Much of what I report on as a breaking news and cops reporter involves tragedy, and often that includes trying to contact families who have lost loved ones to violence or horrible accidents.
When we are able to contact families, their reactions vary widely: Some are happy for a chance to talk about their loved ones, some don't want to be bothered, some are understandably wary of some reporter they don't know asking them intimate questions at the worst possible time, and the list goes on.
As much as possible, my colleagues and I do our best to be sensitive to grieving families while also doing our jobs and putting together the most complete, objective, accurate stories we can.
Sometimes after we've built a repport with families, communication continues after the main story has published.
This was the case with the family of Katya Teresa Todesco, 5, who tragically died following an attack by a pit bull mix a family friend was caring for.
After I spoke to Katya's mother and father for our first story about the incident, we exchanged e-mails on several occasions.
After the first story published, for example, we received several calls from television stations asking if we could use the pictures the Todesco family had provided us. We don't give those out without permission, so I contacted the family and they gave their consent to share the photos.
Most recently, I received a note from a family friend who had made a memorial slideshow about Katya's life, and who wanted to know if we would put it on our article. I contacted the family to confirm that the video was what it purported to be and ask if they would like it on the web site, if that would be possible. They said it was and they would.
The article is no longer prominent on our web site, so we decided to include the slideshow in this blog.
Here it is:
For context, here are the two stories we published about Katya's tragic death:
Criminal probe opened in fatal dog attack
Simi Valley girl, 5, dies after backyard dog attack
Results tagged “fatal” from The Backstory
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Another bit of back story has to do with the way stories are picked up by other media outlets.
The day after we published our story about the tragic pit bull attack, we got calls from three television stations asking if they could share the photos Katya Todesco's family gave us, and if we could help them contact the family.
To protect the privacy of our sources, our policy prohibits us from sharing contact information or photos provided to us without a source's express permission.
I passed on the requests to Mrs. Todesco, and while she said she and her husband weren't ready to talk any more, she gave us permission to share the photos.
Here's one that didn't make it into our paper, partly because it's large and partly because I didn't know where or exactly when it was taken. (However, Mrs. Todesco said all of the photos shared with us were recent.)
The day after we published our story about the tragic pit bull attack, we got calls from three television stations asking if they could share the photos Katya Todesco's family gave us, and if we could help them contact the family.
To protect the privacy of our sources, our policy prohibits us from sharing contact information or photos provided to us without a source's express permission.
I passed on the requests to Mrs. Todesco, and while she said she and her husband weren't ready to talk any more, she gave us permission to share the photos.
Here's one that didn't make it into our paper, partly because it's large and partly because I didn't know where or exactly when it was taken. (However, Mrs. Todesco said all of the photos shared with us were recent.)
Many times when we report stories, we learn interesting details that don't end up in an article, either because there's no space for them or because they just don't fit.
This was the case with the story of the tragic pit bull attack in Simi Valley last week that killed 5-year-old Katya Teresa Todesco.
After I first learned the girl's name on Monday, I found a number for the family and called. (Cold calling grieving families is never something I like to do, but it's a part of the job. I simply do my best to be as respectful as I possible can.)
The first number I found for a Todesco family turned out to be the right one.
I spoke to Katya's family and, understandably, they weren't ready to talk to a reporter. They said they might be willing to share photos with us, and I left them my e-mail address and phone number in case they changed their minds.
Later that day, Katya's mother, Katia, called me to express concerns that the short story we had on the web was wrong. I explained that the descriptions of the tragic incident I had came from the police, and she agreed to speak with me to set the record straight.
I was only able to include part of what Katia Todesco told me in the article, so I wanted to tell some of the back story here.
Mrs. Todesco said she called because our first web story reported that police said it happened at her home, and she said that was not accurate. She said her family doesn't even own dogs, and that they were at a friend's house when the tragedy occurred. (We were not able to clear up the discrepancy Monday afternoon, so we had to report both her version and the police's version.)
I mentioned in the article that Todesco praised the doctors at Simi Valley hospital who, with the help of a blood transfusion, were able to revive her daughter. The girl lived for two more days at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
But we didn't have space to include the family's request that anyone who wants to help them donate blood in Katya's memory.
We mentioned that the Todesco family donated Katya's organs, but didn't have space to include the fact that her mother told me an organ donor flag given to her by the hospital was flying proudly outside their home as we spoke.
Yet another powerful detail that didn't make it into the story: Todesco works in a medical center, she told me, and some of her daughter's organs went to that same medical center.
This was the case with the story of the tragic pit bull attack in Simi Valley last week that killed 5-year-old Katya Teresa Todesco.
After I first learned the girl's name on Monday, I found a number for the family and called. (Cold calling grieving families is never something I like to do, but it's a part of the job. I simply do my best to be as respectful as I possible can.)
The first number I found for a Todesco family turned out to be the right one.
I spoke to Katya's family and, understandably, they weren't ready to talk to a reporter. They said they might be willing to share photos with us, and I left them my e-mail address and phone number in case they changed their minds.
Later that day, Katya's mother, Katia, called me to express concerns that the short story we had on the web was wrong. I explained that the descriptions of the tragic incident I had came from the police, and she agreed to speak with me to set the record straight.
I was only able to include part of what Katia Todesco told me in the article, so I wanted to tell some of the back story here.
