 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
'Michael, don't die,' wife begs in 911 call
By JAMIE JONES, Times Staff Writer SPRING HILL -- Silvana Altieri made desperate, plaintive cries for help as she watched a man repeatedly stab her husband, Michael, early Tuesday morning. The Sheriff's Office on Wednesday released a copy of the 911 call Mrs. Altieri made as she watched a man drive a knife into her husband, grab her oldest daughter and flee into the woods. "Michael, don't die," she screamed. "Michael, don't die!" "I can't breathe," Mrs. Altieri repeatedly said to the dispatcher, saying she had been stabbed. "Somebody help me. Oh, my God. Oh, my God . . . somebody help me." The family dog barked. "Mommy, Mommy," cried her 7-year-old daughter. Mrs. Altieri remained on the phone as her husband lay on the floor. He wouldn't move, she told the 911 operator. Detectives on Wednesday continued investigating the brutal attack on the family and offered a more complete picture of what happened inside their yellow home at 6344 Shalimar Ave. shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday. Detectives said Mrs. Altieri, until the end, pleaded with her husband to stay alive. After deputies arrived, she walked onto the porch with towels and carefully placed them along her husband's left side. Seriously wounded herself, she tried to stop her husband's bleeding. It was too late. Michael Altieri died at the scene. Down the road, deputies arrested Daniel Wingard and charged him with first-degree murder, attempted murder, armed battery and armed burglary. "Daniel took my husband," Mrs. Altieri had said to dispatchers. The dispatcher repeatedly asked her to take a deep breath, to calm down, to tell her what happened. "I can't breathe," Mrs. Altieri said, over and over again. "Somebody help me. Oh, my God, oh, my God . . ." When asked if she needed an ambulance, Mrs. Altieri said she needed several. "We've had trouble with him before," she said moments later of Wingard. Authorities said Wingard stabbed Altieri repeatedly on his left side, severing an artery and causing massive blood loss. About a month ago, Wingard had lived next door with his girlfriend, who made him leave after discovering that he was using drugs, investigators said. Wingard broke into her house earlier in the night, investigators said, and they believe he wanted to kill her. He had argued with the Altieris in the past, authorities said. Mrs. Altieri had run into the street to request help from a neighbor, an elderly woman who became scared and slammed the door. That woman was in tears when deputies arrived at the scene, saying she was "guilt-ridden" over the fact. She said she feared that someone was following Mrs. Altieri and would harm her. Deputies said Wingard took the couple's 12-year-old daughter into the woods. A deputy found her, in her pink pajamas, down the road. "Can you take me home to my mommy?" she asked the deputy. The family was reunited Tuesday afternoon. They plan to bury Michael Altieri on Saturday. A call for helpThe following are excerpts from the 911 call Silvana Altieri made to police after her husband, Michael, was fatally stabbed early Tuesday morning: 911 operator: Where is your husband? Mrs. Altieri: I don't know. Operator: You don't know? Mrs. Altieri: He took my husband. Operator: He took your what? Mrs. Altieri: My husband. He took my husband. (Unintelligible) Mrs. Altieri: Please help us! (Dog barks in background) Daughter: Mommy, I'm scared. Operator: Ma'am, did you say someone took your husband? Mrs. Altieri: Daniel took my husband. A short while later: Operator: Daniel is the neighbor? Mrs. Altieri: Yes. Operator: He has the knife? Mrs. Altieri: Daniel has the knife. Operator: What is he wearing? Mrs. Altieri: I don't remember. Just shorts and no shirt. . . . He has my daughter. Not my husband. My husband is on the floor. Michael? Michael, can you hear me? Michael, can you hear me? -- SOURCE: 911 tape
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From today's Hernando Times |
