Posted on 09/24/2008 7:28:21 PM PDT by CurlyBill
September 17, 2008
SIMI VALLEY -- One local family whose loved one died in the Metrolink collision is still questioning something that happened that night.
They got several phone calls from 49-year-old Chuck Peck after the crash. But they now know he died on impact.
Peck's fiancee, Andrea Katz, told KTLA that the first call was to his son in Utah.
"...and he said my dad just called me and I said, what did he say? Is he okay? Where is he? He didn't say anything, the phone rang and it said dad," Peck's fiance Andrea Katz told KTLA.
As firefighters worked to rescue survivors, family members said Peck's cell phone kept calling his son, his brother, his stepmother, his sister and his fiancee.
But when they answered all they heard was static.
And when family members called back, the calls went straight to voice mail.
In all, family members say they received about 35 calls from Peck's cell phone through the night.
Nearly five hours after the crash at 9:08 p.m., Katz received a call.
"We were yelling in the phone, hang in there baby. We're gonna get you out. You're gonna be okay," Katz said.
When the rescue efforts turned to recovery, there was another call, which prompted search crews to trace it. They realized it was coming from the first train so they went back in one last time.
"And they were so excited they had this incredible adrenaline rush at thought that they could possibly go find another survivor... we gave her a description and they spent the next couple of hours looking for him and they did end up finding him and they said that he had died immediately on impact and there was no way he could have been calling us," Katz said.
The calls stopped at 3:28 a.m., about an hour before Peck's body was found.
Katz said the phone calls helped the family get through the night.
"The intellectual side of my brain thinks gee, it was a computer malfunction and then the emotional side of my brain, it was just Chuck letting us know that he knew that we were scared for him and letting us have hope."
Katz said she also finds comfort in knowing she and Peck were happy and that he didn't suffer in the end.
"He died instantly and he didn't suffer and when you love somebody you couldn't ask for a better way for them to leave this life, just happy and excited and didn't see it coming."
Investigators said they may never know how those calls were made because Peck's phone was never found.
They also say his body showed no sign that he lived even for a short time after the crash
Ghost Ping!!! Thanks to retrokitten for this!! My apologies for the lack of pings lately. I’m coaching two ice hockey teams again and things have been mind boggling at work. I will get back to it soon!!
Eerie stuff.
I got a call from my daughters phone and heard only muffled voices. I had seen this story and was freaked out. Turns out she was trying to turn her phone off and put it in her purse
I’m thinking a chip malfunction on the phone caused by the impact or some sorry sob who thinks it’s fun to torment people...
Yep... they can scientifically substantiate the time of the crash and the time of the calls. The forensic pathologist knows how long he would live given his injuries. This is pretty eerie. There would still be a record of the calls. All science and no silly psychics...
Yes, fascinating post and I do expect there is far more out there then we know or understand.
no, it is evidence that there is more to this life than our flesh and bones. There is an afterlife and we do continue pass the transition called death. I have seen it in my life. Messages from the beyond and they are so much alike: “I’m OK, everything is all right.” This is the stuff of hope. The love we have for others goes beyond this life and continues on.
What I found the most eerie was that they couldn’t find the phone. True it could have been some kind of malfunction that caused his phone to call his directory, but why only family members? Most people have at least a couple non-relatives in their phone list.
Good point! I wonder if the order of the calls was significant as well... I’ve never heard of anything like this before.
Ghost-In-The-Machine ping.
Wow.
Can you program a cell phone to dial numbers in series? Will it do this if a certain button is held down? What model phone did he have? If the phone got turned on by impact, could impact damage result in this?
Forgot to add that if that cell phone could be programmed to dial numbers in a series, he may have planned the crash and before impact, turned on the phone and put it in a shielded location.
Amazing story...this is one of those things that, if ivestigated, will most likely have a rational explanation...but the timing, the events, and the fact that his body was one of the last found is just incredible...
The cell phone was not found. Perhaps someone found the phone and hit the speed dial numbers.
You.
Bong.
Step away.
Fascinating...having experienced some inexplicable things myself, I really enjoyed this article.
When I read this I wondered if another victim could have made contact with his phone and tried to push buttons for help.
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