I was interviewed several times on local TV stations where I investigated an accident, murder or a fire. As a Pennsylvania State Trooper, we were told to cooperate with the media by answering questions and not making any statements. If the reporter asked a question that we couldnāt reply to, we used the old āI canāt comment on that at this time.ā The reporters were all well versed to know if we gave that answer to move on.
We investigated a murder in Center County about mid ā80ās. The reporter asked me if he could have just 2 minutes of my time. I said āSure.ā His first question was do we have the name of the victim? I answered yes. I knew he wanted the name, but wasnāt going to get the name. He was smart enough to move to the next question āAre you able to tell us the cause of death?ā My answer was simple, āstrangulation.ā The reported looked like he was just shot. He kind of stuttered for a moment before he asked the next question.
After the short interview, he told me I did stun him with my answer of strangulation. I told him that normally, I wouldnāt have done that, but it was already out there among the people that had came to the house. The next day, the daughter called and I had a message to call her back. She thanked me for not going into details, such as the female victim had also been raped. That information would not be released on TV at that time.
I never had an urge or did I seek out the press for an interview.