Shannan Gilbert's 23 Minute 911 Call #2

[Sillybilly]

Shannan's belongings were found further away from Peter Hackett's house than I had anticipated.

Hackett lived on Larboard Court.

 

[White_Rabbit]

Listening to a "cleaned up" version of Shannan's call:

At about 40 seconds in, Shannan said, when first on with 911, "There's somebody after me." And asked, "Can you trace where I am?"
She didn't know the address, but knew she was "by the Jones Beach." Then the call goes to State Police, where she repeated, "There's somebody after me," multiple times, and again asked if, "can you trace where I am?" She didn't know if it was Suffolk or Nassau, but knew it was Long Island.

About 2 min 46 seconds JB is trying to get Shannan to talk with someone, but she doesn't want to, and firmly states, "No, stop, no!"

At about 2 min 58 sec, does it sound like JB says, "F off," and Shannan replied, "Alright." I thought I heard the second male say, "Fu**** up bit**," and then it sounded like, to me, Shannan said, "Why are (or aren't) you calling me by my name?" And then the second guy says, "Because (garbled)..." (laughter)

4 mins 35 seconds sounds like JB says, "Alright, you're going, you're going," and at that point must have tried to forcibly remove her. 4 mins 45 sec, JB, "Lemme fix that, lemme fix that," She truly sounds in fear on the verge of crying asking, "What are you going to do to me!?"

5 mins 27 sec, MP, "What's the matter, are you ok?" (cracking up laughing)

5 mins 43 sec, Shannan, "Why...are you going to kill me?"

6 mins 44 sec, Shannan, "Mike...you filled that?" "I didn't do it," (?)

Shannan asks, "Why, Mike?"
MP: "Uhh, for fun, yeah?"
Shannan: "For fun? For me?"

That part is pretty awful, and doesn't sit right with me.

Please, others, listen and correct, as needed, if you would like, or add/take over transcription. There's a lot more to the tape, but I gotta take a break.

I believe at 2 min 46 seconds Joseph Brewer is offering his cell phone to Shannan trying to get her to talk to Michael Pak.

At 3 min 8 seconds when Shannan says, "Why are you calling be by my name?" she is responding to Michael Pak. Michael Pak chuckles and says, "I gotta."

At 4 min 35 seconds Joseph Brewer definitely tried to forcibly remove her.

At 5 min 27 seconds Michael Pak says, "What's the matter, are you okay?" but I would describe him more as chuckling and not cracking up laughing.

At 7 minutes 11 seconds it sounds like Shannan says, "I'm never getting drunk again."

 

[White_Rabbit]

I dont hear any crime being committed on the 911 recording, so why did it take so long for the recording to come out? Very strange.......now who knows what happened after she got off the phone, but she had gone to several peoples homes after fleeing.

I wonder if the delay in releasing Shannan's 911 call had anything to do with the investigation regarding this theory:

2006-2008: Shannan Gilbert, Alex Diaz and Michael Pak work for escort services run by Joseph Ruis out of NJ.
Shannan, an escort, meets both Diaz and Pak, drivers, during this time period.

2007: Shannan is arrested in a prostitution sting while working in NJ for one of Ruis' escort businesses.

2008: Hudson County PO begins a year long investigation into Ruis' businesses starting w World Class Party Girls. This investigation utilizes undercover agents, wire tapping and confidential informants. HCPO allocates a great amount of resources into this investigation and quickly discovers that Ruis' businesses spider web out into much more than one escort service. Ruis has three separate escort services, a limo service, a kebab restaurant and various other LLCs. He is laundering 3 million a year (and that is only the cash he cleans). HCPO find records of clients paying tens of thousands of dollars for single bookings. In one instance a client paid 100k. I don't care how many escorts and shish kebabs you can pile into a limo for a client, it's not going to add up to 100k.

July 2009: HCPO obtains a warrant and raids Ruis' homes and businesses.
Ruis is arrested.
He makes cash bail shortly thereafter and is released.

