CHARLESTON —
"Come and get me, grandma. He's going to hurt me. He's going to hurt me."
The voice on the taped recording of a phone call is that of a little girl who sounds hysterical.
Then she screams and the phone goes dead.
The call gives chills to veteran Sistersville Police Chief Bob Kendle.
It might have been a prank, but Kendle doesn't think so.
He said he believes that a child is in danger and estimates her age as between 4 and 8.
Kendle said Suddenlink Communications has not been helpful to officers in their efforts to determine the truth.
A company spokesman said it has done everything possible.
The chief said a Sistersville woman who has Suddenlink service brought the answering machine tape to City Hall late Saturday.
Kendle said he believes the girl was trying to call her grandmother and dialed the woman's number by mistake.
"She was pleading for help," he said. "I've been doing this for 30 years and it sounds really authentic. It'll make the hair stand up on the back of your neck."
The number showed as "private" on the woman's caller ID, Kendle said.
Two officers called Suddenlink late Saturday and early Sunday to see if they could trace the call.
But phone company representatives refused to cooperate, Kendle said.
"They were quoting chapter and verse out of their policy and procedures manual," the chief said.
Officers were finally told they would need a subpoena in order for Suddenlink to release the phone records.
But a subpoena is a hard thing to come by around midnight on a weekend, Kendle said.
Police were finally able to get a subpoena Monday, but are no further along in the investigation, Kendle said.
"We still have no idea where the call came from," he said today.
Michael Kelemen, Suddenlink's director of government relations, maintained the company released all the available information they had to the Sistersville police earlier this week even without a subpoena.
"We continue to research this phone account to ascertain whether or not any additional information can be found," Kelemen said. "We're very sensitive to the potential seriousness of the situation and are doing everything possible to cooperate with local authorities."
Kelemen said the company does not track, monitor or record telephone traffic unless the company is under court order.
Suddenlink customers can dial "star-57" after receiving a call and temporarily record the last number received, Kelemen said.
"Such action would have helped trace the call in question, although it's not a feature that's widely known or understood," Kelemen said.
Kendle said today that about an hour after speaking with the Daily Mail on Wednesday, he found himself on a conference call with Suddenlink officials.
The Daily Mail had called the telephone company in the interim for comment.
Kendle said Suddenlink representatives told him his situation had attracted attention at "the highest levels" of management.
"They assured me they are working on it now as diligently as they can," Kendle said. "But it might be just too late."
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