Historical commentary from Tennessee writer and investigator John Merrell along with previously posted writings following the 2005 publication of "psychic" Noreen Renier's book A Mind For Murder .

Some photographic material to this HOME page was updated in early 2010

This site is for readers examining claims which appeared across three back-to-back chapters in the original (and now re-edited) 2005 edition of the paperback book A Mind For Murder shown on the lower left beneath the newer edition first published in 2008.

To go straight to the incredible psychic story about psychic Noreen Renier and her visions to locate missing persons aboard a crashed airplane click here.  All 4 parts of the story follow one another and are available here at no charge to the public, and commercial-free.

Costs for this site and investigations have been paid privately to better inform the public.

The index at the bottom of this page an index is offered for the millions of TV viewers, and thousands of DVD and lecture viewers, who have heard "psychic" Noreen Renier reference her leading critic and are interested in better understanding the dispute between psychic and skeptic portrayed in her 2005 book.

This site covers the factual side of a battle that separated Tennessee critic John Merrell from "psychic" Noreen Renier across seven courtrooms and for more than 25 years beginning in 1985.

It is important to know that since this material first appeared in mid 2006 Noreen Renier has never contacted this site or any of the attorneys who represent the domain owner or authors of this site, with a request to correct even a single error or misrepresentation.

We believe that after more than 3 years her silence is simply due to the fact that she can find no errors, misquotes, or misrepresentations --- though we're quite sure she has tried.

The writings here are consolidated from a variety of sources, including directly from Mr. Merrell and quotes from his Tennessee attorney.

The portrayal that Noreen Renier offered her readers in the 2005 edition A Mind For Murder of events both inside a 1986 courtroom and concerning Mr. Merrell's investigative credibility was unbalanced.

For many her book accusations were seen in mid 2005 quite simply, as a travesty.  This web site attempts to correct the injustice of initially publishing thousands of copies of erroneous content and psychic claims --- many found by witnesses to be highly exaggerated and untrue.

After the publication of her book Mr. Merrell brought a 2005 lawsuit against Noreen Renier in a Washington U.S. District court.  While she filed dozens of counterclaims hoping to halt the outcome, ultimately the judge in 2006 ordered a federal judgment against Noreen Renier.

That judgment was for a "breach of settlement" based on an earlier 1992 Florida state agreement which both she and Mr. Merrell signed after she received more than $28,000 from him in conjunction with the settlement.

No judge has ever determined whether or not Renier is or is not a psychic.   The 2006 court order simply states ". . . the record before the court shows that it is impossible that Ms. Renier breached the agreement in this case without some level of fault.  She knew or should have known of the agreement, and breached it nonetheless."  Additionally the judge dismissed all of Noreen Renier's counter claims and noted "The court rejects Ms. Renier's claim that she did not breach the Settlement Agreement because her statements in A Mind for Murder are, according to her, true." 

More than 50 references to Tennessee writer John Merrell appeared throughout the 2005 edition of A Mind For Murder.

The majority of Ms. Renier's comments about him in the 2005 edition of A Mind For Murder are tied to his investigation of her, with many specific to his investigation of her psychic search for a missing plane which crashed in Massachusetts in 1984.

Reference materials previously posted and now duplicated here have been used by hundreds of college students involved with classes exploring the accuracy of psychic missing person search claims.

According to several college faculty members the air crash case is the best documented case from a psychic and a skeptic. This has been particularly true as both viewpoints are supported in segments across some 3000 pages of testimony in seven different courtrooms.

A Court TV (now truTV) show transcript partially highlights the confusion behind the controversy and why many continue to request counterpoints to the presentation offered in A Mind For Murder by Noreen Renier. 

The Court TV moderator notes, "When I decided to do this topic for a chat Ms. Renier seemed like the most credible psychic out there. . . . By the way, she was telling me a story the other day that she is the only psychic she (or I) know of that has sued a skeptic [in 1985] for slander and won.  Or was it liable [ sic ]?  Anyway, she sued the skeptic for lying about her in a paper and won the case. . . . By the way, that plane story she told is the same one she sued the skeptic over [in 1985].  Apparently some guy said she was lying when she told that story, so she sued him."

Below is a consolidated summary as it was originally published in early 2007 on the web site www.amindformurder.com and also www.amindformischief.com

Some segments were published as early as February 2006 by others, including Mr. Merrell.

The November 2006 judgment against Noreen Renier was followed by an April 5, 2007 judgment from the same Washington federal court which awarded Merrell nearly $40,000. That debt, with 12% interest awarded by the court, exceeded $41,400 on August 28, 2007.

That day however Noreen Renier filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia, Lynchburg Division.

In 2010 thousands of dollars in fund assets held by the Trustee to pay creditors, including $9000 paid by Noreen Renier to regain her 2005 book copyright and thousands in royalty payments collected from her publishers will be paid by the Court to Mr. Merrell.

