University of West Georgia (UWG) dishonest communications in 2024 expose deep academic integrity and research failings. UWG websites currently promote an 88-year-old actress (age as of 1-16-2025), who for decades has charged $20 to $40 a minute fees to access her 'super psychic powers' to contact the dead and murdered. The UWG apparently now accepts her many 'God like' superpowers as authentic. Yet this UWG supported and self-claimed 'psychic detective' is the highly discredited actress Noreen Renier of Florida. But in late 2024 the UWG boasts she "has worked with law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on approximately 600 unsolved cases." However, among UWG's estimated 600 Public Law Enforcement (PLE) cases worked by Renier, no U.S. PLE agency was found holding public documents confirming Noreen Renier for any officially sanctioned PLE case work hiring, nor authorizing her handling of any matching PLE case evidence. Searched dates ran from January 1965 thru July 2024. Even among many North American, European, Asian, and Australian PLE agencies, none reported that Noreen Renier was PLE hired and solved any PLE case.
Renier herself reluctantly testified about her PLE work claims, admitting that she actually has no dated or numbered PLE agency work listings. Nor has she kept any PLE agency names, PLE contact names, or PLE case numbers that match up with her "more than hundreds" of PLE cases that she claims to have worked. And not surprisingly, she could find no previous PLE hiring employment records, nor PLE case payment receipts, nor "more than hundreds" of PLE agency payments on her tax records. And across the last 20 years thru mid 2023 her website posted fees for PLE agency work were rarely discounted below $1000. And they have never been shown or discussed by Renier as free. Indeed, she repeatedly raised her posted on-line fees to PLE agencies, while lowering her posted private party 'missing person locating fees'. This gave an appearance of 'better value' for families over her PLE agency fees. But there is no evidence to support UWG's near 600 worked PLE cases, nor Renier's own "more than hundreds" of PLE cases worked. Just how many UWG faculty and staff are behind this globally massive charade?
In late 2024 the UWG now even claims its Special Collection "includes material on cases that Renier worked on for the FBI." Truthful? No. Because compounding that UWG falsehood is testimony by FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler stating Renier's claim of working for the FBI "is not true. …she does not work on F.B.I. cases… …She never really worked for the F.B.I.” And his senior, FBI Chief Roger Depue, also testified that Renier never did FBI case work. Ever. And neither Renier nor UWG have any PLE 'Chain of Custody' (CoC) chronology logs showing she ever handled PLE case evidence from any of 17,743 U.S. PLE agencies. In October 2024 the new Microsoft 'Co-Pilot' AI option on the Bing search engine produced a false, but revealing statement. It stated that Noreen Renier worked on cases for the FBI by citing the UWG to support that claim. That prompted further Global Net Research funding and activities which uncovered additional UWG concerns.Has the UWG created phoney ties to major global PLE agencies to convince families with lost and murdered children to book Noreen Renier to contact their missing or dead children? If so, did some UWG employees receive financial kick-backs from what appears to be a 'million dollar plus' business? With Renier's PLE numbers "more than hundreds", even just 1000 PLE cases would net $1 million. Toss in over 4 decades of private party phone talks with Renier and decades of private medium sessions, and the dollars raised could easily triple, quadruple, or exceed $5 million. So among these many spinning parts, which and how many are a charade? Did students, including student web script and software writers, assist UWG staff personnel and receive academic credits for doing so?
Critically, Renier and UWG statements also seem to suggest Renier has mystical powers while holding objects, such as while touching PLE physical evidence. Are both the UWG and Renier spinning a claim that touching an object can trigger 'psychometry' paranormal powers? There is of course no scientific evidence that psychometry exists, but even extensive testing directly on Renier hasn't stopped the UWG.
Indeed, Noreen Renier has only catastrophic 'psychometry' touching failures after expert testing by Southern Oregon State College faculty (Click to see Finding #22 at https://www.globalnetresearch.com/findings.html ). Yet UWG personnel offer no UWG method tests of their own, but remain firm in still backing Renier. UWG currently states that "her method involves holding items belonging to the missing person in order to learn information about the place, time, and circumstances of their disappearance." Such items have included the holding of Teddy Bears from missing and dead children. But not a single lost child or adult has ever been located using this mystical UWG 'touch-sense' claim. Yet during a typical Renier 25 to 40 minute medium session to contact the missing or dead, Noreen Renier often suggested along with their $1000 cash or check payment -- no credit cards were allowed -- that clients also send a personal item from the lost family member before Renier made contact using her ghost entities and her sensing of psychic vibrations.
According to retired private investigator Arthur Carmelo, Noreen Renier claims she has touched "thousands" of sensory items. He has spoken with many of her past clients who said Renier had them wrap a "lock of hair" in aluminum foil inside the mailing envelope with their personal or bank cashier's check. He also found many instead sent Renier different personal items including "small stuffed animals, child artwork, small books, hair combs, men's cuff links, dolls, women's scarfs, hand mittens, hair pins, several toothbrushes, and even a partially eaten bag of Cheetos" which, according to feedback from Renier to that client, produced “strong sensory waves” allowing Renier to contact a deceased young boy.
