Covering a Community Tragedy

[Editor's Note: Dart Center President Joe Hight recently spoke on victims' coverage at the Wilmington Writers' Workshop in Delaware, which is considered the first of the National Writers' Workshops in the United States. Below, he writes about two of the participants and then asked both to describe their approaches in writing stories about victims.]

Michelle Mostovy-Eisenberg is a 2002 college graduate who reports for a small weekly newspaper in Delaware. Joe McDermott is a veteran reporter for a much larger daily in Pennsylvania.

Although their careers and newspapers are vastly different, Michelle and Joe both recently faced similar situations: tragedies involving deaths of children in their coverage areas.

Michelle is a reporter and photographer for the Middletown Transcript, a 5,750-circulation weekly in the town about 20 miles south of Wilmington. Before working for the Transcript, she graduated from Rhode Island's Roger Williams University and worked in three internships, including the Poynter Institute's summer fellowship program for recent college graduates.

She's already won a first-place award for a story that she wrote on a woman's battle with breast cancer. She says she covers "pretty much everything but sports." Most of her work involves writing features or about education and health.

In February, she was assigned to write a story about Jozlyn Faye Brown, a popular high school student who was killed in a car accident a day after her 17th birthday.

"This is a very small community and we don't normally cover accident victims, but when we heard her age and that she was a student, we decided to do a profile on her. It shook this community very hard ... ," Michelle writes.

"I ended up spending four hours with the family, on top of all the other interviews I did for the story, and now, four months later, it still haunts me every time I drive by the intersection Joz died at."

More than 100 miles northwest in Allentown, Joe is a reporter for The Morning Call, a 118,000-circulation daily, 165,000 Sunday newspaper. He has remained in Pennsylvania for nearly all of his 20-year career. For more than 11 of those years, he's worked at The Morning Call, covering city hall, county government, politics and now what he calls a "municipal general assignment reporter covering a suburban beat" in Lehigh County, Pa.

Joe recently was sent to northeastern Pennsylvania for a story about three children who were killed by their mother. Hollie Mae Grable shot her boyfriend, Kenneth Cragle, and then her three children, 18-year-old Jared Brown, 16-year-old Kirsten Brown and 14-year-old Kelsey Brown, and two dogs before committing suicide after a three-hour standoff with police.

"To be honest, I've covered too many of these stories in my career. I think most of us agree that one is too many," Joe writes.

"My advice is to remember that you are writing about people, you are interviewing people, and you are a real person. Let your humanity guide you."

Most U.S. journalists probably will never cover a war in another country or a mass disaster in their own community. Most likely, they will cover a car accident victim or a murder-suicide, the types of tragedies that Joe and Michelle recently faced. And it doesn't matter the stage of their careers or their newspaper's location: Tragedy occurs in every city, town or community and affects the victims' families and friends — and eventually journalists themselves.

Joe McDermott Reflects

'They want readers to know about their loved ones; they want readers to know that there was more to them than a tragic crime.'

Less than 48 hours after sitting in on Joe Hight's seminar on "Covering Tragedy and Victims" at the National Writers' Workshop in Wilmington, I arrived at work and was immediately sent out to rural Hegins Township, Pa., to learn about the three children killed over the weekend by their mother.

It was typical parachute journalism — drop in, talk to as many people as possible, learn as much as possible and put a face on these three young victims.

To be honest, I've covered too many of these stories in my career. I think most of us agree that one is too many. It's tough, emotionally, to approach the families and friends of people lost in tragic circumstances and the one thing I keep foremost in my mind is "how would I feel if the roles were reversed?"

What I really wanted to do was find people who knew the children, who could help me portray them as real people, not just remote victims. I have to say that luck was a major part of the story.

The school district superintendent was very helpful and offered good, basic background on the children, the impact of the crime in the community and the school, and good color on how the community was so inter-related. A pastor who had spent the day counseling school students came to the administration building while I was with the superintendent, and it turned out he knew the middle daughter well because she was in his church youth group.

After those interviews, the photographer and I drove up and down the main road of the small villages, looking for some sort of place where kids might gather after school. We lucked out when we saw several outside a local church. The pastor at that church had offered his church hall to the students who were friends of the victims, and he offered to talk to some to see who would talk to us.

He returned with Kristin's four closest friends.

