Qualla: Murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward

Murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Alison Bailey Parker was 24 years old. Adam Laing Ward was 27. They had driven out before dawn from Roanoke to Bridgewater Plaza on Smith Mountain Lake to talk with the local chamber of commerce director about the lake's upcoming 50th anniversary celebration. By 6:46 a.m. on August 26, 2015, in the middle of their live report for WDBJ's morning newscast, they had been murdered on camera. The third person in the shot, Vicki Gardner, was shot in the back as she curled into a fetal position. She survived. Their killer was a former coworker who had been fired from WDBJ two and a half years earlier.

Murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward: Alison Parker

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Alison Parker grew up in Martinsville, the small Virginia town near the Carolina line that her father Andy still calls home. She attended Patrick Henry Community College, graduated in 2009, and went on to James Madison University. She interned at WDBJ in 2012 — the station she ha...

Murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward: Adam Ward

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Adam Ward was born in Daleville and grew up in Salem, where his father Buddy worked as a guidance counselor at Salem High School. He went to Virginia Tech, graduating in 2011 with a degree in communications and media studies, and started at WDBJ that July as a videographer. He oc...

Murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward: The Morning

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At Bridgewater Plaza, twenty-six miles southeast of Roanoke, Parker, Ward, and Gardner were on a live shot at 6:46 a.m. EDT. Video later reviewed by investigators shows that the shooter — a former WDBJ multimedia journalist who had been dismissed in February 2013 — walked up to t...

Murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward: The Aftermath

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Staff in the WDBJ newsroom identified the shooter from images on Ward's fallen camera and alerted general manager Jeffrey Marks, who passed the information to the Franklin County sheriff. The killer abandoned his Ford Mustang at the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport, drove a re...