During brief recorded medium sessions, a few samples of which are stored by the UWG in their Noreen Renier Collection #MS-0083, actress Noreen Renier voices both her own voice and projects the responses from "lost souls" reaching out. Her paying clients also heard her medium session live over the phone, and often "communicated" thru Renier with their children or another family member or friend. In a public statement issued in her own published media pack titled "Workshop ESP: An Awareness" Noreen Renier stated even "an optional trance" was available "to make contact with the deceased relatives, friends, or famous people, and questions may be posed to 'Sing' and 'Robert', Noreen's two main spiritual entities, who have something to say about everything!" Now, after her "retirement" in mid 2023, the UWG continues to publicly provide access to its Renier collection. But it does so with no UWG warnings or stated reservations that hearing or relying on such paranormal methods can result in significant costs, just delusionary fiction, and additional emotional harms. Nor does UWG mention that Noreen Renier herself has been shown as not credible by a U.S. federal court, nor that the judgment against her was also supported by four additional U.S. federal judges. Excerpts from those judgements are shown below.
UWG even ignores Renier testimony 40 years ago that she stopped logging PLE agencies, cases, or contacts after her initial "35 to 40" files were "lost" by Renier. So UWG actually has never had any proof to support media stories citing 400 to 1800 PLE cases worked by Renier, resolved by Renier, or even existing. Indeed U.S. federal court subpoenas uncovered one unreported Noreen Renier bank account hidden just weeks before Renier declared her 2nd bankruptcy. Records provided to the federal bankruptcy Court Trustee state that Renier "provided information about seven (7) accounts in her bankruptcy petition: four different accounts at Wachovia Bank in Charlottesville, two retirement accounts (American Funds and Evergreen Investments), and a closed account at Bank of America in Tampa. However, the Debtor [Renier], failed to identify her checking account at the Putt Putt branch of Bank of America in Charlottesville." That hidden account showed cash deposits well over $100,000.00 including many additional payments from families who paid Renier for an over-the-phone missing child medium session. A related question is why were at least 7 different active financial accounts needed by Renier who initially claimed to the bankruptcy court that her total income the year before was just $6371.00? Then where did the funds in the hidden account come from and go to?
Among many families contacted from checks processed thru Renier's hidden bank account, not even one family said Renier had found their child. Many were further emotionally devastated as Renier, using a childish voice, voiced a child speaking thru one or both of Renier's claimed ghost entities. According to multiple witnesses across multiple sessions, Renier's mouth cried out repeatedly with the sound of a child's anguish that they were lost and afraid. This is the reality behind a UWG facade that the UWG showcases as a valued historical collection for academic research.
Instead the UWG is seen by many as providing a global stage for Noreen Renier, a former dinner theatre and lengthy professional playhouse actress. Renier for years worked in entertainment lounges and also operated and acted in her own nightclub. Noreen Renier is a performer who later started a business booking parents of lost and missing children to her own 'spiritual medium' sessions. According to several trade companions, Renier discovered that she could sit in her own home and by phone discuss psychics, spiritual healings, and paranormal events on late night AM radio stations for free. As she became better recognized, radio stations booked her more often including across larger regions of the U.S. and Canada. With this better coverage she also began drawing new clients looking for advice by phone during the day after listening to her at night. Within just 6 years she became an American psychic talk show star, and also expanded from radio to TV. Over the years she evolved into a 'Police Psychic Detective & Medium Contacting the Murdered' further expanding her recognition.
After changing her title to just 'Police Psychic Detective' she even picked up a short luncheon talk at the FBI Training Academy located about an hour from her home. She quickly turned that description from 'a short talk over lunch in front of a few FBI trainees' into a false marketing campaign claiming to be "an FBI psychic medium investigator" who had "lectured at the FBI." This became her story, rather than simply speaking for a few minutes and answering some questions on the same afternoon, split between two trainee back-to-back lunch breaks. The UWG clearly never checked the facts. Her actual discussion was essentially that 'as a police psychic detective I am already on network TV and real. Any questions?' She became a national TV guest, and a limited co-writer fronted by ghost-writers, some who remain unidentified in 2024, for 2 books and a mini pamphlet. By the mid 1980's she had left her work in lounges, playhouses, and her 'sleazy' nightclub attire far behind. Well, almost. (See her own comment in statement #23 below). But she has always remained first and foremost an actress marketing exaggerated tales. And outright lies.
In late 2024 neither interim University of West Georgia President, Dr. Ashwani Monga, nor any UWG senior or UWG legal personnel have halted or revised UWG's dishonest statements and claims as noted on this site. It appears all risks and liabilities distributed about Noreen Renier from UWG websites are now fully transferred to the UWG without any UWG publicly stated reservations. Not even a UWG public disclaimer to cover the dismal research and dishonesty of the cited communications. Those remain posted under various UWG logos.
Renier's federal bankruptcy judge ruled she had misled the federal bankruptcy court, forcing Renier on her third court income filing to revise her income earnings upward by over 10 times even after her second filing. Even so, her major creditor showed further financial deceptions and the judge later ordered the sale of thousands of dollars in Renier's assets to pay her creditors. Deceptions after deceptions even while she stood in a federal court house. And bankruptcy issues were just one of her legal problems as a Washington U.S. District Court had also found that she had breached an earlier Florida State Court settlement agreement, ruling she owed a principal critic over $40,000.00. And even after that, after taking almost a year to twice appeal U.S. federal court judgments against her, she lost both of her appeals. Her legal costs became far greater than her income. All of which, across several years, are completely ignored in any UWG communications. Honest UWG coverage? No.
