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Charles Capel was last seen alive May 20, 2004, the night before he wandered away from his home in Oxford Township in rural Butler County, Ohio. The retired university professor, who suffered from Alzheimer's, could not be found despite repeated searches by police and volunteers. In October, frustrated by a lack of leads, Oxford police enlisted self-proclaimed psychic detective Noreen Renier in the search. For a $650 taxpayer-funded fee, she described the area where Capel would be found. Acting on Renier's information, police renewed the search but still found nothing. Weeks and months dragged on without a break in the case until December 1, when Capel's body was discovered less than a mile from his home, in an area the police apparently missed.

According to a news report in the Oxford Press, "The small patch of cornfield-surrounded woodland where Capel was found possessed uncanny similarities to the area psychic detective Noreen Renier described to police.... Though in Virginia, hundreds of miles away from the scene, she was able to envision bits of his journey through contact with his shoes and toothbrush." A local television station was similarly impressed, airing a report titled, "Psychic Clues Accurate in Case."

Sgt. Jim Squance of the Oxford police is quoted as saying that he "was struck by the similarities" between Renier's description and where Capel was eventually found: "The landmarks were all there ... she said there was a tower with an antenna on top of it." Renier also mentioned stone, a wooded area, barns, and a creek. "We based our search on the information that she gave us, and, as it turns out, she was right on," Squance said. "Professionally, you have to be a little skeptical, using a psychic detective. But personally, when you see the results, you've got to be in awe."

Sgt. Squance's awe is hard to fathom. An objective look at the facts suggest that Renier's information was both unremarkable and unhelpful. The police received her assistance in early October, yet two months elapsed before Capel's remains were found--not by police directed by Renier to a specific area, but by a local hunter.

Missing Alzheimer's patients are almost always found close to home, a fact borne out by statistics and well known to police (and "psychic detectives"). So just about everyone--the Capel family, police, searchers, and Renier--was pretty certain that the eighty-one-year-old Capel was somewhere nearby. All Renier needed to do to be "right on" was describe the immediate area, with such obvious and general features as a creek, trees, a tower with an antenna, and stones. (Sgt. Squance countered that other local places Capel might have ended up--such as a nearby university--presumably would not have matched Renier's description.) The fact that Renier was reportedly in Virginia when she got the visions doesn't mean much; it's likely that at some point the police described the search area, or she could have easily guessed or determined the area's general terrain from news reports or the local map sent by police.

Renier's "information" simply suggested an area that common sense dictated and where the Oxford police were already searching. Claiming, after the body was found, that in retrospect the psychic "was right on" doesn't cut it. Renier, apparently playing the odds and a pretty obvious guessing game, managed to impress both the police and the general public (through credulous media reports).

In February 2003, Renier was hired to locate Laci Peterson. Renier said that she gave "a lot of information" to Modesto, California, detectives. Yet once again, Renier's information was useless to police; Laci Peterson's body was discovered not by Renier--nor even by police investigators--but instead by a passerby who saw it washed up in a bay shore on April 14, 2003.

On her Web site, Renier claims "uncanny success," and repeatedly states that she has lectured at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. According to Joe Nickell, author of Psychic Sleuths, "Renier once caught the attention of a credulous FBI profiler and was invited to give a talk at the academy. However, she was never an instructor there nor did she work on cases as a psychic for the FBI as some have been led to believe."

Psychic detectives on television will likely have more luck than those in the real world. In February 2004, Court TV launched a new series about psychic detectives called, rather unimaginatively, Psychic Detectives. For those viewers who thought that psychic powers were unproven and of dubious use to police, Court TV sets the record straight: "Police departments all over the world have been actively using psychics for over 300 years to help solve cases. In the world of criminal investigation, they have helped not only in crime solving but also in fine-tuning the gut instinct of a seasoned detective. Court TV's new half-hour series Psychic Detectives ... tells the fascinating stories of detectives and psychics as they work together to solve some of law enforcement's toughest cases.... Psychic Detectives will hear investigators and psychics share the uncanny tips and unexplainable clues that have helped solve the unsolvable." The series proved so successful that Court TV ordered fifteen additional episodes for its 2005 season.

Along similar lines, 1-800-Missing, a crime drama on Lifetime Television, was the most-watched series premiere ever for the female-targeted network, reaching 3.3 million total viewers. The series features a female FBI agent (Vivica A. Fox) who teams up with a young psychic to help her locate missing people. The series was brought back for the 2005 lineup, retitled simply Missing. The show's Web site links to several actual missing-children organizations, perhaps lending an air of legitimacy to the show.

Not to be outdone, on January 3, NBC launched Medium, its own "chilling drama series inspired by the real-life story of research medium Allison Dubois." (The show began with the titles, "There really is an Allison ... Really.") Patricia Arquette stars as Dubois, a law student who begins to suspect that she can talk to dead people, read people's minds, and see the future. With pluck and confidence, she dispels doubts and shows up skeptics--including her rocket scientist husband and police investigators. Her abilities are far more impressive than those of real-life psychic detectives: At one point Dubois leads a group of Texas Rangers to find a missing child's body. In contrast to the typical vague, post hoc predictions about where the body is, Dubois stands in a field, points to the ground, and says the body is "right here, about three feet down."

The show's Web site claims that "Dubois has consulted on a variety of murders or missing persons cases while working with various law enforcement agencies including the Glendale Arizona Police Department, the Texas Rangers, and a County Attorney's Office in the Homicide Bureau." Unfortunately for Dubois, the Glendale police and the Texas Rangers tell a different story. "The Texas Rangers have not worked with Allison Dubois or any other psychics," spokesman Tom Vinger stated flatly. Glendale police spokesman Michael Pena stated that the detective who handles missing persons cases "does not recall using Dubois at all in [one specific] case, or in any other cases." Readers must weigh a self-promoting psychic's credibility against that of respected law enforcement agencies.

It seems that psychic detectives are making a strong comeback in the media, in news reports, in "documentaries," and in fictional entertainment. Perhaps the only good news is that Crossing Over with John Edward was not renewed for the 2005 season.

Benjamin Radford is a writer, managing editor of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, and Editor Jefe of Pensar, the Spanish-language skeptics magazine.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

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