The 911 answering service for Thurston County on Thursday released audio of the 911 call made by a Lacey woman before she was buried alive by her estranged husband last month.
According to probable cause documents, the woman said she had been arguing with her husband on Oct. 16 at their home about an impending divorce and money.
The victim said her husband, Chae Kyong An, attacked her in their bedroom, punching her in the head multiple times and throwing her to the ground.
She said Chae tied her arms behind her back with duct tape and taped over her eyes, thighs and ankles.
The victim said that when Chae left the room momentarily, she was able to contact 911 with her Apple watch.
She said she could hear the 911 dispatcher talking but couldn’t communicate because of the duct tape over her mouth.
The victim said her husband then dragged her body down the hallway and the stairs to the front of the garage door.
When Chae realized the victim had the Apple watch on, he smashed it with a hammer, striking her wrists as well.
She said she was thrown in a van, where she was driven around for a while.
The victim said she was taken out of the van and put on the ground, where she could hear Chae digging in the dirt.
She said he stabbed her in the chest with a sharp object.
She recalled being dragged on the ground again and put into a hole in the ground, where Chae put a heavy tree on top of her and started to bury her in dirt.
The victim said she could wriggle around to prevent the dirt from being in her face, but she had difficulty breathing.
She said she was in the grave for a few hours, and when it was dark, she could wriggle her body to get the tape off her arms and legs.
Shortly before 1 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 17, a 911 caller said an unknown woman had shown up on her porch, screaming and crying that her husband was trying to kill her.
When the deputy arrived, the 911 caller told the deputy that the woman was hiding behind a shed on their property.
Law enforcement later found where she had been buried, west of Rainier Road and south of Steadman Road. They found the hole and duct tape among the loose dirt.
At 7:38 a.m., a citizen walking on a trail found Chae’s vehicle in the woods about 200 yards off Stedman Road. Thurston County deputies and Lacey officers quickly arrived and found the vehicle.
Chae was taken into custody at 8:02 a.m. Lacey police said that after he was medically cleared to go to jail, he would be booked on multiple felony domestic violence charges.