Five years ago this month, new york city sanitation workers made a gruesome discovery. While emptying garbage cans in the streets of Harlem, they spotted a tiny arm sticking out of the heap of rubbish in the back of their truck. The arm belonged to a dead baby girl, so new to the world her umbilical cord was still attached. Police were called and journalists, including Rebecca Spitz, a reporter for the local cable news channel, NY1, rushed to the scene.

Spitz was the channel’s Manhattan breaking-news reporter. An energetic brunette with dark eyes and an enormous smile, she had worked at NY1 since graduating from college. It was her first and only job. She was thirty-one and loved the fast-paced environment, the storytelling, and knowing what was going on before anyone else did. As her mother, Susan, would later learn, Spitz was known for her smile, her crushing hugs, and her “filthy mouth.” On a personal level, Spitz’s boyfriend had recently proposed and an engagement party full of family and friends was scheduled for the following evening.

During a break in the coverage in Harlem that afternoon, Spitz walked to her car, which was parked nearby, and as she crossed the street near St. Nicholas Avenue and 120th Street, a burgundy van drove by. The van passed so close to Spitz that its passenger-side mirror collided with her head. The impact of the blow fractured Spitz’s skull and knocked her to the ground, cracking her head again as it hit the pavement. In an instant, she went from covering a story to becoming one. As Spitz was loaded onto an ambulance a Daily News photographer snapped a picture. The tabloid’s coverage included a story with the headline, NY1 reporter in van horror.

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