The charges in the case are filed:
First-degree money laundering,
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-25;

Third-degree promoting prostitution, N.J.S.A. 2C:34-1b(2);

Third-degree conspiracy to promote prostitution and distribute cocaine, N.J.S.A. 2C:5-2, N.J.S.A. 2C:34-1b(2), N.J.S.A. 2C:35-5a(1), and N.J.S.A. 2C:35-5b(1);

First-degree leading a narcotics trafficking network.

Shannan Gilbert (along with one other name I've seen in threads but have been unable to verify) is listed as Ruis' co-defendant in this case.

April 2010 - Ruis is arraigned, still free on bail.

May 2010 - Shannan Gilbert goes to Oak Beach.

June 2010 - Ruis goes to court, pleads way down to 5 years, serves 2 years and is released.

From the beginning we have been fed the narrative that Shannan Gilbert was working independently - that she was no longer involved with Ruis.

But this information is inserted into the narrative by Michael Pak, and only Michael Pak, who time after time in interviews and depositions states that both he and Shannan were working independently on a regular basis.

According to Pak, he acted only as a driver, Shannan posted her own ads using her own phones, negotiated her own client fees and paid Pak a percentage for driving her. Pak had no role other than driving. He did not know the clients and it was only Shannan who booked them.

The reality is that we do not know if Pak and Shannan were working independently and we do not know if they'd severed ties with Ruis.

We especially don't know this as it pertains to the night of Friday, April 30, 2010, when Pak claims Brewer, a man who neither he nor Shannan knew, called Shannan on her phone for an outcall 2 hours away to OB, a place neither he nor Shannan had ever been.

More according to Pak and only Pak:
he and Shannan sat in his vehicle in midtown Manhattan for hours that Friday night with no work, refreshing posts on Craigslist, with Shannan becoming increasingly upset. (Shannan's emotional disposition will become a recurring theme in Pak's accounts.)

Pak then claims Shannan had a quick outcall somewhere in the neighborhood.
Pak claims not to know where or with whom but that she walked there herself and within 20 minutes was heading back to Pak's vehicle during which time they communicated via phone.

Just as a reminder: one fact that we DO KNOW is that Joseph Ruis was free at this time, his trial was a month away and Shannan was listed as a co-defendant.

I'd be very interested to know what this 20 minute meeting was about, who it was with or if it even happened.

Phone records are objective fact.
Pak plays dumb but he is absolutely not dumb.
He knows phone records cant be argued away.
He's criminally intelligent - it's why he's always so careful in his accounts regarding location - he never crosses state lines - and how he knew that the people he was trafficking from Southeast Asia could claim religious asylum if caught.

So if he knows there will be calls that show up btwn himself and Shannan at a time he claims they were sitting for hours side by side in his vehicle, he better have a reason.

It's the same as when he knows a bunch of phone calls are going to show up in Oak Beach from his phone to Brewer (who he'd never met), Brewer to him, and him to Shannan, at a time when he was supposedly sitting outside the home of Brewer while Shannan was supposedly inside providing sexual services.
Pak comes up with a highly detailed story about CVS, playing cards, lube and a phone exchange w Shannan in which she angrily exclaims "Fine, I'll find my own way home!"

Pak's account of this exchange serves 3 purposes:

1- it implies that Shannan was emotionally off-kilter that night - a theme that Pak peppers throughout every bullsht word he vomits out of his mouth about Shannan from the start - she was highly emotional and unpredictable, she was bipolar and refused to take her medicine, she was an alcoholic and constantly sipped from a fast food soda cup which she mixed liquor into, she was a drug addict and did coke and ecstacy often, she was paranoid, she often got lost when trying to find her way out of clients' buildings - all these statements are systematically shot down by Ray in the deposition.

2 - it provides Pak with an explanation for the flurry of calls that took place btwn him and Brewer and him and Shannan while he was supposedly parked outside Brewer's residence on a routine independently booked outcall: he was calling because Shannan, in her emotional instability, told him to leave and he wanted his money.

3 - it lays down the foundation for the reasoning he will later use when he claims he left Oak Beach without Shannan: She herself told him to leave so finally he did, assuming she found her own way home.

We do not know anything that was said in those phone calls, where Brewer, Shannan or Pak were while the calls were made or what they were doing.

