Boyfriend and fiance of TV shooting victims grew up in area

Chris Hurst, a Conestoga High School graduate who is now the evening news anchor at WDBJ7, the CBS affiliate in Roanoke, Va., took to Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday to express shock.

His girlfriend, reporter Alison Parker, had been shot to death on live television, along with her cameraman, Adam Ward.

"We didn't share this publicly, but @AParkerWDBJ7 and I were very much in love. We just moved in together. I am numb," the 28-year-old former Temple University student wrote.

"We were together almost nine months. It was the best nine months of our lives. We wanted to get married. We just celebrated her 24th birthday," Hurst said.

Ward was engaged to Melissa Ott, 26, a Gloucester County native and a news producer at WDBJ7. She was in the control room and witnessed the shooting that killed her 27-year-old fiance, the station's general manager told CNN.

Hurst's and Ott's careers brought them to Roanoke. They fell in love with colleagues.

For Ott, it was supposed to be her last day at the station. She was headed to a new job in Charlotte, N.C.

"So going to miss this gorgeous gal!!" Kimberly McBroom, a coanchor, wrote on Facebook in a caption for a photo showing a smiling Ott with flowers and a congratulatory balloon.

Ott grew up in Gibbstown and graduated in 2007 from the School of Performing Arts at Gloucester County Institute of Technology.

In 2011, Ott graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. PSN News, a student news operation at the university, on Wednesday tweeted its condolences to Ott.

Ott interned at 97.5 the Fanatic as well as at NBC10.

Hurst attended Temple University in 2005-06, a university spokesman confirmed. He went on to graduate in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Emerson College in Boston. The college also tweeted its condolences to Hurst.

On Facebook after the shooting, Hurst posted undated photos of himself and Parker. One shows the couple in formal evening wear next to the lobby fountain at the Curtis Center in Center City.

"She was the most radiant woman I ever met," he wrote. "And for some reason she loved me back."

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