Suspect met victim at AA," read the headline on a story in Wednesday's paper. It went on to say, in the lead paragraph, "Sheriff's deputies say the man they think killed a 38-year-old northern Chatham County woman last month met her at Alcoholics Anonymous and used her ATM card to withdraw money days after she was last seen."

The article brought strong protests from AA advocates. Alcoholics Anonymous is all about anonymity, they said, and for The News & Observer to lift that protective cloak, even for an accused murderer and victim, undermines that underlying principle of the recovery program. Especially by associating it with violence.

"It's really unfair to AA as an anonymous place for safety, for people to come and get sober, to be accused of such a thing as being a place where murderers lurk," said one caller, who identified herself as a recovering alcoholic. "That's what the title is insinuating."

Another reader, Justine Wayne, said the paper should not have referred to AA by name. "I know many in our local community who are and have been deeply disturbed by the violence that occurred in their normally safe and supportive 'family,'" Wayne, who said she is not an AA member, wrote in an e-mail. "I also know they must wince as they read your article citing AA by name in this context when it is more importantly a program that has saved countless lives."

The story was about the death of Tracy Lynn Carr Baldwin, who was found dead in her home in northern Chatham County on May 12. The Sheriff's Office last week charged Louis Ephraim Wilson III with first-degree murder. A Sheriff's Office news release said the couple had met at Alcoholics Anonymous.

I wondered what my complaining correspondents would have had The N&O do. Should the paper not have mentioned the AA connection between the suspect and the victim? Should it have left out the Alcoholics Anonymous name?

I don't think The N&O could have done either and still given readers a responsible account of the alleged crime. It's a fact that the AA connection brought suspect and victim together, at least according to investigators, and that's a detail necessary to give readers an understanding of how a crime occurred.

"The police told us," said John Drescher, The N&O's managing editor. "It's a relevant detail. I don't know how you could leave it out."

Yes, mentioning AA may raise concerns about the safety of the program, although that's not likely. The organization has more than seven decades of experience offering safe sanctuary and support to people seeking to recover from a shared illness. As one of my callers said last week, AA saves lives.

Anonymity is essential to the AA program, but the organization recognizes the inevitability, given its ubiquity and membership of 2 million, that it will end up in the paper sometimes.

I checked with the national office of Alcoholics Anonymous in New York City, and a staff member named Julio (who, as an AA member, didn't want his last name published), said, "In terms of the press, what we ask is cooperation in terms of not revealing someone's anonymity if they don't want to be known as a member of AA We really leave it up to the professionals of the media as to what is necessary, what is appropriate, what is relevant to report."

I think most newspapers would respect that request and not intrude on individual participants' privacy. I do have some concern about associating the victim with AA. As one caller pointed out, even though she's dead, some who knew her may not have known she was an alcoholic. But in the context of an accused murderer and victim, the identification with AA is unavoidable.

All that said, I think there is a legitimate question as to whether the focus of this story, and the headline, needed to be on Alcoholics Anonymous. There are differing positions on that within the paper. "(O)ne of the first things readers want to know is where people met and what their relationship was," Jessica Rocha, who wrote the story, told me in an e-mail. "Most crime isn't random, and it's important that people know he didn't just follow her home and kill her."

Deputy Managing Editor Linda Williams took a different position. "Why was the information worthy of the lead of the story (which prompted the headline)?" she said. "It seemed to me that the police assertion that he used her ATM card was most relevant to the filing of charges, not how they met."

I'd go further. This was the first story to report Wilson's arrest in the killing. It seems to me the arrest itself should have been the lead of the story and the focus of the headline. The AA connection and the ATM card were necessary details for readers to understand the alleged crime, but those facts should have been lower in the story.

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