When it comes to covering the local news that is of importance and interest to people in this area, especially breaking news, no one has coverage that is more detailed, more complete and better written than our own Henry Frederick of NSBNews.net.
Henry has done it again with his intense coverage of the murder of Jennifer Rado of New Smyrna Beach. Doggedly following the case without sleep for two days, Henry was initially tied into coverage of the first day of school and then the Oak Hill City Commission vote for a contract with the Sheriff's Office for police services just a few weeks after the corrupt police force was disbanded, a story Henry
broke in January and continued to expose wrongdoing in the interim.
Then as Henry was in the throes of writing his stories, he got word that Edgewater police were working the discovery of two crime scenes involving three bodies.
The TV stations had the story and by midnight, the top brass of the Edgewater police were no longer available. With stonewalling by overnight patrols, Henry woke the mayor out of bed at 1:30 in the morning Tuesday and got the police chief on the horn at 6 a.m. for an exclusive interview on the skeletal remains in Oak Hill of New Smyrna Beach resident Jennifer Rado, who had been missing since mid-July.
Henry was able to get out breaking news from the police chief that not only had police made an arrest, but that the suspect confessed to the murder. Henry then put together a series of stories throughout the day, including a passionate human interest piece on the victim and her family and the issue of prescription pills that was the centerpiece of the crime.
Henry used social media to get feedback from people in the community on Facebook and Twitter. He utilized information from the New Smyrna police departments and the courts for a story on drugs.
Then Henry and his wife, Sera, who shoots video, drove to the Volusia County Branch Jail on the outskirts of Daytona Beach to cover the first appearance of the accused killer, Frances Gibson, and scored an interview with the suspect's mother right after the hearing.
Before returning home to take a much-needed nap, Henry got the police chief to update him on the other crime scene where the bodies of two men were found.
Henry was working well into the morning on updating this major breaking news stories and dealing with all of the other stories going on, too. Henry takes pride in NSBNews.net, which he built from scratch nearly four years ago. He generates all of the ad revenue, juggles more than two dozen bloggers and is constantly mining greater New Smyrna Beach and the county at large for news. In addition to all of these responsibilities, Henry home schools his 17-year-old son, and he is a big fan of pop music and movies. He's also reads a lot.
Henry's aggressive approach to breaking news and investigative reporting didn't happen overnight. He has learned the “newspaper business” from the ground up from the time he was in elementary school. Along the way, he has won numerous awards especially in the area of crime reporting, including witnessing the Florida execution of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
The point of all this is that if you want the real story behind the news, Henry works hard to make sure you'll get it with NSBNews.net. With traditional print newspapers losing their standing, Henry has made the transition to online journalism and each day, more and more people -- several thousand daily followers -- are discovering his talents and getting the news that really matters to them.
I got into this with Henry because I wanted to write a column. I never dreamed it would turn out like this. Henry had a dream of reporting the news free of the liberal print media and he made it a reality. Henry and Sera and his son live in Sugar Mill here in New Smyrna Beach and they are committed to this community.
They have shot hundreds of videos and Henry has generated countless stories with breaking news his No. 1 priority, followed by investigative news and blogging. Henry has broken many, many stories since the mid-1990s and he continues his love of covering breaking news while others in the dying print newspaper industry leave the business altogether.