Progress reporter profiles: Erin Hevern

With two years of reporting experience, I was relatively new to journalism when I joined the Southeast Missourian news staff in December 2009.

Regardless, why criminals do what they do and how the judicial system works to serve justice has always fascinated me, so I was eager to cover more crime and important cases brought before the area's circuit judges.

Southeast Missouri has certainly kept me on my toes. I'm surprised every day.

Murder and methamphetamine alone were the subject of many of the major stories the newspaper reported in 2010.

I was immersed in the court room right away as three defendants faced charges in connection to the murder of Jamie Lynn Orman and her two children, one of them not yet born. One is awaiting trial, the second has pleaded guilty to charges and the third has a hearing in May. We've done our best to get the information to you as quickly as possible -- sometimes from the courtroom.

In June, a Cape Girardeau man was shot dead near the intersection of Fountain Street and Park Drive. An investigation unfolded, and the Major Case Squad made an arrest.

Another big story for Southeast Missouri is the number of methamphetamine labs authorities reported in the area, and communities' attempts to address the meth problem by requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine. I'll continue to follow the stories, too, as law enforcement fights the meth epidemic -- and Missouri's notorious ranking as the nation's leader in the number of seized labs.