Psychic Laurie McQuary was called in from Oregon to assist the Durham Police Department with their investigation of a 17-month-old murder case.
Janet Abaroa, 25, was murdered in her Durham home in April 2005. Her family chose to fly McQuary, the owner of Management by Intuition and voted "Portland's Best" psychic by Willamette Week, to North Carolina to assist police.
"We had talked to [Durham police] several times about the possibility of using a psychic," Abaroa's sister Dena Kendall told the Raleigh News and Observer. "After nine months of an investigation, they had exhausted all leads they had. When it got to be a year and they still hadn't made an arrest, I think that's when we really started pushing. I think it's just helping them develop new leads, basically."
McQuary-who coincidentally met her husband, a detective in Lake Oswego, Ore., while investigating a case-has been a psychic since she came out of a three-month coma after a head injury, she said in an interview with Court TV.
McQuary has a background of investigating criminal cases.
"When she works with police it's always pro-bono," McQuary's non-psychic assistant Joyce Yam said. "Police did not fly her out. No taxpayers' dollars were used for any of this."
Yam said McQuary was able to talk about the areas she visited in Durham before she even arrived. Yam was not able to say, however, exactly what McQuary found in Durham.
Dave Wulff, a captain of the Cary Police Department, said that although his department has never used a psychic before, it would not dismiss the possibility of doing so in the future. "Don't rule anything out if you think it's going to give you a credible lead," Wulff said.
Many people, however, do rule out paranormal psychology and its use in criminal investigations.
"The higher the profile of case the more psychics want to work on it," said Joe Nickell, the Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal-a non-profit organization that investigates paranormal events. "They work free to gain publicity to promote their psychic-reading business."
Nickell said some psychics take advantage of the grief and desperation of the victims' families.
Chicago-area couple Jacki Mari and Alyn Richard make a living out of criminal investigation and psychic consultations.
Mari, also known as "Sherlock Jacki" or "Same-Day Jacki," and her husband are a team of psychics who have investigated a number of criminal cases.
They said that each psychic has a different method of solving the case. "I become the murderer or the missing person," Mari said. "It's like looking out of their eyes."
Richard noted that she is successful more than 90 percent of the time.
Nickell, however, questioned the reliability of all psychic investigators. "Unfortunately, there are countless people who claim to be psychics," he said. "So far, they have been unable to [solve crimes]."
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