Adams County dispatchers played pivotal role in SSCC abduction case

BROWN COUNTY, OH — Last week, the abduction of a woman by a man wanted for murder could have ended in even more of a tragedy if not for the efforts of the people working behind the scenes in the Adams County Communications Center. Chris Phelps, dispatcher for the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, and Debbie McAdow, dispatcher for the Adams County 911 service, were on duty last Wednesday morning.

“The dispatchers did an awesome job,” said Chief Deputy Jeff McCarty of the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, who was one of the officers in pursuit of Nathan Parsons and his victim last Wednesday. “Without the dispatchers, we wouldn’t have had a clue where to go. They’re like a central nervous system.”

At approximately 10 a.m. on Nov. 16, a 29-year-old female arrived for class at the Fincastle campus on U.S. Route 62 in Brown County, according to a report from the Georgetown Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Nathan Parsons, age 29, of Williamsburg, allegedly approached the woman and forced her into the back of a vehicle, a gray 2009 Ford F150 pickup truck – which he allegedly had stolen from his stepfather in Loveland, after he reportedly killed him. He then drove off.

Initially the dispatchers in Brown County received a 911 call from witnesses at the college campus. They then received a call from the victim via a cell phone, but lost the connection as her phone temporarily went out of the service area of the cell phone provider. When the victim called 911 again, the signal went to the Adams County Communications Center.

With a program in the center’s computer system similar to a Google map, the dispatchers were able to track the victim’s location using the longitude and latitude readings from the cell phone signal. Phelps had her line, in addition to three other channels open to McCarty, the West Union Police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

“I was on line with her for two to three minutes,” Phelps said. “Then he made contact with her and moved her. I told her to put the phone down and leave it on. He must have seen it because we lost the connection, but by then the officers had them in view.”

“He did a tremendous job, maintaining his cool and keeping everything in order when it was a hot call,” said Adams County Sheriff Kimmy Rogers. “The dispatchers are pretty much the unsung heroes.”

“She was lucky we were here for her,” said Phelps, who is in his fifth year as a dispatcher. “You just have to think off your feet and keep cool. We had to make sure all the units got there and got there safely. We’re lucky no one was harmed. All we knew about him was that he was a friend. We didn’t know about what happened before.

“We deal with this kind of situation a lot. What was hard was that I could hear her talking on the line, then he made contact with her, and I could hear her screaming. I didn’t know what he was doing to her,” he said.

Parsons was finally stopped and apprehended without further incident in Wayne Township, east of Cherry Fork. Under his seat in the truck was a firearm, according to McCarty.

Read the story here.

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