I woke up this morning at 3 a.m. to get to work by 4 to fill in for Nicole on the Sunrise shift. Around midnight last night an off duty Sheriff's Deputy out of Boone county shot and killed a 55 year old woman in Nicholas county, an area about half way between Lexington and Cincinnati, give or take.
I got what information I could from a vague press release and my producer. Victor and I got out the door by 4:30 to get to Harrison county where it was reported they took the Deputy, who was not arrested. I did a report by phone at 5. By 5:15 all hell broke lose at the station, and they were unable to run any video during the show, so I called back in at 5:25 with another phoner. Because of the technical problems back at the station they were unable to tune in our liveshot, so I did yet another report at 5:30 by phone and we left Harrison county and headed over to Nicholas county and the crime scene.
On the 30 minute drive over to rural Nicholas county, I got a call from the victim's family with information from them on what happened. I also tried to set up an interview, but the victim's son was very upset about what happened to his Mom that I would have to work on convincing him to talk later.
We got to the scene around 6, when I got a call from WLWT, our sister station in Cincinnati asking for information. I quickly hung up on them, and called back into my station for my 6 report. After, I called back to Cincinnati and arranged to do a phone interview with them at 6:45. By 7 I did a final report for my station, a 5 minute report for WLWT and was done. It was time to get more information for the afternoon shows.
I called over the Kentucky State Police post that was handling the investigation to find out who could give information, because none of them were. We itinially got everything from the Nicholas county sheriff who was not handling the investigation, but knew what happened. The Public Affairs Officer was off for the week and the post commander had just arrived for the day. They gave me the name of the lead detective who they said would be coming back down to the scene shortly. It was the best I could do at 7 a.m. so Victor my photographer and I left the farm with the police tape and headed into town to see if we could find anyone there to talk.
We stopped at a hole in the wall diner in Carlisle's town square to go to the bathroom and see if anyone there had any information. I was the only woman in there, except for the three women working behind the counter. I'm surprised they let me in. It was like stepping back into 1960. As much as I'm sure they were gossiping, the men wouldn't tell us anything. We headed back to the scene, where the "competition" in town, WKYT, was. I talked to a neighbor who knew nothing, then tried to knock on another neighbors door who surprisingly did not answer at 8 in the morning. Luckily the son and his wife showed up to their mom's house.
I walked over, where KSP detectives were leaving the house. I got a rude greeting from one of the detectives who told me to stop reporting incorrect information, even though I didn't. I told him that and asked if had information to tell me and he just got in his car and slammed the door shut. Luckily, his partner was nice. He told me he didn't know much and he would find someone to talk. I hate getting yelled at for things I have no control over. I want to be reporting the details of what happens at these tragic murders and fires and car accidents less than the police want me to. I wish they would just understand that.
Once the detectives left I asked the victim's son if he had any pictures of his mother that we could get video of. By this time, WKYT came down and asked for the same. I convinced the victim's son and his wife to go on camera about their version of what happened, because they too were not happy with our report (as a side note, we had 99 percent of the details correct. I think there was one minor thing wrong, but it was pretty close to what police confirmed happened). It turned out to be a good interview. The son was understandably very upset about the mornings events and his wife was calm and gave details they heard from a friend who was there when it happened.
Once that was done, all the management was in the newsroom in Lexington. I was asked to cut two separate packages, one for 12 and 12:30 and go live at the top of both shows. While I logged my sound Victor worked to get the live truck in a spot where we could hit. After three tries, we got locked in.
KSP then confirmed that no one would be coming out to the scene to talk so if we wanted something on camera we'd have to head to their post in Dry Ridge, a good 40 minutes away. Luckily, when it comes to news, getting "official" sound from police on camera is not important when you have an interview with someone affected personally. I put a call into the Lieutenant at the post and waited for a call back while I logged my interview and wrote the two packages.
Around 11, KSP called back and confirmed everything. I'm thankful to the Lieutenant they put in charge of confirming details. He was very friendly, understanding and helpful with whatever I needed. All I want is to get the correct information and I can only do that if the people in charge give that out. If they don't talk, then it's a crap shoot what you'll find out. Getting information confirmed nearly 12 hours after the shooting happened made most of the morning a crap shoot.
I am also grateful I went to bed at 8:30 and got about 7 hours of sleep to make it through the day with my head on straight.
Victor and I fed our stories back at least a half hour before the noon show. I had live hits at 12 and 12:30, we broke down in record time then headed back. We made a stop at Subway to get food and got out of the station around 2:30, 10 and half hours after we showed up.
Though this type of things doesn't happen everyday, it will happen at least a few times a month. I feel good about today. I was happy with the work I did. I was happy with the way I wrote both stories. I was glad to do reports for the Cincinnati stations. Unfortunately, when I was in Evansville that was not something I got to experience. Many other reporters in the market were able to do different reports for affiliates and CNN, but my former station did not have the technology like a satellite truck and a way to feed stories for other stations that requested it.
I just hope tomorrow is calm, goes quick and I can start my two and half day break for the New Year holiday!
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