Nose Dive
Karen Foss was a little surprised. She'd just finished her usual 10 p.m. newscast on KSDK when the station's chief meteorologist, Bob Richards, asked her to stop by the weather station.
"That was unusual," Foss recalls. "And I was already very, very concerned about his demeanor — just the vibe he was giving off. He was obviously very upset and angry. But I'd seen him upset before; I'd seen him angry before."
Richards had come to Foss in the past to discuss both personal and work issues, but they weren't exactly close. A group dinner once, perhaps, but they didn't socialize outside of work.
She went over to Richards' workstation to talk. "I know there've been lies about you before in the community," he said. "How did you deal with it?"
That set Foss back; it wasn't what she was expecting to hear from the curly-haired weatherman.
"Bob, if what they're saying is true — you know, you are so talented and so popular, I think you can get through this," she told him. "If this is true, you probably need to say 'I'm sorry' and make amends. I think people will just forgive you because they all love you. We all make mistakes.
"He just wasn't hearing it. He was just totally in denial," Foss adds.
"It's not true — this woman's a liar," Richards told her, and that was the end of the conversation. Foss got in her car and made the drive from Channel 5's studio in downtown St. Louis to her home in Clayton. She was on Lindell Boulevard when she realized her hands were shaking so badly she couldn't grasp the steering wheel.
She pulled over and collected herself.
"It had just been such a disturbing conversation," Foss recalls. "He didn't say anything about suicide. But he just was — I just felt like he was so out of touch with reality, that's what I'm trying to say. I couldn't handle it. I just stopped. Then went home, went to bed and early in the morning got this phone call. And then it all began to unravel."