TV anchor, photojournalist killed when tree falls on vehicle
A North Carolina state trooper says a tree fell across a highway, crushing a vehicle from a South Carolina television station and killing a TV anchor and photojournalist.
Master Trooper Murico Stephens says the tree struck the WYFF-TV vehicle around 2:30 p.m. Monday on U.S. Highway 176 near Tryon. The area received heavy rain from the fringes of Subtropical Storm Alberto.
WYFF-TV says anchor Mike McCormick and photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer were heading to a story when they were killed.
Anchor Carol Goldsmith said on air that McCormick and Smeltzer were “beloved members of our team – our family.”
The tree fell in Polk County not far from where a landslide killed a woman in her home on May 19 after heavy rains.
WYFF-TV is based in Greenville, South Carolina.
McCormick, originally from Arkansas, had been at WYFF since 2007 and had been the station’s Sunday anchor since 2014.
Smeltzer, originally from Tazewell,Va., had been with the station since February of this year, but had shot news in the Spartanburg area of South Carolina for more than a decade.
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(WYFF News Four contributed to this article).
