Weekly's investigation of local resident's jail death in another state prompts more coverage and a criminal investigation

In May, a Kentucky woman jailed on drunk-driving charges in Virginia died in custody. When her family wasn't satisfied with the explanations they received, they went to their local newspaper, The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg. The weekly's Sam Adams investigated, and his reporting has prompted a criminal investigation, the Eagle reports.

Sherri Delynn Cook

"The daily media in Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee ignored the story for several days, but at some point a current or former Virginia law enforcement officer made sure the Va.-Tenn. media saw our coverage," Eagle Publisher Ben Gish told The Rural Blog. "They then began to report on the death . . . I am almost certain the entire matter would have been buried if The Eagle hadn’t started covering it — and covered it pretty aggressively, through Sam and our very limited resources. So community newspapers do still matter!"

Adams reported that Virginia's regional jail in Duffield told the family of Sherri Delynn Cook that she had been released on bail at 8:49 p.m., but "In reality, she had died more than an hour earlier, at 7:36 p.m., according to documents accompanying her ashes back to Kentucky." In his follow-up story, he reported, "When the family couldn’t find her . . . they kept calling back. Finally, at 9 p.m. on May 21, Fine said, they were told that Cook was dead. By that time, she had been dead at least 25 hours."