When a drug kingpin fell victim to a shooting in Harlem on Halloween, there was no reason to think that anyone in Maine would care much. But it turned out that Alpo Martinez’s death was, strangely, a local Lewiston story. During our first installment of ‘How I Got This Story,’ learn how reporter Steve Collins rooted out the tale, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of readers and been featured in papers from New York City to London.

Steve sits down with audience editor Madeleine LaPlante-Dube to discuss how his story came together.

Read up on the development on this story:

Former drug kingpin led surprisingly simple life in Lewiston

A former drug kingpin killed Sunday in New York had been hiding in Lewiston

A journalist since 1987, Steve Collins has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine. He has served as the State House reporter for the Sun Journal since 2016. Among his awards are the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2016 Ethics in Journalism Award and the I.F. Stone Whistle-Blower Award in 2015. Collins is a founder and board president of Youth Journalism International, a charity that teaches students around the globe about news writing, media literacy and issues of the day. His wife, Jackie Majerus, serves as its executive director. Born in Massachusetts, he grew up in a military family that took him to Norway, Ohio and Virginia, where he earned a degree in history from the University of Virginia. He and Jackie live in Auburn with their collie, Frankie. He has two grown children.