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Tampa Bay Skeptics E-mail Update
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The following Press Release (on TBS letterhead)
is being faxed to the Tampa Bay/Sarasota/Orlando
area newspapers and TV newsrooms on the
morning of Monday, Jan. 6.
Also, the program will be repeated four hours
later, and again on Sunday, Jan. 12, at 5 p.m.
(all times are Eastern).
(If we sent you an advance draft of this release
last week, there have been very few minor revisions.)
PRESS RELEASE
January 6, 1997
== A&E Network series, "The Unexplained," to focus on
"Psychic Detectives" on January 9 program ==
== Orlando's Noreen Renier to be featured, with skeptical
commentary from Tampa Bay Skeptics (TBS) founder
Gary Posner, but the true story has only too recently
been discovered by TBS ==
On Thursday, January 9, at 10 p.m., the A&E Network's new series, "The
Unexplained," is scheduled to air its program on "Psychic Detectives." One of
the hour-long show's segments will focus on Orlando "psychic detective"
Noreen Renier and the Williston, Florida, case (see photocopy of newspaper
article). This case has been the focus of lead stories in the two most recent
issues of the Tampa Bay Skeptics Report (previously sent to you -- additional
copies available upon request).
What we, unfortunately, do _not_ expect to learn from this program, despite
its best efforts at balance and accuracy, is the true story -- gleaned by
Tampa Bay Skeptics from police documents only recently obtained by a local
law firm and forwarded to us. According to a two-page handwritten report
filed by police Investigator Brian Hewitt on May 12, 1995, two full months
prior to his "psychic" reading with Renier, Hewitt was already aware that the
missing man had recently spoken of committing suicide in "a river or pit . .
. and [had] made some reference to knowing every rock pit in the county."
Further, as to why Hewitt focused his search on the Whitehurst pits (where
the body was found), was this due to the specificity of Renier's "psychic"
reading? According to another police report dated July 21, 1995, four days
after Renier's "psychic" reading, Hewitt writes that these pits "are an
obvious first impression because of there [sic] location, being the closest
and most easily accessible from the Lewis residence."
As for whether Renier indicated that the body would be found near Lewis'
home, as has been claimed, an audiotape containing excerpts of Renier's
reading, even more recently obtained from the Williston police, has Renier
saying, "Maybe four, maybe five. If it's 45 miles, if it's 4.5 miles. . . ."
Lewis' body was found _2.1_ miles from his home. Incredibly, Renier has
nevertheless been credited by the police with an eerily accurate "hit" on
this score because elsewhere during her "reading" she allegedly "saw" the
number "21."
While the A&E presentation will be balanced (unlike this case's recent
coverage on the Nov. 15 edition of "Sightings") with skeptical commentary
from TBS's Gary Posner, it will be hampered by the fact that the _true_ story
has only recently been discovered by TBS -- too late for inclusion in the A&E
report.
For further information contact:
Gary P. Posner, M.D.
Founder, Tampa Bay Skeptics >>