In the same way, Pak volunteers the fact that Shannan has this very short appointment before going out to Oak Beach.
Imo, this means that something is in the phone records that will show she was not in the vehicle with Pak at certain points; that they were calling eachother from different locations.

I think wherever Shannan went during that period of time is very important and linked to the events that occurred in OB.
Whatever that appointment was, it wasnt a sex related meeting.
If i had to guess, she was either picking up product from Ruis' people to take out to Oak Beach or meeting with law enforcement as a CI.
Or some overlapping gray area in which both are true.

If we refer to the charges laid out in the trial scheduled to begin the very next month: "conspiracy to promote prostitution and distribute cocaine" - that's one charge - it's not promoting prostitution and also distributing cocaine separately - it's conspiracy (which to me always translates to RICO) to promote prostitution as a means of moving large amounts of cocaine.
These was conspiracy and distribution charges - these were not escorts and drivers bringing eightballs as party favors.
They were moving distribution weight.

But, according to Pak, neither he nor Shannan were working for an agency, neither he nor Shannan knew Brewer and the night was just a simple outcall for sex.

In the words of my grandfather:
"Do you know what chewed up grass is?"

As an aside, it's also of interest to note that when John Ray deposes Pak for the civil case against Hackett, he asks Pak what he did after leaving Oak Beach after supposedly searching for and failing to find Shannan. Remember, Pak has rambled on for paragraphs at a time about how Shannan and he were working independently so far in this deposition. What did Pak do after he left OB early May 1 without Shannan?
He answers that he went to meet another agency driver at a Dunkin Donuts in Queens to pick up cash, he then purchased a Green Dot card and transferred that cash to the Green Dot card to send to the agency - the agency which neither he nor Shannan worked for according to him.
Ray, disappointingly, does not push this issue, I can only assume, bc it does nothing for his case against Hackett.)

To get back to the main point, Shannan Gilbert was listed as a co-defendant in a large case against Joseph Ruis, scheduled to begin the month after she went out to OB.

Ruis is indicted April 2010 (still free). Shannan goes missing May 2010.
Ruis goes to court June 2010.
Shannan is not there.
Ruis makes a deal to get a 5 year sentence, and is released after 2.

I think it is very important to understand that, regardless of Pak's attempts to manipulate the narrative, the objective inarguable truth is that Shannan Gilbert was not only involved in organized criminal activity, she died exactly one month before she was scheduled to testify as a co-defendant in a trial against a far reaching very large organized criminal enterprise.

Joseph Ruis wasn't making his money from hundred dollar outcalls and shish-kebabs.
He had clients on record for "services" for up to 100k.
That's no regular outcall.
That is using escorts and drivers to move product.

And that year long investigation that took place and led to Joseph Ruis' arrest utilized many resources... including Confidential Informants.

If you're Shannan Gilbert and you get picked up in a sting in NJ and the Prosecutor's Office comes to you and tells you your employer is at the center of an investigation that goes far beyond an escort service and you're going to face those charges with him...unless you cooperate, in which case you'll get immunity, what would you do?

If you're Joseph Ruis, out on bail, a month away from a serious case against you, and you find out one of your employees, not just any employee but the one listed as co-defendant in your case has made a deal w the State...what would you do?

 

[Bose]

My best attempt to transcribe the audio. Please feel free to fill in anything I may have missed or edit what would need to be corrected.

Stupendous job!! Wow, great job, @White_Rabbit . I could not get that far, the emotions were getting to me. I took a listen and added other things I thought I could hear, please review/correct, etc.

 

[White_Rabbit]

Stupendous job!! Wow, great job, @White_Rabbit . I could not get that far, the emotions were getting to me. I took a listen and added other things I thought I could hear, please review/correct, etc.

Thank you Bose! I felt that the SCPD transcript left out a lot of detail. I must have listened to the audio a few dozen times to try to get it. I feel there are some more clues in the unintelligible words, but it is very difficult to filter them out between background noise, low tones, the participants talking over each other, etc.. I will probably review it a few more times to try to get everything.

 

[White_Rabbit]

Stupendous job!! Wow, great job, @White_Rabbit . I could not get that far, the emotions were getting to me. I took a listen and added other things I thought I could hear, please review/correct, etc.

