Crime & Safety

Listen: Dorner Victim 9-1-1 Call Audio Highlights

Karen and Jim Reynolds were tied up by ex-LAPD officer and murder suspect Chris Dorner. Listen to edited highlights of their 21-minute 9-1-1 call as they waited to be helped.

REDLANDS, CA -- Karen and Jim Reynolds checked on an unoccupied condo they owned in Big Bear Lake in February, found it locked, then went inside and found ex-LAPD and wanted fugitive Chris Dorner, who tied them up and stole their vehicle, hours before the shoot-out with police that resulted in his death.

Yesterday we posted the full audio of the Reynolds call to 9-1-1 to ask for assistance while still tied up - attached to this article is a four-minute edited version of the 21-minute call. Audio of the call was released April 9 in response to public records requests filed by Redlands Loma-Linda Patch and other media outlets.

The call was made by Karen Reynolds. The audio includes:

Find out what's happening in Redlands-Loma Lindawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Reynolds telling the operator several times that she and her husband are still tied up as they are making the call.
  • A lot of concern expressed for the Reynolds' daughter and housekeeper who were on the property with the couple. Karen Reynolds does not know whether or not her daughter and the housekeeper encountered Dorner. "I don't know for sure if he's got them or not," she tells the operator mid-way through. Later, she asks: "I don't suppose you could try her cell phone to see if she's OK?"
  • Karen Reynolds asks multiple times if the operator is still on the line, concerned they might have lost contact.
  • The officers on scene seem to have trouble finding the Reynolds, who are on a property with multiple units. At one point, the operator asks her and her husband to yell to try to get their attention.
  • Karen Reynolds says that Dorner had pillowcases over their heads and made them keep from looking at him. She says he left "15 to 30 minutes" before they called 9-1-1.  
  • At one point Karen Reynolds' physical discomfort from being tied up becomes very apparent in her voice as she talks about being in pain and wanting to get untied.
  • The manhunt for Dorner that ended later Feb. 12 at a burned-out cabin south of Big Bear was one of the largest in the history of California and the western United States.

Hundreds of officers from local, state and federal agencies were involved in the search for Dorner, who is believed accountable for four killings in the space of ten days: a former LAPD captain's daughter and her fiancé in Irvine on Feb. 3, Riverside police Officer Michael Crain on Feb. 7, and San Bernardino County sheriff's Detective Jeremiah MacKay on Feb. 12.

Find out what's happening in Redlands-Loma Lindawith free, real-time updates from Patch.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Redlands-Loma Linda