The hoax involving a phony soldier in Iraq and his orphaned daughter may have duped a lot of people on and around the Southern Illinois University campus, but a state’s attorney said this week that he’s found no crime to prosecute in his county.
Jamie Reynolds, an SIU graduate, persuaded the Daily Egyptian student paper to write numerous stories for over two years about Sgt. Dan Kennings and his daughter Kodee, both of whom turned out to be fictitious. Reynolds acknowledged the hoax in August after a Tribune investigation proved Kennings did not exist and exposed her role in the fakery.
Jackson County State’s Atty. Michael Wepsiec said he did not find any crimes with which to charge Reynolds, but he said he could speak only for law enforcement in Jackson County.
The hoax played out in multiple Illinois counties as well as communities in Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan. Wepsiec said he did not know whether Southern Illinois University police intended to forward the results of their investigation to other jurisdictions.
SIU Public Safety Director Todd Sigler could not be reached Tuesday for comment. Wepsiec said the SIU police gave him a file that consisted mostly of interviews with witnesses and people involved in the hoax and e-mails among people involved.
Investigators tried to piece together a string of deceptions that began with a May 6, 2003, story in the Daily Egyptian by student reporter Michael Brenner. Brenner denied Reynolds’ allegations that he was part of the hoax and insisted he too was duped.
He reported the first story about Kennings going off to war in Iraq, leaving his 8-year-old daughter Kodee behind with Kennings’ stepbrother and his wife. Many people in the community responded sympathetically to the story and letters–ostensibly from Kodee to her father–that the paper subsequently published.
Reynolds, who lives in Marion, took the girl to events in nearby towns and as far away as Detroit. During the hoax, the girl’s family moved twice, and Reynolds transported her to Carbondale from homes in Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana.
Wepsiec said he would not have jurisdiction to charge Reynolds with any crime that may have happened outside his county.
———-
dheinzmann@tribune.com
