Anchorwoman Who Got Threats Is Slain

Authorities are investigating the weekend slaying of a television anchorwoman who told a former boss that she had received a letter warning she would regret turning down a lunch date.

Diane Newton King, 34, was found fatally shot outside her home Saturday and was pronounced dead a short time later at Oaklawn Hospital.

Police said King was shot as she arrived home Saturday evening and was turning around to get her young children out of the car. Police had no suspects and had not determined a possible motive.

Sheriff’s Lt. Terry Cook said he believed King had received at least one letter at work and one at home.

“This department did investigate back at the very latter part of October some threatening correspondences that she had received,” Cook said. “It was investigated and to the best of our knowledge nothing further happened.”

King, who was married and had a 3-year-old son and a 3-month-old daughter, had anchored the morning news segments at WUHQ-TV in Battle Creek for two years.

But about two weeks ago, she told General Manager Jan Hammer of KJCT-TV in Grand Junction, Colo., that a man had been harassing her by telephone. King worked for Hammer at KJCT-TV about two years ago.

“She had been receiving calls from a male who had wanted to get into the broadcasting business and was asking for her advice,” Hammer said. “The caller asked if she wanted to have lunch with him and she declined.

“She supposedly received a letter in the mail and this letter was composed from either using print or magazine letters that had been cut out and said something to the effect that, ‘You’ll be sorry you didn’t have lunch with me.’ ”

Hammer said such harassment is widespread in the broadcasting industry.

“It’s a little-known part of our business. It goes on all the time,” he said.