Former News-Journal Cops reporter Seth Robbins, now multimedia editor, wrote a powerful first person piece as a follow-up to A Serial Killer's Stomping Grounds: The City You've Never Known, a 2006 series on the people existing in the shadows after a serial killer disrupted their daily struggle. It ran Nov. 26, 2007."I was a new reporter when I first met Tara Price.
"A prostitute at the time, she had called The News-Journal in a panic after
three streetwalkers had been killed. She had information, she said, about the
killer. That turned out to be false. But we met at Burger King and became
unlikely friends.
"Tara ordered a milkshake. It had been awhile since
she'd eaten in "one of these places" -- a restaurant. She laughed, calling me
naive, when I asked her if the men on the North Street-Ridgewood corner were
drug dealers.
"They're not wearing shoes," she said of the low-level characters often
running drugs there.
"In the car with my mother, I swept my fingers along the keys of my cell
phone. I'd heard that trill voice many times before when she was suicidal, sad
and tired of the streets. It was alarming at first, but I had gotten used to it.
And she was always there the next day. When I got home, I learned that Tara had
thrown herself from scaffolding off Holly Hill's Marina Grande condominium. She
had just turned 29."
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I usually enjoy first person pieces by reporters because it gives me some insight into the thoughts, conflicts and pain that those reporters go through--kind of like comparing war wounds. I've always respected Seth, a Poynter alum, but stories and series like these really allow him to shine as a wordsmith.
Photo by Craig Litten courtesy The News-Journal
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