Using the minimum count tally of Noreen Renier's claimed PLE 'case work' totals, as of July 1, 2023 -- near Renier's "retirement" from case work -- Global Net Research investigators believe that conservatively 1,036 (99.7% to 100%) among her claimed total PLE 'cases worked' are in fact bogus and never existed, and/or are completely autonomous from authentic PLE cases she was never sanctioned or authorized to work, and therefore was never hired or "worked" according to any known PLE agency. If she accurately claimed even 0 to 5 PLE sanctioned cases given to her to work, they would likely be from small townships where that particular office closed and no records were transferred to other PLE cross referencing networks. That would be unusual as even smaller PLE offices would have PLE 'Chain of Custody' (CoC) documentation for the handling of their files and any acquired evidence. Beyond even the slim possibility of five or more such cases being claimed by Renier, all investigators contacted suspect such cases would be found delusional, exaggerated, or improperly recorded.
So why is the University of West Georgia pushing dishonest academic claims while promoting a woman that one writer called a fraud and charlatan in court as early as 1986? Since 1994 Renier has been handed over 120 pages of court judgment rulings against her from multiple U.S. state and federal courts. Class action litigation from other plaintiffs against U.S. institutions who have actively distributed public communications incorporating dishonest claims about Noreen Renier and others, can now proceed. For the University of West Georgia, having distributed such false communications for years, it has uniquely expanded its liabilities beyond the safeguard limits of other public institutions. Shockingly well beyond a professional academic center. Below, further concerns for the University of West Georgia and its related state hierarchy are noted. And even more uncovered deceptions.
26 statements from constables, police, courts, judges, eye-witnesses, and investigators are showcased below.
The photos above of Noreen Renier (88 years old as of 1-16-2025) span the last 55 years. Noreen Renier has never been sanctioned to work PLE cases under the FBI, CIA, NSA, Scotland Yard, or for any of 38 U.S. state police agencies as she claims.
Only 0 to 5 cases from 4 tiny United States PLE offices MIGHT have been sanctioned for Noreen Renier to work over 60 years. Not UWG's whopping estimate of 600. As a 'police psychic detective for hire' Noreen Renier has preyed on families with lost children by selling them medium readings by phone. Noreen Renier self-claims to contact the dead, the murdered, and the missing using two "ghost entities" and purified crystal pendulums. Cost? Typically $20 to $40 per minute based on Renier's mid 2023 minimum flat rate shown on her website at $1000. The University of West Georgia has corrupted its own ethical, scientific, academic, and research integrity standards in promoting actress Noreen Renier. Clearly this UWG charade shows extreme public community negligence for truth and accuracy. UWG students should be concerned at the educational quality they are receiving as these appalling practices appear allowable under current UWG communication standards. Additionally both UWG donors and grant institutions should be ashamed how their UWG funding is being intermixed beside such globally viewed UWG spirit medium shenanigans.
For more than 2 decades Noreen Renier has posted on her website her own faked academic credentials as an adjunct faculty member across 7 accredited U.S. colleges and universities. Click here to see https://noreenrenier.com/services/academic.htm However, all 7 of these institutions denied her claims that they gave her a "teaching appointment" as a "adjunct faculty member" and many, beginning 20 years ago, requested Renier to remove these deceptive postings. She has never done so. Noreen Renier has never been an accredited adjunct faculty member or received any accredited public college or university faculty teaching appointment. She herself has never earned or received an accredited 2 or 4 year degree. Yet apparently the University of West Georgia has itself ignored these teaching appointment and title deceptions provided on May 18, 2023 to then UWG President Brendan Kelly; many current senior UWG officials and staff; the UWG Office of Legal Affairs; and to Blynne Olivieri Parker, Professor & Head of UWG Special Collections. Now, in December 2024, the UWG adds to the confusion in using the website subject title covering Noreen Renier "Teaching experience, 1978-2014 | University of West Georgia" seemingly linking Renier with UWG teaching. In fact, in federal court testimony as the defendant she could not remember the name of any high school she graduated from. So why is UWG adding more false confusion about Renier teaching with the UWG for 36 years? The UWG just continues to compound its own false and/or misleading and/or sloppy UWG communications about Noreen Renier. It now appears some UWG website writers are completely out of control. Why?
Portraying herself as making contact with the dead, Noreen Renier claims hundreds of cases "when I was paid and hired by the police." Also not true. Instead many of those listed below note Noreen Renier lies and/or wildly distorts. Please note the statements from multiple judges below, including from Judge William E. Anderson, along with two other federal courts who rejected Renier's follow-up appeals. The statements below show how far some recent UWG academic communications and University of West Georgia moral and ethical standards have fallen.
1.
“...the record before the court shows that its impossible that Ms. Renier breached the [Florida State court] agreement in this case without some level of fault. She knew or should have known of the agreement, and breached it nonetheless. . . The court rejects Ms. Renier's claim that she did not breach the Settlement Agreement because her statements in [her book] A Mind for Murder are, according to her, true."
-Washington United States District judge James Robart who ordered judgments against Renier in 2006 and 2007, and also ordered Renier to pay more than $41,000.00 to her principal critic, John Merrell.
