An Award-Winning Death?

Today's Star Tribune page 2 celebrity cavalcade included a short bit about the gospel music Dove Awards, which were held on Thursday. Check out this confounding lead sentence, which was juxtaposed to a photo of a man and a tearful woman holding hands:

Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman, joined by wife Mary Beth, capped an emotional year in which he lost his 5-year-old daughter in an accident by winning artist of the year during the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards in Nashville on Thursday.

Contrast that with this version (from the Strib website), which is the unedited text straight from AP:

Veteran Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman capped an emotional year in which he lost his 5-year-old daughter in a tragic accident by winning artist of the year during the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards on Thursday.

Although the AP version is slightly less confusing, don't both of those sentences read as if Chapman lost his daughter by winning artist of the year? And what's with the child being "his" daughter in the Strib version? Once the copy editor introduced Mary Beth into the text so that the paragraph could act as a caption for the photo, shouldn't it have become "their" daughter? Assuming it's her child, too?

Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman (joined by wife Mary Beth) capped an emotional year, in which they lost their 5-year-old daughter in an accident, by winning artist of the year during the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards in Nashville on Thursday.

Call me crazy, but those two little commas I stuck in there seem to make all the difference in the world to the meaning here. Better yet, maybe they could have figured out a way to break it into two sentences, perhaps including some of the details that were used a few paragraphs later.

Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman, joined by wife Mary Beth, capped an emotional year by winning artist of the year during the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards in Nashville on Thursday. The Chapmans, who lost their 5-year-old daughter in May when she was accidentally hit by a vehicle driven by her older brother in the driveway of their home, said the tragedy allowed the family to share their faith.

Here's the lead from another story (from the Grand Rapids Press), which played it completely differently than AP:

Singer-songwriters Steven Curtis Chapman and Brandon Heath were major winners in the 40th annual Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, presented Thursday in the Grand Ole Opry.

Chapman won the Dove as the year's top songwriter and was selected for artist of the year.

He acknowledged he likely was a sentimental favorite following the tragic death of his 5-year-old daughter, Maria, last May.

And to think, I never even heard of this guy until today.