For example, our obituary writer, Linda Cocke, became an invaluable resource because of relationships she'd built with the funeral directors. She used her contacts as go-betweens with the slain girls' families as we worked out ground rules for coverage. Her work, as well as some persuasion by the executive editor, made us the only print media allowed to have a photographer and reporter in the church during the funeral service. We relied on our more experienced reporters to cover the courthouse, sheriff and prosecutor. We added to this mix our top investigative reporters, Bill Bartleman, a 25-year veteran of The Sun and James Zambroski, a crime specialist.
Experience does pay off.
From the start, Bartleman, the lead reporter, reminded the others that it would not be enough for us to stay even with the national media on this story. This was our turf, he said. We'd be expected to have better sources and better information. Stories the national media told at night should be ones we broke earlier that day. In the days that followed this team produced a string of seven copyright, exclusive stories.