2.
The July/August 2017 issue of a CSI publication (with a worldwide base of over 25,000 subscribers), offers a 4-page article by Dr. Gary Posner, M.D. It's titled ‘Psychic Detective’ Noreen Renier: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas from a Grieving Family. His writing explains audio recordings the Halifax (Nova Scotia) Regional Police made while interviewing Noreen Renier. It’s clear from these police recordings that Noreen Renier never aided in finding 19-year old Halifax student Kimberly McAndrew. Instead the tapes reveal she's either delusional or a fraud without shame when claiming she contacts the dead and missing. It’s clear she's not the “super psychic detective” she markets herself as. She pushes on the desperate her by-telephone medium readings to find their lost persons at $20 a minute. She charged one family $1000 for about 25 minutes. That works out to about $40 a minute! But like the recordings examined here they were just scattered mumbo jumbo. As the Grinch who stole Christmas, Noreen Renier assures Halifax Police Constable David MacDonald that her assistance is going to bring the McAndrew family and the police a Christmas reward --- “You’ll, you’ll, you’ll, you’ll find her before Christmas. ... A nice Christmas present for everybody.” But as Dr. Gary Posner writes “Christmas never arrived that year for the grieving McAndrew family, nor has it in the two decades since.” This 2017 profile is just one of dozens based on documents and recordings that reveal the vast deceptions throughout TV videos and fake news clips created by Noreen Renier and her global studios. -Mick Hoyt, Galveston, Texas
-Reference the 4-page article and audio transcripts at https://www.csicop.org/si/show/psychic_detective_noreen_renier
3.
“University of West Georgia alumni, donors, and staff have for over 3 decades propagated a woman with major credibility issues to make her their psychic star. Questions have long swirled between UWG parapsychology goals and UWG PSI collections and activities. Have some UWG staff and faculty members benefited in pushing out stories promoting paranormal fantasies? Non-UWG researchers cite 'just follow the money' as UWG Online statements push false claims from pro-paranormal authors. Are some UWG staff silent co-authors and part time ghostwriters themselves? At a 2022 academia conference some joked that the University of West Georgia appeared ready to launch its own 'Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs' paranormal theme park. Would UWG students be pushed to build Ghostbuster proton packs and ganzfeld finger rings? It was sad even as a joke, yet UWG Online statements often gush truly screwball fiction. The lack of UWG Online academic honesty across their PSI Collection summaries requires students and the public to dig far outside the UWG to uncover accurate facts. The UWG support of Noreen Renier's delusional claims in her books A Mind For Murder and The Practical Psychic is sickening. Noreen Renier has had six United States federal court judges rule against her with orders to pay thousands of dollars in restitution. One judge even appointed a Court Trustee who collected funds from court-ordered sales of her assets. There are millions of global TV viewers, audience members, and readers worldwide who have been deceived by Noreen Renier. But more tragic are hundreds of missing person families who paid for medium readings by Noreen Renier to find their missing children. Noreen Renier took their money and led them astray. Today the UWG is a strong online PSI stimulus fronting Noreen Renier's false psychic claims and other deceptive paranormal assertions. While the UWG satisfies its UWG paranormal donor base and naive students with fictional online tales, it evades even minimum academic and research integrity standards.”
–Revised and updated in London for Ariane Sizemore on August 6, 2024.
4.
"Lady Noreen Renier a police psychic to find the missing? Nah. Like all of us in the in the Circle she talks with the dead and senses the missing and murdered. Well of course not silly! But she's made more money than lots of us in the Circle. [She was] top of her game until the skeptics found her out. Discovered her faked TV videos. Is she a psychic at all? No charm there either. Noreen pushed her own fake police evidence like blood splattered weapons and shirts. Pretended that they were from crime cases she was working on. She charmed that con across TV and pocketed about 100,000 and got a big flaunt. Got her a couple more years of new phone clients. All of 'em believed she was charmed and worked with constables and police. Here, there, and everywhere. Says she pocketed another half a million riding that fly-up. Up, up and away she flies. And not a college teacher nor French as she pretends. Didn't even finish 10 years of schooling the skeptics say. By her own words her best waddle was to claim her witness for men who died in a battle was a maple tree. An old maple tree standing in the dirt telling her to put out her cigarette 'cause it feared fire! A tree! By her own word! A psychic who talks to trees? She lies, big lies, little lies. Loves attention."
-Edited after sixth phone interview on October 14, 2018 and edited with permission from Faith D. Mobley, Aberdeen, Scotland
5.
“Great Britain based research members in Oxford, Cambridge, Carlisle, and Birmingham all independently examined Noreen Renier's court testimony and public claims. We were tasked with examining her claims of achieving excellent paranormal results during five years of testing. As a team we now agree she is not credible as the tests, results, and lengths of testing she claims are bogus or never existed. We found only one accredited academic center which publicly documented the actual testing of Noreen Renier. This was an American campus she failed to list during testimony and is not among those listed on her 2015 web pages. That testing, which she approved beforehand as being fair and accurate, was provided at Southern Oregon College (U.S.A). We verified with original researchers that her scores were all below random chance levels and not as she claimed "quite high" across all tests. Among all of the colleges and universities where she claims she was extensively tested not one institute supports her paranormal claims. Several including the University of Oregon and Duke University
(both in the U.S.A.) confirmed that the researchers, testing facilities, and research she describes have never existed."
