By Mike Morrison, Florida Times-Union
Brunswick, Fla. — A Glynn-Brunswick 9-1-1 Center crew on duty when the frantic call came in reporting a gruesome mass slaying has been named the Communications Team of the Year by the Georgia Emergency Communications Conference.

Crew members Louis Barth, Beverly Fredrick, Jamie McCumbers, Hannah Morin, Kathleen Light and Leann Viola were manning the phones on Aug. 29, 2009, when Guy Heinze Jr. reported finding seven family members and a friend beaten to death in a New Hope Plantation Mobile Home Park in northern Glynn County.

The sole survivor was a 3-year-old boy.

The crew, which received the award Sept. 15, will be recognized for the achievement by the Glynn County Commission during its regular monthly meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Historic Courthouse.

Despite the horrific nature of the call, crew members remained calm and professional as they talked with Heinze, who was later charged with eight counts of murder, said 9-1-1 Director David O’Neal.

“It was a bad event, unfortunately,” O’Neal said, “but the team drew on their training and experience to get through it. They remained calm, they worked together and they coordinated with the police and fire departments as they responded to the call. It was a very stressful event.”

Glynn County public information officer Candice Temple said two calls came in to the 911 center. Viola answered one from a neighbor of the mobile home where the crime occurred. The neighbor put Heinze on the line, Temple said.

Barth took the second call, Temple said, from an on-site handyman.

While only two of the crew actually took calls from the scene, the other four were heavily involved in the process, Temple said.

“What people may not realize is that there were other conversations going on in the room,” she said. “The whole team was working to facilitate and assist public safety resources that were responding. Without the whole team, they would not have been able to remain so calm.”

Heinze, 23, is jailed without bail awaiting trial. He faces the death penalty if found guilty of even one of the slayings.

Times-Union writer Teresa Stepzinski contributed to this report.

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