STUART, Fla. (CBS12) — Newly released 911 audio is giving more insight into the chaotic moments immediately after a woman was violently attacked and held underwater at Stuart Beach.
According to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded around 11 p.m. on Feb. 12, after the victim — who had gone to the beach alone “to clear her head” — was attacked while walking north along the shoreline and talking on the phone with her sister. Minutes after passing a man on the beach, she was “brutally attacked,” grabbed by the throat, dragged into the ocean, and held underwater until she lost consciousness. Deputies say her phone was knocked from her hand and thrown into the ocean, disconnecting the call for help.
The 911 call
The newly released 911 recording captures the victim’s relative urgently reporting that her sister had been talking to the woman when she suddenly began “screaming and screaming” before the call went dead. The caller said the sister tried repeatedly to reach her with no answer. He told dispatchers the incident happened just minutes earlier and that he was speeding toward the beach, adding that he was armed.
“Her sister was talking to her on the phone and her sister just called me, told me she was talking and all of a sudden she started screaming and screaming and it sounded her sister said it sounded like she was fighting with someone and then the phone went dead,” according to the concerned caller…