San Antonio police Chief William McManus admitted on Tuesday to "unfortunate errors" made while handling calls hours before officers found a woman raped and murdered early Friday morning.
McManus explained that a caller reported a disturbance overnight at 835 Menchaca St., but that the call taker recorded the address as 1135 Menchaca St. The incorrect address was passed on to the dispatcher, who in turn sent officers to the wrong home.
"The initial error was dispatching to 1135 as opposed to 835," McManus said. "The officers were sidetracked from that."
Police received another report shortly after about a possible assault at nearby Elmendorf and Micklejohn. McManus said officers heard screaming from a home, were let inside by a woman and found a man flushing drugs down the toilet.
Because of the proximity of the two reports, McManus said officers mistakenly thought they were one in the same.
"Coincidentally another situation happened just shortly after that," he said. "They made an arrest at that location for narcotics but there was no assault."
It wasn't until 6 a.m. Friday when officer discovered the body of 45-year-old Lisa Bermea in an alley off Micklejohn Street. Police said her clothes were found a block away on the sidewalk in front of her grandmother's house on Menchaca Street.
Since the error was realized, McManus said the department is looking to change standard operating policies that would require call takers to keep callers on the phone until police arrive.
No arrests have been made in the Bermea murder.
