(Birmingham, AL) — A Birmingham TV news anchor and former University of Alabama football player is dead in an apparent suicide, according to reports and his employer. Officials say the body of Christopher Sign, an evening anchor at TV station ABC 33/40, was found at a residence in Hoover on Saturday morning. At his previous job in news in Phoenix, Arizona he broke the infamous 2016 “tarmac meeting” between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch while Hillary was running for president. Sign was 45-years-old.
Sign wrote a book, Secret on the Tarmac, about the major national news story he broke and talked about the death threats he received as a result of his reporting.
While working as a reporter and a morning anchor at ABC affiliate KNXV-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, Sign was the first to report on the June 2016 meeting between former president Bill Clinton and then-attorney general Loretta Lynch on the tarmac at Sky Harbor International Airport in Pheonix during the presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
I’m sending my condolences to everyone at @abc3340. But especially to Chris’ family. He leaves behind his wife and three young sons. I hope you will join me in lifting them up in prayer. https://t.co/LIN8apqWH3
— Robert Aderholt (@Robert_Aderholt) June 12, 2021
Sign was found dead by Hoover, Ala., police around 8:13 a.m. Saturday after they received a call of “a person down” at his Scout Trace home, according to Al.com.
The former college football player’s death is being investigated as a suicide, Hoover Lt. Keith Czeskleba said, according to the outlet.
“Chris was a tremendous leader in our newsroom,” wrote ABC 33/40, Sign’s outlet, in a Saturday tribute to the reporter.
“He worked with our reporting staff on a daily basis, but also worked behind the scenes with the I-Team and with news managers on coverage of major events,” the obituary continued. “You were very likely to get an email from him with a story idea in the middle of the night. He was passionate about journalism and showed it each and every day as he pushed himself and his colleagues to be the best.”
Sign had three sons with his wife, Laura, whom he met at the University of Alabama in the 1990s, where he manned the offensive line for the school’s football squad and she starred as an All-SEC volleyball player, according to the local ABC affiliate.