‘Pit bull in pumps’ investigative TV reporter Jilda Unruh dies at 65 in Aventura
Jilda Unruh’s colleagues affectionately — and respectfully — called her a “pit bull in heels.”
The tag was a combination of Unruh’s stature as she stood but 5-feet tall and wore 3-inch stiletto heels and her tenacity as an Emmy-winning investigative reporter for South Florida TV stations WPLG-Local 10 and CBS4 Miami.
The description apparently appealed to Unruh, because less than a year after leaving CBS4 Miami in April 2015 she formed her own media training and crisis communications firm. She named it The Pit Bull in Pumps LLC.
Unruh was working as a consultant for Surfside when she died suddenly on Friday morning, after collapsing at her Aventura apartment, according to her sister Allison Unruh and close friends including former WSVN investigative reporter Marilyn Mitzel. The cause of death has not been determined pending an autopsy result.
Unrue was 65.
“She was a hell of an anchor. You know how some anchors are readers and some anchors who know how to handle a news desk? That girl could handle a news desk and anything you threw at her. She was unflappable,” Mitzel said.
In a Facebook post, Mitzel marveled at how Jilda “brought down some very big/corrupt people with her in-depth undercover reporting and famous story line, What Were You Thinking?”
“Jilda was one of a kind — a spitfire from Oklahoma who, as they say down South, ‘called them like she saw them.’ She was an honest, voracious journalist who sought the truth first and foremost. At the same time, she was a blast. She loved to joke, laugh and have fun,” said her friend, CBS4 entertainment reporter Lisa Petrillo.
Petrillo, who worked alongside Unruh at WPLG and CBS4 Miami, recalls some of those laughs — and their final communication.
“I would be under deadline writing a piece on Oscar fashions for the next day and she would be texting me all night to get my opinions and give me hers on what she thought who was best and worst dressed. She was kind, caring and loyal. She had the best, most devilish laugh. She was smart, interesting — interested in others — and had a huge heart.
“We were texting about a potential story I might work on the very night before she died,” Petrillo said. “She was working with the town of Surfside for the tragedy. She wrote me the sweetest compliment. I had no idea that would be our last text. I sent her a hug emoji. I wish I talked to her instead of text. I wish I hugged her.”
CBS4 news anchor Eliott Rodriguez also worked with Unruh at the two South Florida stations.
“She was my first co-anchor, so we always joked that we had a special bond,” Rodriguez said. “When I found out that she had my picture on her refrigerator, my eyes welled up and I had a hollow feeling in my stomach.
“I first met Jilda in 1988 when we co-anchored the weekend news at Channel 10. She was new to Miami from Oklahoma but it didn’t take her long to get to know this community and love it. I also worked with her at CBS4, where she was an investigative producer. We called her a pit bull in heels. She was fun to work with, smart and talented, but also had a wicked sense of humor and a low tolerance for incompetence and injustice. She was one of the best investigative reporters I’ve known.”
Emmys and other awards
The industry recognized her skills with four local Emmys and five more nominations.
She won her first Emmy in the investigative reporting/community issues, crime category, in November 1992, for her piece, “Crack in the System,” on drug use in Florida state prisons. WPLG had asked Unruh to cancel part of her vacation in the fall of 1991 so she changed her plans to complete that series for airing earlier than originally planned, the Miami Herald reported.
Unruh won her second Emmy at the same ceremony — for investigative reporting/community issues, in the non-crime category — for “Silent Alarm,” on security problems in the Dade Juvenile Detention Center.
Her other honors include the National Gracie Award for uncovering the plight of underage children who fly alone on major airlines. Unruh’s reports led to changes in the unaccompanied minor program at Northwest Airlines and a congressional investigation. Unruh earned an Edward R. Murrow Award for an investigation into the federal government’s oversight of the Au Pair program. And she won a Sunshine State Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her investigative reporting on corruption in the Miami-Dade County public school system.
Of course, investigative reporting doesn’t always win praise from those under the microscope.
In 2002, the United Teachers of Dade blasted Unruh as “South Florida’s own Geraldo Rivera” in a snarky blurb titled “Flushing Out Jilda,” with accompanying toilet sounds on its website. Some members of the union were not happy after Unruh pursued a story on UTD’s offices on Biscayne Boulevard that were said to have executives’ toilets and a $1.2 million, 10-year office furniture lease.
Her premise, then UTD president Pat Tornillo disputed in the Herald, was that “I had an opulent bathroom, that my offices and everything were gold-plated.”
But her dogged reporting, as well as that of others, helped take Tornillo down.
In 2003, Tornillo went to federal prison for mail fraud and tax evasion. Tornillo would admit to looting the UTD treasury of an estimated $3.3 million to underwrite a lavish lifestyle and, after serving 22 months of a 27-month sentence, wrote an apology that was published in the Herald. Tornillo died at his home in Tallahassee at 81 in 2007.
In 2001, lobbyist Eric “Rick” Sisser sued Unruh for allegedly confronting him in a hospital room where he was a heart patient.
Singing, skating and journalism
Unruh was born on April 5, 1956, in Germany as her father, Jim, was stationed there while serving in the Army.
Unruh’s professional career began in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she was raised, at KOTV in 1981. Unruh earned her bachelor of arts with a double major in American history and theater and a minor in voice from Vanderbilt University in Nashville in 1978.
“That girl could sing. Holy moly she had a beautiful singing voice, so powerful,” Mitzel said. “She went from wanting to be an actress and a figure skater and a singer and ended up this phenomenal journalist. You never know where you are going to end up, isn’t that true? And I think that kind of was her life.”
Survivors, services
Unruh’s survivors include her mother Paula, sister Allison and brother Jay Unruh, and her nieces Jennifer and Jaclyn. She was predeceased by her father Jim.
Services are pending. Unruh had told her sister she wanted her ashes spread at sea. “Jilda always said the reason she stayed in Miami was she wanted to look at that water. The view really calmed her down,” Allison said. “She really loved the ocean and water and that was her happy place. That’s where she wanted to end up.”
In addition, the family requests donations be made to the Champlain Towers Family Fund. “Jilda was very much involved in handling the media for the city of Surfside since the tower came down,” Mitzel said. “She was completely dedicated to helping those families.”
