Orlando police review handling of 911 calls before murder-suicide

Orlando police review handling of 911 calls before murder-suicide
Willoughby Mariano Sentinel Staff Writer
March 25, 2009
Orlando police are investigating how a 911 dispatcher handled calls asking police to help a woman who was kidnapped and later found murdered, a department spokeswoman said Tuesday.

It took police almost four hours to find Loyta Sloley, 34, who called co-workers hours before her Jan. 27 death and told them that she was being held against her will by her ex-boyfriend. By the time police arrived, she was dead on the floor of a downtown Orlando hotel, shot at least four times by ex-boyfriend James Clayton, according to a police report.

Police found Clayton, 46, collapsed on top of Sloley, dead. He killed himself with a single gunshot wound to the head.

The internal investigation started after a complaint from within the department, said Sgt. Barbara Jones, an Orlando police spokeswoman. She said department policy prevented her from giving the name of the dispatcher and other details, but a police report shows there was a 16-minute delay before an officer was dispatched to find Sloley.


Attempts to reach Sloley's family by telephone were unsuccessful.

Clayton was arrested in March 1989 in Alachua County in the killing of his live-in girlfriend. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was released on probation after eight years, according to a police report.
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Orlando police review handling of 911 calls before murder-suicide