{"id":1194949,"date":"2022-08-30T16:42:35","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T16:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/30\/neena-pacholke-wisconsin-news-anchor-and-former-college-basketball-star-dead-at-27\/"},"modified":"2022-08-30T16:42:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T16:42:35","slug":"neena-pacholke-wisconsin-news-anchor-and-former-college-basketball-star-dead-at-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/30\/neena-pacholke-wisconsin-news-anchor-and-former-college-basketball-star-dead-at-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Neena Pacholke, Wisconsin News Anchor and Former College Basketball Star, Dead at 27"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Neena Pacholke \u2014 a television news anchor for ABC television affiliate WAOW in Wausau, Wisconsin and ex-point guard for the University of South Florida women\u2019s basketball team \u2014 was found dead on August 27.<\/p>\n<p>She was only 27 years old.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have the words,\u201d Neena\u2019s sister, Kaitlynn, wrote via Instagram on Monday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow does anyone ever find the words for the worst day of their life?\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><noscript\/><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"618\" height=\"606\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-456827 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/neena-pacholke-083022-1-02e5500a432a4114b964b2d8c996f9b5-copy.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"\/><figcaption>Neena Pacholke has left us too young. The news anchor took her own life at the age of 27.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kaitlynn continued as follows: <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Saturday, August 27th my world came crashing down in a way I never imagined possible. My baby sister is gone. My 27 year long best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No cause of death has yet been determined.<\/p>\n<p>However, The Wausau Police Department and Marathon County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office are investigating her death \u2014 and it is believed Pacholke took her own life.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"634\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/rs_634x1024-220829165125-Neena-Pacholke-2.webp.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-456829\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"634\" height=\"1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-456829 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/rs_634x1024-220829165125-Neena-Pacholke-2.webp.webp\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWausau Police Department Officers were dispatched to a home on Wausau\u2019s southeast side Saturday morning to check the welfare of a woman who reportedly made suicidal statements,\u201d Captain Ben Graham said yesterday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter receiving no answer at the door, officers entered the home and found Pacholke deceased.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to this same police department, foul play is <em>not<\/em> suspected at this time.<\/p>\n<p>Kaitlynn added on social media that her sister\u2019s passing doesn\u2019t feel real and that she wants to \u201cwake up from this living nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"650\" height=\"867\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/neena-pacholke-083022-2-fbda4b6149834bd19b865a8f7cbd5109.webp.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-456830\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"650\" height=\"867\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-456830 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/neena-pacholke-083022-2-fbda4b6149834bd19b865a8f7cbd5109.webp.webp\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMy sister was by far the happiest person I thought I knew,\u201d Kaitlynn told the Tampa Bay Times. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes you just don\u2019t know what people are going through, no matter how much you think you know someone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy sister had access to every resource you could imagine. She was loved by everybody. She was so good at her job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neena played three years college basketball as a guard at the University of South Florida, where she was a member of two teams that appeared in the NCAA Tournament. <\/p>\n<p>Her official website states that she joined WAOW as a multimedia reporter in 2017 and started working as an anchor in 2019.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"462\" height=\"464\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Neena-Pacholke-anchor-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-456831\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"462\" height=\"464\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-456831 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Neena-Pacholke-anchor-copy.jpg\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBeing your co-anchor Neena was an honor. You were Batman and I was Robin,\u201d Neena\u2019s co-anchor, Brendan Mackey, wrote in tribute to his colleague Monday on Facebook. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I joined WAOW you made it clear we were going to work hard and compete with the best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For its part, WAOW, announced Neena\u2019s death on Sunday and wrote that \u201cthe entire team here at News 9 are absolutely devastated by the loss as we know so many others are as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Added Kaitlynn Pacholke told the Times on Monday:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe just radiated love and positivity, and she just cared so much about pouring into other people, and always put other people first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think she did that at the expense of not caring about herself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text \u201cSTRENGTH\u201d to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neena Pacholke \u2014 a television news anchor for ABC television affiliate WAOW in Wausau, Wisconsin and ex-point guard for the University of South Florida women\u2019s basketball team \u2014 was found dead on August 27. She was only 27 years old. \u201cI don\u2019t have the words,\u201d Neena\u2019s sister, Kaitlynn, wrote via Instagram on Monday. \u201cHow does [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1194950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1194949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1194949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1194949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1194949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1194949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}