Journalism at UMD

It was late March when she was alone in her parent's home in Madison, Wis., with her boyfriend when it all happened. She wanted to see other people. Her boyfriend didn't.

The argument flared. Her boyfriend left the room only to come back with a .357 magnum handgun. He knew that it was hidden her father's dresser.

Seeing him come back into the room with the magnum in hand, she ran out the backdoor in terror and fear. She ran as fast as she could through the cold snow that was still left on the ground to the neighbor's house.

She never made it.

The boyfriend went after her, shooting wildly in her direction. Two bullets lodged near the roof of the siding of the neighbor's house. The other bullet lodged directly into her back. She dropped to the ground instantly.

Some neighbors heard the shots from inside their house. One neighbor, looking out their window, saw her drop to the ground. That's when they called the police.

After she was shot, her boyfriend walked back into the house, only to stay there until police arrived at the scene.

As soon as the police arrived, her boyfriend came out of the front door yelling, "Shoot me! Shoot me! I killed her!"

The rest of the normal proceedings happened. Other ambulance and police arrived, and the boyfriend was arrested.

As soon as the boyfriend was arrested and the crime scene was tapped up around the body that looked to be simply lying in the snow, officials tried to get a hold of her family.

Finally arriving to their home, the family decided to stay at the neighbor's house, the house she was running to. Except for her mother.

The police could not get a hold of her mother. They thought she might have been out shopping for the day.

Scott Stowell, an electronic newsgathering photographer for Madison T.V. station, was on the scene when the mother arrived.

Be the time her mother arrived, the body had been taken away, crime scene was tapped up, there was reddish orangey markings used to outline the body in the snow, and everyone had cleared out. All the neighbors went back into their homes.

Stowell had a hard time packing up his gear and so was taking a longer time in leaving. When as he was leaving in his car, he noticed the mother coming home.

Her parent's house was located in a residential area, on a corner. It was a T-shaped corner.

Stowell was just going up the corner and about to turn left at the T, when a van from the right stopped at the stop sign. Stowell looked through his windshield and noticed there was a woman in the van.

By the look on her face, she had noticed something had happened at her house. With a look of irritation on her face with what was going on, she continued driving to her home.

Stowell waited at the stop sign for the woman to turn in front of him. He had a sense that there might be something there.

After seeing the mother turn towards her house, Stowell turned his car around. He pulled up to her house just moments after her mother did.

When her mother pulled up, it took what felt like a long while for everything to happen and sink in.

Soon her husband and other kids came pouring out of the neighbor's house crying and full of emotion. Except for her daughter.

That's when her family told her about what happened just moments before.

Standing outside, they didn't go anywhere for a while. They all stayed in the yard hugging each other with deep emotion and mass shock.

While sitting in his car, Stowell got on his radio and dialed his news director.

At this point, Stowell knew he had the perfect photograph. He had the time to get his gear back together and take a picture of the mother's state of shock when she found out the horrible news of her daughter, but did he take the photo?

This situation is what T.V. stations and news crews call that "once-in-a-lifetime" shot.

Many photographers would take the photo, no questions asked, that conveys exactly what the mother's feeling as soon as she finds out her daughter has been shot and killed. Others would not.

James Vesley, editor of the Sacramento Union, claims that photos convey something an article cannot.

"The impact of a single, black and white photo prominently displayed can last in the community's conscience long after the news has moved onto other events," he wrote in his article entitled Bring death close.

Vesley is an activist for publishing such emotional and shocking photographs. Photo can bring an event to an emotional pitch, according to Vesley. The photo is the story.

"Even if the community and, sadly, the family are offended by the photo, we reason the greater offense is to withhold the news," he wrote.

One editor swore he would never cross the line that would force him to invade someone's grief, after having his own grief invaded by prying press coverage of a fire that took the lives of his grandmother, aunt and three cousins. However, when it came down to him deciding to publish a photo that conveyed that same emotion years later, he published it.

"There was not any real doubt in my mind that we should use the picture. We had to. Without a single word, that photo captured the heart and soul of the story in terms that anyone could understand; grief screamed out at us in black and white, grabbing each one of us by the heart," Charles Wilson, managing editor of Rushville Republican, wrote in his article Seeing both sides.

According to Wilson, the deciding factor to publish the photo was due to the photo telling a story without any words; what it was supposed to do; however, that was not the deciding factor.

"The deciding factor had nothing to do with the quality of the photograph; it was a moral decision," he wrote.

Wilson's morals and ethics changed as soon as he was in position to publish a photo that conveyed just emotion that he had been angry at years before.

A person's ethics will be ever changing and evolving as you go along in life, according to Stowell, the photographer at the murder scene of Jane Doe.

"Your ethics will never stop evolving. You're going to change your mind; you're going to take another road. Your ethical behaviors will constantly evolve," he said.

After watching the girl's father and siblings race to the mother, who had no idea of what happened just moments before, Stowell had the opportunity to get what many call that perfect photograph.

Stowell, still sitting in his car, got on his radio and called back to his news director.

Stowell was told to not take the photo.