Even in the world of Blackberrys, I-Phones, Twitter and high definition sometimes news travels the old fashioned way: one person telling the next, telling the next and so on.  That's how I found out this morning someone had been killed in the Tompkins County community of Cayuga Heights on the fringe of the campus of Cornell University.  We had an appointment for our dog at the Veterinary school at Cornell. A woman in the office asked me if I was going to get called into work early. I smiled and asked why. She said something like haven't you heard about the murder?

That caught my attention. I had not. She told me it was in Cayuga Heights which is less than a ten minute drive through campus into one of the higher end neighborhoods in the Finger Lakes community of Ithaca. I called the station to make sure they already knew about the crime scene. They did, but did not yet have anyone coming down to cover it. I happened to have my digital camera in the car. Not quite top professional quality for video, but pretty good. I decided to drive over to the crime scene to cover our bases.

I quickly found the crime tape and a blocked off Cayuga Heights Road.  Cornell Police officers were manning the road block. They did not have a reason for keeping the media more than a half mile away.  There was no danger at that point. The murder had taken place in the early morning hours.  I found a side street. Parked the car and walked a block or two to get close enough to take some stills for the web page and video from our broadcasts. The investigators on the scene were not bothered at all about their picture being taken.

By the time I finished we had reporter Alex Dunbar on his way to Ithaca to cover the afternoon news conference and get the details. It turns out an adult son, Ian Butler, is accused of killing his 53 year old mother Carol Butler. His defense attorney says he has a history of serious mental health problems.

We ended up using some of that video in our broadcasts tonight. I've been trying to keep that camera handy more often lately. Today it improved our news gathering ability.  If you think of it in your own travels grab a picture with your cell phone or a little video and send it to us if you capture something happening. We can always use more eyes and ears across the community.

Click this link to sign up for new mode of e-mail of Matt’s Memo to your Inbox:

http://www.cnycentral.com/news/news_blog_post.aspx?id=319963

 You can always read the blog on CNYcentral.com.

 Follow me on Twitter at   Twitter.com/mattmulcahy

or

Find me on Facebook.com

Any questions or comment please forward them to mattsmemo@CNYcentral.com.   I may even use some of your thoughts on Action News at 5:00,  the 10:00 News on CW6 or on CNYcentral.com.                                 

The opinions expressed in this blog are the sole responsibility of the author and are not reflective of the views or opinions of Barrington Broadcasting, WSTM-NBC3, its management or employees.