This multimedia and narrative package showcases what can happen when one compelling idea captures the imaginations and creative depths of journalists of all kinds across a newsroom.
The idea started when investigative reporter Sydney Brownstone spotted a solitary man probing the ground in the neglected cemetery of Washington’s abandoned psychiatric hospital.
When she learned he was searching for sunken grave markers — and the identities of more than 1,600 patients lost to history — that quest became a multilayered story that brought the forgotten past into the present.
As a former homelessness and mental health reporter, Brownstone was driven to find an answer to why our urban streets are home to so many people with severe mental illness. Through a Facebook group for people searching for relatives who may have been committed to Northern State Hospital, she found Carrie Davidson. She then wove Carrie’s search for her lost family with the story of John Horne, the self-appointed archeologist of the hospital’s graveyard who presses on alone in his work because he believes nobody deserves to be forgotten.
Brownstone’s vision for this story captured the interest of a photographer, video journalist, graphic artist and an engagement reporter. The result was a potent mix of deeply personal storytelling and hyper-local reporting set against the anguish of an entrenched national crisis.
In her reporting, Brownstone discovered the state had sealed off the hospital’s archival records, even to patients’ families. She succeeded in winning their release, then arranged for The Seattle Times to pay to obtain and publish the death records. Seventy relatives of patients reached out to us about the database through a callout published with the story, and dozens shared that they had discovered new information about their ancestors in the death logs.
The multimedia package centered on Brownstone’s rich narrative and included a first-person backstory describing her cultural roots that led her to that cemetery and her connection with those whose histories have been erased. The package also included a 25-minute documentary, haunting photo galleries, maps, hand drawings and an interactive graphic of the graveyard.
The story was also the basis for a six-episode podcast distributed nationally last month by NPR. A sold-out live event at Seattle’s Public LIbrary this week will feature the podcast and the reporting team.
Brownstone and the team were invited to describe the journey of this project at a history event at the institution on the 50th anniversary of its closing. She was interviewed on local radio stations and continued to connect with relatives of patients, writing new stories about their discoveries from the death logs. Elected representatives vowed to help identify people buried on the hospital’s grounds.
The online presentation and the project won Best of the West awards, and the database of newly released death records earned special recognition from the Washington Coalition for Open Government.
