It’s been more than two decades since one of the most chilling pieces of 911 audio was ever made public. On the early morning of March 28, 2005, a five-year-old girl named Tia Hernlen was awakened by gunshots inside her Florida home. She called out to her parents but received no response. So, she went looking and found her dying parents with gunshot wounds in their bedroom.

What she did next not only stunned investigators but also made national headlines. The quick-witted girl dialed 911 herself and described the crime scene that even adults would struggle to process.

“My mommy and daddy… I think there’s a bullet on the floor. I don’t know, I think they’re dead,” Tia told the dispatcher calmly while trying to make sense of what happened. When the dispatcher asked for more details gently, she told her age, described blood on the floor and on the houseplant, and about her dog named Liza.

Tia’s mother, Julie Hernlen, 31, was dead when the officers arrived at their family home, while her 29-year-old father, Aeneas, was rushed to hospital and passed away the next day.

 

The attacker was later identified as David Edward Johnson, 33, who falsely believed the couple was responsible for his November arrest for growing ma***uana and possessing steroids. Johnson took his own life at his home the same day, according to ABC.

Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson, who spoke with Good Morning America, praised the young girl’s composure during such traumatizing incident. “I don’t know quite how to characterize what you hear in that 5-year-old’s voice. Her composure is extraordinary given what she had just seen. She was an amazing little girl. The information she gave us and the manner she gave it to us, we wish we could get that out of adults,” she said.  

The 911 call has resurfaced on social media, with many expressing sympathy and concern for the young girl. A netizen commented, “Calls like this have got to be so difficult for the dispatcher… the little girl’s life is forever altered. I wouldn’t be able to hang up on the phone. How do you make it all okay for her when you know you can’t? Absolutely crushing.”

Another added a latest update on her: “She is 26 years old now, and I pray this has been erased from her memory.” A third wrote, “Hearing a five-year-old little girl explain how her parents were involved in a murder suicide as she faces becoming an orphan alone is one of the most heartbreaking.”

Disclaimer: The Inquisitr could not independently confirm the facts of this incident and is reporting based on the information available within the public video record.