Don't Discount the Psychics in Forensics

Psychics to Help Police Investigations Into Missing Persons

A couple of weeks ago, here in the U.K., we had new revised professional standards for consultation for the police by the college of policing. Within this revised statement of standards there was a section on how to deal with psychics that come forward with information or offering services to help in aid of missing persons cases. Let’s ignore the ludicracy of some people actually going for this and look at the deeper understand; the police suggest that psychics and witches should not be discounted within police investigations, this is detailed in section 10.1.6. Also noted, in 2006, 28 British police forces responded stating they did not and have never used psychics. In light of that, it is interesting as to why this particular section has made its way into policing standards

 Source

The standards state:

“High-profile missing person investigations nearly always attract the interest of psychics and others, such as witches and clairvoyants, stating that they possess extrasensory perception. Any information received from psychics should be evaluated in the context of the case. They should never become a distraction to the overall investigation and strategy unless it can be verified. These contacts usually come from well-intentioned people, but the motive of the individual should always be ascertained, especially when financial gain is included. The person’s methods should be asked for, including the circumstances with which they received the information and any accredited successes”

Yes folks, you read that correctly. Evaluate Psychic Sues work in the context of a missing person, for she has the foresight to contact the dead and/or see into the future to solve a case: - this never works. The reason these ‘psychics’ come forward in these times of need is because people who believe in it maybe a little or a lot, will be blindly trying anything to get their loved ones back. I think it’s good to question these people in terms of a forensic investigation. These ‘psychics’ will do all they can in order to convince people in their abilities and research into things themselves and come up with a credible theory, I assume that is where the ‘motive and methods should be ascertained’ comes into play. Unfortunately, you can’t really ignore what is being said.  

Motivational Reasoning

Should they be treated as well intentioned people? The motivation of psychic is these cases isn’t about financial gain, it is about self-promotion. Psychics get their names in these cases to promote their psychic abilities, thus enabling to sell their ‘services’ to people later on in life. How do they do this? They are making false claims based on zero evidence. They then go on to say they should note any accredited success as though that makes a difference? Is one psychic with zero evidence but having a lucky guess such as ‘the person is dead’ or ‘they’re buried in a shallow grave’ more believable than another who wasn’t so lucky at guessing the most common? The answer is: no. These people, as with all psychics that haven’t done their research into an individual are carrying out cold readings. Cold readings are the techniques used to implicate that the psychic knows more about a person than the person themselves. In a way it is assuming things about a person based on what you are seeing. In MP cases, you say enough cold readings you are going to say something that turns out to be implicitly true, for example the ‘shallow grave’. Many people who have been kidnapped and killed just so happen to be buried in a shallow grave, it’s just a common occurrence. Or, especially so in a missing persons case, saying ‘it was a family member’ you are again, likely to be correct.
 

Browne

You may think, if they are not wasting time as the police ignore them or don’t take them seriously, what is the harm? Let me introduce you to this vulture named ‘Sylvia Browne’. In 1999, a child named Opal Jo Jennnings was kidnapped whilst playing next to her grandparents’ home in the Texas, U.S. The grandmother had sought out Browne to do a psychic reading to let her know what happened to her grandchild. Browne told the grandmother:

“She’s . . . not . . . dead. But what bothers me—now I’ve never heard of this before, but for some reason, she was taken and put into some kind of a slavery thing and taken into Japan. The place is Kukouro. Or Kukoura.”

The investigation, stupidly, was lead down this path. However, Richard Lee Franks, a child molestor was charged and convicted with the kidnap and murder of Jennings. In 2003, her remains were discovered and the medical examiners concluded she was killed by a blunt force trauma to the head, which would have occurred several hours after her abduction. I cannot imagine the amount of false hope that was within this grandmother that was instilled in her by this sick individual. Similarly in 2002, she told the mother of missing woman Holly Krewson (went missing in 1995) that her daughter was alive and living in L.A. That she had forget her number and tried to contact her. Also, she was living as a dancer in an adult nightclub. In 2003, Hollys mother passed away. In 2006, Hollys body was identified. It turns out her body was discovered in 1996, but her remains laid unidentified for a good 10 years. Again, this vile woman had told false information to someone, inhibiting her to move on with her life. It appears this woman creates a living from being a ‘psychic detective’ with all the skills of a no-limbed guitar player. In fact, of the 115 that this psychic has ‘consulted on’, she has yet to be proved correct on any one single case. Why people continue to go to her is genuinely beyond me. In 2004, she told Amanda Berrys parents that she was dead after going missing, in 2012, she escaped her kidnapper. The saddest thing of all, Amanda stated that the only thing that kept her alive was knowing her parents would be searching, which they undoubtedly gave up after being told she was dead by this moron.

Powers

Here we have Joe Powers, who claims to help the police in the U.K. by 'contacting the victims on the other side'. He claims that ghosts visit him in his sleep (not strictly ghosts then are they?) and he takes this information to the police to help. In fact he isn't the only one, shockingly, Dyfed Powys Police spent a good £20,000 launching an investigation into a murder inquiry based on the medium saying it was a murder, and not a suicide. The case was later ruled as a suicide as originally thought. The psychic (not named) was not arrested for wasting police time and money as far as I am aware. They released a statement saying:

"It is difficult with the clairvoyant really, it is not something you could dismiss without checking what they said was possible...We are becoming a laughing stock. We went haring across the country looking for a lion, a horse and someone called Fox based on info from cranks. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be a wild goose chase which cost at least £20,000 in time and resources." - Source

In the case of Shannon Matthews, an odd case in which the abduction was faked in order to obtain money. The mother and stepfather was sentenced to eight years in jail. Sick enough. However, Joe Powers stepped in to give a psychic reading to the mother. TO THE ABDUCTOR. How accurate could the reading have been with the fake abductor sitting right in front of him and him not saying 'it was you'? He made three claims he states he got correct; he claimed Shannon knew her abductor, she sat on this mans knee at a funeral and that she was still alive. As I've said, she knew her abductor is a very reasonable statistical accuracy. So, she must have been sat on his knee at a funeral? I mean, who can determine that? who would remember? I mean, credit for clawing your way through it, but you were sat in front of the perpetrator asking them questions. Idiocy.

  

Conclusion

In this day and age, is it acceptable for this to be given as a standard? Do not ignore the ‘evidence’ given by psychics. Does that not derive from the original investigations? Let’s get one thing straight, no one is psychic, it doesn’t exist, and there is zero evidence. Thus, why waste valuable police time in forces that are already stretched for money. These people are giving misinformation and false hope to a family. It makes you wonder as to who the hell wrote this. Is it a psychic believer that works for our standards of British Policing College? I should hope not, but then again, we have the likes of David Tredinnick in power, so who the hell knows? It appears, to me at least, that this standard was written by somebody who doesn’t have a clue what they are talking about, someone who has never worked as a police officer or forensic investigator in their entire life. They sent this to be published, so it must have made sense to them and I can only assume it was peer reviewed, so it must have then made sense to the peer reviewer.

As this is written for the police to use as practice, why not include the famous hits that have come out of psychic detectives. Oh wait, there aren’t any. So why not be more vigilant in giving the information for a cold reading and how to detect the misnomered bullshit they are coming out with. I’ll give you a clue, it starts when they say ‘psychic’. They provide zero information to an investigation, they shouldn’t even be entertained. It takes away from resources that can be used to track down a missing person and really does just hinder a forensic investigation.