It is a very sad story, and unfortunately one in which we still don't know a lot of information. What we do know is that Anna-Maria Wheeker was reported missing by her husband since Saturday evening. She was last seen walking on or near her property. She was found Wednesday afternoon on her roughly 20-acre Bridgewater Township property by a team search party. She is a mother of four, and so far no foul play is suspected. The investigation is ongoing and a coroner was scheduled to do an autopsy yesterday afternoon.
It's always sad when someone appreciated by the community goes. Frankly it's sad when anyone dies. But I was encouraged by the effectiveness of the many news sources around the area. All the local newspaper companies had a missing persons report online right away, and even the local Fox 2 News Detroit show aired an amber alert. In the end, this is exactly what our papers are here for. Sure, a majority of the things we cover are features and sports and community events that include government. It isn't that those things aren't important (on the contrary, things like government and community fundraisers and exceedingly important to local towns), but having venues with which to exchange information quickly is important. If there ever is an emergency that requires informing thousands of people simultaneously, I'm glad that most of our local newspapers have survived in order to serve that purpose. It was for this reason that I started blending my personal Twitter account with my professional life. Originally I wasn't a huge fan, but I do enjoy keeping followers up to date very promptly.
This is also why I'm trying to be better about posting to "The Wire." More and more we see news shared in an online way. I encourage everyone to visit www.heritage.com for news updates. We try to keep our publications up to date on the web to make them more like dailies than weeklies. I also link all articles with my Twitter account (@janawritesalot) for easy clicks to stories, and our Heritage West group is creating a Facebook page for all the seven associated regional weeklies. Even if you are uncomfortable with the medium, I would encourage you to experiment. It might not always be necessary for you to have access to these tools. But sometime it will be, and it won't be an event that allows you time to prepare. So make a Twitter account, follow your local breaking news sources, and do what you can to keep our neighbors and friends informed. It doesn't only take a journalist to share an important story.
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