March 8-12, 2010

This has been a week of crazy stories.

March 8th, 2010:
This story made me so mad. When I got to work, I was told about this woman who shook a baby with such force that doctors thought she might be blind. On this day I got to go see Kami Tollefson in person as she sat before a judge. When she walked into the court room she was hiding behind her family, but then I sat behind her and I know it made her uncomfortable. Tollefson is facing 3 felony counts of child abuse, for abusing not only the child who almost went blind, but 2 others under the age of 2. One had a broken pelvis, another was strangled.

Left: The baby girl who suffered shaken baby syndrome and almost went blind.

Right: Kami Tollefson (in white) headed into court.




March 9th, 2010:

Josh Powell and his alleged trip to a strip club the day his wife disappeared. For 3 months now I have covered every angle of this story. From the day 28-year-old Susan Powell went missing, to all of the searches, services projects, and vigils in between. After 3 months and still no sign of Susan it seemed like the story was starting to fall asleep. Police had named Josh Powell the only person of interest in her disappearance, but the guy is so weird and quiet, police have not been able to pin anything on him. All he is saying at this point is that he took his 2 young boys camping at midnight in a snow storm the night his wife suddenly vanished (yeah right). Anyway, back to Monday. So my buddy Andrew Adams broke a story about several people in the Duces Wild strip club who reported to police that they saw Josh Powell in their club the day his wife disappeared, when he was supposedly supposed to be camping. I then had the awesome job of going to police about their claims. Police said they did follow up on the reports, but because there were no pictures, eyewitness accounts couldn't be trusted. So, once again, nothing on Josh Powell.

March 10th: WVC Murder
On Wednesday during the morning show we notice that one of the other stations had a breaking news story about a suspicious death in West Valley City. So after my last live hit, I jump in a photographers car and we head out there. When we get to the scene, there is one cop car, and crime tape around the stair case of the building. That's it. So at first I start talking to neighbors and no one knows what happened. They all saw police at the apartment complex the night before, but no one really knew why. So as I am sitting in the truck waiting for police to call me back a guy taps on my window. He's a little scary looking, but nice too. So I roll down my window and he tells me he is the uncle of the man who killed the woman in the apartment. My jaw dropped. I said excuse me? He then proceeded to tell me that his nephew had called the day before and said he had killed her. So the uncle went to the apartment to check on her, and when she didn't answer, he called police. They later entered the apartment and found her beaten to death. Anyway, not wanting to scare this guy away, I ask him if he would tell me all of this on camera. He says yes. SCORE! I then jump out and for the next 15 minutes he tells me all about this guy, his criminal history, his violent past, and about the woman he just killed. I couldn't have asked for a better interview. This guy was nice, and composed, yet rough. He himself was an ex-con and was trying to get his life back together.

Amway, I touched base with police and they confirmed everything the murder suspects uncle told me. They also informed me that they had arrested the nephew on homicide. I was the first to know, so I got to break the news. Got to love that!

March 11, 2010:
Midvale Police and Joint Criminal Apprehension Team officers arrest a wanted fugitive.
He had slipped though their fingers once, but this time they got him. he was wanted for burglary.
March 12, 2010:
TRAX Train crushes a car, killing 2 people and critically injuring 2 others. This story was so sad to report. The 21-year-old driver of the vehicle made the decision to drive around the crossing arm while it was down warning that a train was coming. As soon as he got onto the tracks, the train came at 55mph and t-boned the car. The driver was instantly killed, the 18-year-old passenger behind him was killed, and 2 others on the right side of the car were critically injured. The female passenger almost didn't make it, but somehow survived. What's even more sad, is that these young adults were all strangers to each other. They were in SLC for a training conference with KFC. They were training to be shift managers at their local stores. They were going from one KFC to another to observe how the shifts were run. Now, because of one bad decision, the lives of these 4 people are changed forever, their families are now grieving, their friends, and fellow employees are devastated, and for what? To save 30 seconds. No matter how you look at it, it is just sad.

I also got an email from a man in Georgia about this story. He told me he was going to use it for his youth group. I thought about it, and I see the bigger message with it now. How many times in our lives do we ignore the warning signs, the flashing lights, or the horn telling us to stop. Everyday people are faced with choices, and how many look for these signs.