Police in Texas are investigating a woman who claimed to be a psychic after she sparked an ultimately fruitless hunt for a mass grave of dismembered bodies.
Local officers and FBI agents raided a rural farmhouse in Hardin, north-east of Houston, after receiving the report that it held up to 30 bodies, including children.
After finding nothing, police gave up the search – but not before ”a source” had told CBS news that “a lot” of dismembered children’s bodies had indeed been found at the scene, sparking a global news story.
Liberty county judge Craig McNair, the county’s top elected official, said the sheriff’s office had received two calls from the person. The first came on Monday, directing officers to an address in Hardin, but after officers found nothing the same caller told police on Tuesday that they had the wrong house.
Officers approached the scene of the second tip-off on Tuesday morning and said there was blood on a back door and a foul odour coming from the house, leading to the search warrant.
“We have to take tips like this very seriously,” McNair said.
However the Houston Chronicle has since reported that the calls had come from a woman who claimed to have psychic powers, prompting questions over why police responded so vigorously.
The FBI were summoned and officers scrambled to the home on Tuesday, but not before a source apparently told CBS the bodies had already been found. Local television station KPRC was given the same information and the story was promptly followed up by news agenciesAFP and Reuters.
Before long the news that 30 bodies had been uncovered in a mass grave was leading BBC and Sky News channels in the UK and across the world. The Guardian contributed its own version.
Liberty county sheriff’s captain Rex Evans said authorities took the tip seriously in part because the caller had details about the inside of the house that only someone who had seen it could have known.
He said authorities were working to track her down. They had a name and number.
Asked if he thought the tip was a hoax, Evans said only that police found no bodies or anything to indicate a murder. “We are going to continue our investigation and find out how this individual had this information in the first place,” Evans said, adding that the caller may face criminal proceedings.
Full story at The Guardian
This is very sad news as I’m sure there are some who genuinely want to help the police solve cases and not waste their time. However, I’ve always been sceptical about those who label themselves as being ‘psychic’, their ability being founded solely on belief, an idea some people fail to grasp.
Well, so much for investigative journalism.
I suppose the police have to investigate any tip. It’s more of a concern when they actually bring ‘psychics’ in to help with the investigation.
she’s been watching too much “dexter”…
…and obviously she’s never heard the stories about psychics being charged with crimes because they have “special knowledge” of em. that really does happen…& texas is prolly a good bet fer it!
So they didn’t question the source of the claim? If she informed them by saying “I see… 30 dead bodies” then theyre just thick.
Yes, as Honor Louise stated: Us psychics, we’re real (some of us), and my gifts helped the police recover the body of a missing child. Nevertheless, I don’t expect the police to dig up someone’s yard because I “see dead bodies” in my vision from Spirit. I expect them to 1) investigate the place for physical evidence, 2) question the residents who live there (if it is a place where someone lives) and 3) do their work, too.
Us psychic’s get pictures and impressions . . . and, at least with me, my impression are 85-100% accurate. Yet, I can tell you, seeing thirty dead bodies on a property could be . . . I’m seeing the site as it was 500 years ago (a graveyard), or it could be “future” site of a dumping group of bodies, or even “there are 30 bodies buried there”.
Angela Theresa, you’re commenting on the wrong blog. If you have an 85% success rate with your guesses then submit to controlled double-blind testing and prove for once and all that psychic abilities are real. No one would be more delighted to see that than Derren.
If police came to my door claiming a psychic had ‘seen dead bodies’ in my home, I’d laugh at them, tell them to fuck off and call my legal insurance to get a lawyer. You’re not searching my things because somebody had some ridiculous ‘vision’. That would never hold up in court.