Va. shooting victims' significant others have ties to Philly area

THE SIGNIFICANT others of the Virginia journalists gunned down yesterday by a disgruntled former co-worker both grew up in the Philly area.

Adam Ward, 27, and Alison Parker, 24, were shot just before 7 a.m. by Vester Lee Flanagan II, a former employee of WDBJ, a CBS affiliate in Roanoke, Va.

Flanagan turned the gun on himself yesterday afternoon as he was being chased by police on Interstate 66.

Both victims grew up near Roanoke, about 400 miles from the Philadelphia area, where the two people with whom they were involved both grew up.

Ward's fiancee, Melissa Ott, a native of Gibbstown, Gloucester County, honed her journalism skills through internships at NBC10 and 97.5 The Fanatic, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Ott, 26, a Penn State University grad, was in the WDBJ production booth yesterday morning, watching helplessly as Ward's camera filmed the fatal gunfire.

It was her last day at the station: She recently had accepted a job in Charlotte, N.C.

She and Ward, who became engaged in December, had planned to relocate to Charlotte in the coming weeks.

"Today, my entire world was flipped upside down," Ott posted on her Facebook page last night. "Starting new adventures with my fiance, new jobs, a new city. Getting married, having a family, buying a home. Thats now taken. Im not ok. And I wont be for a long time. But the enormous outpour of love and support from so many of you near and far is so much appreciated. Adam, I will never find a man so happy, selfless, protective, funny, or charming like you. You were the one. You understood me. My soulmate. I will always love you. Please watch over me and keep me strong. Enjoy the endless tech games in your heaven. I love you so much [heart]"

Their romance wasn't the only one to blossom in the WDBJ newsroom: Parker was dating network anchor Chris Hurst, and the two recently had moved in together.

"She was the most radiant woman I ever met," Hurst, 28, wrote in a Facebook post. "And for some reason she loved me back."

Hurst grew up in Chester County, and is an alumnus of Conestoga High School in Tredyffrin Township. He attended Temple University for a year before transferring to Emerson College in Boston, where he received a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism, according to his LinkedIn profile

Last night, colleagues remembered Parker and Ward fondly.

In their work, the broadcasters were "full of smiles and full of exuberance," said Jeffrey Marks, general manager of the Roanoke station.

The pair worked as a team for the station's "Mornin' " show, a time slot in which many broadcast journalists get their start.

"She took on the morning live reporting job with great excitement and vigor," Marks said. "Nobody could have done it better."

Parker said in a promotional video for the station that the "most thrilling" thing she ever did was take a trip to the Grand Canyon with her family and ride horseback down the canyon. She enjoyed the arts, playing trumpet and French horn in high school. And she loved Mexican food.

"The spicier, the better," she said in the video.

Ward, who played high school football, was a devoted fan of his alma mater, Virginia Tech. He rarely missed a game, and was a "happy-go-lucky guy" - even during the early-morning hours.

"He was the kind of guy you wanted to be around, especially at three in the morning," said Jay Webb, a former meteorologist at WDBJ.

Robert Denton, head of the communications department at Virginia Tech, said he handed Ward his diploma in 2011.

"He was quite a talker, and he loved sports and politics," Denton said. "You could not be around him and not have a wonderful conversation."

Parker and Ward both attended high school in the Roanoke area and later interned at the station. After Parker's internship, she moved to a smaller market in Jacksonville, N.C., before returning to WDBJ.

Parker's father, Andy Parker, said the family is devastated.

"I go from shock and just not believing to realizing that it happened and just crying my eyes out," he said in an interview at his home in Collinsville, Va.

He was proud of his daughter's journalistic ethics, recalling that police in Jacksonville would give her scoops because she showed herself to be trustworthy about not breaking embargoes or reporting off-the-record conversations.

He said she graduated from James Madison University in 3 1/2 years and had wide interests ranging from whitewater kayaking to ballet.

"She excelled at everything she did," he said.

Remembering her skills in English and spelling, he said classmates called her the "grammar queen" because she would correct people's grammar.

Parker said Flanagan got fired before his daughter started at the station full time, and that she never mentioned having problems with him.

He said he's not against gun ownership in general, but he supports tougher background checks and now plans to start advocating for them.

"I can't bring her back," he said. "But I have to do something."

- The Associated Press

contributed to this report.