Aiken Officers Search Neighborhood For Woman Who Claimed She Killed Parents

Aiken, SC—Andy Cwalina is enjoying a quiet morning in his front yard…last night, things were a little louder at his house on Troon Way.

Andy Cwalina, Troon Way resident: “Well, the police arrived, and were patrolling up and down the street, a number of police cars.”

Aiken Department of Public Safety (ADPS) Officers were in the area, searching for a caller who claimed she’d killed her parents.

For two hours, dispatch at the station spoke with an AT&T operator, who first received the call. Later, a negotiator at ADPS took over.

Sgt. Aaron Dowdy, ADPS: “She wouldn’t answer a question directly, where she was, who the supposed victims might have been, if she had any children, just trying to open a report with her, she would dance around the questions and not answer them.“

Three hours went by…and the call was traced to a neighborhood…but not a specific house.

Sgt. Dowdy: “We had one of the investigators driving up the road slowly, and this is when the caller was still on the phone with the AT&T operator, hoping the operator would hear that siren and when it got to its peak level, they would have them stop and we would concentrate on that area.“

When that didn’t work, officers tried a different approach:

Cwalina: “They were outside in the neighborhood here, and I believe they were waiting to see if a car would come by.“

Kayla Quattlebaum, Troon Way resident: “They followed me down here, and I was like, ‘what is going on?‘ Then he turned his lights on.“

Kayla Quattlebaum was stopped, questioned, and then told to go home.

Quattlebaum: “They said they were looking for a young girl, and that’s why they stopped me.“

Officers say there’s a chance the caller made it all up….and will face charges if that’s the case.

But in the meantime, they’re asking residents like Andy…to knock on neighbors’ doors, and make sure everyone is accounted for.

Cwalina: “We’ll check on everybody, we’ll take care of each other. I hope it turns out to be false, but you never can tell.“

ADPS claims they cannot trace the call, it has to be done through AT&T, and the phone company says they hit a dead end, when it was traced back to their own 1-800 call center.