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A heartbreaking phone call came through 911 just before 3 am on Monday, March 28, 2005 when a 5-year-old little girl told the dispatcher that there was blood coming out of her dad’s mouth, there was a bullet on the floor & she believed that her parents were dead in their New Smyrna Beach home.
Dispatcher Donna Choufani, a mother of two herself, sat at her console at the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office’s Communication Center, just about nine hours into her shift when she answered the call that lasted five minutes & 22 seconds. She was astounded by the young girl’s composure & bravery as she tried to keep her calm & get help to her home as quickly as possible.
When officers arrived at the home, they discovered 31-year-old Julie & 29-year-old Aeneas Hernlen clinging to life & covered with blood.
It was a sunny day in Daytona Beach, Florida when Julie Morgan noticed lifeguard Aeneas Hernlen & the two got to talking. Very quickly, it was clear that there was a connection & basically love at first sight. On top of their shared sense of humor, the couple had a passion for the beach & outdoor activities & loved to go surfing together.
Julie was born & raised in upstate New York where she lived with her parents & brother until they relocated to Florida. Here, she became an avid soccer player during her time in high school & was said to have a spirited & vivacious personality. Despite facing a learning disability, Julie went on to obtain an AA degree from Valencia Community College & BA degree from Flagler College in psychology & deaf education. She was described as a committed person who loved to learn new things & wouldn’t allow her learning disability to hold her back. Julie worked with the Department of Children & Families & prior to returning to school, she worked in the federal security field.
Julie went back to school for legal studies with a goal of becoming a lawyer & shortly after her death, she received an AA degree in legal studies posthumously from Daytona Beach Community College.
Aeneas was raised in DeLeon Springs, Florida with his parents & two brothers. He was always described as an incredibly energetic, creative & hard working person who loved to be outdoors, especially at the beach, camping, boating & fishing. As much as he loved the water, he equally loved the mountains of North Carolina. During his time in high school, he was a wrestler.
In order to pair his love of the beach with work, Aeneas went on to work as a lifeguard for the County Beach Services for many years. In 2005, he was working as a fabricator for a sign company with the goal of one day working as a firefighter/paramedic. Aeneas was the kind of guy who never hesitated to step up to help others in need & the 2004 hurricanes were a prime example of this. He was there for all of his friends & neighbors whose homes were damaged that hurricane season.
Julie & Aeneas went on to get married in 1997 in St. John Virgin Islands. When the couple welcomed their daughter, Tia Skye, into their lives in 2000, they came back to the U.S. later that year when Tia was nearly one & settled in Daytona Beach.
Julie & Aeneas were completely dedicated to their daughter & centered their lives around her. They made sure to include her opinion on things such as movies to watch together, the colors for their house & the vacations they would enjoy as a family. The family of three lived with their dog & three cats in the cheerful yellow home with lime-green trim & a pink door.
Julie & Aeneas wanted to create a safe & loving environment for their daughter & the family of three were inseparable. By 2005, Tia was 5-years-old, 29-year-old Aeneas had recently started a new job & 31-year-old Julie was preparing to graduate in May from Daytona Beach Community College with honors as a paralegal. Despite her dedication & focus on her studies, Julie remained devoted to her family. Her professors described her as outgoing, hardworking & always willing to step forward to help her classmates. Julie was excited for her future as a lawyer so she would be able to help others going through a difficult time who needed legal assistance.
Sadly, the lives of the sweet family of three were shattered on what began as a typical Sunday evening. Julie had always taught Tia that if there was ever an emergency, she was to dial three important numbers to get help & Tia had been shown how to dial 911 on the family’s landline.
Sometime during the early hours of Monday, March 28, 2005, Tia woke to what she believed was the sound of a gunshot. When she climbed out of bed & went into her parent’s bedroom, she saw her dad lying on the floor near his bed with blood coming out of his mouth. She told the dispatcher, Donna, that there was blood on the plants & on the floor of her parent’s bedroom & she thought they were dead as when she called out their names, they didn’t respond.