As I said, I always think about how I would feel in their position. I told them what I wanted to do, that I wanted readers to know who these kids were, and I wanted them to tell me about Kirstin and her brother and sister.

The one thing I have learned in my career is that people often want to talk at a time like that. They want readers to know about their loved ones; they want readers to know that there was more to them than a tragic crime.

In this case, I was able to truthfully tell the girls that I lost my best friend at age 21 when he was killed in an automobile accident. I think it helps when people know you can relate to their circumstances.

But usually, you can't relate. Say that. Tell the person you have no idea how they feel and cannot comprehend what they are going through. Ask them to explain how they are coping, who they turn to for support, what's likely to happen next. Ask them for their favorite memory, when did they last see the victim and what the circumstances were of that event. It turned out these girls were all at a party when the mother came for Kirstin — apparently after she had already killed Jared and Kelsey.

As for writing the story, I had time to organize my thoughts on the way back to the newsroom because the crime occurred more than an hour away from Allentown. I was writing the sidebar, which gave me a bit more leeway because I didn't have to deal with the nitty-gritty of the crime and investigation. That gave me the freedom to focus primarily on the victims and the impact of the crime.

I wanted to write strong, I wanted to paint a picture of the lives cut short, and the best way to do that, I felt, was by writing not only about where these kids had been in their lives, but where they were going — to the prom, to New Mexico, to art school.

My advice is to remember that you are writing about people, you are interviewing people, and you are a real person. Let your humanity guide you. And if someone doesn't want to talk, back off. Leave a card or a phone number, if they will accept it, and leave graciously. Maybe you can call back later in the day or week, but some people just don't want to talk.

Trying to force it won't help anyone.

Covering a Community Tragedy

I think it just helped that I didn't bug the family immediately. I talked to teachers, school friends, etc., in the meantime and asked friends to pass on to the family that I would like to speak with them when they were ready.

The grandmother of the victim (for the Jozlyn story) called the afternoon of my deadline, and I went over there. I let them do most of the talking, and I think the fact I was genuinely listening they trusted me more and opened up more to me. I kept checking the clock, but I knew I couldn't get up and leave.

After I was there about an hour, they asked if I wanted to see her room, so I recorded everything I saw. I went through her closet, saw her bed, desk, bookcases. We talked about her birthday, her life.

I think it helped the family to talk about her life, not how she died, even though it came up. But my asking about her, and making her more than a statistic, the family was willing to share more with me. I ended up spending four hours with the family, on top of all the other interviews I did for the story, and now, four months later, it still haunts me every time I drive by the intersection Joz died at.

I would just recommend being sincere with reporting on victims, ignoring the clock as much as possible. The victims just experienced something so unimaginable and here we come with pen and paper. Give the victim or their family the space they need and they will open up.

Express your sympathy to them ... sometimes I even send a sympathy card in advance before I interview them and they remember that when I come to their home.

Ask to see pictures ... they want to share how special their loved one was. Everything they say is important to them, so write it all down and when you get back to your desk, that is the time to pick and chose. They notice what gets written down and what doesn't.

Ask to see the victims' room, but I was lucky the family offered to show me before I got a chance to ask. It is some sort of closure for them to talk about it so let them vent, cry.

Give them the time they need and they will give you what you need. But always be sincere.

Friends Remember Trio as Happy, Popular

This story was originally published in The (Allen-town, Pa.) Morning Call on May 4, 2004. It is republished here with permission.

They were known as the "Fab 5" long before anyone ever heard of the fashion mavens from the Bravo network.

Kirstin Brown's four closest friends proudly claimed first dibs on that moniker Monday afternoon as they struggled with the death Sunday of the pretty, inspiring 16-year-old, who along with her brother and sister, was killed by a mother tormented by mental demons.

Though the Tri-Valley School District encompasses 100 square miles of northwestern Schuylkill County, the epicenter of the emotional earthquake that leveled this community was the Tri-Valley Junior-Senior High School, where the three Brown children were spaced in alternating grades among the 450 students.

There was Jared, the senior, a hard-working 18-year-old chess player and martial arts enthusiast who enjoyed hunting and the outdoors and confounded friends by his ability to get his deer every year. He wanted to attend Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts in York to study animation.

