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Cleveland Police Reveal New Details About Local Journalist's Alleged Murder
Nikki Delamotte was said to have been shot several times while her uncle, Robert J. Delamotte, who was found in the same trailer alongside her, was hit just once.
New details about the fatal shooting of a Cleveland culture reporter and her uncle inside a trailer home have emerged, with recent reports revealing she suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Nikki Delamotte, 30, and her uncle, 67-year-old Robert J. Delamotte, were found dead in Perrysburg Township in Ohio, Cleveland.com, the outlet Nikki Delamotte had been a reporter at for two years, initially reported.
While she died of multiple gunshot wounds, police said her uncle suffered only a single shot, according to NBC News.
Police are investigating the deaths, which they believe happened Sunday, as a double homicide.
Nikki Delamotte planned to watch a football game with her uncle at a bar near his home Sunday.
JoAnne Ullman, Nikki Delamotte’s mother, told Cleveland.com she reported her daughter missing Monday after she didn’t get a response to text messages she'd sent her.
The bodies were found later that day, according to The Associated Press. Details of the killings have not been disclosed, nor has a potential suspect.
Ullman, however, told NBC News that after the recent death of her grandmother, "Nikki was trying to reconnect with the small family left and did detective work to find her Uncle Bob on her father's side. [...] Neither of us had seen him in about 20 years. They connected October 13th after a memorial lunch for my mother and had been talking on the phone.”
Many news sites, including Cleveland.com, have paid tribute to the journalist since she was found dead. Her former employer described her as a “journalist with heart,” while Poynter, a site specializing in media-related coverage, spoke to some of her former colleagues, who all commented on her tenacity and professionalism as a reporter.
“Nikki Delamotte was the new friend you'd known forever. She was that warm, that giving, that caring — and that much fun to be around,” Cleveland.com wrote in an editorial. “And how could anyone kill someone so good, so kind, who uplifted all of us through her writing and celebrated all that was good, quirky and delicious about Cleveland?”
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