27-year-old Kansas City television sports reporter dies while on Super Bowl assignment

[Mr. X]

Kansas City reporter Adan Manzano dies in NOLA before Super Bowl

 

[tapintoamerica]

Kansas City reporter Adan Manzano dies in NOLA before Super Bowl

That's truly awful.
In addition to conveying terrible news, the story sucks as journalism. It says the New Orleans PD had no details on "the incident." That's the only reference to anything resembling an "incident" in the story. What incident? What happened? Were the police actually involved?

This story has slightly more detail. It says there is an agency investigating: the PD in suburban Kenner, the jurisdiction in which the reporter was found dead in a hotel room. Says there were "no signs of trauma."
https://www.wwltv.com/article/sport...-cbs/289-817bab51-dd63-486c-be3d-f9797c6b76c8

 

[SportsGuyBCK]

Wow, and after his wife was killed in a car wreck last year ...

 

[Sam Mills 51]

East Carolina lost its longtime voice last year in New Orleans. What is it about the city and media?

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Apologies if I'm misremembering - Google isn't helping me back that far.

But wasn't there a sports columnist from Peoria, Ill., who died in New Orleans, maybe in the airport, back in the mid-1990s?

I remember the Journal-Star running his column sig in its regular place at the top left side of the sports page, then a blank white column below it, as a tribute.

 

[Batman]

Wow, and after his wife was killed in a car wreck last year ...

And they had a 2-year-old. Absolutely terrible.

 

[wicked]

Wow, and after his wife was killed in a car wreck last year ...

RIP. This is absolutely terrible, and I hope (and I’d reckon that) the young boy has a lot of people in his life who love him.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Ugh.

Woman with Prior Drugging Allegations Arrested After Super Bowl Journalist's Death, Was Seen on Camera Leaving Hotel Room: Police

 

[tapintoamerica]

Ugh.

Woman with Prior Drugging Allegations Arrested After Super Bowl Journalist's Death, Was Seen on Camera Leaving Hotel Room: Police

It is time to take New Orleans out of the Super Bowl rotation.

 

[JC]

It is time to take New Orleans out of the Super Bowl rotation.

Could never happen anywhere else.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Could never happen anywhere else.

Per previous posts on this thread, I don't think this is the first such tragedy in New Orleans in or around a major event. Throw in the New Year's terrorist attack as well.

As for this event, it's more that this tragedy amplifies a fundamental problem: hotel space. The victim in this case has to stay at some overpriced, fourth-rate joint out by the airport -- in the kind of area commonly associated with drugs and prostitution. (The Green River Killer in Seattle stalked his victims on a state road leading to SeaTac.)
Ultimately, it's what the NFL's Corporate Partners and Champions want. They're the ones who occupy a disproportionate part of the stadium on game day. What they want, I suspect, is safety.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

If I wasn’t staying at the Hyatt on Poydras next to the Superdome, I would probably pick a hotel an hour away off the beaten path (i.e. not Baton Rouge).

 

[Typist Clerk]

Apologies if I'm misremembering - Google isn't helping me back that far.

But wasn't there a sports columnist from Peoria, Ill., who died in New Orleans, maybe in the airport, back in the mid-1990s?

I remember the Journal-Star running his column sig in its regular place at the top left side of the sports page, then a blank white column below it, as a tribute.

**** Lien, I believe.

 

[Mr. X]

Super Bowl reporter found dead in hotel room had sedative drug in his system, police say | AP News

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Update: Woman charged with 2nd-degree murder of reporter at Super Bowl — ESPN

 

[User 4332]

Update: Woman charged with 2nd-degree murder of reporter at Super Bowl — ESPN

This appears to be the key paragraph in that story, and it's inexplicably at the bottom:

"In 2022, Colbert was twice arrested in Las Vegas on felony charges of grand larceny and administering a drug to aid in a felony crime, court records show. In both cases, she was accused of drugging men in their hotel rooms and stealing from them. The charges were dismissed because the victims did not want to testify in court, Colbert's attorney for those cases, Daniel Lippmann, told The Associated Press."

 

[Inky_Wretch]

The victims of this woman have a virtual support group. One of them had warned authorities that she'd wind up killing somebody.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/...e_code=1.5k4.GeX7.KNCBcJCI9xh9&smid=url-share

 

[HanSenSE]

 

[clever_username]

As for this event, it's more that this tragedy amplifies a fundamental problem: hotel space. The victim in this case has to stay at some overpriced, fourth-rate joint out by the airport -- in the kind of area commonly associated with drugs and prostitution.

My sense is that the real fundamental problem is...criminality? From the sound of it, this was an organized, large-scale, not-a-junkie-who-saw-an-opportunity crime that would be just as likely in a Westin downtown as a Super 8 in Metairie.

Where you can afford to stay doesn't absolve any of us of the responsibility to be alert to potential threats.

From a CNN piece:

"(A previous victim) said the interaction did not have anything to do with prostitution; instead, he explained that he loves the culture of New Orleans where people often make friends with strangers and share a friendly drink."

My guy, this is the 21st century. Love for that "culture" - in New Orleans or anywhere else - is a good way to have bad things happen to you.

 

[waterytart]

“No, honey, she wasn’t a hooker, don’t be ridiculous. She was just helping me develop my love for the culture of New Orléans.”