(LifeSiteNews) — On this episode of The John Henry Westen Show, investigative journalist Jenny Hay joins me to discuss the tragic case of pro-life activist Mark Reno, who was wrongfully accused of burning a Planned Parenthood and other federal charges and died in jail. Hay discusses who may have really burned down the building, what led to the accusations against Reno, and more.
I began the episode by asking Hay to give us a synopsis of Reno’s story, which she called the “true crime story of the century.”
Hay explained that a Planned Parenthood in Knoxville, Tennessee, burned down on January 31, 2021, around 6:30 a.m. It came out very quickly that this was arson, and it started from inside the building. Being in the area, Hay offered to cover the story for LifeSite.
READ: Knoxville Planned Parenthood was intentionally set ablaze from inside, fire dept. concludes
Hay told me she periodically called the Knoxville Fire Department to see if they had any suspects, but all the way through September 2022, they did not. On November 1, 2022, the FBI named a suspect, Mark Reno.
“I had last talked to the Knoxville Fire Department in late September, and they had told me then that they didn’t have any suspects. So, [on] November 1 of that year, the FBI named a suspect, so I knew it was suspicious from the very start,” Hay said.
But Reno was accused of committing other serious crimes and had died in prison earlier that year.
“They had accused him of that summer shooting at a federal building twice, they accused him of this Planned Parenthood arson, there were other accusations, and so everyone assumed that he really did it because of all these accusations. But as we started to dive into these accusations one by one, they were false,” the journalist said.
I then asked Hay about the video released in this case and the inconsistencies she found. Hay explained that Planned Parenthood’s security footage captured the entire crime, and so they requested the records from the fire department who turned over the video, and Hay and her team took a look and could see everything.
“[Y]ou could see the arsonist arrive on the property. You could see his truck; his truck had one headlight out… You see him arrive on the property; at first, he parks away from the property and walks around it. Everything is in silhouette, so you don’t really get a good picture of him, but you can see his size and shape. He walks around the property, and then he pulls his truck up into the alley behind the property. And you can see the truck; you can see the headlight out. He gets out of the truck; he leaves the view of the camera and we know from Knoxville Fire Department’s forensic investigation that he entered the building at that point. And the only way he could get in was through the window,” Hay said.
She added that we know from the Knoxville Fire Department that the arsonist was able to enter the building through the window because it was only covered in plastic due to it being under construction.
Hay explained that in the meantime, she had been writing articles about the case for LifeSite, which led Reno’s daughter to reach out and meet with her. She showed Hay pictures of her father, which they put side by side with photos of the arsonist that show it’s not the same person.
READ: FBI intends to withhold records on Knoxville’s Planned Parenthood fire until 2026
“This arsonist was very thin, very tall, very lanky. He had to be pretty agile to get into these windows; they were not floor-level windows; they were up off the ground, probably about four feet. And you look at the profile picture of Mark Reno, who was much heavier than this guy, and it’s just not the same person.”
Watch or listen to my full interview to hear more from Jenny Hay.
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