911 call captures fatal domestic dispute

BLOOM TOWNSHIP — What started as a call from a terrified 12-year-old saying her father was attacking her mother ended up with her father dead and her mother arrested.

A tearful 17-minute 911 call relayed second-to-second details about a domestic violence incident between her parents was released Tuesday by the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office.

The call begins with the 12-year-old saying her father, 42-year-old Daniel Luke, was holding her mother, Angela Luke, down and hurting her inside their Alspach Road home.

"He's pinning her to my bed and he's making marks on my mom, and he's like, and he's not letting her through or anything," the girl said through various bouts of tears and screams for help and for her father to stop.

"My dad is choking my mom. ... Get off! Get off!"

About 10 minutes later, when the girl, her 9-year-old sister and her mother try to leave the house, the 12-year-old girl screams and tells the 911 dispatcher that her mother had just ran over her father, but "not on purpose."

At first, the girl thought her dad was dead, but realized after neighbors had come to help them that he was alive but bleeding badly. Daniel Luke died shortly after he was taken to Diley Ridge Medical Center.

A 911 call dispatcher tried telling the girl to keep away from her fighting parents and asked her questions about their relationship.

"This has never happened before," the girl said.

The sheriff's office records clerk confirmed there are no prior sheriff's report to the Lukes' address.

The dispatcher asked again whether her father had ever been violent before. The girl responded saying: "They've been fighting for a long time, but he's never took it this far."

She also said her father had been drinking.

The girl announced three times that they were attempting to leave the house but were stopped each time. About 11 minutes into the call, she said they had successfully made it inside the car and away from her father. However, she said her father still wouldn't let go.

"He's holding on. Can you come really fast?" she asked the dispatcher.

Then you can hear the girl talking to her mother, saying, "Go fast mommy, go fast!"

Almost immediately after these words, the girl begins to scream that her father had been hit.

"He was holding on to the window and he fell right off," she said.

Angela Luke and her two daughters ran for help to a nearby neighbor. Deputies arrived at the home about 17 minutes after the girl called 911.

Evidence detectives collected from the Alspach Road home reveals some insight as to what led up to fatal driveway dispute.

Sheriff's office detectives combed the Lukes' home, 9905 Alspach Road, for evidence after the fatal encounter between the couple. Detectives removed a piece of a bed sheet that contained suspected blood from the Lukes' master bedroom, a suspected bloodied piece of a bed sheet in one of their children's bedrooms, and two cellphones — one from the master bedroom nightstand and another from the 2014 black BMW Angela Luke had been driving.

The car was impounded for collection of physical evidence, according to the report.

All of the collected evidence was revealed in a sheriff's office report that was released Tuesday.

The domestic dispute reportedly started at 8 p.m. Sunday and continued until 9:10 p.m.

When detectives interviewed Angela Luke, she reportedly confirmed that she had an altercation with her husband and was attempting to leave the home with her children, but he wouldn't let them. She said her husband was holding onto her car while she was driving away. She then heard a "thump" and got out of the vehicle to find her husband lying on the ground bleeding from his head, according to a probable cause affidavit for her arrest filed with Fairfield County Municipal Court.

Angela Luke was arrested hours later and taken to the Fairfield County Jail around 3 a.m. Monday. Third-degree felony charges of aggravated vehicular homicide and reckless homicide were filed against her hours later. Angela Luke pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday afternoon in Fairifeld County Municipal Court and was released on a $25,000 unsecured appearance bond, according to court records.

Before Luke's release from jail custody, she was required to provide photographs, fingerprints and a DNA sample to the sheriff's office.

Angela Luke is a second-grade teacher at Tussing Elementary School, where she has taught for at least 11 years. David Ball, public relations director of Pickerington Schools, said Angela Luke has been placed on unpaid suspension as a result of the charges, which Ball said is the district's standard procedure.

Angela Luke is required to report to the Fairfield County Common Pleas Court Community Control Department every seven days, maintain total sobriety and other bond requirements while the case is pending.

sroush@lancastereaglegazette.com

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Twitter: @SpencerRoushLEG