ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – More than a year after an elderly woman was killed in her Orange County home during an apparent murder-suicide, the victim's son is suing emergency first responders for failing to help his mother after she called 911.
Juanita Childs-Hughes, 74, was murdered by her 88-year-old husband Taylor Hughes before he took his own life in September 2017, investigators said.
Four days before the bodies were found, Childs-Hughes called 911 to report a suspicious noise and a burning smell in her home.
In the background of the 911 recording, several loud bangs can be heard which sound like gunshots, according to the lawsuit filed by Anthony Culpepper on behalf of his mother's estate.
Firefighters and deputies responded to the home but left after no one answered the door, the lawsuit claims.
Culpepper is suing the Orange County Sheriff's Office and Orange County Fire Rescue for negligence. He's seeking more than $15,000 in damages.
Representatives with both government agencies told News 6 they do not comment on pending litigation.
"It sounds like a bomb went off at my house," Childs-Hughes told a 911 dispatcher in the Sept.16, 2017, phone call. "I can smell something burning."
After the first loud noise that resembles a gunshot, a woman believed to be Childs-Hughes begins screaming, a recording of the 911 call shows.
"Hello? Hello, ma'am?," the unidentified dispatcher asked immediately after hearing scream. She received no response.
Several more bangs can be heard in the 911 recording, which was provided to News 6 by the plaintiff's attorneys.
The dispatcher did not immediately mention the unusual sounds to a co-worker, the recording suggests.
"(The caller) said she smelled something burning and then she started yelling and then, I don't know, the line went dead. I don't hear her anymore," the dispatcher told a fellow dispatcher.
"The 911 operator fails to make any mention of the clear and unambiguous gunshots heard on the 911 phone call which would have provided clear exigent circumstances for officers to enter (Childs-Hughes's home), which could have saved her life," the lawsuit states.
Instead, deputies and firefighters who knocked on the door of the couple's home on Knightsbridge Road left the scene after no one answered, according to the lawsuit.
Four days later, Culpepper said he asked the Orange County Sheriff's Office to conduct a wellness check on Childs-Hughes since it was unusual for him not to hear from his mother.
Even though mail was piled up and the couple's only car was parked at the house, the responding deputy concluded there were not enough exigent circumstances to enter the home, according to the lawsuit.
Culpepper later called 911 himself and claimed there was a medical emergency in hopes that authorities would enter his mother's home, the lawsuit states.
When members of Orange County Fire Rescue responded, they entered the home through a window and located the body of Childs-Hughes.
"So we went out, and they just asked for a deputy because they think its a murder," an unidentified fire department employee said in a radio recording.
"There's a dead body in there?" a dispatcher asked.
"Sounds like it," the fire department employee responded. "Sounds like an 'oops'."
"As a result of the failure and lack of communication, Mr. Culpepper’s mother decomposed in the home for several days until they found her after several phone calls were made to 911 requesting a well-being check," attorney Casey Williams told News 6. "There was a clear breakdown of communication here and the citizens need to feel that they can trust 911 and feel that the individuals are competent in their jobs."