NEW LONDON, Conn. -- A Connecticut newspaper reporter received four phone calls Tuesday from inside a South Windsor home where police said a woman was being held hostage by her ex-husband.

Richard Shenkman is suspected of abducting his ex-wife, Nancy Tyler, at a Hartford parking garage. Police said Shenkman then took Tyler to the South Windsor home the couple once shared. They said he held her hostage for more than 12 hours while police attempted to negotiate with him.

During the negotiation, New London Day managing editor Timothy Cutter said reporter Karen Florin received multiple calls from Shenkman.

"You expect the unexpected in this business, but getting a phone call from inside a hostage situation is pretty unusual," Cutter said. "She was afraid he was going to do something or she might say the wrong thing. It was tough on her."

"My journalism side was telling me, 'You have to be a human being first and try to save a life if you can save a life,'" Florin said. "I wanted to keep things calm. You know instincts kick in. I also wanted the story."

Florin said she had interviewed Shenkman several times before. One of those news stories involved Shenkman's arrest on arson charges after his Niantic beach home was destroyed in a fire, she said.

During Tuesday's conversations, Cutter said Florin also spoke with Tyler. He said Florin could hear police negotiators talking with Shenkman in the background.

"I said, 'Nancy, what can I do?' She said, 'There's nothing you can do,'" Florin said. "She did give me a rational, logical, sensible quote to put in the paper: 'I hope this, I think this can end well, and there is nothing that's been done that cannot be undone.' She was speaking like the PR pro that she is, and it was unbelievable under that duress."

Shenkman was especially concerned about the media's coverage of the hostage situation, Cutter added.

"He said that if we published something, he was going to kill Nancy Tyler," he said.

"I think he was working us across the state all day yesterday -- working the media, working the police -- and he knows in the end we have to go with the facts of the story," Florin said. "He said so many times, 'I'm in control. I have the power, and the police don't like that.'

"I thought he was going to do harm," Florin said. "He told me at one point, 'I have Nancy handcuffed.' He kept asking for a priest to come and give her last rights. I thought, 'He has a plan and it does not include a good ending.'"

One of the demands made by Shenkman early on, police said, was that media not report on the developing incident. While Eyewitness News reporters remained at the scene and continued to gather information, the story was initially not posted on WFSB.com or aired on Channel 3. Other media outlets, including the Hartford Courant and Fox 61, posted the story online, reportedly upsetting Shenkman, who demanding the stories be removed.

"It was the responsible decision to make," Channel 3 News Director Dana Neves said. "There is no story bigger than human life and ethics and integrity are our top priority when reporting news at WFSB. When law enforcement asked us to hold back while they assessed the situation, it was a no-brainer to do our part to protect the lives of Ms. Tyler and the police officers coming to her aid."

Police said Shenkman was "irritated" by stories on the Hartford Courant's Web site and demanded that the information be removed by 2:30 p.m., South Windsor police Cmdr. Matthew Reed said. Stories remained on the paper's Web site after that time without incident.

The New London Day and Eyewitness News held off on publishing the story until about 3 p.m.

"He had a plan that he apparently was going to carry out, and I think he wanted a blaze of glory once again," Florin said. "I guess he got that."