We've all heard about how law enforcement agencies use psychics to solve crimes, right? Well, twenty years ago, I got to see how that worked, sort of. If the circumstances hadn't been so tragic, it might have even been a comedy of errors. Because it certainly didn't work out the way it does on TV or movies.
It started out when one of my supervisors failed to show up for work on Monday morning. This was not like her. Someone said they thought they heard her say on Friday that she was going to visit out of state relatives over the weekend. She was the kind of person who said that if she was going to go somewhere at a certain time you could count on her to be there. However, her family said she never showed up. It turned out that the last person to see her alive was her boyfriend. Since she had indicated that they were in the process of breaking up naturally suspicion focused on him especially when he was caught with some of her items on him. But he denied having anything to do with her disappearance.
As the days dragged by, the desperate family turned to a psychic who informed them that their daughter's body would be found in a car in a ravine in a specific part of the county between two cross streets, and she named the streets. They didn't have GPS in those days, otherwise she would have been more precise. Now, I didn't know about that part when word went around the company that they were looking for volunteers to search for the remains. I thought that this was something organized by law enforcement personnel. It wasn't until we got to the site and started our search that I learned that this was being done on the say-so of an out-of-state psychic.
Now the psychic had made one very BIG mistake, one that nobody else picked up on. The problem was she did not do her homework. She had the street names correct but that was all. Of all the places to hone in on, she picked the flattest part of the county, a part that still bears the name given it by the French explorers who called it simply the round prairie. It's an unmistakable feature; anyone who knows anything about that part of Michigan will know exactly where I am talking about. But not, apparently, this psychic, who, by the way was not along for the search. We started out and for the next hour fought our way through a tangle of quicksand and poison sumac and eventually emerged on the other side where a woman was hanging clothes on a line in her backyard. She looked at us as if we had just come out of the Everglades! Turns out none of the people that live around there goes into that swamp if they can help it. It's too easy to get lost, and that's exactly what happened to some of the search party. We had to call law enforcement to come rescue them! Needless to say, they were quite annoyed at us.
Was the body ever found? Yes, several months later the boyfriend confessed and led them to the spot where he had left her body. And no, it did not match the psychic's description in the least. Did the family ever ask for their money back? I hope so.
I am reminded of that incident because now that I am house-hunting it is very interesting the suggestions I am getting from people who haven't done their homework. They know nothing about the situation I am in, what I am and am not eligible for, what the zoning regulations are in regards to moving trailers, and so forth. Moreover, they act like I am just making excuses. One person said to me that I need to make up my mind whether I am going to move or not. Ah, if it were only that simple! And like the psychic who refused to get all dirty in the swamp, they are nowhere when I am talking with the banks, the realtors, the people who are in charge of saying yes or no. It's frustrating.
It started out when one of my supervisors failed to show up for work on Monday morning. This was not like her. Someone said they thought they heard her say on Friday that she was going to visit out of state relatives over the weekend. She was the kind of person who said that if she was going to go somewhere at a certain time you could count on her to be there. However, her family said she never showed up. It turned out that the last person to see her alive was her boyfriend. Since she had indicated that they were in the process of breaking up naturally suspicion focused on him especially when he was caught with some of her items on him. But he denied having anything to do with her disappearance.
As the days dragged by, the desperate family turned to a psychic who informed them that their daughter's body would be found in a car in a ravine in a specific part of the county between two cross streets, and she named the streets. They didn't have GPS in those days, otherwise she would have been more precise. Now, I didn't know about that part when word went around the company that they were looking for volunteers to search for the remains. I thought that this was something organized by law enforcement personnel. It wasn't until we got to the site and started our search that I learned that this was being done on the say-so of an out-of-state psychic.
Now the psychic had made one very BIG mistake, one that nobody else picked up on. The problem was she did not do her homework. She had the street names correct but that was all. Of all the places to hone in on, she picked the flattest part of the county, a part that still bears the name given it by the French explorers who called it simply the round prairie. It's an unmistakable feature; anyone who knows anything about that part of Michigan will know exactly where I am talking about. But not, apparently, this psychic, who, by the way was not along for the search. We started out and for the next hour fought our way through a tangle of quicksand and poison sumac and eventually emerged on the other side where a woman was hanging clothes on a line in her backyard. She looked at us as if we had just come out of the Everglades! Turns out none of the people that live around there goes into that swamp if they can help it. It's too easy to get lost, and that's exactly what happened to some of the search party. We had to call law enforcement to come rescue them! Needless to say, they were quite annoyed at us.
Was the body ever found? Yes, several months later the boyfriend confessed and led them to the spot where he had left her body. And no, it did not match the psychic's description in the least. Did the family ever ask for their money back? I hope so.
I am reminded of that incident because now that I am house-hunting it is very interesting the suggestions I am getting from people who haven't done their homework. They know nothing about the situation I am in, what I am and am not eligible for, what the zoning regulations are in regards to moving trailers, and so forth. Moreover, they act like I am just making excuses. One person said to me that I need to make up my mind whether I am going to move or not. Ah, if it were only that simple! And like the psychic who refused to get all dirty in the swamp, they are nowhere when I am talking with the banks, the realtors, the people who are in charge of saying yes or no. It's frustrating.
