Sandra Chapman

2024

By Leisa Richardson

As a teen, Sandra Chapman was intrigued by the work of television reporters in her hometown of Fort Wayne. She was especially interested in one reporter's series of stories about uniting foster children with adoptive parents.

“I’d like to do something like that…,” Chapman said she began to think. “In fact, I’d love to have a job like that where you could help people” find happy solutions to some very real problems that were often of despair.

There were many news stories to reflect on in the Chapman household as her dad was an avid consumer of local newspapers and television newscasts. She shared that interest in news coverage and considered the awareness a normal part of family life.

Chapman solidified those interests with a commitment to what has become an award-winning broadcast journalism career of more than 30 years.

Her introduction to the newsroom, however, began as a Ball State University student chosen to intern at WISH-TV, the then-CBS affiliate in Indianapolis. She went on to graduate from Ball State in 1986, receiving a bachelor of science degree in telecommunications.

Soon after graduation, Chapman landed her first professional broadcast news job at WICD in Champaign, Illinois, where she became immersed in her assignments, which included radio and television responsibilities. In a span of seven years, she was hired and promoted to a variety of news department positions including producer, reporter and anchor.  Chapman called the experience her “real training grounds where I learned so much.”

She wanted to return to Indianapolis but could find no full-time reporting openings. She instead pursued freelance work at WISH-TV, the station where she first interned, until a position opened. Chapman was hired as a reporter and later became an anchor. She spent 10 years with the station.

Chapman developed an interest in investigative reporting during those years and was eventually promoted to the WISH-TV I Team.  The move was the beginning of a major reporting career that continued at two Indianapolis television stations for the next 25 years.

As sometimes occurs in the competitive business of television broadcasting, Chapman left television briefly, then transferred her investigative reporting experience to the local NBC affiliate, WTHR, where she was hired in 2003 for the investigative team.

The journalistic awards rolled in for Chapman's work at both stations. She earned a George Foster Peabody Award at WTHR for an environmental series of reports, a Salute to Excellence Award for investigative reporting from the National Association of Black Journalists, and an Edward R. Murrow regional award in addition to nearly a dozen Emmys. Her honors also included state and national awards in public safety, education and the environment.

Most noted was her investigation into the tragic stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair. That reporting earned Chapman a National Headliner Award, and she was named Indiana’s best reporter by the Associated Press.

At WISH, Chapman was a two-time recipient of the American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Allen Awards, along with other recognitions from the Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists and regional Emmys.

Chapman devoted extraordinary work to investigating the 1968 unsolved murder of a young Black woman who was killed in what appeared to be a racially-motivated stabbing while selling encyclopedias in Martinsville, Indiana. Chapman's efforts, according to the lead prosecutor, led to a break in the cold case when witnesses came forward to name a suspected murderer after seeing Chapman's investigative reports. Her reporting has since culminated in the writing of a book  "The Girl in the Yellow Scarf ," published in 2012, and the production of a documentary film in 2023.

In her bio, Chapman writes about her decades as an investigative reporter.

“I have worked to bring accountability and justice for those whose voices have gone unheard from lax enforcement of environmental laws, to investigative gaps in medical benefits, to state government stories…that have prompted changes and helped to create new legislation, including Trevor’s Law to better investigate cancer clusters and Zachary’s Law to update the state sex offender registry.”

Chapman has been part of numerous journalism organizations through her career, including as a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Indianapolis Association of Black Journalists and the IndyPro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She is a former board member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

She is married to Randal Taylor, whose career in law enforcement ascended to chief of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, a tenure of service from January 2020-2024 that Chapman described as involving family decisions that included their three children.

In 2021, a year after her husband's promotion, Chapman resigned her investigative reporting position at WTHR to dedicate time to her company, Prince Media Group of Indianapolis. The company handled distribution of "The Girl in the Yellow Scarf" and produced the documentary film by the same name. Her company, of which she is president, is “furthering her work in journalism,” Chapman said.

Chapman has taken on a new assignment as a freelance journalist/media content producer for an online news magazine produced by the Lumina Foundation covering stories about students overcoming adversity to obtain their higher education goals.

“I love journalism,” Chapman said. “I love this field of investigative journalism.  You have to love it to stay involved as I have for all these years I did.  And I still expect to continue."