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“Help Me…I’m Burning” Says Young Daughter in Emergency Call Where Father Murdered Entire Family
Filed under: Arthur McElhill, Bad Dads, Caroline McGovern, Child Custody, Child Custody Battle, Child Custody Issues, Child custody for fathers, Children and Domestic Violence, Children who witness abuse, Children's rights, Corrupt bastards, Divorce, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence, Familicide, Family Court Reform, Family Courts, Family Rights, Fathers Rights,Fathers who murder their children, Human Rights, Husbands who murder wives, Lorraine McGovern, Murder, Murder - Suicide, Murdered Mothers, Northern Ireland, Violence against women— justice4mothers @ 5:49 pm
May this dear mother and her children rest in peace. From 9news:
Burning teen’s emergency call revealed
07:30 AEST Wed Oct 21 2009
By ninemsn staff
Caroline McGovern with another family member.
A girl killed alongside six family members in a fire started by her father made a desperate plea to an emergency call operator: “Help me … I’m burning”.
Caroline McGovern, 13, gasped for breath as she pleaded to be rescued from the fire at the family’s home in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in November 2007, a local coroner’s court has heard.
The fire was started by her father, 36-year-old Arthur McElhill, a convicted sex offender who suffered from depression and had attempted suicide on two other occasions, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.
Caroline died alongside her father, mother and the pair’s four other young children after McElhill doused the house in petrol and set in on fire.
The tragedy reportedly happened after Caroline’s mother, 26-year-old Lorraine McGovern, threatened to leave McElhill.
In a taped recording played in court yesterday, Caroline was heard pleading to an emergency call operator while her family cried out in the background.
She screamed “help me” and “I’m burning … run”, before mumbling the only partially audible “he’s k… us”.
A phonetics expert told the court he could not be certain what Caroline was trying to say.
The call lasted for almost six minutes but Caroline only spoke to the operator for about 45 seconds.
Gasping noises heard near the end of the call are believed to be the teenager’s final breaths.
Caroline was found dead still clutching the phone in her hand near the bodies of her siblings Sean, seven, Bellina, four, Clodagh, one, and James, 10 months.
The coroner’s hearing continues.
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