We talked for a long time and I told her if I needed to make any corrections I would work with her to make things right. As it turns out, I hadn’t written anything that was inaccurate, she just needed a place to direct all of the pain and anger she was feeling and I was an easy and visible target. And I was willing.


For a few minutes I put aside my notepad and just listened to the broken woman remember all of the good she saw in her grandson who, regardless of what he may or may not have done, had his life tragically cut short.


Chad, Ellis and Sarah Katzenberger (Nelson, ‘07) Staying Objective


One alumna’s story about murder and justice by Sarah Nelson Katzenberger (‘07)


I work as a news reporter for a small town newspaper in the middle of Minnesota. Most days, my job involves covering church meetings and middle school spelling bees, but sometimes I get the opportunity to cover real news. It’s often in those moments you are thrust into a much larger and unintended spotlight.


Last fall, I found myself covering the biggest story of the year in the town of Little Falls just south of where I live in Brainerd, MN.


Nearly a year later, the story continues to unfold, and given the open court case attached, it includes a whole lot of “accused” and “alleged” and “yet to be proven” facts. Te gist is two teenagers were shot to death on Tanksgiving Day in a basement of a man who has admitted to taking their lives after the pair entered his home without his permission.


Te man, Byron Smith, was charged with second- degree murder and later indicted for first- degree murder.


Te media was all over it. Every Midwest news source was crawling all over this town looking for ways to draw more front-page news from this tragedy that had a small town reeling for answers. I found myself feeling highly under-qualified and soft when it came to comparing my take on things to the cutthroat versions being pumped out by larger media sources.


Te conversation in the community and in the media was messy and full of questions—was Mr. Smith within his right to defend himself? Did he really need to shoot them as many times as he did? Tey were just kids. He’s a monster. Tey were wrong. He was wrong. Words like tragic, senseless, justice, and punishment were thrown around in every exchange I had. It was intense.


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As a journalist, I know it’s my job to report the facts and to do everything I can to leave my own emotions and opinions out of it. As a mom and a follower of Jesus, this story was particularly tough for me to stay detached because of the tragedy at its center.


I spent about nine days straight in Little Falls talking to family members and area teenagers, attending hearings, and even the funerals for the two kids whose lost lives were the topic of every conversation in town.


I would come home in the evening and hold my own baby and remind myself how precious life is and how quickly it can be taken. I prayed a lot for God to protect me and my words and that truth would prevail in what people would read in the next day’s paper.


As a journalist, I know it’s my job to report the facts and to do everything I can to leave my own emotions and opinions out of it.


Te hardest moment for me came a few days after the funerals when I got a call from the grandmother of one of the teenagers. She wasn’t happy. Tere was some yelling. I knew she was hurting deeply and regardless of how objective my writing was it was going to be painful for her to read.


She didn’t know me. She didn’t know I’m a believer or that I’m a mom or that despite the hard details spilled all over the newspaper, my heart was broken for her family. All she saw was my name attached to the printed information surrounding her grandson’s death.


Later, after the man accused of killing her grandson was released on bail, I was the only reporter the family contacted with an exclusive statement on their feelings surrounding the story. Not the Minneapolis Star Tribune, not any of the TV news stations. Just me—the small town reporter who chose truth over bloodthirsty story writing. I guess that’s not super normal in this industry—especially in crime stories with muddy circumstances.


Te story of the Little Falls murders continues to unfold. Nearly a year later I am still covering court dates, as we get closer to starting a trial. Every time I sit in the courtroom directly behind the man who admitted to shooting two kids, and the family of those kids sit directly behind me. It’s a difficult place to be.


Te last hearing I attended, Byron Smith approached me in the hallway (something I’m certain his lawyer would have disapproved of). We talked for a few minutes—I have no idea about what because all I could think about was what happened in his basement last year. But there was this moment where I caught his eyes and I saw a man. A broken man, but a man. A man loved by his family and the same God that loves me.


I’ll continue to follow the case and do my best to stay objective. Privately, I know there will be more moments when my own emotions surface. Tose are the moments I take my fingers off the keyboard and say, “God, this is yours. Just be truth.”


Truth is what sets us free.


Sarah Nelson Katzenberger (’07) is a writer learning to be a newspaper journalist. Her series of stories on the Little Falls murders won the Morris Communications Excellence in Journalism Award for breaking news. Sarah works as a reporter at the Brainerd Dispatch in Brainerd, MN. where she lives with her husband Chad and daughter Ellis.


Alumni—Share Your Story! If you have a story, we would love to hear it!


Please contact the Alumni Association alumni@jessup.edu


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