MARION - Though many believe Jaimie Reynolds concocted the story of Kodee Kennings because she craved attention, the former Southern Illinois University Carbondale student wanted nothing to do with the news media that came knocking at her door Friday.

The elaborate, year-and-a-half-long hoax Reynolds promoted through the guise of 10-year-old Caitlin Hadley, of Montpelier, Ind., caught the attention of media outlets statewide and throughout the Midwest.

Several reporters and camera crews, including The Southern Illinoisan, spent time outside Reynolds' home in the 800 block of West Boulevard Street in Marion. Reporters made multiple attempts to speak with Reynolds. However, they were either answered with silence or the quiet admonition of a middle-aged woman, assumed to be a family member of Reynolds, from the back doorstep.

Friday's silence represented a marked change in Reynolds' behavior with the media.

Posing as Colleen Hastings, a friend of the Kennings family, Reynolds introduced Kodee/Caitlin to the staff of SIUC's student-run Daily Egyptian newspaper in 2003. From that initial meeting, "Kodee" wrote a series of columns that chronicled some her life as she waited for her father, Dan Kennings, to return from military service in Iraq.

Kodee's story was an instant hit among those in the newsroom and on campus. The Southern Illinoisan also printed an article about the youngster.

It wasn't until the Chicago Tribune caught wind of a story that Dan Kennings had supposedly died in the war, leaving Kodee behind, and did some simple fact checking that it was discovered there was no "Dan Kennings" and subsequently, no "Kodee Kennings."

When DE reporters interviewed Reynolds for five hours earlier this week, she claimed she was threatened by former student editor-in-chief Michael Brenner to go along with the false "Kodee" storyline.

Brenner disputes those claims.

Since then Reynolds has been silent, refusing to answer the door or calls to her cell phone placed by The Southern Illinoisan.

Reynolds was reportedly a student at SIUC until 2004, taking classes in both journalism and radio/television in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts. Very few people The Southern interviewed on campus Friday could recall much about her.

Those who recognized Reynolds' name said she was not very active in the school.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

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