'I think my daughter just killed herself,' mother tells dispatcher [911 call]

'I think my daughter just killed herself,' mother tells dispatcher

It was 10 minutes after midnight May 12, and Hana Grace-Rose Williams wasn't breathing. "I think my daughter just killed herself," Carri Williams, Hana's adoptive mother, told Skagit County 911.

By Jeff Hodson

Seattle Times staff reporter

It was 10 minutes after midnight May 12, and Hana Grace-Rose Williams wasn't breathing.

"I think my daughter just killed herself," Carri Williams, Hana's adoptive mother, told Skagit County 911.

"Why do you say that?" asked the dispatcher.

"She's really rebellious, and she's been outside refusing to come in," Williams said. "And she's been throwing herself all around. And then she collapsed."

"Is she breathing?" the dispatcher asked.

"I don't think so. No," Williams said.

After getting the address, the dispatcher asked, "How old is your daughter?"

"I don't know," Williams replied. "We adopted her almost three years ago."

"You don't know how old she is?"

"She might be between the ages of 14 and 16."

Hana had been found face down in the grass. Williams and her children put a sheet over her and brought her inside.

Williams scooped mud from Hana's mouth and began to perform CPR.

Hana's adoptive father, Larry Williams, returned from work and took over the resuscitation efforts.

During her conversation with the dispatcher, Carri Williams said Hana had thrown herself on the gravel, the grass and the patio and taken her clothes off.

"She's very passive-aggressive," and "very abusive toward herself."

Medics arrived in about 17 minutes.

Hana couldn't be resuscitated. She was declared dead at Skagit Valley Hospital at 1:30 a.m.

Investigators learned Hana had been outside half the day, in the cold and rain, and they found suspicious marks on her body. She had a lump on her head and fresh cuts.

An autopsy found that the back of her legs and thighs had bruises and markings consistent with being hit by a switch, according to court documents.

According to a pediatric doctor who reviewed her case, Hana's behavior that night had nothing to do with rebellion.

The doctor said that "flailing or thrashing and being clumsy followed by a taking off of clothes and becoming unresponsive are well-known symptoms of advancing hypothermia."

— Jeff Hodson