Murder Most Foul

We started with a name.

Daniel Colverston.

It was the wrong name.

We didn't know that yet.

The press release from Baltimore County Police stated that a 24 yo male was shot in the head in an apartment in the Fairways at Towson apartment complex.  I knew it better as Glenmont.  A current name change to maybe boost the image of a housing development highly populated by Towson students.  The victim? According to the police it was Daniel Colverston.

I got into work and checked facebook, myspace, google.  Nothing.  I couldn't believe that a 24 year old would not leave an internet footprint.  Was he a loner?  

Striking out on the internet we went back to the apartment complex.  We interviewed concerned residents and my reporter spoke to two women sitting in a car near the door to where Mr. Colverson lived.  

They wouldn't go on camera.  But gave us valuable information.  Daniel was a former Towson student.  He graduated last year and he was an athletic assistant with the volleyball and basketball teams.  

Great.  We knew more.  My reporter had a contact with Towson U.  The contact put us in touch with someone from the athletic department who would provide us with a picture of Daniel if we came up to the Towson Center to shoot it.  

When we got there this individual was very nice.  Came right out, brought us the picture and said.

"You know they're spelling his name wrong right?  It's Daniel Coverston."  

The right name.

We get back to the station.  I hop on facebook.  Daniel Coverston comes right up.  He has over 800 friends.  Certainly not a loner.  

Being a Towson grad I was able to get full access to his profile.  He had over fifty tagged pictures.  Those became a part of the story.  We now had a face to go with a statistic.  I downloaded five or six pictures and inserted them into our package.  In 5 hours I felt like I was starting to know Daniel.  Hell it seems I even have two friends in common with him. 

I cropped the people with Daniel out of most of the photographs.  I left one in.  A very touching picture of Daniel and a friend looking incredibly happy.  It fit with the script my reporter had written.  

Should I have used a picture of Daniel with another person?  My producer didn't think so.  I felt it was appropriate but I can see how the other girl in the photo may have been upset.  

But this is how Facebook has changed our world.  At the start of the day I had a crime scene and an incorrect name.  By the time our story aired at 10 I had a face, a personality.  A real person to go with the violence that hits our region.  

Crime is NOT limited to Baltimore City.  There isn't some forcefield around the city limits that keeps them away.  It can affect anyone.  And tonight it seems like this was a real tragedy.