Hi Bose. Thank you very much for your input! I was able to clear up quite a few details with your edit. Please see the attached updated Shannan 911 Call Transcript. Please all feel free to review and edit.

 

[PreciousDust]

I'd like to hear John Ray say that the 911 call released yesterday by SCPD is an unexpurgated, unedited, unmanipulated match to the one he was provided with under court order.

I implore some intrepid reporter who has access to Mr. Ray, or anyone who has access to Mr. Ray, to ask him about it.

 

[burntsnoop]

John Ray's holding a presser on Monday I believe, hoping he will say then.

 

[3Patriots]

Hi Bose. Thank you very much for your input! I was able to clear up quite a few details with your edit. Please see the attached updated Shannan 911 Call Transcript. Please all feel free to review and edit.

@White_Rabbit The updated has no notes. At least when I open it.

 

[White_Rabbit]

@White_Rabbit The updated has no notes. At least when I open it.

I noticed that. It seems to be a problem opening on a phone. Try opening on a computer for now. I will try to re-post using a different file format.

 

[DetectiveB]

This is what I've heard so far

Around 12:40 mark
Shannan "Mike, mike Stop It"
Pak-"About what?"
Shannan "Come here"
Pak "Do you want me to call police?"
Shannan "yeah, hold on a min..."(in audible) but something about not knowing the address...perhaps- "yeah but I know you're unsure about the address"
Pak "What are you going to tell them?"
Shannon "Tell them Everything"
Pak "OMG"

Still listening but on a side note it's extremely frustrating that a 911 operator keeps asking what town she's in. I'm trying to wrap my head around when a "kidnapped victim" calls 911, held hostage...etc a 911 operator should be better equipped to trace calls or ask other helpful questions. I keep smh. Horrible 911. My heart breaks for family but grateful for release of calls...it only took 12.5 years.

 

[sunshineray]

Anybody else hear her say at 19:42, "Thers's a shield on the car" ?

Am I hearing that correctly? It's right after she's running and you hear a startled short cry-out.

 

[Jes8614]

Anybody else hear her say at 19:42, "Thers's a shield on the car" ?

Am I hearing that correctly? It's right after she's running and you hear a startled short cry-out.

That’s the operator but yes that’s what she said! I wonder why hmm

 

[sunshineray]

That’s the operator but yes that’s what she said! I wonder why hmm

Ohh ok, it sounded like Shannon's voice to me and I was like whaaat? Thanks

 

[Bose]

Hi Bose. Thank you very much for your input! I was able to clear up quite a few details with your edit. Please see the attached updated Shannan 911 Call Transcript. Please all feel free to review and edit.

Thank you, @White_Rabbit, for taking the time to do this, and thanks @DetectiveB @sunshineray and @Jes8614 for adding, too, and adding what you personally hear, or offering alternate dialogue. I think it's important, some people might hear something others don't, have better hearing for a particular range (low voices/high voices), etc.

I'll come back later, trying to distract myself today and get some things done, it's how I deal/compartmentalize. I'm sure others get it. Listening to it can be traumatizing, and if you have PTSD as I do, or domestic violence trauma, please take care of yourself and take breaks.

The overarching theme, aside from dialogue, I have been thinking of since yesterday are these points:

Shannan did not want to leave the house. Perhaps she was hoping someone trustworthy (through 911) would trace the call and find her there, and take her home. She asked 911, was basically told no. She was not completely out of her mind, she was oriented to time and space, knew roughly where she was, knew her name, she was just unresponsive at times. She stayed on the phone, who knows when she had her phone in her pocket or hidden. At times she may have forgotten she was on the phone with 911, or didn't think they would help/give her what she needed (a call location trace). Regardless, the phone was kept on, and we got to hear interactions (though muddled). Just wish she would have stated to 911 what had happened/what was happening at the time.

She did not know the address, which...if she made her own dates, how did she not know the address? Did Brewer give verbal directions on how to get there? If she didn't want to share certain information because she was a sw, I can understand that. I don't understand why she didn't give her phone number, though.

The withholding of the address was a problem. She didn't know exactly where she was, and couldn't tell 911. JB and MP were not helping in that regard, probably to protect themselves. JB probably just wanted her out, and MP to take her to a hospital, etc. so that he wasn't involved. But, she didn't trust MP, anyway.

