Target 8 investigator Susan Samples is passionate about telling stories that improve the lives of everyday people. She’s happiest when she’s exposing injustice, holding powerful people and institutions accountable, and finding ways to right wrongs.
Susan’s obsession with identifying and illuminating systemic flaws is well-known in the newsroom. When she investigates a story, she’s always looking for underlying causes — patterns that suggest a systemic problem that’s impacting people beyond the subject of the story at hand. Then, she sets about investigating the broader issue, how it affects regular folks and what can be done to change it.
Since landing at WOOD TV8 in 1995, Susan has held several reporting and management positions. She now heads up the Target 8 investigative unit, supervising, producing and sometimes reporting investigative stories.
Prior to WOOD TV8, Susan worked at TV stations in Fort Wayne, Ind., Wilmington, NC and Columbia, Mo. She’s a graduate of the University of Missouri’s Journalism School and the School for Creative and Performing Arts, a magnet high school in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Susan lives in Kent County with her husband and their two sons. While her family has several fish and a cat named Smokey Joe, they’re in the market for a non-shedding, housebroken, calm but playful shelter dog.
If you have a tip for Susan or a story you’d like Target 8 to investigate, email her at susan.samples@woodtv.com.
