HEBRON — A lack of cell service in the region where 20-year-old Kaylin A. Gillis was fatally shot by a homeowner last weekend was a factor in her friends’ driving up the wrong driveway and also their efforts to reach a 911 dispatcher after she was wounded by the gunfire.
In the aftermath of the shooting, which has rocked the tight-knit Schuylerville community where Gillis was revered, the lack of cellular service in the rural region has emerged as an element in a tragic death that took place after a group of young friends lost their way in the hilly countryside. Kevin D. Monahan, 65, has been charged with second-degree murder and remains in custody after being denied bail Wednesday.
“This case does highlight the need for better cellular service,” Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy said. “I don’t know that that would have made a difference in this case, but it might in the next … in the fact that we have areas in this county where there’s absolutely no cell service, where we have difficulties using our police radios to communicate.”
Gillis and six friends — three of them in the vehicle in which she was a front-seat passenger, two more in a second vehicle and another on a motorcycle — mistakenly drove up Monahan’s unpaved driveway just before 10 p.m. that night as they searched for a friend’s house. That area of Washington County is roughly 19 miles northeast of the residence where Gillis lived with her family in neighboring Saratoga County.
The area is notorious for its poor cell service. The group, after realizing they were at the wrong house and without getting out of their vehicles, started turning around to leave as they struggled to connect with GPS on their phones to find the correct address, according to Murphy.
“I do know that it’s very limited cell service (in that) area; it works in one spot and then 10 feet away it…
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