Kirstin, 16, the sophomore, just finished acting in the school play, "Hollywood Hillbillies" and was celebrating its success with fellow cast members when her mother arrived to take her away. She was just learning to appreciate the world outside her small community and had traveled in recent years with her church youth group to visit Germany and Poland.

And Kelsey, 14, an eighth-grader, enjoyed affecting a mock British accent that irritated her older sister. But she idolized the older girl and would have joined her this summer on a church trip to Arizona and New Mexico.

The ties that bind this close-knit community are strengthened through the generations. People born here tend to stay here. Schools Superintendent Jack Herb has faculty members on the ambulance squads that responded to Alfred Brown 's home when the call came in about his son, Jared.

Herb's wife was Jared's first-grade teacher.

Jared's best friend was supposed to take Kirstin to the prom. He was going to take his friend's sister.

Those ties made it much tougher to deal with the aftershocks that rumbled down Route 25 on Monday. A half-mile west of the school, classmates gathered at St. Andrew's United Methodist Church to remember their friends.

They talked. They shared. At times they even enjoyed a bittersweet laugh recalling happier times.

For the remaining members of the Fab 5, sophomores Laura Costa, Kate Kline, Kayla Stiely and Melanie Zilker, the memory of Kirstin's quick smile and enthusiasm served to moderate a grief process aggravated by the incomprehensible nature of the crime.

Even the superintendent was stunned.

"We have all sorts of families that are dysfunctional," Herb said. "But dysfunctional doesn't mean killing five people."

The girls, who have been best friends since second grade, couldn't make sense of the tragedy.

"I could understand an accident," said Kline. "But the way it happened it's just so hard to hear your friend has been murdered — by her mother."

All four girls, including those who attended a post-play cast party with Kirstin on Sunday, learned of the deaths Sunday night when Pastor Carl Shankweiler of Trinity Lutheran Church visited their homes to break the news.

"I just screamed, I screamed for Kirstin," said Kline.

Costa was in shock. She couldn't even cry, she said, until Monday afternoon when she saw Kirstin's photo on a poster on the school wall. It was a picture, she said with a small smile and laugh, that Kirstin hated because she was wearing her glasses.

"If Kirstin could see it, she'd have a fit," Costa said.

Then, she said, she cried.

The girls described all three of the Brown children as popular, friendly, engaging and happy. They were aware of Hollie Mae Gable's mental problems, but she was also a part of her children's lives.

Shankweiler said Kirstin asked him about six months ago if he could find an apartment for Gable in Valley View, the village just west of Hegins.

"They recognized the problems, but they wanted their mother near them," said Shankweiler, who became close to the family after Kirstin, and later Kelsey, joined the Teen Time Youth Group at his church in Valley View.

Shankweiler said their father, Alfred Brown, was devastated, but had strong family and community support to help him. Brown, who owns a coal mine in the area, considered the children the cornerstone of his life, the pastor said. "He worked hard to support them."

A 2000 Schuylkill County Court filing in the custody dispute between Alfred Brown and Gable called for Gable to get counseling to help in her relationship with her children. It also called for Brown to get counseling for Jared for unspecified problems.

Elaine Carter of Pitman said Gable "would just go out of her way to do whatever she could for her kids. She didn't have a lot of money, but she did what she could for her kids."

Reporters Bob Laylo and Chris Parker contributed to this story.

Remembering Jozlyn

This story was originally published in the Transcript on Feb. 26, 2004. It is republished here with permission.

While Jozlyn Faye Brown will always be remembered by all who loved her for many reasons, no one will ever forget the beauty of her bright blue eyes.

Those blue eyes, smiling back from pictures family and friends treasure as a lasting token of her presence on Earth, are a reminder of a life ended too early due to a fatal car accident at Summit Bridge Feb. 17 — the day after her 17th birthday.

She died the way she lived her life, dedicated to her schoolwork — perishing while on her way to People's Plaza in Newark to buy film for a photography class, just one of the art classes at Middletown High School she was passionate about.

Her art teachers Brian Miller and Jayne Ribbett went to Jozlyn's viewing Feb. 21.

"She had so much good about her," Ribbett said. She taught her for four years. "I watched her grow up. She was just a really good person."

Jozlyn was inducted into the National Honor Society in October 2003. Her last report card, dated Feb. 11, showed her excellent grades — 3.9986 for the semester.
She also participated in the Pop Warner MOT Championship Dance Squad, Blue and Gold Special Olympic Program, Student Council, Art Club, Environmental Club, Freshman Field Hockey Team, Interact Club, Powerline Youth Ministries, Girls Only Bible Study, and many other activities throughout her cut-short life.

