The most-read stories of 2009
With 2010 just around the corner, we pulled all the data for komonews.com for 2009 to see which stories were the most popular on our site over the past year.
The list includes tragedies, heartwarming moments, and the just plain bizarre. These are not our picks, but rather the 25 stories you and other readers from around the world clicked on more than anything else.
Have a favorite 2009 story from komonews.com that didn't make the list? Leave a comment below with a link to the article.
| #25 Police: We're going after those helping Clemmons | |
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The deaths of four Lakewood police officers shocked the region and, while the gunman was killed by police, investigators vowed to track down everyone who helped him try to hide. |
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He was just on his way to a costume pub crawl, but a Seattle man's outfit prompted a full police response and ended with him in handcuffs. |
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Security video showing a King County sheriff's deputy shoving and kicking a 15-year-old girl in a holding cell after her arrest was quickly sent around the world after it was posted. |
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Most people know what caused Mary Kay Letourneau's initial notoriety, so when she showed up at a Seattle club hosting a "Hot for Teacher" night the Web clicks and comments came fast and furious. |
| #21 Teen killed as crash slices car in half near Puyallup | |
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The crash in May along River Road in Puyallup left a 19-year-old woman dead and three others injured. Weeks later it was learned that one of the girls injured in the crash had vanished earlier in the month and she had no memory of what happened. |
| #20 Tiger Woods' wife expecting first child | |
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This is one of those anomalies that highlights why online news is never easily predictable. The story was published back in 2006, but saw a huge amount of traffic when news of Woods' infidelity broke a few weeks ago. The page views came from people using search engines to look for photos of Tiger and his wife, Elin. |
| #19 14 cars damaged during couple's stripping game | |
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Given the odd nature of this story it wasn't much of a surprise that people quickly e-mailed and linked it all over the place. The couple involved apologized and were sentenced to four years in prison. |
| #18 Rescued dogs pregnant with 1,500 puppies | |
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Rescuers who saved hundreds of dogs from the stinking, filth-choked puppy mills in Skagit County discovered most of the animals were pregnant. |
| #17 Police find handgun at scene of police killings | |
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The murders of four Lakewood police officers dominated our online coverage in November, and this update the day after the killings was one of the most-read stories of the year. |
| #16 Spokane parks to detonate squirrels | |
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With a headline like this we just sat back and watched the page views rack up. |
| #15 Clemmons shot dead by lone Seattle officer | |
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After an intense two-day manhunt, the man who gunned down four Lakewood police officers was fatally shot by a Seattle patrolman. |
| #14 Monster truck promoter killed at own show | |
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The death in Wisconsin came just one week after a 6-year-old boy died and a man was injured in a monster truck event in Tacoma. |
| #13 Local family's lifestyle gets national attention | |
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The polyamorous lifestyle of Terisa, Scott and Larry was already a hit on YouTube and had recieved attention from Oprah, but that didn't stop readers from flocking to the story online. |
| #12 Knox's cousin: She was 'falling apart' after killing | |
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Kathi Goertzen's report from Italy came toward the end of testimony in the long-running murder trial of Amanda Knox. The former UW student was later convicted in her roommate's killing. |
| #11 Students arrested after prank sickens teacher | |
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Two students at Sequoyah Middle School in Federal Way allegedly put Ipecac, a syrup that induces vomiting, into their teacher's coffee. |
| #10 'She was my whole world' | |
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We don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't seen this one, so we'll just say it was one of the most heartwarming stories we posted all year. And many other readers agreed, putting it squarely in the top 10 for the year. |
| #9 Rising floodwaters shut down I-5, prompt thousands to flee | |
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The flooding in January crippled many areas in Southwest Washington and caused huge mudslides, power outages and damage across the region. |
| #8 Mt. Rainier puts on a show! | |
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While #9 shows how damaging Mother Nature can be, this post from Scott's weather blog showcased the opposite, and links to the beautiful photos landed in e-mail inboxes around the world. |
| #7 Nurses file lawsuit over mandatory flu vaccine | |
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A union representing 16,000 registered nurses in Washington state filed a federal lawsuit against MultiCare Health System for implementing a mandatory flu vaccination policy. |
| #6 Mount Vernon to award Glenn Beck key to city | |
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The announcement from the city quickly became the center of a national debate, and we think this story may have set a record for the most comments on a single komonews.com article. |
| #5 Don't you mess with grandpa, sonny | |
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Ted Mazetier may be a grandfather, but at 84 years old, he's still got his chops. And two would-be robbers learned that the hard way. |
| #4 'Horror scene' as 4 Lakewood police officers shot, killed | |
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With the region still reeling from the murder of a Seattle police officer, komonews.com readers woke up on a Sunday morning to learn that four Lakewood officers had been fatally shot as they gathered at a coffee shop before the start of their shift. |
| #3 Teacher sends boy, 5, home with bag of poo | |
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This story quickly made the rounds on various weird news sites and it didn't take long for it to jump toward the top of the year's most-read list. The teacher was later reprimanded. |
| #2 Boy, 6, killed by flying debris at Tacoma monster truck rally | |
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Sabastian Hizey was at the Tacoma Dome with his family when a chunk of metal broke off of one of the trucks and flew into the crowd. |
| #1 Photos: A view from above | |
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The most popular story on komonews.com for 2009 wasn't local, and it wasn't even really a story. It was a photo gallery showcasing images from a May shuttle mission to repair the aging Hubble Space Telescope. |