Here however readers are provided the ability to understand the counter arguments to claims presented in three of 25 chapters in the disputed 2005 edition of A Mind For Murder --- disputed text that simply disappeared or was altered in all later editions of A Mind For Murder printed after February 2008.

Some of the roughly 45,000 disputed initial 2005 copies were purchased by public schools and libraries, and thousands of copies were distributed internationally.

Her A Mind For Murder story includes winning a case in 1986 against Merrell that leaves out the reality that it was presented before just six jury members in a small southern Oregon county court.

It also leaves out the full story behind how the parties came to know of each other.

Months before before she filed her lawsuit in 1985 a letter concerning Noreen Renier arrived in Mr. Merrell's home mailbox.  It included the comment "I'm confused about her abilities and need to know if she's real or not.  She's planning a workshop in July and I need to make a decision."

The letter was signed by Nancy Uzdavinis --- a woman who showed an Oregon address.

The letter arrived to his home months before Noreen Renier filed a county lawsuit in Oregon against him for libel.

But years after she won her hyped county libel lawsuit in 1986 an amazing discovery was made.  Multiple letters including the first one sent to him were found.

Each letter was signed in Nancy Uzdavinis' name but each one was discovered to have been written by missing person and psychic murder investigator Noreen Renier herself!

It was only after being challenged in a Tennessee federal court years later that Renier admitted to writing the letters herself. Unfortunately the deceptive letters that triggered his examinations of Noreen Renier were revealed years after the six member jury in the Oregon county court had ruled against him years earlier.

Too late for a re-trial.

The letters were only discovered after Merrell began to sense a "set up" years earlier by Nancy Uzdavinis and wondered why she had first sought him out so urgently only to "disappear" once the lawsuit by Noreen Renier had begun.  It was 1991 before he realized the Nancy Uzdavinis letters in his hands were actually created, hand written, addressed, and mailed by former actress Noreen Renier herself.

The original six member jury in 1986 Oregon jury years before never knew this truth.

Amazingly one of the questions posed by Noreen Renier about herself --- in another letter Renier signed as Nancy Uzdavinis --- is the question "Is she a phony?"

It's not just the fact Renier pretended to be Nancy Uzdavinis to several skeptics. Over many years she repeatedly has told the paranormal community that Merrell (and/or other skeptics) started the 25-year battle. Why did Noreen Renier need to send letters to skeptical writers asking for help in determining whether she is authentic? 

Merrell's 1987-1992 attorney Philip Lomonaco noted to a federal court in 1990 that "Noreen Renier lied under oath when she stated she was not aware of any investigation of herself by John Merrell . . . In actuality, Noreen Renier deceived John Merrell by sending him letters under the disguise of Nancy Uzdavinis. . . .In other words, Ms. Renier, through her deceitful letters, under the name of Nancy Uzdavinis, began the whole process, which culminated in Ms. Renier perjuring herself in an attempt to conceal the fact that she knew of John Merrell's investigation. . . .Mr. Merrell was unaware that Noreen Renier had led him to investigating herself.  One truism rings clear in this whole situation; these parties would not be together had it not been for Ms. Renier's deceitful beginnings."

And a statement provided to a federal court judge from a handwriting expert indicates Renier wrote letters to at least two skeptic writers using the name Nancy Uzdavinis.

Offered here is a highly abridged version (about 20% of the original content) that appeared beginning in late 2005 to correct the public record after the 2005 edition of A Mind For Murder was published.

The content appears exactly as it did when published on the www.amindformurder.com web site in July 2007 with the exception of bracketed inclusions "[ ]" to add present clarity. It is presented here for readers of the 2005 edition of A Mind For Murder, and the many millions of TV viewers who have viewed Renier referencing Merrell's investigation of the case on network TV prior to August 2007 and also on a DVD available from her 2006 Las Vegas lecture which is still being sold (by Amazon.com and others), and still promoted on her web site.

For whatever reason the Court selected not to comment directly on whether her DVD --- a filmed persentation she gave before a live Las Vegas audience in 2006 --- could remain in publication.

This site then is the sole documentation available to the public attempting to sort out both sides of a story which has literally been exposed before millions. Limited to this little known web site the truth lacks the impact against the comments referencing Merrell that Noreen Renier has made before millions of TV viewers and with the sale of her DVD's and national lecture appearances.

Compared to the international scope of her published book, her web site, her appearances on DVD, her vast web video and audio downloads, her comments on XM and Siruis satellite radio, and her weekly multi-million international TV audience for the 'Psychic Detectives' series, this is a limited effort to compensate.

Yet a group of college students who reviewed this web site wrote "the 'Commentary by Sherlock' web site is a vault of reason and truth against the clearly bogus deceptions of author Noreen Renier."