- Nicole Clarke, Principal Investigator, Hafnarfjörður, Iceland.
6.
“We confirmed Mrs. Renier's original press run of near 42,500 books of
A Mind For Murder was halted by Berkley Books, (a division of Penguin Books). An attorney for Penguin Books declared before a Washington court judge that they "immediately halted" printing after receiving a legal complaint. That complaint stated that Noreen Renier had breached a Florida State court settlement agreement. About a year later a smaller U.S. publisher re-issued the book with entire chapters removed . Sales of the Noreen Renier labeled books A Mind for Murder and The Practical Psychic have rapidly declined from 2010 to 2022. The name of the principal author of the A Mind For Murder book, Naomi Lucks, has disappeared entirely on and in all secondary editions since 2012. Ms. Luck was "shocked" that Noreen Renier included dozens of bogus claims that ultimately resulted in Renier's losses in four different U.S. federal courts. Noreen Renier was forced by one federal judge to pay thousands of dollars to a principal critic for creating passages in the book A Mind For Murder originally published by Penguin Books. Penguin Books has never printed or reprinted another book by Noreen Renier. Apparently they too were as blindsided along with Renier's principal author with fiction masquerading as fact. Asked if Noreen Renier in 2018 is worthy of being called a true crime book author, or even author, I'd say no. She has conjured up fictional events and had others promote them as real. In the past Noreen Renier would then push $20 a minute telephone readings on true crime book readers and lecture attendees. One researcher speculated Renier earned as much as $20,000 off small gatherings where she met future clients as a guest speaker in public settings, including libraries. Psychic actress Noreen Renier on her own website posts deceptions even in 2022 and has repeatedly showcased bogus "police evidence" for TV and lecture appearances. She then showcases it as real and starts the cycle again."
-Liam McFarland, Montreal, Canada, and edited with updates in January 2022.
7.
“The overwhelming problem with Renier’s case is that
this court did not find her … to be a credible witness.
There are reasons for this conclusion, beyond her
demeanor. First, she misled the court when she indicated
that she intended to abide by [a directive] order. … Renier
stood not five feet away [from this bench] and agreed to
abide. … Her [later] testimony … evidences that she did not
intend at any time to abide by the memorialization of the
court’s words."
- United States federal Judge William E. Anderson in ruling
against Noreen Renier on March 21, 2011.
8.
[From court testimony during a cross-examination, an F.B.I. Special Agent was asked to describe the circumstances that caused him to reprimand Noreen Renier for using exaggeration in her association with the F.B.I. The first question asked by the attorney was “Ms. Renier indicated in her promotion material that she worked as a psychic detective for the FBI in criminal investigations. To your knowledge is that true?]
“A psychic detective for the F.B.I.? The only thing I can say about that is it is not true. …she does not work on F.B.I. cases. . . .She never really worked for the F.B.I.”
–The late Robert Ressler (who died in 2013), during testimony while he was an F.B.I. Special Agent working at the F.B.I. Behavioral Science Unit of the F.B.I. Academy.
9.
“As early as 1986 a United States member of the National Council Against Health Fraud testified that Noreen Renier was a fraud and a charlatan. Though that man lost his initial court battle with Mrs. Renier, over the past decade he's independently and apart from the NCAHF won court rulings against Renier. Those include rulings against her in four different U.S. federal courts sweeping across the United States from Seattle to Richmond, Virginia. The last court to rule in his favor was immediately under the U.S. Supreme Court. That court in 2012 was presented with a 69-page brief from Mrs. Renier's attorney, and a simple 8-page brief by the critic's lawyer. The court then allowed both attorneys to give oral arguments. Within just minutes all three federal judges who joined in hearing the case critically belittled Mrs. Renier's urgings. And all three judges unanimously ordered yet another ruling against Mrs. Renier and in favor of this critic from her past. Yet Mrs. Renier hasn't just ignored mentioning these federal court losses on her website. She's had thousands of dollars from her book royalties and thousands more from the sale of her assets collected by a U.S. Court Trustee. The Court then handed those over to the very man [John Merrell] who said Noreen Renier was a fraud and charlatan in 1985."
- Nicholas Walker, Orlando, Florida (U.S.A) researcher
10.
“A book authored by Noreen Renier and published in France is titled ‘Medium: Enquetrice pour le F.B.I.’ (Noreen Renier: Medium
Investigator for the F.B.I.) and the book’s cover
displays the official F.B.I. seal without F.B.I.
authorization to do so. The F.B.I. does not allow its seal
to be used for such commercial purposes. And as Noreen
Renier is not, and has never been an investigator for the
F.B.I., the book’s cover (and many of its passages) are
deceptive. Her book’s cover adds further false links by
showing an official U.S. Department of Justice - F.B.I.
investigator’s clothing badge. None was never issued, nor will ever be issued, to Noreen Renier.”
–Nicolas Rousseau, Nanterre, France.
11.
“What she told police officers and what she’d tell reporters never matched. I heard her ramble on [with nonsense] a couple times. She’d stroll in and want everybody to pay attention. She’d
bring a bottle of red wine and drink until she was leaning
back and pretty [stoned]. A couple days later she’d be telling reporters crap that she’s working with police. She’s an attention getter, but
it's all ramblings. She wasn’t psychic alongside police. She was sauced.”
