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5 year old calls 911, reports parents’ shootings
By MARK I. JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Last update: March 29, 2005
NEW SMYRNA BEACH – “I think they’re dead.”
With those words, 5-year-old Tia Hernlen described finding the bleeding bodies of her mother and father to a Sheriff’s Office dispatcher early Monday morning.
Thirty-one year old Julie Hernlen was dead in the bedroom of the family’s Ellison Avenue home. Her 29-year-old husband, Aeneas, was critically wounded. Both had been shot multiple times.
Volusia County sheriff’s investigators believe the couple were the victims of David Edward Johnson, 33, whom they had accused of stalking them because he believed they had turned him in for drug activity.
Deputies believe he broke into the Hernlen home, which is just outside city limits, shortly before 3 a.m. and shot the couple as their daughter slept in the next room. Johnson then returned to his Swan Avenue residence and killed himself, deputies said.
The couple had filed complaints against Johnson, accusing him of stalking them because he believed they had turned him in to law enforcement for drug activity, public records show. Investigators said Monday the Hernlens had given them no information on Johnson.
But it was a little girl’s taped 911 call at 2:58 a.m., after being awakened by the gunshots, that told the personal story of the tragedy. While her name is omitted from the recordings of the 911 tape released Monday afternoon, deputies at the scene confirmed her name.
“I think there is a bullet on the floor,” the youngster told sheriff’s 911 dispatcher Donna Choufani. “There is blood coming out of my dad’s mouth and he fell off the bed.”
“Where is your mommy?” Choufani asked in a soothing voice.
“I don’t know. I think they’re dead,” Tia replied. “I said ‘mommy and daddy’ and they didn’t even answer. I didn’t see a gun, but I am scared.”
The youngster told Choufani she never saw her parents’ assailant.
Choufani used her voice to keep the youngster calm and on the line until a deputy arrived about four minutes later.
Sheriff Ben Johnson described the recorded conversation as “chilling” during a news conference at the scene Monday afternoon.
“The little girl did a magnificent job,” he said. “And the dispatcher did a wonderful job.”
Investigators believe Johnson forced his way into the back of the Hernlens’ small, single-story yellow house in the 100 block of Ellison Avenue and walked into the couple’s bedroom. There, he shot them with an undisclosed type of gun then fled back to his home.
Several hours after finding the couple, deputies went to Johnson’s Swan Avenue home. Investigators have not disclosed what linked the double shooting to Johnson. When they entered his home, they found him dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, sheriff’s spokesman Gary Davidson said.
Aeneas Hernlen was airlifted to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where he remained in critical condition Monday night.
David Johnson was no stranger to the Hernlen family, deputies said.
The unemployed New Smyrna Beach resident was accused in court documents of stalking the couple and threatening their family in December and January. Julie Hernlen told deputies Johnson had driven by the house several times and harassed them because he thought she and her husband had informed on him to law enforcement about drug activity at the Swan Avenue residence, Davidson said.
Johnson had been arrested in November on charges of cultivation of marijuana, possession of steroids and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was scheduled for trial May 9, according to court records. The trial on the stalking charge was set for May 2. Neighbors along both quiet streets, which lie only a few miles apart, were taken aback by the triple shooting.
Most of the Hernlens’ neighbors, many of whom did not wish to be identified, were also shocked. “This is a very quiet neighborhood,” Lake Drive resident Pete Hornby said. “Nothing happens here.” Sheriff Johnson said Tia Hernlen is with family members.
By MARK I. JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Last update: March 29, 2005
NEW SMYRNA BEACH – “I think they’re dead.”
With those words, 5-year-old Tia Hernlen described finding the bleeding bodies of her mother and father to a Sheriff’s Office dispatcher early Monday morning.
Thirty-one year old Julie Hernlen was dead in the bedroom of the family’s Ellison Avenue home. Her 29-year-old husband, Aeneas, was critically wounded. Both had been shot multiple times.
Volusia County sheriff’s investigators believe the couple were the victims of David Edward Johnson, 33, whom they had accused of stalking them because he believed they had turned him in for drug activity.
Deputies believe he broke into the Hernlen home, which is just outside city limits, shortly before 3 a.m. and shot the couple as their daughter slept in the next room. Johnson then returned to his Swan Avenue residence and killed himself, deputies said.
The couple had filed complaints against Johnson, accusing him of stalking them because he believed they had turned him in to law enforcement for drug activity, public records show. Investigators said Monday the Hernlens had given them no information on Johnson.
But it was a little girl’s taped 911 call at 2:58 a.m., after being awakened by the gunshots, that told the personal story of the tragedy. While her name is omitted from the recordings of the 911 tape released Monday afternoon, deputies at the scene confirmed her name.
“I think there is a bullet on the floor,” the youngster told sheriff’s 911 dispatcher Donna Choufani. “There is blood coming out of my dad’s mouth and he fell off the bed.”
“Where is your mommy?” Choufani asked in a soothing voice.
“I don’t know. I think they’re dead,” Tia replied. “I said ‘mommy and daddy’ and they didn’t even answer. I didn’t see a gun, but I am scared.”
The youngster told Choufani she never saw her parents’ assailant.
Choufani used her voice to keep the youngster calm and on the line until a deputy arrived about four minutes later.
Sheriff Ben Johnson described the recorded conversation as “chilling” during a news conference at the scene Monday afternoon.
“The little girl did a magnificent job,” he said. “And the dispatcher did a wonderful job.”
Investigators believe Johnson forced his way into the back of the Hernlens’ small, single-story yellow house in the 100 block of Ellison Avenue and walked into the couple’s bedroom. There, he shot them with an undisclosed type of gun then fled back to his home.
Several hours after finding the couple, deputies went to Johnson’s Swan Avenue home. Investigators have not disclosed what linked the double shooting to Johnson. When they entered his home, they found him dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, sheriff’s spokesman Gary Davidson said.
Aeneas Hernlen was airlifted to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where he remained in critical condition Monday night.
David Johnson was no stranger to the Hernlen family, deputies said.
The unemployed New Smyrna Beach resident was accused in court documents of stalking the couple and threatening their family in December and January. Julie Hernlen told deputies Johnson had driven by the house several times and harassed them because he thought she and her husband had informed on him to law enforcement about drug activity at the Swan Avenue residence, Davidson said.
Johnson had been arrested in November on charges of cultivation of marijuana, possession of steroids and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was scheduled for trial May 9, according to court records. The trial on the stalking charge was set for May 2. Neighbors along both quiet streets, which lie only a few miles apart, were taken aback by the triple shooting.
Most of the Hernlens’ neighbors, many of whom did not wish to be identified, were also shocked. “This is a very quiet neighborhood,” Lake Drive resident Pete Hornby said. “Nothing happens here.” Sheriff Johnson said Tia Hernlen is with family members.
