Cherokee Ballard

PHOTO CREDIT: Brittany Belli

The News:

Cherokee Ballard and Britten Follett came to the University of Oklahoma last Wednesday to talk about their experiences in the field of investigative journalism. Both women worked on the Kelsey Briggs case and co-authored the book: Who Killed Kelsey?

The Impact:

“I’m a truth teller,” Ballard said. “And sometimes when you tell the truth you get shot.” Ballard and Follett were the only two reporters that stayed on the case. They wanted to get the truth about Kelsey’s death.

The Context:

“I was 24 when I started covering Kelsey’s case,” Follett said. “On Oct. 12, 2005, my boss came to me and told me there was a child death. At the time, I didn’t have a story to work on, so I went to cover it.” Follett and Ballard then teamed up to delve deeper into the story. That was when the idea to co-author Who Killed Kelsey occurred. “Sources told us information because they wanted the truth told, but not reported,” Follett said. Ballard said she and Follett just wanted to bring justice to Kelsey’s case. “One child death is too many,” Ballard said. “Kelsey should not be dead.”

The Human Dimension:

Follett said there was a lot of trust between the sources that talked to her when the cameras were off. “We promised our sources that we would not reveal what was said to us until we published our book,” Follett said. “We would have been violating that trust if we went and reported what we knew.”

What’s next:

After 25 years in investigative journalism, Ballard is now working for corporate America at Oklahoma Natural Gas. Follett has also left that field; she works as a marketing manager for Follett International.