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"I Just Found A Body In My Son's Room" 911 Call Played
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 9, 2010
Modified Jul 9, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 9, 2010
Modified Jul 9, 2010
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The 911 call made by the mother of a man accused of murder was played in court yesterday. Dorcas Chin, whose son Michael Chin Lenahan who killed his girlfriend in a Chinatown apartment and left her corpse in her bed for days in 2007, told an operator, "I just found a body in my son's room."
Chin, who the Post says testified under prosecution subpoena, tells the operator that her son first told her he killed someone during a phone conversation, but then said he was joking. But she decided to go to the apartment herself (Chin lives in south NJ) and found a body. When asked how old the deceased is, Chin replied, I don't know... I can't get myself to look. I can't do it," and when the operator repeatedly asks if the body has "turned color," Chin says she too "afraid" to look. Here's audio of the call:
During the call, Chin also says that her son told her that the victim, Lorna Santiago, was accidentally killed. She also revealed that she only became alarmed when her youngest son, who was traveling in Mexico, called her to say that Lenahan said he hurt someone and was threatening to hurt himself.
Prosecutors say that Lenahan left the body in his bed as he looked online at porn and ways to dispose of the body; his defense attorney says Lenahan used a sleeperhold that lasted too long and that he made bad decisions because of his cocaine problems.
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911 call
Chinatown
Michael Chin Lenahan
murder trial
sleeperhold
strangled
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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