It’s been over a year since I've posted here, thanks in part to having a baby, but now it’s time to again start sharing the behind the scenes stories of being a reporter in the field. Maybe it’s because I have heard a lot of discussion about journalists not expressing their feelings in their work lately or maybe it’s because this last week has been very emotional, but I think the viewing public should feel to an extent what a reporter goes through in the field when they are covering a story.
Over the last week I have reported on every little detail of the Powell tragedy. Last Sunday my husband and I were on our way to his parents’ house to watch the Superbowl when I received a breaking news text alert from KSL Newsradio, it read:
Explosion at the Josh Powell home in WA.
The bodies of 2 children found inside.
No other info yet. Update on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM & 1160 AM.
WHAT!!!
At that moment reporter Shara kicked in. We arrived at my in-laws and I immediately ran inside to turn on the breaking coverage. It was true, the worst crime I have ever seen committed was appearing in front of me on a television screen. Josh Powell had killed his two innocent boys, Charlie and Braden.
I immediately began searching for pictures of the scene to send to KSL.COM, our website had only a few lines about it and a stock photo so I turned to twitter to see what I could find. Within minutes I found a neighbor of Josh Powell’s who took photos of the burning home, I sent those to the web, I then found whatever information was out there from people witnessing the tragic event and began reporting it. Little did I know the details would get horrifying.
As my family continued to watch the football game, I locked myself in the den and worked as fast as I could. I sent an email to by boss saying I was ready to fly to Washington to cover the story. The story involving Josh Powell and his missing wife Susan is one I have covered for 2 years now. I have done dozens of stories and have a invested interest in their case. After what seemed like an hour of no communication from the mother ship I finally got word that another reporter was being sent to Washington. I was relieved that we had a crew on the way.
A few hours later I got a call. “Shara, were sending you to Washington in the morning”, said my boss. My response with no hesitation was “ok, I’m ready to go.” I hung up the phone, looked at my husband and said “I’m headed to Washington.” I have a 14 month old son, and had full confidence in my husband’s parenting skills. It was a little last minute, but I knew he could manage.
That night I packed. I was told to prepare to be in Washington for a while, and to take enough. The next morning I was up at 1:00am, headed to KSL Broadcast house ready to take on the story.That morning I reported the latest on the situation from SLC then boarded a flight with a photographer to Tacoma. By 11:30am we are on the ground, in a rental car with all of our gear, and headed to Puyallup and the scene of one of this country’s most sickening crime scenes. I felt prepared. I was not.
When we arrived at the house there were about a dozen massive satellite trucks lining the street, there were about two dozen news vehicles. This was huge. We found a parking spot and I jumped out and made my way down to the cul-de-sac where the burned rubble of Josh Powell’s home remained. Dozens of cameras were setting up for a press briefing form a spokesperson from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. I then realized I was working with the big boys. CNN was to my right, NBC was to my left, every other major network plus more surrounded me.
For the next hour I gathered interviews with neighbors, got a feel for the layout of the day, then prepared for the briefing. When it finally happened – that’s when the horrifying details of this case began to unfold.
I sat on the cold asphalt in front of a dozen cameras and listened to Ed Troyer from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office recite the details of the murder. Stunned at what he was saying, I kept a list of facts on my paper. When he was finished I quickly ran back to our SAT truck and began feverishly writing my story. 30 minutes later I was on air and folks in Utah were hearing the latest details.
Josh Powell set his house on fire with his two sons inside still alive. He used 10 gallons of gas as an accelerate. He locked the social worker out of the home and she called 911. The house exploded.
Facts.
The rest of the evening shows played out in a similar fashion, there was very little time to process what I was looking at. Then I had a second to breathe. It was about 7pm when I looked around me and noticed there were people showing up with flowers, stuffed animals, balloons, and cards-each item for Charlie and Braden. Then the emotion of it hit. Two innocent little boys were murdered by their father. Two little boys were murdered by their father in this burned debris I am looking at. Two little boys faced the most horrifying moments in their life in this burned home in front of me. Two little boys suffered at the hands of the person who should have protected them from harm.
I noticed a father with two little boys staring at the house, his son’s carried stuffed animals. I approached them and learned that the boys are the same age as Braden and Charlie, 4 and 7. They had come to give their own stuffed animals to them. I asked one little boy, John what he brought and he told me “I brought a penguin because I know one of the boys liked penguins, I bought this Chucky Cheese because I know he like Chucky Cheese.”
The father of these two little boys in front of me, Douglas told me he was a single dad and didn’t know the Powell family but had been crushed by the actions of Josh Powell and because his sons were the same age wanted to start a memorial at the home for them. Douglas started to cry as I was interviewing him. At one point his son looked up at him and said “Dad, why are you crying?” He responded with “I am just sad for the two little boys that died.”
I followed them to the driveway and watched as the boys placed the stuffed animals next to the house and then stand there in silence looking at the burned shell of a house.
I spoke to another woman that night, Sandi Frazier. Sandi was standing alone holding a bouquet of Angels Parasols. She had tears in her eyes. Her daughter went to school with Susan, the missing mother of the two boys. Sandi told me she felt she needed to bring the flowers because the boys are now angles, and she wanted something living at the spot where they died. Sandi he began to cry as I was interviewing her, and I did too. I thanked her for her sincere words and she asked if she could hug me. Without hesitation I hugged her there in the dark, next to the rubble, and she cried in my arms. She told me she was sorry for breaking down but thanked me for allowing her that moment.
I continued working into the night, gathering more reaction from strangers who had come to see the house. I took a moment to get my emotions in check, and pressed on. But then the medical examiner report was released and the story hit a new low. Charlie and Braden had been attacked by their father with a hatchet, a small axe. They had been “chopped”, was the word the medical report stated, in the head and neck. But when the two boys didn’t die, moments later their dad set the house on fire.