– Glenn Weatherholtz, Sheriff of Rockingham County and City of Harrisburg, Virginia.
12.
“Mrs. Renier is on record as having worked on "over 400", "over 600" and “over 700 cases” of which she has claimed 70% were direct hirings by law enforcement agencies. She’s been asked repeatedly to provide the names of even 25 such police agencies. Any agencies who have hired her directly anywhere in the world. But she’s refused to do so. Such hirings must be on public records for all of these agencies for both security and public tax / expenditures reviews. Our group [not part of the GNR funding project] spent two years questioning GSG 9 officials, the F.B.I., the Metropolitan Police Service (“Scotland Yard”), the French Police Nationale RAID, the New York Police Department, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Los Angeles Police Department, all 50 different United States State Police agencies, and
even local public law enforcement agencies where Noreen Renier lived
for more than 10 years. Not a single one has ever solicited her as a hire on any official investigative case. Nor have
they ever requested her services. We have reached the conclusion that rather than having (based on her own 70% police hiring figure) at least 490 police agency hirings, she may have zero, one, or possibly four if one includes payments from township and small agencies that have closed. She isn’t a truthful police psychic detective. Her police hired cases
are only imagination and TV fiction.” [This statement from Kevin Paul was made during 2005-2006 non-GNR research. However since 2006 GNR has cited Noreen Renier testimony as early as 1986 from a Jackson County, Medford Oregon, court transcript. It is the earliest known documentation where she stated how many law enforcement cases she'd worked. During her cross examination she became angry and frustrated according to six court attendees while being questioned about her law enforcement case claims. She testified "I mean, you are all questioning that I worked on hundreds. I’ve worked on more than hundreds of cases.” This "more than hundreds of cases" quote from Renier was in response to questioning about her "police" cases, not additional cases outside of law enforcement agencies. It became a phrase Ms. Renier often spoke rather than estimates like 'over 700', 'near 900', or 'over 900'. Sloppy reporters and naive paranormal supporters would, according to Kevin Paul in 2017, "stumble over" a very wide range of law enforcement case counts from Renier, but none to his knowledge offered specifics. None of these people had copies or access to the 1986 Jackson County court transcript, and simply defaulted often to sensationalized tabloid stories which cited '500 to 700' police cases. However personnel from the University of West Georgia actually handled the 1986 lengthy 4-day Jackson County court transcripts. They were provided directly from Noreen Renier to UWG including the pages documenting her actual testimony and estimated case counts. Apparently UWG ignored the actual court transcript testimony and created its own lower estimate, but still unfounded 600 case count. For simplicity GNR established in 2022 a base line of 1000 reflecting Noreen Renier's Public Law Enforcement (PLE) case count by 2007. This is based on her "more than hundreds of cases" 1986 testimony and beginning in 2004 her higher rate of using the same phrase. Additionally, from 2005 "thousands" (plural) was also referenced on internet forums. However, GNR is unable to confirm whether "thousands" referenced Renier's total claimed number of cases, rather than just those she tied to Public Law Enforcement agencies. Also the use of "thousands" became increasingly difficult to confirm as being directly spoken by Noreen Renier. In 2017 Mr. Paul added "Even in her fifties she was hop-scotching with her case counts. Even month to month. But after she turned 70 her counts became impossible to untwist. She didn't seem to know. Much less care." -GNR Oversight Group in March 2024]
– Kevin Paul, New York City. Compiled and edited in 2005, 2012, 2017, and 2024."
13.
“Having had the benefit of oral argument, and having carefully reviewed the briefs, record, and controlling legal authorities, we agree with the district court’s analysis as set forth in it’s well-reasoned opinion.”
-Federal Circuit Court judges James Harvie Wilkinson III and Andre Davis, and Senior Circuit Judge Clyde Hamilton in their judgment order (Renier's second appeal rejection) rendered against Noreen Renier and issued April 18, 2012 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [a court immediately under the U.S. Supreme Court]. Their order kept in place an earlier 2011 federal court judgment which found Noreen Renier not credible and having misled a United States federal court.
14.
“I’ve been asked if we use or have used Noreen Renier, a resident in our community [for about 20 years] who has identified herself as a police psychic investigator. We do not and will not use her or her services. I would recommend police departments depend on investigations and scientific investigations --- I’ll leave it at that.”
–Lieutenant J.W. Gibson of the Charlottesville Police Department, Virginia, United States
15.
“In 2006 Noreen Renier told two reporters and an interviewer that she was working for many police on many regional and international cases. Yet at the same time she was claiming in her United States bankruptcy
filings in the years her income was under review (including 2006)
that she was never paid by any law enforcement agency. During 2005-2009 her website stated
a $1000 police agency fee per booking. So for about 500 hired police cases out of a total of 700, her income should have been near $500,000.00 from just hirings by police. But instead she claimed zero and just $484 per month in income in 2006 ($6371 for the entire 2006 year!) on her filing. Nothing from police. So which is true? Her statements
in court under oath or what she was telling reporters and the public? Or was she untrue on both? ”
–Jack Ramsey, Perth, Western Australia.
16.