She was scared of going outside the house, probably because she knew she would get lost...she didn't know where she was, and did not trust MP. I don't think she would have trusted any vehicle to take her anywhere, at that point, unless it was official. But, she also wouldn't want to get in trouble for being a sw at times, I'm guessing. But, she must have had to weigh (even if in a less than ideal state) what was more important: help, or getting in trouble for being a sw.

After her interactions with JB and MP, which, we can not tell what type of physical treatment toward her might have taken place during the phone call, due to Shannan not verbalizing things like she was being shoved, dragged, etc. I think it's pretty clear though that she was handled in a less than nice way at least once during the call.

I don't think she trusted GC, whether she had a basis for that, or not, she didn't stay there long.

And, finally, while in that state, at no time did she try to go hide and call AD, who was supposed to be her boyfriend. I think that in itself shows me that she did not trust him or think he would help her when she was in danger. It doesn't seem like she had anyone she could call who she felt she could trust, ultimately, besides 911. All IMO.

 

[White_Rabbit]

Shannan did not want to leave the house.

May 1, 2010 5:01 AM Shannan Gilbert: Something's gonna happen to me.
May 1, 2010 5:01 AM Michael Pak: Uh There's nobody outside. You're okay alright.

Touching back on the theory regarding Joseph Ruiz, do we know how many cell phones Shannan carried with her, and whether or not they were all recovered, and the messages analyzed?

The reason that I ask is because maybe Shannan received a text message or a voice mail after 4:00 AM that contained either a threat or something that gave her a clue that she might be in imminent danger, which caused her to panic, and also kept the reason for her panicked state hidden from Joseph Brewer and Michael Pak, or at the very least Joseph Brewer.

Shannan may have felt that an assailant could have been right outside laying in wait.

I still believe that Joseph Brewer may have become enraged when she refused to leave, and possibly choked her at one point hence the damage to her hyoid.

Perhaps she was hoping someone trustworthy (through 911) would trace the call and find her there, and take her home. She asked 911, was basically told no.

911 must have had caller ID in 2010, but perhaps Shannan kept her cell phone caller ID private. If Shannan had been able to call from a land line with caller ID unblocked, 911 may have been able to cross reference the phone number to an address through the phone company database. Though I don't believe 911 had the capability to triangulate the position of a cell phone at that time, they most likely could have determined the tower that the cell phone had connected through.

She did not know the address, which...if she made her own dates, how did she not know the address? Did Brewer give verbal directions on how to get there?

Joseph Brewer must have given the address verbally, which Shannan then relayed to Michael Pak to input into his GPS.

She was scared of going outside the house, probably because she knew she would get lost...she didn't know where she was, and did not trust MP. I don't think she would have trusted any vehicle to take her anywhere, at that point, unless it was official.

As stated above, some type of communication must have been received by Shannan after 4:00 AM that lead her to believe she was in imminent danger from an assailant that she believed could be right outside the house.

I think it's pretty clear though that she was handled in a less than nice way at least once during the call.

I completely agree with that statement.

I don't think she trusted GC, whether she had a basis for that, or not, she didn't stay there long.

It could be that Shannan wasn't in the frame of mind at the time to trust any man, and that a woman such as Gus Coletti's wife or Barbara Brennan would have put her more at ease.

And, finally, while in that state, at no time did she try to go hide and call AD, who was supposed to be her boyfriend. I think that in itself shows me that she did not trust him or think he would help her when she was in danger. It doesn't seem like she had anyone she could call who she felt she could trust, ultimately, besides 911. All IMO.

Going back to the theory regarding Joseph Ruis it's possible that since both Michael Pak and Alex Diaz were familiar with him Shannan didn't feel like she could trust either one.

 

[PreciousDust]

My ears are next to worthless, I'm jealous of people with acute hearing, like those here who have done transcript work on this. But I see somewhere on the wild wonderland web the stated opinion that, at 17 minutes, Shannan screams, then you hear someone scream "Mike". To that writer, there's a discernible edit there, perhaps editing out something additional from the person who screamed "Mike". I hope that makes sense, and I don't know if there's anything there; it's difficult for me to even listen past the first couple of minutes, so it's not me making the claim.

