Anne Swaney, online executive producer for ABC7 in Chicago, was murdered while on vacation in Belize.
According to WLS, Swaney, 39, was on vacation in the Cayo District of western Belize. On Thursday, she was with a group who was going on a horseback riding tour, but when there were more people than horses, Swaney stayed behind. When the group returned, they found Swaney’s belongings but she was nowhere to be found. A search ensued, but was called off at nightfall. When it resumed this morning, her body was found face down in a nearby river.
“Her neck and either side of her head had laceration and that led us to believe it was a case of murder,” a police superintendent told WLS.
Swaney was a 1998 graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and spent her entire career at WLS.
“I’m really without words because it is a tragic loss for our newsroom, and really for the entire station and for the city of Chicago. She was terrific at what she did,” ABC7 Chicago President and General Manager John Idler said.
“Anne was our leader, Anne was our conscience. Anne wanted to make sure that every story that we put online was first and foremost right,” said Kevin Carpenter, director of digital operations. “There’s always going to be a spot there that we will miss.”