More Info Released in Airport Death

The Phoenix (Ariz.) police department has released logging tapes of three phone calls that Noah Gotbaum made last month to a Sky Harbor airport dispatcher warning that his wife was suicidal at the airport. Carol Gotbaum had already been arrested by officers for creating a disturbance at a gate when she missed her flight. She also had already died in a holding cell from an as-yet undetermined cause. Noah Gotbaum called first at 4:39 p.m., 70 minutes after his wife was found unconscious. He called again at 5:27 p.m. and 6:01 p.m., growing more impatient with a lack of news from the dispatchers. According to the tapes, the handling police lieutenant was reluctant to speak directly to Gotbaum, and left the dispatcher to answer the husband’s pointed and urgent questions. Read more and listen to the recordings here, and then decide how you would handle such a caller.