Donna Choufani was floored by how composed & well-spoken this young child was in such a terrifying situation. Tia told Donna that it was only herself, her parents, her dog & her three cats & elaborated that there was no robber in the house. She told Donna that she saw a bullet on the floor, but there was no gun.
Donna wanted to keep Tia talking so that she felt safe until help could arrive & reassured her that she wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Tia admitted that she was scared & asked Donna, Can you send a deputy down here? They talked about her pets & told Donna that her dog was a black Lab with brown eyes named Lizzah.
Later review of the 911 call proved that Donna had handled the call with such professionalism as well as compassion. While keeping Tia calm & comforting the young child, she was also able to gather necessary details from a little girl who had just seen the two people she loved the most, covered in blood & unresponsive.
Donna knew that what Tia had seen that night was something no child should ever see, a scene she would likely see each time she closed her eyes for the rest of her life & said, This poor baby had woken up to a living nightmare. And the one person she needs is her mommy.
As she spoke with Tia, Donna also worried for the little girl’s safety & knew it was possible that the person who had done this to her parents might still be in the house. As police arrived at the Hernlen home & Donna was sure that Tia was in good hands, she ended the call.
Donna had worked with the Daytona Beach Police Department for twenty years & had transferred to Volusia County in October 2004, five months earlier. She ended up leaving later that same year in December 2005. No doubt, her conversation with Tia would stay with her for the rest of her life.
As Tia opened the front door, she was met with County Deputy Brian Williams, the first officer to the scene. Once inside, he picked Tia up & carried her to the safety of his patrol car where she sat quietly for nearly an hour as deputies assessed the crime scene. Brian later said, I felt so bad for her; she didn’t cry. But I wanted to cry for her.
The scene inside the Hernlen home was truly devastating. By the time officers arrived, they determined that Julie was deceased. Aeneas was clinging to life & was airlifted to Halifax Hospital where he was placed on life support until it was removed the following day, March 29, when he passed away.
Police were determined to find out who had gone into the family’s home & brutally shot Julie & Aeneas, leaving 5-year-old Tia to discover the horrific scene. It did not take long before they had the answer as to who was responsible.
Investigators learned that only two months earlier, on January 11, 2005, Julie had filed a restraining order against a 33-year-old man, David Edward Johnson, who had been a former friend. Despite the fact that Johnson had been harassing the family for months after he incorrectly believed they were responsible for his November 2004 arrest on charges of growing marijuana & possessing steroids, the judge denied Julie’s request. The judge indicated no proof of violence & that it was too hard to prove stalking with the outlined allegations.
In the end, it was determined that Julie & Aeneas had absolutely nothing to do with Johnson’s arrest, something that police had frequently advised him before that horrible night yet the man remained convinced that the couple had turned him into the narcotics unit for his drug business. Someone called in a burglary in progress into his home & for whatever reason, he placed the blame on the Hernlons.
Julie had been extremely fearful for her family’s safety in the months before their murder & had confided in family & friends that she felt that Johnson was ruining her life & spoke of how terrified she was. Julie did everything correctly; she kept a meticulous record that started in December 2004, three months before their murders, that detailed every incident where she felt threatened by David Johnson. She documented times when he would call, make a threat or drive by their home, one time he even attempted to run them off the road. Julie noted dates, times & descriptions of his behavior before she went on to file the restraining order.
When Julie learned that the restraining order was denied, she called her best friend, Michelle, in tears & told her, If I’m not here next week, this is the reason why & this is who killed me.
With this information, police set their sights on their prime suspect & obtained a search warrant before they went to his home to arrest David Johnson. However, by the time they arrived, it was too late & David was found dead inside after he’d taken his own life, shooting himself in the chest. The man never faced justice for murdering two innocent people & ruining the lives of so many around them, namely, Tia, who would live the rest of her life without her parents.
Authorities believe that Johnson broke in through the back door of the Hernlen’s small, single-story yellow house on the 100 block of Ellison Avenue. Once inside, he made his way to the couple’s bedroom, shot them with his 9mm pistol & fled back to his home where he killed himself that same day. He did not leave behind a suicide note.
