College paper's "war story" a hoax

The Michigan Partisan

By Page W. H. Brousseau IV
TIMES STAFF WRITER

Southern Illinois University may not be well known, but recent events have thrown the relatively obscure university into the national spotlight. In 2003 Michael Brenner, a writer for the student paper, The Daily Egyptian, received a letter from Kodee Kennings, a curly-haired blonde girl whose father was shipping out to Iraq.

Over the course of the following year, the Egyptian posted letters from Kodee fraught with misspellings and child innocence. "You should find Saddam and run him over with your tank. Then you can come home. Do you wear your helmet when you sleep? I love you and don't die. Love, Kodee" So it went for a year. During that time, the paper's staff and local citizens read each heartbreaking story about Dan and Kodee Kennings with empathy for the little girl. The editor talked on the phone with the girl and her aunt who was acting as Kodee's guardian, the paper even printed pictures of the girl and her father taken before he left.

Last month word reached the news staff at the Egyptian that Dan Kennings had died in Iraq. A journalism professor contacted the Chicago Tribune for help covering the death. Further investigation revealed there was no Dan Kennings in Iraq, or in the military for that matter. The Tribune reporter went to a memorial service for "Kennings" where a woman and little girl made a quick appearance. The name of Kodee's aunt, Colleen Hastings, appeared in none of the public records the Tribune used for background information.

The reporter met Brenner who still insisted the story was true. He promised Hastings was Kodee's guardian and she would show up to speak with the reporter. When she pulled into the parking lot, the reporter matched the car's description and the driver's identity to the same woman at the memorial service. When the reporter asked her for a driver's license and certificate of death for Kennings, she drove off. The license plate belonged to Jaimie Reynolds, a 2004 graduate of Southern Illinois and friend of Michael Brenner.

Reynolds saw the jig was up and confessed all. She said she and Brenner concocted the story of a little girl whose dad was in Iraq to further Brenner's career. The little girl and man in the pictures were actors, family friends who were hired, for what they thought was, a role in a low budget movie.

Brenner denies Reynolds' claims. He says he was a victim and Reynolds used his trust to manipulate his feelings as much as the paper's readers were. The Tribune quoted him saying, "Obviously, she is making that up. I swear I'm telling the truth. The last two years of my life, I don't know what to believe . It's ridiculous. I feel stabbed in the back. They had an elaborate hoax. I'm telling the truth." Brenner's previous employers are reviewing his past articles.