In a Contact 17 investigation, a Maricopa family told 17 News, they think a 911 dispatcher's error may have cost their mother her life.
Virginia Lucas, 59, was alone in her Maricopa home when she called 911. She was having trouble breathing.
It took fire crews an hour to find her and by the time they did, she was dead.
Now her family wants to know who's to blame and why rescuers didn't find their mother sooner.
Family members say Lucas had a lot of health problems, but they don't think she had to die Dec. 7.
"We have so many unanswered questions," said daughter Kelly Anderson. "We don't know what to do or where to go to get the answers we need."
Lucas used a cell phone to call for help. The call went to CHP, like most emergency cell phone calls do.
Lucus, struggling for breath, gave two different addresses, 422 Olive and 442 Olive.
The woman's actual location turned out to be 442 Olive Street in Maricopa. But when the dispatcher transferred the call to the Kern County Fire Department, she gave only them the 422 address.
"The call will be reviewed and if there are any type of training issues that surface, they will be addressed," said Stephen Loftus, a CHP dispatch supervisor.
Fire crews responded to 422 Olive, but no one there knew about a 911 call.
The house they were actually looking for, where Virginia Lucas lived, was just across the street.
"From the moment we were notified until arrival, well they had to break into the house so it took even longer, but it was almost an hour," said Kern County Deputy Fire Chief Michael Miller.
The family thinks that hour while crews searched for the right house, could have meant the difference between life and death.
"She didn't have to be by herself. I definitely think somebody needs to be held accountable for that," said Anderson.
Officials say it's a problem they're running into more and more as people get rid of their land line telephones.
"With the land line system we know where you are the moment you call and help is started right away. With cell phones, we're unable to narrow it down to exactly where you are, so it's dependent on the caller providing the exact location," said Deputy Chief Michael Miller.
But Lucas' family is at a loss, they want the dispatcher reprimanded or retrained, but they also recognize if Lucas had called from a landline, crews could have known her correct location right away.
They say whatever happens in the investigation, it won't give them their mother back. Lucas family says she had a history of asthma and other health problems.