Investigators found newspaper clippings regarding his November arrest that were pinned to his refrigerator as well as documents detailing his upcoming trial. Johnson had been in court less than a week before the murders on March 22, 2005 for a pre-trial hearing related to the stalking charges.
After her parent’s murders, Tia Hernlen went to live with her grandparents, Julie’s parents, Richard & Nancy Morgan, in Central Florida where she was surrounded with love & a stable environment after living through such a traumatic event.
A trust fund was later set up at Gulf States Credit Union in Tia’s name by the community to help ease any future financial challenges. The community wanted to be sure that Tia was allowed further education since education was very important to Julie & Aeneas.
Dispatcher Donna Choufani was praised for the compassionate way that she handled Tia’s 911 call which earned her the department’s Medal of Merit. Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson went on to say about Tia during her call, Her composure was extraordinary given what she had just seen. She was an amazing little girl. The information she gave us & the manner she gave it to us – we wish we could get that out of adults.
Donna said that she would never forget that phone call & hoped to one day meet Tia so she could give her a big hug although it’s unclear if the two ever met.
After their murders, family members of Julie & Aeneas were outraged that the police & the entire system had failed to protect them. Julie had done everything right; when she realized that Johnson was a threat to her family’s safety, she maintained precise documentation of each & every incident yet when she filed a restraining order in hopes for protection, she was denied assistance.
Julie’s father went on to publicly criticize Volusia County authorities & in an email to the Orlando Sentinel, he wrote, One of her last conversations with police was ‘What has to happen? Does he have to kill me before you do anything?’
Sheriff Ben Johnson defended his investigators & indicated that they had warned David Johnson to stay away from the Hernlen family & added, It’s a bad situation & something we sure don’t like to see happen, but when you take someone just this side of possessed, that’s someone that’s awfully hard to stop.
Johnson was someone who would not accept the rules & because he was set on taking action so it was highly unlikely that the man would have been stopped by the restraining order. Ben Johnson believed the only thing that would have kept Julie & Aeneas safe was if David Johnson had been behind bars.
Circuit Judge Richard Graham recalled receiving the request for injunction that arrived by fax with limited information & expressed deep regret when he learned of Julie & Aeneas’ murders. He indicated that had he had more information, he would have likely granted it & acknowledged that he would have liked to have done things differently, but each case is reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
According to Sheriff Ben Johnson, on any given day, there are 3,600-3,700 restraining orders in effect which makes it impossible to stay on top of someone at all times.
The family of Julie & Aeneas went on to file a wrongful death lawsuit against David Johnson’s estate, citing emotional distress, mental anguish & the loss of Tia’s parents. The suit cited the fact that David Johnson was aware that with murdering Julie & Aeneas, it would no doubt be Tia to enter her parent’s bedroom & make the horrific discovery.
With the help of counselors as well as the love & support of family, Tia was able to conquer the emotional trauma & loss she suffered. Her family shielded her from the media coverage around her parent’s case & tried to provide her with a normal childhood given the circumstances. As she grew, she pursued music, painting & athletics. Now an adult of about 25-years-old, Tia volunteers for several charities & has become a role model to those around her.
References:
- The Sheriff’s Star – May/June 2005
- YouTube: 911 Chronicles – Heartbreaking 911 call: 5-year-old girl calls 911 to report her parents murder
- POMC: Julie Morgan-Hernlen Aeneas Hernlen
- Influencer Today: Rising from tragedy – The inspiring journey of Tia Hernlen
- The Hunter’s Life Forums: Tia Hernlen
- Medium: “I said Mommy & Daddy & they didn’t even answer” – 5-year-old finds her parents dead in their bedroom
- CBS News: 5-year-old’s 911 call for help
- Tampa Bay Times: Trust fund created for orphaned 911 caller
- Medium: Tia Hernlen: The 5-year-old who found her parents murdered