“I’ve lived in Gardner [Massachusetts, USA] all my life. . . I was working the night of
the night of the airplane crash which is noted in the book
by Noreen Renier. The plane crashed in a swamp and forested area about 2700’ south of the runway.
[GNR note: Noreen Renier claimed that “I found the plane and the bodies” and testified that she was “instrumental in finding the plane”
telling court jurors she visioned one survivor helping another.]
It was not Noreen Renier but local Gardner residents Carl Wilber and his daughter Cheryl who found and led police to the plane. The plane that night essentially crashed in their backyard. There are no records that [Renier] contacted anyone in authority about the crash. And the authority for reporting such a crash is under dual reporting to us and the Templeton Police department as the airport covers both. There is nothing here [which lists Noreen Renier] on our records and Police Chief [David] Whitaker [with the Templeton Police] also found no
listings from or about Renier
at the time of the crash or until 20 years later when we
heard from John Merrell that she was claiming to have found
the plane. And we knew for a fact just minutes after the
crash that the site wasn’t in New Hampshire [as Renier claimed] as its more than 10 miles further north.”
-Detective Lieutenant Gerald Poirier, of the Gardner, Massachusetts, Police Department, and also Commander of the North Worcester County Drug Task Force.
17.
“She [Noreen Renier] hasn't a clue what happened, and how she can go out and say all those things [about finding a lost and crashed plane] when she wasn't even there. I don’t think she got anything right . . . She's making money on this and including my name . . . and I don't like people lying."
-Carl Wilber, Gardner, Massachusetts, who
according to all four of the responsible Massachusetts police agencies
is
credited with finding the plane along with his daughter Cheryl.
Neither he nor his daughter had ever heard of Noreen Renier
until John Merrell interviewed them.
18.
“It makes me feel terrible that somebody took advantage of the situation and nobody even bothered to call us. She [Renier] made up a lot of stuff.”
–Cheryl Wilber, Gardner, Massachusetts
19.
“There is no way she [Noreen Renier] had anything to do with finding the plane. . . there is no way she could have. I don't think about the crash every day but when I do I know from the bottom of my heart that what came out was not the entire story. There wasn't real openness and honesty, it was like a murky cloud covering everything."
-Cricket Johnson, actual eye-witness to the airplane crash near the Gardner Airport.
20.
“A newspaper story reported that search parties attempting to find the crashed plane ‘were hampered by snow over a foot deep in some areas. Some searchers walking in the snow fell into water up to their chests as they combed the wooded and swampy areas southwest of the airport.’ Those volunteers went through snow. They went through a swamp. They went through a heavily wooded area to find that plane. And Ms. Renier has the nerve to sit here on the stand and tell you and I that she, while sitting in a comfortable house in Virginia, found that plane.”
–Attorney Roxie Cuellar representing Noreen Renier critic John Merrell in 1986. Attorney Cuellar presented facts that were confirmed as ‘keenly accurate and on-the-mark” by GNR researchers in 2014.
21.
“But [new discoveries of Renier’s] Watergate-worthy doctoring [of her claims in finding the missing plane], one of the most famous and vouched for in Noreen Renier's storied career -- should resign her to the fact that she has handed the world a sword, and that her credibility has now been unequivocally and forevermore impeached.”
–Dr. Gary Posner, M.D., founder of the Tampa Bay Skeptics, Tampa, Florida, United States
22.
“You may have seen me on TV as a constable working with Noreen Renier on a murder case at a crime lab. I was Assistant Chief Constable Alex Thompson though I wasn’t named. That’s because a TV producer gave me the name to help me feel comfortable acting as a detective. The police lab
portrayed on TV as in America was really inside a filming studio in Warsaw, Poland. Noreen Renier wasn’t there and the language(s) heard were dubbed in later depending on where the show
is broadcast. I didn’t know about Noreen Renier until a friend said he saw me on TV
helping her solve a case. They just edited my segment into others. I was never told I was to be an actor
playing a detective to make another actress playing a
psychic appear to be real.”
–Krystian Truchan, Marki, Poland
23.
As a news reporter I saw Noreen Renier squirm and howl out visions of murders and crimes from about 1980 through 2002. Several times I happened to be at a city hall, courthouse, or calling on police officials
during one of her visits. Her drop-by's I witnessed were unannounced [and
unsolicited], yet she’d quickly become the center of attention. Surrounding
officers knew that she was divorced and enjoyed a good time. Her
moves, talk, and attire emphasized
it. From 1980 her stomping ground was a 30
mile circle with Charlottesville [Virginia] dead center. She took in every
township pocket where there were only a handful of officers. Though
she'd ventured to Norfolk or Hampton in good weather
she spent most of her time close by. Yes, she'd was good at spinning psychic tales on late night AM radio and
linking up with small town newspapers. She used police to promote herself
for free and then draw clients
across Virginia. Sheriff [and police] officers told
me her walk-in visits were always timed late in the day and always with a bottle of wine or
liquor in hand.
After an hour or two sipping and spewing visions about the latest crime or murder she’d
often end the night driving off with a police officer. Twice I
was present when she'd had too much to drink and was literally picked up and
carried off by an officer. She'd was crying that she needed "strong arms around
her" to help make her shocking visions go away. The next day apparently she’d be fine and on to the next town.
