Emily Matson, a popular, award-winning news anchor and reporter at WIPU-TV in Erie, PA, for nearly two decades, has died. She was 42.
NBC affiliate WIPU’s parent company Lilly Broadcasting confirmed her death December 11 but offer no other details.
“It is with a very heavy heart that we have learned of the passing of our beloved Erie News Now news anchor Emily Matson,” Lilly Broadcasting said in a statement. “Emily was a shining light in our newsroom, delivering news with a passion and love she had for the Erie community and Northwest Pennsylvania. We loved Emily dearly and our hearts go out to the Matson family and her husband Ryan at this time.”
Matson began her career as an intern at Erie’s WJET-TV in the early 2000s. Moving at WICU, she first produced the station’s morning show for two years before landing a gig as an on-air reporter. “I was sad to leave the morning crew, but excited when offered the reporter job I’d been striving for,” Matson wrote on her bio page. “As a general assignment reporter, I focused on the crime beat since my first day on the job, and I love it! I feel I’m really making a difference in the Erie community, meeting new people, and telling the stories that affect everybody every day.”
She went on the co-anchor WICU’s nightly 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. and was a two-time winner of the Outstanding Spot News Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters.
“One of the things I love about my job is that no single day is EVER the same,” Matson wrote in her bio. “I love breaking news situations.”