On the Scene of a Double Homicide

It is always tough to be at a crime scene.

If it's a major crime, it always means lots of waiting to get as much info as you can from whoever the police department put in charge of the scene.

It is even harder when the crime involves a murder.

That means there will be lots of emotion involved.

When at a crime scene, like the one last Friday when 18 year old Nate Moss and 24 year old Tina Moreno were found dead in their apartment at Pebble Creek, as I am waiting for info from the police, it is also my job to try and talk to people who may be involved, and that's where the lots of emotion come in.

This intense emotion in a situation can be a hurdle.

Here is how it happened for us at the station Friday.

When Brandi, our assignments editor and I were in the news room, we herd on the scanner that there was an injured subject.

We listened for just a minute and although they had not said anything about a D.O.A. (dead on arrival), we thought I had better go.

We happen to have a reporter at the police station who found out that the Sgt. over crimes against persons was called out.

That's when we knew it was something big, and that's when we found out were it was.

When I got to Pebble Creek that afternoon at about 1:45pm, the Police had not put crime scene tape across the parking lot to keep people back.

The tape was around the front porch of the apartment and I was standing with my camera rolling in the parking lot in front of the apartment.

At this point I knew there was a dead body inside, but I did not know that there would end up being two dead bodies inside.

Another thing I saw right away were the two girls.

I knew they were involved, but I did not know how.

I saw the girls being taken to an ambulance, and right away started shooting video.

That's video you have not seen.

When you are at a crime scene, you shoot everything and then decide what you will use later.

Police asked us not to use it and we agreed.

We never show kids who are crime victims.

By this time, a small crowed started to gather and more and more Detectives with the Police Department began arriving.

A police officer came over to me and told me to get as much video as I could because they were getting ready to move us back.

This is normal for a crime scene.

The media starts out close to the scene, then eventually is moved to a staging location.

As I was shooting my video a women got out of a car that had pulled up a few feet down the parking lot.

Her first words were "Where is my baby, Where is he."

That is something I will never forget, but that was just the beginning.

Once the police moved us back along with the growing crowed, more friends and family of both victims were showing up, running in the direction of the apartment screaming and crying.

Some family members had to be held back from crossing the tape and going into the apartment.

One family member was crying and just wanted to see for herself.

I can't imagine what it is like to hear that a family member has been murdered, and only wanting to see for myself because I just can't believe it.

That's what I remember thinking as I saw family member after family member show up to the scene as they learned the news.

Now picture all this happening and knowing that people are hurting and you have to approach them, as a member of the media, and ask for information, and worse, you have to ask them if they are willing to do an on camera interview; not easy, and not fun.

Well it just so happens that the first person I talked to at the scene was the man who found the bodies.

He told me there were two bodies in the apartment; one in the kitchen and one in the living room.

That's when I learned there were two bodies.

Police had not told us that.

Then, he told me something that shocked me and that we were not able to confirm till a couple of hours later.

He told me there were two kids in the apartment with the bodies.

I then talked to someone else who said that the kids were attacked.

It made sense that day because I saw the kids being checked out by paramedics.

This was news I knew, but could not report because I could not get it confirmed by police.

It was not till Saturday that Police called a news conference and confirmed the kids were attacked.

That is another problem when at a crime scene where there is lots of emotion and people: rumors are flying, and you have to be able to weed out the rumors from the fact.

For me, that is why it is important to wait till Police can confirm some information before I say it on the air.

The next person I talked to was Tina's best friend.

She came to the scene crying.

Her mom had just called her at work to let her know the news.

I won't say where, but Tina's best friend works at a local restaurant and she came to the scene from work.

She still had her uniform on and her apron.

She was so upset that she left her car in the middle of the parking lot running and just got out and ran in the direction of the apartment where Nate and Tina lived.

Police had to hold her back.

I approached her after she was there for a while and had stopped crying.

I asked if I could talk to her and do an interview; she agreed.

She said she did not want to do the interview in front of everybody, so we went around the back of the apartment building and she talked to me on camera there.

By this time it was close to news time; the 5pm show.

The Public Information Officer, Sgt. Kieth Shackelford, had been giving us updates and at that point we knew there were two dead bodies and we knew their names.

We also knew the kids were found in the apartment and were in protective custody.

After we did the 5pm live shot, that is when more people showed up and were just hanging out talking and waiting for any new information.

Family members were being comforted as they waited for any news, and at one point we in the media moved further back than police asked us to.

We were all taking in the shade near a grieving family member and Detectives came over to talk to her.

The police looked at us and told us to make sure our cameras were off.

It was me and Tim from KRBC, and the KTXS Reporter and Photographer.

We did not say anything, we just knew it was appropriate to move and not be in the area when police were talking to her.