Diane Waldroop said there was just something about the man's voice.
"It was just the way he was answering me -- [it] made me feel like it wasn't genuine."
That's what Waldroop, an operator at the Island County 911 Dispatch Center in Coupeville, Washington, remembers about the emergency phone call she returned last Saturday, according to Q13 FOX News.
Waldroop only heard dead air when the call was received, which she said is fairly common. But upon following protocol and dialing the number to make sure there was no emergency, a male's voice answered, claiming 9-1-1 had been dialed accidentally by his 5-year-old daughter. In the background, a female is heard yelling before the man abruptly hangs up the line.
You can listen to the exchange below:
Waldroop immediately sent officers to the address where the first phone call was made on Whidbey Island. When they arrived, officers found a woman covered in feces. The alleged victim said she had been held captive and raped repeatedly by the suspect, later identified as 50-year-old Douglas Blackburn, for five days. After swarms of officials blanketed the area, they found him hiding in a nearby orchard.
Darcy Zook, who lives in Blackburn's neighborhood, said the experience was overwhelming -- the suspect had been found just steps away from her doorway.
"It was really, really scary," she told the Whidbey News-Times. "That stuff doesn’t happen here."
The alleged victim told officials she knew Blackburn prior to the incident.
Waldroop, who mentioned it had been a "quiet day" until she received the phone call, said incidents like last Saturday's epitomize why she works for the dispatch center.
"I feel like I played a very large role in her life in just answering a phone," she told Q13 FOX News. "That's what I come for everyday — to come to work to take that call."
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