Witnesses who saw woman get crushed by tree in storm couldn’t reach Missouri cops

A 33-year-old woman was killed July 1 after a storm caused a tree to fall on her car as she sat idle inside, St. Louis police said.

Witnesses saw Katherine Coen, who was identified by authorities July 3, waiting out the storm in her Kia Optima as it bombarded the metro area, KSDK reported. Helen Petty, a witness who arrived at the scene following the incident, told KSDK there was a man waiting in his own car nearby who attempted to help Coen.

“She was responsive and they tried calling 911 repeatedly for over 30 minutes, and finally another neighbor came out who knows a county firefighter, called him to have him call somebody in the city to try to get somebody to get through just to let them know that this woman is trapped in her car,” Petty told the news outlet.

Interim Director of Public Safety Charles Coyle announced during a news conference that the department is investigating why and how during the two hours dispatchers were so flooded with a call load, callers — including witnesses on the scene with Coen — couldn’t get through.

“From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m Saturday, you guys know we had a storm, a difficult storm, the region was impacted with this storm,” Coyle said in a video of the news conference. “We received 1,076 calls in two hours — that’s a lot of calls for emergencies. Our normal call load for this date at this time last year was 457 and in 2021 it was 386.”

Coyle said dispatchers were dealing with nine calls per minute during this time, and they were doing all they could to aid those who could get through.

Police received the call at about 4:40 p.m. and arrived on the scene seven minutes later, but Coen was already dead, KSDK reported.

Coen, who had recently moved into the area earlier this year, was remembered fondly by her family, including her father James, who said she was a “wonderful person,” according to KSDK.

It was Coen’s twin sister who phoned her dad to let her know she had been killed.

“She was hysterical. I told my daughter to calm down ... I can’t understand you. She then slowed down and said ‘My sister’s dead.’ Neighbors tried to help. Obviously, the tree was massive, just tons and tons. I heard that tree was 120 years old,” her father told the news outlet.’

Her older sister Stephanie told St. Louis Today that Coen had a wonderful sense of humor, and she seemed to know everyone.

“I just love how funny she was,” she told the news outlet.

Authorities are asking for the public’s help and for callers who attempted to get through July 1 during the storm to reach out to them so authorities can trace those specific calls.

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