Boy’s Almost Calm 911 Call Belies Horror

A dramatic call for help by a 15-year-old boy served as a grim transcript Friday of the final moments of a Camarillo couple whose seemingly idyllic suburban world was shattered in a blaze of rifle fire.

Officials said the emergency 911 call from the son of Ronald and Elsa Salinas Vicinsky provided police with a detailed account of how the boy’s mother was shot to death by her husband and how he then killed himself.

Also, authorities said Friday, Ronald Vicinsky had left a videotaped suicide note saying goodby to relatives.

Ronald and Elsa Vicinsky, both 38, were fatally shot in their residence Thursday night in an apparent murder-suicide reported by Ronald Vicinsky’s stepson, Daniel Sandridge, in almost calm tones in his emergency call.

The call came in to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department at 5:25 p.m. Thursday after Daniel had heard his mother’s screams. The boy stayed on the telephone with a dispatcher and later a deputy sheriff as Daniel’s stepfather opened the boy’s bedroom door.

“What’s wrong with my mom?” Daniel asked his stepfather, according to the 911 recording.

The tape reveals the muffled sounds of a man’s voice and then Daniel relaying the message to the dispatcher: “My stepfather just said he shot my mom. He’s got blood on his leg and it looks like he shot her.”

Daniel continued his conversation with a description of how his stepfather then proceeded out the house, where he put the .22-caliber rifle to his head.

“Don’t do it!” the 911 tape recorded Daniel shouting to his stepfather. Then to the deputy: “Dad’s going to shoot himself in the head.”

Daniel turned back to his stepfather.

“Don’t do it. I love you, I want you here. Don’t do it, Ron. Please don’t do it.”

After more exchanges with the dispatcher, Daniel’s voice became stern as he talked to his stepfather again:

“You better not shoot yourself. You’re going to have a little girl who doesn’t have a father.”

Daniel was referring to his 8-year-old half sister, Jennifer Vicinsky, the daughter of his mother and Ronald Vicinsky, who had been married nine years. Daniel’s call for help brought deputies’ cars, ambulances and paramedic trucks screaming up a Camarillo hillside to the family residence on Jeffrey Road.

Paramedics, who left plastic breathing tubes and other medical paraphernalia outside the house in their rush, whisked the wounded couple off to Pleasant Valley Hospital, but it was already too late.

Elsa Vicinsky, who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to her neck, stomach and legs, died at 5:59 p.m., shortly after her arrival at the hospital, deputy coroner’s investigators said.

Ronald Vicinsky, who had suffered one rifle shot to the head, lived until 7:19 p.m.

Police blamed the killings on domestic problems, but Detective Michael Barnes, who heads the investigation for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, said he did not know whether there was a history of domestic violence in the family.

In Ronald Vicinsky’s videotaped suicide message, he said he was depressed over marital problems and intended to kill himself, said Jim Wingate, deputy coroner’s investigator. Ronald Vicinsky did not mention his wife or that he had any intentions of harming her.

Barnes, whose case was nearly closed by late Friday, said he had interviewed Daniel at great length and friends of the Vicinskys who spoke of the couple’s marital problems. But Barnes said he had no idea of what specifically triggered the Thursday night violence.

Neighbors said the Vicinskys were a quiet family who kept to themselves. Jon Patterson, a 20-year-old next-door neighbor, said he saw Daniel riding his bike to and from school. The two would exchange an occasional greeting. But Patterson didn’t even know the family had an 8-year-old girl.

The Vicinskys lived in an upscale neighborhood and both held jobs at Unisys, a defense industry contractor in Camarillo. They also ran a wedding videotape business out of their house that was called Love Memories.

Acquaintances at Unisys described them as hard-working people. Unisys employees were shocked to hear the news of the shootings, said Robert Provenzano, the company’s director of human resources.

“It’s tragic,” Provenzano said. “They appeared to be a normal working couple. I saw them at lunch and they drove to work together and left together.”

Elsa Vicinsky worked as a secretary for the company for six years. Her husband worked in another building on the company’s 500-employee campus as a systems designer who specialized in defense-training programs, Provenzano said.

Elsa was much more extroverted than her husband, Provenzano said.

“She was the ebullient one,” he said.

Ronald Vicinsky was a good worker “who minded his own business and appeared to be studious,” Provenzano added.

Provenzano said he had attended two weddings that Ronald Vicinsky videotaped in his spare time on weekends. Vicinsky opened Love Memories in May, 1985, according to business license records in Camarillo. He closed that business license in June, 1988, and reopened his license in February with Love Memories Video Introductions, a video dating service, Camarillo records show. Vicinsky, who was listed as the sole owner of the business, closed that operation July 5.

But he left a carved wooden heart hanging on his garage door that said “Love Memories,” with an arrow that pointed to the front of the house. The frame of the personalized license plate of the Vicinsky’s late-model Nissan Maxima wagon carried the company name and phone number.

Elisabeth Haenneberg, an administrative assistant who worked with Elsa at Unisys for three years, said she had been aware that the Vicinskys were having marital problems, but she said she was shocked to hear of shootings.

“She was always a happy person,” Haenneberg said. “She always was making jokes and laughing.”

Elsa Vicinsky had been attending night school and recently received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of La Verne in the northeast part of Los Angeles County, Haenneberg said. She was planning to attend California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks and work toward her master’s degree in psychology, Haenneberg said.

Elsa Vicinsky told Haenneberg that she was proud of Daniel’s artistic talents. She often posted his drawings of comic book-type characters on the walls of her office, Haenneberg said.

She also worked hard in her yard, a terraced and heavily landscaped half-acre with a patio overlooking eastern Camarillo and large pepper and eucalyptus trees that shade and hide the house. She would often return from the weekend talking about how much yardwork she had done over the weekend, Haenneberg said.

“It’s such a shame. It’s such a waste really,” Haenneberg said.

Stone-Pierce Brothers Mortuary in Upland was handling the funeral arrangements for Elsa Vicinsky. Her mother, Adela Salinas, took the Vicinskys’ daughter home with her to Upland, said Zelmira Issac, deputy coroner’s investigator.

McDermott-Crockett Mortuary in Santa Barbara was preparing the body of Ronald Vicinsky for shipment to Pleasant Hills, Penn., a mortuary assistant said.

Daniel Sandridge’s father, also named Daniel Sandridge, picked his son up at the Vicinsky home late Thursday night. The Sandridges returned to the father’s residence in Ontario.