This is a transcript of the telephone call that Fred Flagler, then managing editor of The Sentinel, made on Aug. 10, 1984, to the Winston-Salem Police Department. "Johnston" is T.A. Johnston Jr., the communications officer who received the call. "Reavis" is George D. Reavis, who was the supervisor on duty in the communications division. "Martin" could not be further identified. The transcript, which was prepared in August 1984 by the Police Department, bears notations of the date and time, indicating that the conversation began at 11:12 a.m. and concluded at 11:17 a.m. The punctuation of the Police Department's transcript has been retained, although parentheses have been placed around several of the references to inaudible remarks and to actions such as telephone dialing.
Starting Time: 1112 hours
Date: 8/10/1984
Johnston: Police Department, Johnston
Flagler: Mr. Johnston, my name is Fred Flagler. I'm managing editor of the Sentinel. We have a young lady who came to work for us a few weeks ago, we think a responsible person, she comes to work fairly early for us, around 6 a.m. We were concerned - she had been commuting in here from Mooresville. She did not show this morning, and we were thinking maybe, well, she has been in a car accident.
Johnston: Hold on a minute. Engine 8 do you advise 10-7 at the station. All right, go ahead.
Flagler: And sir, in checking around, you know, we were trying to say, well, did she have a car accident or, we haven't, she hasn't called, and that's not like her. We find her car -
Johnston: Hold on a minute - (inaudible radio traffic with fire department). Go ahead.
Flagler: We find her car on Sixth Street, and it's got a Georgia license, she has been working (inaudible) before. But anyway, (inaudible)
Johnston: Hold on a minute, let me catch another phone. I gotta catch a fire call.
Flagler: Let me have somebody I can talk to.
Johnston: George?
Reavis: Reavis, may I help you.
Flagler: My name is Fred Flagler, I am managing editor of the Sentinel paper.
Reavis: Um-hum
Flagler: We've got what looks like a bad situation here, and I need some police help, I think. We've got a young woman who apparently came to work this morning but she never got here. Her car is out here on the street. She normally gets here about 6 a.m. The car has a Georgia license, and she would have come up here and entered our building at around 6 a.m. She has been commuting, hadn't been with us too long, but she's a type of responsible person that we think would have called had she, you know, had car trouble or had she been interrupted in some way. Now, what should I do.
Reavis: Where does she live?
Flagler: Sir, she just came to work for us about two or three weeks ago, and had been commuting in here in the mornings from Mooresville, until she - she hadn't really found some housing here. But her car is on the street, on Sixth Street.
Reavis: Does she live with somebody from Mooresville, does she live by herself, or what?
Flagler: Her husband came with her, and I understand that she has been living with her in-laws in Mooresville. but I don't see what that's got to do with it at the moment, because her car is here.
Reavis: Well, what you need to do is check back with her people and see if they have heard from her.
Flagler: Um-Hum
Reavis: Her husband and what have you, and see if they have heard from her. Then we will move forward from there.
Flagler: OK, well now, that doesn't make any logic to me because -
Reavis: Well, where she may not, she may or may not call you, she would be much more likely to notify her family if she was injured or -
Flagler: OK, is there any way that you (can) check to see if there has been any sort of emergency, whether anybody has been attacked, or in the hospital or anything like that reported. Her name is Debbie Sykes (spelled out), and
Reavis: Hold on. (Phone dialed by Reavis.)
Martin: Police Records, Martin.
Reavis: Hello there, checking on a Debbie Sykes to see if she has had any dealings with the police last night.
Martin: Who is this?
Reavis: Reavis
Martin: Who?
Reavis: Reavis. You knew who this is. I'm going to come up there and smack you up the side of the head with my pencil.
Martin: I don't know your voice. Your voice has changed, your voice changes sometimes.
Reavis: Oh, it does?
Martin: Yeah
Reavis: It gets like that when I'm talking to stupid people.
Martin: Well you are not talking to me now. Who are you talking to?
Reavis: I'm talking to Fred Flagler, at the paper that dumb ass.
Martin: What was that woman's name?
Reavis: Debbie
Martin: Debbie?
Reavis: Um-hum
Martin: (inaudible) - Debbie Sykes? What about Deborah?
Reavis: Deborah? Might be.
Martin: No record (spelled) Sykes, I'm spelling it.
Reavis: Hold on a minute. Let me make sure that's right. Are you sure you spell her last name (spelled) Sykes?
Flagler: Yeah. And if it seems like anything is in the file, bring it up here. (Someone said, yeah, yes sir, could not determine who.)
Reavis: Hold on. Yeah, that's right, (spelled) Sykes.
Martin: All right. Nothing. We don't have a record on her.
Reavis: OK, thank you.
Martin: Bye.
Reavis: She's not been - come through our department using that name.
Flagler: OK. All righty.
Reavis: The thing you need to do is get back in touch with her family and see if they have had any word from her or have any idea where she might be or anything like that, and then go from there.
Flagler: Well, OK, I'm kind of reluctant to call her family. Uh, and worry them unnecessarily if I don't - but I just don't know. we do know that is her car, and she would normally be to work around 6 a.m. this morning. She didn't call anybody here, and that is just sort of unusual. She's a pretty high type person.
Reavis: Um-Hum
Flagler: But we may have to do that, you know, call and see if by chance her husband or her in-laws have heard from her. but I'll ask the personnel department for a copy of her file so we can have her picture and any information we have about her that we can give you on the thing.
Reavis: OK. Her people up there in Mooresville may want to report her missing. That's where she last seen them.
Flagler: OK, thank you.
Reavis: Yes sir.
(Ending time: 1117 hours Date:8-10-84)