Use of psychics rare among police, but many are open to idea

<p>The mystery of a missing district attorney has police officer Darrel Zaccagni consulting a psychic almost every day.</p><p>Zaccagni says he started talking to a psychic about the disappearance of Centre County prosecutor Ray F. Gricar at the request of the family. He knows some cops might chide him for it, but adds, "We've said from day one we will use any tool available to us to find Ray."</p><p>While the use of psychics in high-profile investigations isn't new, it's also not common. Their involvement can place some police in a tough spot, balancing a worried family's wishes against a police officer's skepticism.</p><p>"Generally, most detectives aren't impressed," said Scott Thornsley, an associate professor of criminal justice at Mansfield University who teaches a course on serial murderers. "They are not sought out because they are not scientific and don't represent a practitioner's viewpoint."</p><p>Still, Thornsley conceded that a psychic's unorthodox methods can spark new questions in detectives who, by training, focus on collecting hard facts and evidence.</p><p>"It takes someone very strong to say, 'I don't know where else to go' or 'It can't hurt _ maybe a psychic will expand my imagination,'" he said.</p><p>Michael Deppe, a spokesman for the law enforcement group Professionals Against Confidence Crime, is a skeptic. His group recommends police using a psychic "examine and be suspect of the psychic's movements and abilities."</p><p>Carla Baron, a psychic, got involved in the Gricar case about a week after his disappearance on April 15. Gricar's car was found the next day in Lewisburg, about 45 miles from his home in Bellefonte.</p><p>Short on leads, police so far say they don't think the disappearance is connected to any of his cases.</p><p>Zaccagni was familiar with Baron because she had been used in the investigation of Cindy Song, a Penn State student who disappeared in 2001 and is still missing.</p><p>Baron, based in California, has told police she thinks Gricar is dead. In a phone interview, Baron said she thinks Gricar was taken from Lewisburg to a warehouse about 20 minutes away.</p><p>Her suggestions about the warehouse were checked out by police and family members. They say they found locations similar to Baron's description, but no evidence that Gricar may have been there.</p><p>Some of her descriptions have matched some unpublished witness accounts from police reports, Zaccagni said. Among them: reports that Gricar was seen getting in another car in Lewisburg, and the type of vehicle; and the fact that a trace amount of cigarette ash was found on the floor of Gricar's Mini Cooper when it was found. Gricar was not a smoker.</p><p>Baron uses what she calls "remote viewing" to visualize things about the case over the phone. Often just a name and place are enough information, and she uses tarot cards, she says.</p><p>"I don't wear a black robe and I don't carry a crystal ball," Baron said.</p><p>Gricar's nephew, Tony Gricar, 33, of Dayton, Ohio, says the involvement of the psychic in the case is positive, but also indicates there's very little evidence.</p><p>"A lot of us are expecting the worst-case scenario," he said. "Everything above and beyond that is a bonus."</p><p>Loyd Auerbach, a director with the Paranormal Research Organization, sometimes gets calls from law enforcement agencies asking for references on psychics. His group includes psychics as well as those involved in the investigations of ghosts and hauntings, he said.</p><p>"It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. If it's useful information, then it's useful," Auerbach said.</p><p>He likens the use of a psychic by police to someone following a diet out of a book; the diet works for some people, and it doesn't work for others.</p><p>It didn't work for Steve Mauldin, chief investigator for the Turner County, Ga., sheriff's office, even though a psychic discovered a man's body in a lake in March. The lake had been searched by authorities before and Mauldin called the find a coincidence.</p><p>The psychic, Lynn Ann Maker, was contacted by Greg Wallace's family over the Internet and she wasn't hired by police. Mauldin says he's upset with Maker because she told media she thought Wallace was murdered; authorities say there is no sign of foul play.</p><p>A phone number for Maker couldn't be found, and her former Web site couldn't be viewed Monday.</p><p>In Moffat County, Colo., undersheriff Jerry Hoberg says he has pursued a couple of tips from a psychic working with the family of Marie Blee, who disappeared at age 15 after not returning from a dance on Nov. 21, 1979. Hoberg says his department doesn't deal with the psychic directly.</p><p>Authorities there have searched sites that psychics have said might be important, but have come up short, said Hoberg, whose department reopened the case in 1999.</p><p>"I don't disbelieve in it, but someone needs to really prove it before I believe it totally," Hoberg said.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1ce04c8)</p><p>HASH(0x1ce0570)</p>

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