When I heard these details all I could think was ….Oh no, oh God no.
Just went I thought this story couldn’t get worse, these details come out. The evil in this story was beyond comprehension. I couldn’t believe it. I was angry.
That night in my hotel I continued to work putting together the story of a community mourning and finally around 10pm I finished one of my stories for the next morning, I wrote half a dozen emails, called my husband to check on him and the baby, then headed to bed.
I tried to put the images of Charlie and Braden in their last moments out of my head but couldn’t.
TUESDAY:
At 1:00AM the alarm went off. I had only 2 hours of sleep but was up at my computer putting together another story with the latest developments. I was coordinating with my producers back in SLC about our live shots that morning and then sent them my voice track for the second pkg.
Around 3:15AM our crew made its way over to the house, this time we went to the back of the house to get a better view. When we got there we found another memorial to Charlie and Braden. During my live shot I talked about the memorial, then during my last live hit I read a message someone had left the boys. I didn’t expect to get choked up, but I did. The message read “we find peace in knowing you are now being swaddled in your mother’s arms.” I quickly composed myself and continued on with the story, cleared from the live shot, and got in the car. I have never had a moment like that on live television before. Something about those words hit me to the core. I let a few tears fall then tried to focus on being a professional reporter. Reporters don’t cry, or do they?
That morning Chuck Cox appeared on the Today Show, it was 6:30 am local time but I knew he had to be up to do the interview so I called him. Chuck Cox is the grandfather of Charlie and Braden, the father of their mother Susan. He and his wife Judy had temporary custody of the two boys while Josh was being evaluated. Anyway, I called him and he answered. My photographer and I were down the street from his house in case he agreed to do the interview and so we arrived at his house within a few minutes. As I approached his door there were roses and a card on his porch, I picked it up and handed it to the woman who answered the door – it was Susan’s sister.
We set up in Charlie and Braden’s room and a few minutes later Chuck was sitting on one of their beds. We talked about a lot of things- Josh, Susan, and about hearing the horrifying details of what happened to Charlie and Braden. You could tell Chuck was in shock.
It was an emotional interview and when he began to cry about what happened to Charlie and Braden I couldn’t help but get chocked up as well. You could see the pain in his eyes, his face, and his body language. You could see the pain all over him. No person should ever have to go through what the Cox family has gone through.
After our interview I thanked Chuck for his time, he has always been so nice to me about Susan’s case and in the heartbreak of this development he was just as gracious. I couldn’t help but think he reminded me of many grandfathers in Utah, many people I know. My heart broke for him and his wife, Judy.
After the interview we rushed back to our SAT truck. As I began logging the video, tweeting the details, and composing my story I got a call from the Doug Wright Show. I often work with Doug Wright on his show – reporting from the field – talking about the details of a case – and so it was no surprise he wanted to talk to me about my interview with Chuck. So at 8:30 local time when his producer called me I was ready to talk.
Doug asked me about several things – which I gave appropriate responses to. But then he asked me a personal question. He said, Shara…you are there taking all of this in, seeing all of this devastation and heartbreak, what has hit you the hardest? Immediately thought of the words on the poster and started to cry. I apologized to Doug and his hundreds of thousands of listeners for my emotions, and told him about the poster. I told him that I was a mother of a 14 month old boy at home and couldn’t imagine the pain the Cox family was feeling. I told him of the people sobbing on the street staring at the house and the pain I was feeling for them. I struggled to get the words out and again apologized. Doug responded with “don’t you dare apologize, this is real, you are a real person out there too and people need to understand just how heartbreaking this is for even the reporters out there.” It made me feel better. I finished the interview up and hung up the phone and sat in disbelief. Did that just happen, did I just break-down on the Doug Wright Show? Yep, I did.
I pushed through the noon show- aired my interview with Chuck Cox, and then started on the next story. I worked my contacts until I finally got an interview set up with West Valley’s Police Chief. It was something my station wanted and so we did a sit down with him.
That story aired at 5, and then we were off to another story. Josh Powell’s storage unit was being searched and we needed to find it. We ran around the city with about a half dozen other reporters for about 2 hours looking for it but never found it. By the time we were done it was 7pm and we needed to eat – we haven’t really eaten anything in 2 days. So we stopped by a restaurant and I went in to order. As I was waiting I sat on a couch and let the past two days sink in. I couldn’t help but let a few tears fall.
We headed back to the hotel, ate, emailed, and finally got to bed around 9pm.
The next morning I woke up at 1am – wrote 2 new packages and then packed up and headed over to the house. We did 3 live shots and then broke down our gear. We headed back to the hotel, packed our rooms up and headed to the airport.
Exhausted, we boarded a plane and headed home.
I started writing this post on the plane ride home – tears falling through most of it. I am sure the guy sitting next to me on the plane thought I was nuts. For a moment I did too. Why was this story so emotional for me? Was it because I have a son and now feel pain I didn’t before? Was it because of the horrifying things Josh Powell did? Was it because two little boys are now in heaven with their mother? Was it because I spent 2 years on this case and this is how it ended? Yes, yes, yes. Yes to all of it.
There are so many reasons why it is emotional, and I am just going to say that I am human and I feel things too. When people are at home watching our stories saying “oh my gosh, how could that happen?”… I am in the field saying it too. I just hide it when I have to, when the camera is on. But the truth is it hurts, it hurts to know there are people in this world that could do something like this. It hurts that I have to tell you they exists.
So back to my question –do reporters cry? The answer is yes, we do.