I found her risqué, entertaining, and completely delusional. Yet there were many officers with a
spare bottle of liquor ready
whenever she made a visit.
-Dave Mitchell, Houston, Texas
[GNR note: Noreen Renier in her book
A Mind For Murder on page 58 of her 2008 edition
confirms drinking straight Scotch during questioning of a murder
suspect at the Hampton Police Department. Multiple law enforcement offices
have confirmed she consumed "red wine" and/or "alcohol" while in their
offices and was not legally sober to drive when leaving their offices.
These
are highly unusual allowances for citizens in a law enforcement complex who
wish to provide information before officers and suspects. Medium Noreen
Renier has repeatedly referenced consuming spirits before visioning spirits
of a different kind to contact the dead. In her same book on page 11 she
wrote as a "psychic-in-residence. . . . . . I decided to go for
the sexy, mysterious angle, and bought an expensive-looking gypsy outfit: a
thin, off-the-shoulder blouse tucked into a tight waist-cinched Kelley green
satin skirt, and voluminous purple petticoats that rustled when I walked." The two photos shown here were taken from a police video from the Williston Police Department (Williston, Florida, U.S.A.), and secured under the Florida Public Records Act by an attorney. A GNR team concluded that by even before the end of the interview Noreen Renier at a weight of 50 kg would have been legally drunk. That is based on a .08 blood alcohol content under Florida state law. We calculated the wine glass and its contents at a minimum of 12 U.S. fluid ounces (.354 Liter) over the full length of interview time period based on an average "red wine." The video shows the contents dropping and being refilled at least once. This is just one of five references we obtained of Noreen Renier becoming intoxicated during her actual police reporting. In this case "visions" that she furnished while drunk to the Williston Police were found by an independent researcher not to have been so amazing as she claims. A summary of that research can be found at
http://www.gpposner.com/Williston.html.
-Burt Kendall, GNR fact checker]
24.
I'm aware Noreen Renier has linked herself to "more than hundreds" of police
agency hirings and agree these cases and hirings never existed. I also agree with your summaries and your
materials are spot on. The quotes you've assigned to me are also accurate. I recognize the cases
in the video clips but none of them ever moved forward due to Noreen. With no reservations I confirm she was
legally drunk when providing her visions on #1, 4, and 5. And the offices that were in charge of
those cases weren't big enough to have detectives much less a forensic team. All of those lack resources to solve any serious crimes themselves. Two of the
"agencies" she talks about were only two guys in total and they spent their hours issuing speeding tickets to
pay their salaries. All of her 'detectives' spent their jobs in small counties covering a few thousand
residents. . . . One day something odd happened and these characters decide to phone a woman who stopped by
regularly and saw images of the dead in a victims hair comb. Her 80% accuracy in her visions is a farce
unless that's at least 80% wrong guessing. She tied herself to a dozen over-sexed men about as likely as a
head of lettuce to solve a missing person case or understand a real crime scene. None would last 30
seconds as officers in any other law enforcement agency. They are traffic cops well out of their league.
No forensic team of any merit ever hired her or had her on a case. If she'd claimed ten hirings by a
public law enforcement office she'd be lying. I agree her 'more than hundreds' is a sham or evidence she's
delusional.
-Retired Virginia (U.S.A.) based senior detective at a major public law enforcement agency.
[Name and prior rank withheld as a request but verified by GNR researchers]
25.
"Noreen had a long ride entertaining in lounges and bars. Back in the 70's she ran a dinner theater in Orlando [Florida, U.S.A]. It was a sloppy joint called Once Upon A Stage. When she moved to Virginia she started up her own stage show she spotted as Once Again Noreen. I got back to Virginia myself and acted with her at the Barboursville playhouse, but then she opened up with another night club act. It was pretty sexy but she didn't make any money at it. She dropped the food but kept working on a combo of liquor, acting, and taking people's money. She's done herself well after she stopped saying she was an actress and played the psychic role."
-Bill Swanson.
[The events described by Mr. Swanson were confirmed by researchers who were shown an interview with Mrs. Renier from 1981 by newspaper reporter Darrell Laurant. Mr. Laurant wrote that Noreen Renier "opened, of all things, a night club act." Greg Thompson, a Gordonsville former actor confirmed that Mrs. Renier also did solo performances at the Four County Player Playhouse and in the old '12 o'clock High' Theatre. He stated "She had looks and isn't stupid. She could fool anyone if she wanted to commit a murder. And she could start crying in a split second. It was simply amazing. In two seconds she could be in tears and then stop and smile. She used to drive us crazy by doing something and then pretending she'd never done it. She's big on attention but anytime she's caught in the act she goes into her 'I'm really bad about remembering things' act. I'm not surprised she's pushing psychic stories. There's plenty of wobble room there and that's the way she likes it."]
26.
"I can be anyone. The victim. The perpetrator. An observer. I'll play each of them out. I can be all of them, one perspective at a time. . . .There's no emotion and I don't have any recall afterward."
-Noreen Renier.
[Note: On September 30, 2007 Dr. Pamela Health, M.D. of Frederick, Maryland (U.S.A.) posted the statement above from an interview she conducted with Noreen Renier on September 30, 2007. More recently Mrs. Renier stated 'Skepticism is healthy - everyone should have it. What annoys me is when people try to debunk me without listening to the facts."
