On Aug. 26, a disgruntled former employee murdered WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and photographer Adam Ward on live television.
CNN’s Brian Stelter reconstructs the day’s tragic events from interviews with employees of the Roanoke, Va., CBS affiliate and community members.
While WDBJ anchor Chris Hurst has been very public about the loss of his girlfriend, Parker, one person not heard from is former morning show producer and fiancé of Adam Ward, Melissa Ott, who was celebrating her last day at WDBJ the day of the murders.
What she had experienced is almost unfathomable — witnessing her fiancé attacked in the final quarter-hour of her final morning newscast. In the wake of the shooting, Ott moved home with her family. She has not spoken publicly. But according to colleagues, she displayed a journalistic instinct in the immediate aftermath, telling them “I want to hear everything.” So a couple of Ott’s closest work friends huddled with her in a private room. “We were trying to make sure she felt that she was in the loop, while giving her the privacy to be upset,” Marks said.
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