WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN
July 22, 2004
"I know what that family's going through," LC Nolan said. "I listened to Laci's mom talk on TV one time and I just closed my eyes and listened to my wife." The reason he can say that about the Laci Peterson case is that his own daughter died at the hands of an abusive husband while she was pregnant.
He was telling me about how closely he and his wife follow news of any domestic violence case.
And I was going to let him say it in my story. I had written: "They see stories about the Utah woman named Lori Hacking who disappeared and her husband Mark whom police call a 'person of interest' in the case. And the Laci Peterson trial, where her husband Scott is accused of killing her and her unborn child. The Nolans say those stories look like re-runs of their own."
Cut to LC's quote. "I know..."
That's the plan. But you can probably guess where this is going. The story is running 1:50. The producer squeals that she doesn't have room for it in the show. There's no time to re-write the story. I have to simply chop a chunk out of it. The chunk you just read.
Say goodbye to the tie-in to the current cases that prompt our story and the best soundbite of the night.
Some days you feel great just to get your story on TV; others you feel sick for wasting what should have become a great story. Forget resume fodder. Sometimes you meet people and feel an obligation to do them justice.
LC and Sharon Nolan are two of those people.
And I'm going to fail them.
September 4, 2001, Shannon Broe (rhymes with "Joe") had shared the news with her parents that the baby growing inside her was a girl she was going to name Alexandra Jordan. Three days later she disappeared, to be discovered dead September 10. John Broe, her husband of almost two years, later admitted beating her to death with a baseball bat after an argument sparked when she caught him having sex with an 18-year-old in their home.
She was 24. LC and Sharon Nolan had no idea that their daughter had been caught in an abusive relationship. If there were signs, they hadn't noticed them and they regret it still. "The guilt is there that maybe we loved him also and didn't look past him to see what Shannon was living -- the abuse in her life," Sharon told me.
A court found John Broe guilty of aggravated murder and sentenced him to 40 years in prison.
Why is this a story now? Leading into our 11 p.m. news, ABC is airing a two-hour documentary about novelist Michael Peterson's trial on charges of bludgeoning his wife to death. Since she died at the bottom of a flight of steps, ABC has cleverly dubbed the show, "The Stair Case."
The woman producing tonight's 11 p.m. news, the same one who later orders its truncation, suggests doing a tie-in story about domestic violence with Shannon Broe's parents if they'll talk to us. They have commented publicly after rulings in the case but nothing, according to her, where we did a sit down interview with them.
They have a Parents of Murdered Children meeting at 6:45 p.m. in Mason, Sharon tells me when I call her. "We could go the meeting with you, if that would be OK," I say. But we can't shoot the meeting because many people who attend want their privacy protected but she and LC will meet us outside before the meeting if we want.
We do. With copious file footage on Shannon's case available plus video of the Utah woman and the Laci Peterson trial, we have plenty of visuals to use.
It's obvious that talking about Shannon's murder still hurts them, yet they can't stop. "It's like therapy to us," LC says. "It's very painful sometimes but I want the memory of my daughter and granddaughter to live on forever."
Almost three years after the fact, it looks like they're still trying to grasp the idea. They weren't supposed to outlive any of their children and the fact that they had to bury one of them still spins their heads and sinks their hearts.
It tugs at mine too. And I feel terrible in a different way as I stand in front of the camera waiting to do my live shot. I want to spit in disgust.
((CAROL))
AT LEAST ONE STUDY HAS SHOWN THAT THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH FOR PREGNANT WOMEN IS HOMICIDE. A TRI-STATE FAMILY KNOWS THAT UNFORTUNATE FACT ALL TOO WELL BUT THEY'RE TRYING TO CHANGE IT. NINE NEWS REPORTER JOHN MCQUISTON IS LIVE DOWNTOWN WITH THAT STORY.
((JOHN MCQ/LIVE))
IT WAS ALMOST THREE YEARS AGO THAT SHANNON BROE'S HUSBAND JOHN MURDERED HER. TO HELP COPE WITH HER LOSS, HER PARENTS HAVE BECOME ADVOCATES AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. BUT IT'S STILL TOUGH FOR THEM TO SEE CASES LIKE THE MISSING WOMAN FROM UTAH OR THE LACI PETERSON CASE, WHICH THEY SAY LOOKS LIKE A RE-RUN OF THEIR OWN.
((PKG))
IF TIME HEALS ALL WOUNDS, IT WILL TAKE MORE TIME TO HEAL THIS ONE.
LC Nolan/Shannon Broe's father: "I've lived with the thing for almost three years and I want someone else to die and I'm not joking."
L-C AND SHARON NOLAN ARE STILL ANGRY AT JOHN BROE FOR MURDERING THEIR DAUGHTER SHANNON AND HER UNBORN CHILD THEY WERE GOING TO CALL ALEXANDRA. AND STILL BLAME THEMSELVES FOR NOT DOING SOMETHING TO STOP IT.
Sharon Nolan/Shannon Broe's mother: "It's hard to lose the guilt when it's your children and you weren't there for them."
JOHN AND SHANNON BROE HAD BEEN MARRIED ALMOST TWO YEARS. SHE WAS FIVE MONTHS PREGNANT WHEN HE BEAT HER TO DEATH WITH A BASEBALL BAT. HE IS SERVIING 40 YEARS IN PRISON.
LC Nolan: "I give my daughter away to a murderer. I feel that guilt. I feel the guilt that I was not educated in domestic violence."
THEY HOPE SHARING THEIR STORY WILL EDUCATE SOMEONE ELSE. PAINFUL THERAPY, THEY CALL IT. WATCHING THE NEWS AND TALKING ABOUT THE DAUGHTER THEY LOST AND THE GRANDAUGHTER THEY NEVER GOT TO MEET.
Sharon Nolan: "We hope that there will be someone who comes back and says 'We have heard Shannon and Alexandra's story and I'm here beacuse I did leave. And I did listen and I'm alive."
THEN MAYBE THEIR WOUNDS WILL HAVE BEGUN TO HEAL.
((JOHN MCQ/LIVE))
THE NOLANS WANTED US TO PASS ALONG A PHONE NUMBER TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE IN A SITUATION LIKE THEIRS OR SHANNON'S. IT'S CALLED THE PROTECT HOTLINE. THE NUMBER IS 888-872-9259 AND IT WILL CONNECT YOU TO SOMEONE WHO CAN HELP. SHANNON BROE'S BIRTHDAY IS ONE WEEK FROM TONIGHT. SHE WOULD HAVE TURNED 27.
I still feel sick for not doing the story proper justice. Like her parents, I'm haunted by thoughts of what could have been.
And sorry I didn't do better.
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©2004 John McQuiston