Jozlyn would get upset if she ever missed her Bible study, attending with her best friend Amanda Hash, who introduced her to the Praise Assembly of God Church, where Ben Rivera is the pastor; the church that after a long search to find her religious home, she loved to attend.

Hash had known Jozlyn for six years. They would attend sleepovers, go to movies, and listen to music together. It was difficult for Hash to go back to school this past Monday, but she went for part of the day.

"A lot of people come up and give me hugs," she said. She now spends all her free time at Jozlyn's home, bonding with her family.

Jozlyn would be one of the first students to school every day, beating even most of the teachers there. She was a known presence at the school, taking care of everyone around her, from fellow students, to teachers.

It was at a school event, the first Middletown High School football game of that season two years ago, where she met the love of her life, Wesley Tribbit. Then a freshman, Jozlyn was at the game where Wes, then a junior and a football player, saw some people fighting. He went over to break up the fight and not wanting to get his jersey dirty, took it off — and Jozlyn asked him if he wanted her to hold it. He looked at her.

"Her eyes were so captivating," Wes said. "That's what got me."

Together ever since, they talked of marriage and their future together. He had given her a ring he now wears on his own gold chain, and fingers it gently often while he talks.

"It is the 'I-love-Jozlyn ring'," Wes said. "She's my angel. I always called her my angel.

"She was the love of my life," he tearingly said. It was Joz who helped him bring his grades up, helped him stop smoking. "She was my life."

When they'd go out for dinner, she'd always order the same thing no matter where they went to eat — chicken fingers.

A red-flowered, heart-shaped framed picture of the happy couple at his senior prom last year sits on the kitchen table. He has a hard time keeping his eyes off of it.

At school, hundreds of students signed two large posters with messages for Jozlyn's family. Jozlyn's mom Shelly can't bring herself to read the messages yet, but will someday.

But she has read Wes' message to her daughter. In red ink, with a circle around it, Wes wrote "Hey Babe, Don't worry it's not your fault. I will need your help forever. I love you and never forget it. I will see you in a few years — please wait for me. I love you." And then he signed his name.

Right from day one, back on Feb. 16, 1987, Jozlyn, a Connecticut native, was "fiercely independent," said Mary Zuvic, Shelly's life partner. And after moving to Middletown in 1993, Jozlyn adapted well to her new community.

"Joz just immediately bonded with people," Zuric said. "It had to be those eyes."

On the first day of school every year, from the time she was a tot up to the start of her junior year this past fall, she and her brother would listen to the song "School Days" by Chuck Berry. They were not allowed to leave on the first day without listening to that song, a yearly tradition.

To friends and family, she was "Joz" or "Joz Faye," or simply "Faye" to her mom Shelly.

Jozlyn's brother Ryan, 17, a MHS senior, used to tease his sister, calling her "ocelot," among other nicknames. Jozlyn looked it up and found out an ocelot was an exotic cat, and never minded being called that by her brother again, and the purpose of him picking on her gone.

Ryan also recalled the time when he and Joz were younger and he flushed the leg of one of her Barbie dolls down the toilet and Joz was the one who ended up being grounded. Shelly and Ryan joke that Joz, after all these years, still wanted him to be grounded for the incident. They will now pick a day for him to be grounded in the future.

She loved listening to music, especially anything Christian inspired, or by artists like Sonic Flood, Elton John or Billy Joel. She loved Joel's song "My life."

Joz loved roller coasters and other fast rides, said Wes. Growing up, the family would spend lots of time at Great Adventure since they had season tickets. The kids, especially Jozlyn, had the layout of the park memorized, and would run around having fun, meeting back just in time at the fountain in the park.

In her free time, Jozlyn liked to read, reading almost every book the family owned, and watching medical shows on the Discovery Channel. She also loved to watch Trading Spaces. But no matter what was on TV, she was still in bed by 9:30 p.m. every night.

Her bed and the rest of her teddy bear-decorated room is still untouched, the way she left it the day she died, her flowered bedspread still strewn on the unmade gold-metal post bed.

