Longtime NBC4 reporter Julie Carey shared an emotional farewell with viewers on Wednesday, announcing her retirement after spending more than three decades covering Northern Virginia and the greater Washington region.
During her farewell, Carey reflected on arriving in the DMV with her husband on April 1, 1992. “We moved to the DMV on April 1, 1992 with an initial plan to stay about three years,” she said. “Thirty-four years later, it looks like the April Fools’ joke is on us,” she joked, adding that NBC4 ultimately became home.
Carey joined NBC4 in 1992 and served as the station’s Northern Virginia Bureau Chief throughout a career that made her one of the region’s most recognizable journalists.
According to her NBC4 biography, Carey covered Northern Virginia extensively while also reporting from Richmond on every Virginia governor’s race, General Assembly session and statewide election since 1993. She regularly moderated and participated in political debates involving Virginia candidates and reported on major regional issues, including child abuse, sex offenders and the integration of women into the Virginia Military Institute.
Her reporting also included coverage of the late 1990s investigations led by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Carey served as the lead reporter on several high-profile criminal trials, including those involving George Huguely and Lee Boyd Malvo.
Before joining NBC4, Carey worked at television stations in St. Louis, Indianapolis and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she began her journalism career after graduating from Indiana University with a degree in journalism.
Raised in Iowa in a family of journalists, Carey has lived in Alexandria with her husband, a managing editor for Bloomberg. She has also been active as a volunteer in Alexandria Public Schools and within her church throughout her time in the community.
After 34 years at NBC4 and a career that spanned some of the region’s most significant political, legal and community stories, Carey leaves behind a lasting legacy in local journalism.
