Amy Schatz, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, described to an audience Tuesday javascript:replaceBreaks();night what it took to report and write a prize-winning story starting with only an obituary and a few notes.
Schatz's story, titled "Joe's Van," won her the 2006 Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award.
Schatz's story focused on the death of Joe Brown, a quadriplegic who died in an accident when the throttle in his van, designed specially for quadriplegic's, malfunctioned, causing him to drive off the road and crash. The story gained the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety and helped spark a series of laws meant to make vans like Brown's safer.
When Brown crashed, he did not have a cell phone, but he did have a handheld computer on which he typed as he lay dying, Schatz said.
"I did not commit suicide," the document recovered from his computer said. "Sorry for the title, but I was afraid that if I didn't make it, that's what people would think."
The last words Brown ever typed were, "Oh Lord, thank you," Schatz said.
Schatz said she did not have much information about the accident before she drove to Brown's hometown of Coudersport, Penn.
"All I had was Joe's note to go on and a copy of the obituary," she said.
Pennsylvania does not consider accident reports public record, so getting details at the police station was challenging, Schatz said.
"Basically I sat in the office and refused to leave," she said. "I sat there and played stupid for a while until I got something."
The police ended up giving Schatz directions to the field where Brown crashed, marking on a map the fatal path Brown took.
Schatz said many of Brown's relatives were reluctant to agree to an interview.
"I wasn't sure if he'd ever let me inside," Schatz said about Brown's stepfather Greg Froebel. "I was sitting on the porch drinking iced tea thinking I'm eventually going to have to go to the bathroom, and he's going to have to let me in."
Getting people to open up in an interview can be a delicate art, Schatz said.
"They have to know you care what they have to say," she said. "That you're not just there to get a quote in your notebook."
Schatz was able to do the bulk of her research for the article during the span of a weekend, she said. She retraced Brown's drive, interviewed family members and attended his church - all to get a feel for the man she was writing about, she said.
After returning home to Virginia, Schatz followed up on some of the interviews she conducted. She said a phone book she took from her hotel room in Coudersport helped out a lot.
"I called his ex-girlfriend until she stopped returning my calls, then I stalked her, which is harder to do when you're far away," Schatz said. "But there are ways."
This message of tenaciousness resonated with many in the audience.
"It's inspirational to learn about the process she went through," Ball State graduate student Missy Wess said. "Hearing a first-hand account like that shows how persistent you have to be to get a good story."
Ball State sophomore Deborah Barnett said she appreciated Schatz short, succinct speaking style.
"It wasn't long winded," Barnett said. "It made me interested and wanting to read [her story]."
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