Police release 911 call in Hoffman Estates triple murder

Murder suspect D'Andre Howard did most of the talking in a 911 call made Friday after the fatal attack on his girlfriend's family in Hoffman Estates.

He described to the dispatcher how his girlfriend's sister, 18-year-old Laura Engelhardt, was hurt. She died hours later at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.

"She took the knife from me, she stabbed me in the arm," Howard told the dispatcher.

Howard added: "We were fighting for the knife, I stabbed her, she's not, she's not talking."

At one point during the call, released Tuesday by Hoffman Estates police, Howard said he was going to die.

"Amanda Engelhardt is my fiance. We're getting married this summer, in the backyard," Howard told the dispatcher. Apparently in agony from a stab wound to his right bicep, he said, "I won't make it."

The first speaker on the 911 call identified herself as Amanda Engelhardt, Howard's girlfriend. Her 8-month-old baby cried in the background as Amanda pleaded for medical help.

"I just need somebody to get here quick, please," she told a 911 dispatcher through tears.

The 6-minute, 33-second phone call was made at 6:44 a.m. Friday from the Engelhardts' home on the 1000 block of North Bluebonnet Lane in Hoffman Estates.

Howard is charged with murdering Amanda's father, Alan Engelhardt, 57; her grandmother, Marlene Gacek, 73; and sister Laura Engelhardt, a Conant High School senior, sometime after he arrived at the house at 1:30 a.m., more than five hours before the 911 call.

"What's happening over there?" the dispatcher asked.

"It already happened," Howard replied.

Prosecutors said earlier in court that Laura Engelhardt stabbed Howard in self-defense after he had brandished the butcher knife and tied up Laura and some of the other women in the house. She grabbed the knife when he loosened her bonds, prosecutors said. Howard then turned on her, prosecutors allege.

Laura gave police an account of what happened before she died Friday morning from multiple stab wounds, prosecutors said. Her mother, Shelly Engelhardt, 52, also was stabbed and remains in critical condition at St. Alexius Medical Center, but family friends said she's doing better and was taken off a respirator.

When police arrived at the house, Alan Engelhardt and Marlene Gacek were already dead.

At one point during the 911 call, Howard repeatedly cried out, "Marlene." Amanda took the phone again and said Howard "keeps going in and out" of consciousness and that he was in the den, where the victims were on the floor.

Police arrived six minutes and 20 seconds after Amanda Engelhardt made the phone call.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=288235">Partial transcript of 911 call<span class="date"> [4/21/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>