Cierra Putman is the newest addition to 13 Investigates. She looks for stories that combine research and heart. Sometimes you’ll see her around town running down a lead. Another day she’ll have her earphones in reading documents or reviewing audio, video recordings. The goal – work on stories that get results and help Indiana families.
Over the last 5 years, she reported in Orlando and Central Florida, honing her reporting, investigative skills while covering city governments, schools, courts, and theme parks. Her reporting included helping parents get more information about a substitute teacher who was arrested for harming children. When she learned a county jail was requiring inmates to pay to talk to their lawyers during the pandemic, she pushed to find out why and showed that wasn’t happening at other jails. Ultimately, her reporting pushed jail leaders to reverse course.
Growing up in Southern Illinois, Putman … yes that’s PutMAN 😊 often watched national and local reporting. Journalism was always respected at home as a fourth pillar of democracy. At the University of Missouri School of Journalism, she received the foundation to be a respected journalist and storyteller. For more than a decade now she’s continued to grow as a reporter first in Missouri, then Texas, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida and now Indiana.
If you have an issue you want Cierra to investigate feel free to shoot her an email at Cierra.Putman@wthr.com. You can also send her a message via social media or find her on Signal.
Twitter - @CierraReporter
Instagram - @cierraputmantv
Signal - Cierra Putman