been taken by the suspect in Blythe, adding that she had a restraining order against him.
The woman unfortunately did not know her location, but Gonzalez did thanks to a GPS system pinpointing the victim's phone signal.
Before the caller had hung up, Gonzalez noticed a noise that was also crucial in helping save the victim.
She told ABC 7: "On the open line, I could hear a vehicle door open and to me I thought it was an Explorer. Turns out it's the sound for all Ford vehicles -- when you leave the door open, it makes a specific sound."
This allowed police to find the suspect's car, eventually finding it parked at a liquor store in Moreno Valley.
Authorities found the victim inside the trunk of the vehicle and arrested her kidnapper.
Gonzalez is now being credited with saving the woman's life, subsequently being recognized with the Rapid Deploy 'Superstar' award.