Ray's presser tomorrow might well be about how he feels Shannan met foul play, how the police and the public should do this and that, etc. But I hope he addresses the call itself. Does it exactly match the one provided to him by law enforcement by court order? If so, does he have any reason to feel the call has been adulterated in any way?

 

[sunshineray]

Thank you, @White_Rabbit, for taking the time to do this, and thanks @DetectiveB @sunshineray and @Jes8614 for adding, too, and adding what you personally hear, or offering alternate dialogue. I think it's important, some people might hear something others don't, have better hearing for a particular range (low voices/high voices), etc.

I'll come back later, trying to distract myself today and get some things done, it's how I deal/compartmentalize. I'm sure others get it. Listening to it can be traumatizing, and if you have PTSD as I do, or domestic violence trauma, please take care of yourself and take breaks.

The overarching theme, aside from dialogue, I have been thinking of since yesterday are these points:

Shannan did not want to leave the house. Perhaps she was hoping someone trustworthy (through 911) would trace the call and find her there, and take her home. She asked 911, was basically told no. She was not completely out of her mind, she was oriented to time and space, knew roughly where she was, knew her name, she was just unresponsive at times. She stayed on the phone, who knows when she had her phone in her pocket or hidden. At times she may have forgotten she was on the phone with 911, or didn't think they would help/give her what she needed (a call location trace). Regardless, the phone was kept on, and we got to hear interactions (though muddled). Just wish she would have stated to 911 what had happened/what was happening at the time.

She did not know the address, which...if she made her own dates, how did she not know the address? Did Brewer give verbal directions on how to get there? If she didn't want to share certain information because she was a sw, I can understand that. I don't understand why she didn't give her phone number, though.

The withholding of the address was a problem. She didn't know exactly where she was, and couldn't tell 911. JB and MP were not helping in that regard, probably to protect themselves. JB probably just wanted her out, and MP to take her to a hospital, etc. so that he wasn't involved. But, she didn't trust MP, anyway.

She was scared of going outside the house, probably because she knew she would get lost...she didn't know where she was, and did not trust MP. I don't think she would have trusted any vehicle to take her anywhere, at that point, unless it was official. But, she also wouldn't want to get in trouble for being a sw at times, I'm guessing. But, she must have had to weigh (even if in a less than ideal state) what was more important: help, or getting in trouble for being a sw.

After her interactions with JB and MP, which, we can not tell what type of physical treatment toward her might have taken place during the phone call, due to Shannan not verbalizing things like she was being shoved, dragged, etc. I think it's pretty clear though that she was handled in a less than nice way at least once during the call.

I don't think she trusted GC, whether she had a basis for that, or not, she didn't stay there long.

And, finally, while in that state, at no time did she try to go hide and call AD, who was supposed to be her boyfriend. I think that in itself shows me that she did not trust him or think he would help her when she was in danger. It doesn't seem like she had anyone she could call who she felt she could trust, ultimately, besides 911. All IMO.

I think the big thing was she didn't trust her driver but yet she was almost pleading with him not to leave the house, not to leave her alone there. She was definitely frightened, no hiding that in her screams and then when she bolted.

 

[White_Rabbit]

I think the big thing was she didn't trust her driver but yet she was almost pleading with him not to leave the house, not to leave her alone there. She was definitely frightened, no hiding that in her screams and then when she bolted.

I didn’t think of that contradiction until reading this post. Shannan implies that Michael Pak is part of a plot to kill her, and at the same time doesn’t want him to leave her. It seems like she felt safe with him as long as they didn’t leave the house. She at different times asks both Joseph Brewer and Michael Pak to close the door, indicating to me that she is afraid of what could be outside.

 

[3Patriots]

I didn’t think of that contradiction until reading this post. Shannan implies that Michael Pak is part of a plot to kill her, and at the same time doesn’t want him to leave her. It seems like she felt safe with him as long as they didn’t leave the house. She at different times asks both Joseph Brewer and Michael Pak to close the door, indicating to me that she is afraid of what could be outside.

I just posted the same thought in Possible Victim Shannan Gilbert #2