Neena Pacholke suicide death: 9 WAOW morning news anchor kills self as Wausing Wisconsin reporter was undergoing mental health issues.
A Wausaw, Wisconsin morning news anchor and former college basketball player has died as a result of committing suicide over the weekend at age 27.
News of WAOW anchor Neena Pacholke’s death left her family and colleagues stunned.
The station’s announcement said that its team was ‘absolutely devastated’ by Pacholke’s death, saying, ‘She was a kind person with a big heart and a contagious smile and we will miss her greatly.’
‘Neena Pacholke, our beloved morning anchor passed away suddenly Saturday,’ 9 WAOW said in a statement of the anchor who worked at the Wausaw outlet for the last 5 years. ‘The entire team here at News 9 are absolutely devastated by the loss as we know so many others are as well.’
The manner of the Wausaw news anchor’s suicide death was not publicly divulged, save to say the news anchor was found dead deceased at her apartment on Saturday.
🚨🚨Neena Pacholke, Local Wisconsin News Anchor, 27, victim of an apparent suicide. Friends and family say that she was one of the happiest people they knew….
Here’s her raising awareness on the dangerous world of Child Trafficking back in 2020… pic.twitter.com/YwGgsDvGX9— Welcome to the world disorder (@Globalchange10) August 30, 2022
‘We are not positive because life is easy. We are positive because life can be hard,’
Pacholke, who grew up in Tampa and played basketball for the University of South Florida, was engaged to be married at the time of her death, her older sister Kaitlynn Pacholke told Tampa Bay Times.
‘She was just like a little ball of sunshine, and her smile was massive,’ Kaitlynn Pacholke said. ‘My sister was by far the happiest person I thought I knew.’
One of Pacholke’s last posts on Twitter was a retweet from author Jon Gordon about positivity and believing the best is yet to come.
‘We are not positive because life is easy. We are positive because life can be hard,’ Gordon wrote in the original tweet. ‘Give yourself (and others) grace. Speak life and encourage others. Look for the good today. Remember your WHY. Believe the best is yet to come.’
News 9 and Pacholke’s co-anchor also cited Pacholke’s smile and bubbly personality in tributes. ‘She was a kind person with a big heart and a contagious smile and we will miss her greatly,’ the station said.
Her co-anchor Brendan Mackey said Pacholke was ‘the brightest light in the room’ with the ‘biggest smile and the funniest laugh.’
‘I have never met anyone in my entire life that is more loved than this girl,’ Mackey wrote in a tribute post on Facebook. ‘Everyday she made people smile, whether that was through a tv screen or just being an incredible friend. She was so happy and so full of life and a role model.’
‘My sister had access to every resource you could imagine,’
Pacholke joined the news station as a multimedia journalist in May 2017 after graduating from the University of South Florida where she played three seasons as a point guard.
She was promoted to anchor in February 2019, according to her website.
Mackey called her talented and said she was the Batman to his Robbin. Her older sister also credited her successful journalism career.
Kaitlynn Pacholke said you can never really know what a person is going through.
‘Sometimes you just don’t know what people are going through, no matter how much you think you know someone. … My sister had access to every resource you could imagine,’ she told the Tampa Bay Times. ‘She was loved by everybody. She was so good at her job.’
Kaitlynn Pacholke said her younger sister had a talent for making people feel special and important, whether she knew them for five minutes or her whole life.
Mental health struggles
‘She just radiated love and positivity, and she just cared so much about pouring into other people, and always put other people first,’ she told the local Florida paper of her sister. ‘I think she did that at the expense of not caring about herself.’
It remained unclear if the reporter had recently undergone personal turmoil with her relations or fiancee or had been embroiled in any work conflict.
Not immediately clear is why the reporter didn’t pursue mental health services and whether she was struggling with depression.
