Kurve
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- Dec 27, 2016
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The official line from the police is that they do not seek the advice of psychics. But they do.
On Australia's Deb Malone.
One skeptic swayed by Malone's insights is former Lake Illawarra detective Jeff Little. In 2005 he was investigating the murder of South Coast woman Maria Scott when he saw Malone on the TV program Sensing Murder, in which psychics offer clues to unsolved murders. He contacted her, hoping she might corroborate elements of the investigation.
Her information was so ''spot on'' that he included it in his brief to the coroner and recommended her to the Missing Persons Unit.
Little, now retired, says police do use psychics, ''even though they officially say they don't''.
''I just told [my superiors] I was going to do it and it wasn't going to cost them any money,'' he says.
''It's like any investigative tool; even if you get information from the public, you still have to support it with legal evidence.''
Little was surprised by Malone's accuracy. ''We gave her no information whatsoever, only that we were investigating the murder of a girl. She kept coming up with all these hits.''
So how to explain the discovery of Kristi McDougall's body by Cheryl Carroll-Lagerwey, who dreamed she would find Kiesha Abrahams at a certain spot in the park? Cheryl did not find Keisha but went straight to the remains of murder victim Kristie, two people have since been charged.
A Queensland research psychologist, Kathryn Gow, has analysed psychic readings for 20 years and is convinced a small number of psychics have a genuine ability. She suggests that as an Aboriginal elder, Carroll-Lagerwey was ''in contact with the basic elements of life and therefore can probably sense what has happened in an environment''.
The Australian Institute of Criminology advises the families of missing people to avoid psychics, saying: ''Desperation can force people to consider options they would never entertain in more stable times.''
It's something Don Spiers knows all too well. Since his daughter, Sarah, disappeared in 1996 - a suspected victim of Perth's Claremont serial killer - he has been ''hounded'' by up to 400 psychics and clairvoyants offering cryptic clues to her whereabouts.
''They had my emotions on a roller-coaster,'' Spiers told The West Australian in 2008. ''You'd be full of hope … and there'd be nothing. Why would they want to make it worse for me?''
High-profile missing persons cases tend to attract a flood of information from self-proclaimed psychics. In the case of Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old British girl who disappeared on a family holiday to Portugal in 2007, investigators have reportedly followed up 150 leads from mystics worldwide.
But Faye Leveson, whose son Matthew is missing, found that visiting spirit medium Debbie Malone assisted her family as they sought answers and struggled with their grief.
''No way in the world has she caused us any pain or sorrow - it's the exact opposite,'' Leveson says. ''She's made no promises that she will bring him home. No money's ever changed hands. She just offered to help.''
Up to 300 psychics contacted Don Spiers with obscure visions but he continued to take their calls reasoning one day, one of them may have the answer. Or one of them might be his daughters abductor offering cryptic clues to where she really was.
On Australia's Deb Malone.
One skeptic swayed by Malone's insights is former Lake Illawarra detective Jeff Little. In 2005 he was investigating the murder of South Coast woman Maria Scott when he saw Malone on the TV program Sensing Murder, in which psychics offer clues to unsolved murders. He contacted her, hoping she might corroborate elements of the investigation.
Her information was so ''spot on'' that he included it in his brief to the coroner and recommended her to the Missing Persons Unit.
Little, now retired, says police do use psychics, ''even though they officially say they don't''.
''I just told [my superiors] I was going to do it and it wasn't going to cost them any money,'' he says.
''It's like any investigative tool; even if you get information from the public, you still have to support it with legal evidence.''
Little was surprised by Malone's accuracy. ''We gave her no information whatsoever, only that we were investigating the murder of a girl. She kept coming up with all these hits.''
So how to explain the discovery of Kristi McDougall's body by Cheryl Carroll-Lagerwey, who dreamed she would find Kiesha Abrahams at a certain spot in the park? Cheryl did not find Keisha but went straight to the remains of murder victim Kristie, two people have since been charged.
A Queensland research psychologist, Kathryn Gow, has analysed psychic readings for 20 years and is convinced a small number of psychics have a genuine ability. She suggests that as an Aboriginal elder, Carroll-Lagerwey was ''in contact with the basic elements of life and therefore can probably sense what has happened in an environment''.
The Australian Institute of Criminology advises the families of missing people to avoid psychics, saying: ''Desperation can force people to consider options they would never entertain in more stable times.''
It's something Don Spiers knows all too well. Since his daughter, Sarah, disappeared in 1996 - a suspected victim of Perth's Claremont serial killer - he has been ''hounded'' by up to 400 psychics and clairvoyants offering cryptic clues to her whereabouts.
''They had my emotions on a roller-coaster,'' Spiers told The West Australian in 2008. ''You'd be full of hope … and there'd be nothing. Why would they want to make it worse for me?''
High-profile missing persons cases tend to attract a flood of information from self-proclaimed psychics. In the case of Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old British girl who disappeared on a family holiday to Portugal in 2007, investigators have reportedly followed up 150 leads from mystics worldwide.
But Faye Leveson, whose son Matthew is missing, found that visiting spirit medium Debbie Malone assisted her family as they sought answers and struggled with their grief.
''No way in the world has she caused us any pain or sorrow - it's the exact opposite,'' Leveson says. ''She's made no promises that she will bring him home. No money's ever changed hands. She just offered to help.''
Up to 300 psychics contacted Don Spiers with obscure visions but he continued to take their calls reasoning one day, one of them may have the answer. Or one of them might be his daughters abductor offering cryptic clues to where she really was.
the QM hypothesis poses far more questions than it answers imo, such as identification of the relevant part(s) of the brain that picks up information from particles that move through us every second. 
