--Free Lance-Star reporter Pamela Gould's in-depth look at law enforcement failures in several unsolved area murder cases was named a finalist yesterday in the prestigious American Society of Newspaper Editors awards.
Gould's Nov. 18 special report, "Who Killed Her Daughter?" was one of three finalists in the Local Accountability Reporting category. The Washington Post won the award for stories exposing widespread problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Free Lance-Star's report was the result of a more than 18-month investigation. It found that law enforcement officials indicted Darrell Rice in the 1996 slayings of two hikers in Shenandoah National Park and implicated him in the death of 29 Stalker victim Alicia Showalter Reynolds even though no forensic evidence linked him to those crimes.
It also found that authorities did not pursue known serial killer Richard Marc Evonitz in those cases, even though he could not be ruled out as the source of a hair found at the scene of the park slayings.
Other finalists in the Local Accountability category of the ASNE awards were The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer and The Detroit News.