The act itself was shocking, even for gun-saturated 2023 in America: an up-and-coming 30-year-old councilwoman in Sayreville, New Jersey, shot to death in the driver's seat of her car while her 11-year-old daughter was putting dinner on the table inside the house.
As Eunice Dwumfour’s car rolled down a hill into two parked cars on that February evening, the assailant ran off toward the Garden State Parkway, a major highway, and disappeared. Carefully, meticulously, reporter Maryclaire Dale burrowed into the case. Dale chronicled the acrimony on city council. She also dug into a church that Dwumfour was affiliated with.
Earning the trust of the family, Dale and Allentown correspondent Michael Rubinkam secured a sit-down interview in all formats before the victim's new husband returned to Nigeria. Unexpectedly, Dwumfour's daughter was present at the interview, giving them an important, deeply personal window into Dwumfour's life and death.