911 CALLS TELL AWFUL TALE OF KILLING SPREE.

Byline: Josh Kleinbaum Staff Writer

A 14-year-old girl begs for help for her dying mother. A man sees dead bodies lying on his neighbor's front yard and cries for help. A husband begins a desperate car race, a futile attempt to save his wife's life.

Tapes of seven 911 telephone calls, released by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department on Thursday, offer a chilling look into the terror Toby Whelchel caused last week in a murderous two-day rampage across east Ventura County.

Whelchel killed three people and put four others in the hospital on May 30 and 31 before killing himself.

``Please come here before my mom dies,'' begged Kristen Nordella, 14, in one of the tapes' most disturbing moments. Nordella's mother, Carole, died several hours later, the third victim in Whelchel's rampage.

About 8:13 a.m. on May 31, Sheriff's Department dispatchers received two calls, one from the Nordella house and one from Nordella's oldest daughter, Jamie, on a cell phone.

In the house, Kristen and Kevin Brown, the family's pool boy, were hunkered over Carole Nordella's body, telling police that a man broke in and assaulted them.

``There's blood everywhere,'' Kristen said. ``Please hurry.''

At the time, Jamie was in a car with her father, Jeffrey Nordella, who happened to be on the phone with Carole when Whelchel attacked her.

Jeffrey raced toward the house while Jamie talked to the 911 dispatcher. Jeffrey Nordella frequently honked on his horn, trying to navigate through traffic.

When they pulled up to the family home, he saw Whelchel leaving in a car.

``Hold it. Is that him?'' Jeffrey Nordella asked.

Jamie Nordella got out of the car, weeping into the cell phone while she ran to a neighbor's house and her father chased Whelchel. By the time Jeffrey Nordella turned around and came home, more than 15 minutes after the initial 911 call, his wife was dying and no ambulance had arrived.

``Get a rescue unit, goddammit,'' he yelled at a 911 dispatcher. ``These people are hurt!''

Eric Nishimoto, spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, said it was an ``incredibly complex'' response because Whelchel shot a deputy while fleeing from the house, touching off a car chase.

``The way it's been described to me, everything that could have happened, happened,'' Nishimoto said. ``It was just one tragic event after tragic event.''

Whelchel began his rampage in Thousand Oaks on May 30 when he killed Steve Mazin and Janice Heyne on Mazin's front lawn. He also shot Heyne's husband, Tim, four times. About 4:05 p.m., three of Mazin's neighbors called 911.

``There's a lady down in front yard!'' a woman cried to a 911 dispatcher. ``Oh my God! Get here quick!''

``Oh, he's dead, oh, God,'' a man said.

``Just come. Please come,'' another woman said, her soft voice wavering. ``Hurry. Please. Please come.''

Josh Kleinbaum, [phone]

josh.kleinbaum(at)dailynews.com

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