Jozlyn used to relax by taking three tub baths a day. Soaking in the tub, any tub, at anyone's house, was her stress reliever and office in one, as she would talk on the phone, eat, and do homework — all from the bathtub.
"It was her quiet place," her father, Tim Currier, said. "She'd be in there for hours."

The family chose to have her buried in a white casket-the closest thing that looked like a tub, though Mary said they would have buried her in a tub if they had been allowed.

One treasured memory was when Jozlyn was around six years old and she was picked out of the crowd at a dolphin show at the park to help feed the dolphins. She never forgot the experience, and her family will never forget it either.

Family dog Sasha and cats Boyz and Rascal know the person who would pet them and let them sleep in her bed is gone. Even the furry creatures notice her bodily prescence is gone. But her spirit is still inside her Millbranch home.

On her 17th birthday, the day before her death, she had the day off from school-actually, she never had to go to school on her birthday. On this particular day, she spent two hours in the morning in the family's backyard hot tub with Mary, talking about life and her dreams and goals. After emerging and putting on their matching robes, they went inside to the breakfast Shelly made for them.

The house was decorated with a "Happy Birthday" banner they used for all the family birthdays. Shelly presented her daughter with a gray University of Delaware hoodie sweatshirt-the school Jozlyn hoped to attend one day.

After breakfast, wearing her new shirt, Shelly and Jozlyn went to Christiana Mall, where Jozlyn could pick out her own birthday gift, anything within reason, from clothes to CDs, as a gift from her parents. When they first entered the mall, her eyes caught on an outfit in the front of Strawbridge's-a pale pink outfit. But it was a color she hadn't worn since a child, so she moved on, saying they could come back if she didn't find anything else.

After wandering the entire mall, the mother-daughter team returned to Strawbridge's to purchase the pale pink lace-trimmed tank top for $12.99 and matching pale pink belted pants on sale for $24.99. The total cost of her final birthday gift-all she wanted when she could have had anything-was $37.98.

And the $37.98 outfit is now lying on the floor of her room, where she left it.

Well, actually, she wanted her belly button pierced too, but none of the shops they visited were open.

After the mall, the whole family and a few friends went out to KC's restaurant in Middletown, where they had a great meal and great conversation. After playing pool with Wes, where she "kicked my a** — she beat me twice," she announced she had to get home-on her birthday mind you-to do her homework. They returned to the house to eat her yellow birthday cake with white icing and chocolate chips Shelly made her, blowing out her 17 candles.

And it was the same UD sweatshirt she was wearing as she got into the car accident that took her life.
"She lived to be 17 for one day," said Shelly.

Currier will continue to pay the bill for Jozlyn's cell phone, so the family can call her number and still hear her voice say "Hey, it's Joz."

Middletown High School choral director Voni Perrine said, "it's just not fair-a parent should never lose a child. It's a sad event. You just want to hold your own child."

Shelly said everyone from Middletown High School, from students to principal Donna Mitchell, have been "over the top unbelievable.

"The school has been out of this world," Shelly said.

Mitchell said guidance counselors from throughout the Appoquinimink School District were at the school the day after Jozlyn's death, turning the auditorium into a collective place for the students and teachers to grieve for their friend, student, peer and the happy smiling face of the honor roll student.

Student clubs Jozlyn was devoted to made memorials in the glass cases throughout the school. Flowers poured into the school from other schools and districts, who themselves were also experiencing a week of grief as three other New Castle County teens lost their lives in car accidents.

The lilac-colored program from Jozlyn's funeral is adorned with a picture of her, smiling, from Wes' senior prom she attended with him last year, framed by two tulips, and a shiny ribbon. The program, put together by Wes, Amanda, and Jozlyn's aunt and uncle Stephanie and Phillip Cypher, included the following quote by William Smith: Love is not a matter of counting the years, it's making the years count.

Wes explained they picked the quote because it was pretty special and that was exactly how Jozlyn lived, "to make the years count."

It is her beautiful eyes that keep coming back into conversations about Jozlyn.

"There was nothing but love," said Mary. "The beauty of her eyes-it's what she saw through those eyes-she saw the beauty of everything-the Lord just shined through those eyes."

"She's keeping us all strong," said Wes. "I'll have to start a new life, because she was my life."

And to her family and friends, they all know Jozlyn Faye Brown will be watching over them from Heaven — looking down on them with her blue eyes.