Mrs. Todesco said she called because our first web story reported that police said it happened at her home, and she said that was not accurate. She said her family doesn't even own dogs, and that they were at a friend's house when the tragedy occurred. (We were not able to clear up the discrepancy Monday afternoon, so we had to report both her version and the police's version.)
I mentioned in the article that Todesco praised the doctors at Simi Valley hospital who, with the help of a blood transfusion, were able to revive her daughter. The girl lived for two more days at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
But we didn't have space to include the family's request that anyone who wants to help them donate blood in Katya's memory.
We mentioned that the Todesco family donated Katya's organs, but didn't have space to include the fact that her mother told me an organ donor flag given to her by the hospital was flying proudly outside their home as we spoke.
Yet another powerful detail that didn't make it into the story: Todesco works in a medical center, she told me, and some of her daughter's organs went to that same medical center.
Knocked out of their shoes
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It was several hours after the accident, and medical examiners had already taken away the victim's body, but some gruesome evidence remained.
Behind the spot where the pedestrian came to rest after a driver hit him, his hat, a pair of headphones and one of his shoes sat on the roadway.
It was Sept. 3, and a few hours earlier, Eulogio Garcia Sanchez, 53, of Oxnard had been wearing them as he crossed the C Street at Elm Street in the pre-dawn dark, heading for a bus to go have coffee with friends.
When I zoomed in with my video camera, I could see the black hat had the word "cobra" written on it, and the black tennis shoe still had its laces tied. There was nothing gruesome about the items on their own, but there on the pavement, they were stark reminders of what cars can do to a human body.
Sanchez was by no means the first pedestrian knocked literally out of his shoes when a car hit him.
I can recall several recent accidents in Ventura County in which the same thing happened.
When Karey Marsh, 46, of Thousand Oaks, was hit by an allegedly drunken driver while she was jogging near the edge of Oak Park last month, the impact threw her an estimated 30 feet into nearby shrubs but left her shoes behind, authorities said. In fact, emergency responders only knew a pedestrian had been hit because of those shoes.
And when an intoxicated driver slammed into an SUV on the side of the road and Officer Tony Pedeferri of the California Highway Patrol in December 2007, the impact launched Pedeferri 20 yards and threw him out of his boots. (The crash killed the driver of the SUV, who Pedeferri had pulled over.)
I first heard of someone being knocked out of his shoes when I was reporting on the crash that injured Officer Pedeferri.
When I first heard the detail, I thought to myself: I didn't know that could happen.
It seemed improbable, physically possible -- of course, objects at rest are inclined to stay at rest and all -- but incredible. Imagine the force necessary to throw a person so hard that a garment fastened to his or her body is pulled off by the impact alone.
It's something I would need a much better understanding physics than I have to really comprehend.
I asked a police contact and another from the medical examiner's office: Is this common? Neither common nor uncommon, they told me. It depends on a lot of things, but it does happen.
Most of us drive every day, some of us for hours, but how often do we consider that our cars are metal boxes weighing thousands of pounds, hurtling down the street at speeds that are mind boggling, especially when you compare it to the pedestrians, cyclists and others with whom we share the road.
Stay safe out there.
Here are links to some of of our articles and videos that relate to this topic:
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/sep/04/pedestrian-crossing-street-is-hit-and-killed/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/aug/27/to-jogger-struck-by-vehicle-killed/
http://gallery.venturacountystar.com/video.cfm?VideoID=556
http://gallery.venturacountystar.com/video.cfm?VideoID=188
http://gallery.venturacountystar.com/video.cfm?VideoID=563
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/dec/21/chp-officer-remains-in-critical-condition/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jul/03/injured-chp-officer-home-after-6-months-of/
The tragic death of Karey Marsh on Tuesday brings up a topic that is very old news, but which unfortunately still appears frequently on the pages of our paper:
Fatal accidents linked to drunken driving.
Marsh, 46, was jogging in the bike lane of Lindero Canyon Road on the border between Thousand Oaks and Oak Park early Tuesday morning when a car hit and killed her.
The driver, Nicholas Lagrotta, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and vehicular manslaughter, police said.
There's nothing new about links between preventable death and drunken driving. But despite all the programs and public relations campaigns, people still kill themselves and others at an alarming rate when they get hammered and get behind the wheel.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
"In 2006, 13,470 people were killed in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes. These
alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities accounted for 32 percent of the total motor
vehicle traffic fatalities in the United States."
A quick skim of our local headlines makes it clear Ventura County is not exempt.
In the past year alone, we've reported about numerous people who died as a result of inebriated driving.
Take a look at some of our recent stories:
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/aug/26/no-headline---nxxfcfatal27/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jul/03/injured-chp-officer-home-after-6-months-of/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/apr/14/man-killed-vehicle-wreck-identified/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/apr/02/forensic-experts-say-drugs-found-in-drivers/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/aug/28/teenager-is-killed-two-are-injured-in-car-crash/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jan/14/oscar-winning-screenwriter-arrested-in-fatal-in/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/apr/11/accident-victim-in-critical-condition/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/may/15/teen-killed-in-crash-had-been-drinking/
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jul/21/boy-dies-car-crash-driver-held/
The Backstory
He worked for The Tico Times in San José, Costa Rica during the summer of 2006, and reported for The Daily Bruin while at UCLA. He holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature with a minor in Spanish.
When he's not on the beat, he enjoys rock climbing.
