Did you hear?

My wife and I are both news junkies, and we both try to out-scoop each other. Whenever I hear any news that's shocking or surprising, I try to call or IM her before she contacts me. We're competitive like that. It's how we roll.

The scoop might be about a well known national story, but it could just as easily be about a local story that few people are following.

Although some people might find this strange, I can often recall where I was and what I was doing when I hear a new story for the first time. I heard breaking news reports over the radio about the death of college basketball star Len Bias while I was working at a summer job in New Hampshire in 1986. I was driving over the Anacostia River on New York Avenue in D.C. when I heard that Elizabeth Smart was found alive. I was sitting at my desk in McLean, Virginia when I received an e-mail news alert announcing the death of Tim Russert. I was driving on Connecticut Avenue in D.C. when I heard that there had been an arrest for the 2001 Montgomery County murder of Sue Wen Stottmeister.

Today's scoop was news of the arrest of McDonald Abraham III for the 2005 murder of 17 year old Stacey Seaton in Bowie - a murder that went unsolved for more than four years. Police believe that the the victim was targeted, and family and friends have always claimed that they knew who was responsible for the murder. Enough pieces of the puzzle finally came together to allow the Prince George's County Police to make the arrest today.

Stacey Seaton's parents have kept the murder in the spotlight for over four years. Flyers have consistently been on display at local stores, and requests for information have sometimes appeared on billboards in Bowie. The story has been covered multiple times by local newspapers, and details of the crime are posted on the America's Most Wanted web site.

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