Dr Lina Bolanos called 911 before being killed. Photo / Supplied
Dr Lina Bolanos called 911 before being killed. Photo / Supplied
It was Dr Lina Bolanos' last desperate attempt to save her life.
Inside their Boston penthouse, Dr Bolanos and her fiance Dr Richard Field where being brutally attacked.
Somehow she managed to dial emergency services but her voice came out muffled, and when she was unable to respond to repeatedquestions, the operator said she was "releasing the call" and hung up, news.com.au reports.
The final desperate call was heard by the jury this week during the trial of the man charged with the couple's murders, Bampumim Teixeira, 20. He has pleaded not guilty.
When police arrived at the home of the well-known anaesthesiologists in May 2017, they shot the alleged attacker Teixeira, who they believed had a gun. He was wounded but alive.
As the officers continued to make their way inside, they found the bodies of Dr Field, 49, and Dr Bolanos, 38, in a pool of their own blood. She had been stabbed to death.
"That was Lina's voice," Dr Bolanos' godmother Amanda Gibbs confirmed on the witness stand during Teixeira's double-murder trial after listening to the 911 call, WBZ reported.
Bampumim Teixeira has pleaded not guilty. Photo / Supplied
According to the publication, Dr Bolanos' voice came out muffled, and when she was unable to respond to repeated questions, the operator said she was "releasing the call" and hung up.
"(Field was found) dead in a pool of his own blood. His hands bound behind his back with handcuffs," state prosecutor John Pappas said in the trial last week, according to WCVB. "Lina Bolanos was also in a pool of her blood after having been stabbed repeatedly in the neck."
However, defence lawyer Steven Sack said: "No credible evidence will tell you that Bampumim Teixeira broke into the home of Lina Bolanos and Richard Field and murdered them, and that's because he didn't."
CHILLING TEXT
According to Matthias Heidenreich, a friend of Dr Field, who testified in the first days of the double-murder trial, Dr Field sent him a text pleading for help.
"I was confused for the first minutes," Mr Heidenreich said. "I did not realise what (the text) means, wasn't sure what it is."
In the texts, Dr Field tried to ask Mr Heidenreich to call 911 because an armed man was in his home.
A series of eight text messages were sent around 7.30pm on May 5, 2017, while Mr Heidenreich was walking to a local chemist, according to the Boston Herald.
"Call 111," read the first – an apparent reference to 911 – then "Gun man," then "in house". Five more texts followed, ending with a single word: "Serious".
After becoming worried, Mr Heidenreich said he "decided to text Richard back".
When he didn't get a response, Mr Heidenreich called the concierge of the luxury Macallen Building to alert him about the texts before he and his fiance jumped in an Uber and headed to the location.
When they arrived they heard gun shots and police, who had gone to the scene after a series of silent 911 calls and hang-ups from the victims' penthouse, according to the publication.
Under cross-examination from Mr Sack on Friday, building manager Christopher Mullen said there were no cameras in the halls, and the building's surveillance video sometimes had the wrong time stamp on it. Mr Sack claimed in his opening on Thursday there was no evidence Teixeira broke into the penthouse.
"Although the why to this story may never be fully explained to your satisfaction, the who will absolutely never be in doubt," Mr Pappas said.
Dr Field worked at Boston's North Shore Pain Management clinic, and Dr Bolanos, an anaesthesia instructor at Harvard Medical School, was a paediatric anaesthesiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
At the time of the murders, the infirmary released a statement from the hospital's CEO John Fernandez, who said: "Dr Bolanos was an outstanding paediatric anaesthesiologist and a wonderful colleague, in the prime of both her career and life."
Dr Sunil Eappen, chief medical officer and chief of anaesthesia at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, said in a statement on the hospital's website that he first met Dr Bolanos when she was a young researcher.
"We have worked together since 2011, except for a short break when she moved to
"I watched her mature and blossom from a young medical school graduate to a fabulous experienced paediatric anaesthesiologist."
Dr Eappen said she performed her job with both great skill and compassion.
Revelations the couple knew their alleged killer sparked sordid rumours about the motive, with some speculating Dr Field was involved in the illegal distribution of drug prescriptions and may have been killed after he refused a request from Teixeira.
Others wondered if there was a sexual element to the murders, perhaps a love triangle gone wrong.
