Michelle Bandur, center, stands with colleagues in the newsroom of KCRA in Sacramento in a recent photo. The on-air journalist has signed off after 35 years in TV news but will remain in Sacramento, she said.
Michelle Bandur via Facebook
Emmy-winning KCRA-TV reporter Michelle Bandur has signed off after 35 years in television news, including the last four at the Sacramento station, she said in a social media post.
“What a ride I’ve had being a TV News journalist since the late ’80’s. I’ve enjoyed and learned so much being part of the changes over the decades in TV News from hairstyles, technology, social media, and the now direct connection to viewers,” Bandur said in a farewell message posted to Facebook. “But one thing has never changed — the storytelling, truth seeking and digging for answers. Journalism matters, more than ever.”
Bandur’s last day at Channel 3 was earlier this month. She arrived in Sacramento nearly four years ago, where she was reunited with Ariel Roblin, KCRA president and general manager, who had been Bandur’s boss at Omaha, Nebraska, ABC affiliate KETV.
The TV news veteran leaves behind work at the Sacramento NBC affiliate that included special reports on conditions for children in California’s foster care system and national scoops in the case of Vallejo “American Nightmare” predator Matthew Muller.
Bandur won two Emmy Awards for daily news as well as team Emmy awards while at KCRA. Most recently, she reported on the state’s elderly parole program, which came under scrutiny after the release of David Allen Funston. He had been serving multiple life terms for the kidnappings, rapes and assaults of eight Sacramento-area children in 1995 before his scheduled release in February.
Funston was charged and rearrested by Placer County authorities in a 1996 case involving a Roseville child on the day of his release from state prison and remains in Placer County custody pending an April court date in Placer Superior Court.
Bandur is leaving television news but not retiring. She plans to remain in Sacramento after receiving “a once in a lifetime opportunity with a unique company.”
“More to come,” Bandur said.
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The Sacramento Bee
Darrell Smith is a local reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He joined The Bee in 2006 and previously worked at newspapers in Palm Springs, Colorado Springs and Marysville. Smith was born and raised at Beale Air Force Base and lives in Elk Grove.