The cases of John Jacoby and Cori Hernandez have been investigated by the Colorado State University Advanced Reporting JTC 420 journalism class this spring semester. During the middle of the semester, the class had to abruptly change into an online class due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is a deadly virus that attacks the respiratory system along with many symptoms such as fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. Colorado Governor Jared Polis issued a stay-at-home order for several weeks in order to slow the curve of the virus. This made it hard for students to gather in groups and to work together in person.

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The class as a whole still managed to successfully create a website with infographics, maps, podcasts and more pulling together pieces from each case for the remainder of the semester.

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 Both cases are separate but similar, which is why the cases are being investigated by the class. The cases of John Jacoby and Cori Hernandez were finally able to be linked on May 29, 2015 by a piece of forensic evidence after the FBI got involved with the investigation and the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office and the Windsor Police created a task force. On Wednesday April 22, 2015, 20-year-old Cori Romero was shot in the neck while driving on Harmony Road, merging into I-25 South at approximately 11:00 p.m. Romero called 911 not knowing she had been shot and ended up surviving. On Monday May 18, 2015 John Jacoby was shot twice and killed while riding his bicycle. The students of JTC 420 investigated, collaborated and worked through a pandemic to learn more about the cases and grow within learning about journalism.

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Each student had their own individual part for this project. Even though it was difficult to meet up with each other face to face due the government enforcing social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the class did meet up in class to discuss roles and different possibilities for the website, prior to the pandemic getting worse in the state. CSU switched to online learning the week after spring break for the remainder of the semester. Students were confused, worried and many of them had moved back home. Thirteen students in this class came up with powerful individual assignments.

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Fourth year student, Riley Bircham, mentioned she was really excited for this class and working with her fellow classmates on this project but because of the global pandemic, everything in the class changed. “Typically, we would be in a classroom setting working together to create content to fill our website with, but the new global outbreak respiratory illness, COVID-19, has completely changed the way we have had to do everything. Basically, we have only been able to have communication via GroupMe, text, or email to help edit and compile all of our individual work. For me personally, I was supposed to help with some interviews, but wasn’t able to attend them because of the pandemic. Luckily, a large part of my project has been working on the website and the design of it, but the tricky part with that is communicating with everyone to get their content online in order for us to design each tab,” Bircham said. Her role was designing the website for the project and communicating a lot to the class. “Through all of this I have definitely learned that design and creating websites is incredibly time consuming,” Bircham said. “You don’t realize it till you sit here for like eight hours a day working on it all. It’s a very tedious task and you have to have the patience for it!”

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Emily Luft, also a student in this class hopes to help tell a clear story about two incidents, Cori Romero and John Jacoby. “Instead of working to ‘solve’ the cold case, we worked to provide a clear picture of what happened as it nears the five-year anniversary of both shootings. We have been in a unique position since we are reporting as COVID 19 has spread across the country. This made it difficult to arrange in-person interviews and meetings. Luckily, flexibility and technology has allowed us to connect with our subjects and sources despite the pandemic. It has still been a challenge to work together as a class as efficiently and as in-person as reporting usually requires,” Luft said. 

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Another student, Laura Studley mentioned she had to reach out to Cori Romero, before the spike of coronavirus happened in the U.S. Studley had another task for this project but using phone communication worked really well. “This pandemic not only helped me learn how to adapt to the situation, but also taught me that there are always ways to report on a story. If something goes wrong, find a new angle or method. Things are rarely impossible when it comes to storytelling,” Studley said. 

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Student Scott Nies said he learned more about journalism and realized the importance of getting a story out there accurately. “Personally, my main task within this project has been revolving around the podcasts. Ceci Taylor and I have worked to compile, edit, and create these podcasts that provide an auditory component to Johnny and Cori’s stories. However, with the surge of COVID-19, this proved to be far different than any other task I have ever tackled in my time as a journalism major. While this provided a challenge, it has taught me how important perseverance is within the discipline of journalism,” Nies said. 

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Reed Slater, created maps to add into the website. The pandemic did not complicate his part of the project. He mentioned the maps were already made but needed to shape them to help tell a story. “I learn a lot from this project, but it has been really cool to see the website taking shape as everyone begins to add content to it. I think the maps play an important role of giving geographic context, particularly to those who live near our area,” Slater said. 

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Angel Cooper, spoke to a reporter who was assigned the case, Jason Pohl. Although her original plan was to create video and work with others to create video, she had to change her individual part due to the COVID-19.  “Then COVID-19 happened, and that changed everything. All ideas I had for the video for the class project were not going to happen. I decided to look more into Jacoby's case and see who was covering the case,” Cooper said. “This project taught me that it is essential to be patient if you want to go into journalism. Things do not happen when you want to happen, and you cannot give up. Keep trying until you get what you need.”

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This advanced reporting class told a story of a cold case during a global pandemic. Communication was key and coming together virtually was a key to success for the final product. Even though students weren’t able to get exactly what they wanted done for their project they created a website telling the story of shocking cases of John Jacoby and Cori Romero. Not only universities across Colorado have moved to online classes, K-12 have switched to remote learning for the remainder of the school year. As of now there is no current vaccine for the COVID-19. Things still haven’t returned to normal and probably never will. This pandemic has changed lives and society forever.