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Jewish World Review May 25, 2005 / 16 Iyar, 5765 De$peration By John Stossel
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"I was a little out of my mind, you know, with desperation, and
all I wanted to do was find her."
I understand why Kathy Kupka felt that way: Her younger sister
had disappeared, and when police found no sign of her, Kupka suspected her
sister had been killed.
She put up a huge billboard offering a $25,000 reward. Soon,
psychics began calling her with messages from beyond — beyond the credible,
that is. They said things like, "I know where your sister is."
Kupka says she got phone calls urging her to contact Sylvia
Browne, one of America's most famous psychics. Browne's Web site says,
"Visiting here explains the Meaning of Life." Browne claims that she can
talk to the dead and they tell her where they are. So Kupka managed to get
on a TV show on a day when Browne was doing her stuff. "I was so
super-hopeful," she said. "I was like, oh, that's it, we're definitely going
to find her."
On the show, Browne quickly said Kupka's sister was dead in New
Mexico — and communicating to Browne.
Back in this world, police investigated Browne's lead. It was a
phantom.
"It was so devastating," Kupka told me. "Desperation makes you
do things that reasonable people don't do."
ABC News asked Browne to talk to us about this. She agreed but
then backed out at the last minute. She had told us she solved thousands of
cases. But several years ago, a magazine examined 35 of Brown's "cases." It
couldn't find proof she'd solved any of them.
At least Browne didn't ask Kupka for money. Nor did the next
psychic Kathy tried, Karl Petry. But he did take her to a hazardous-waste
facility and tell her that her sister was inside a manhole.
Kupka says police checked this lead out, too, and found nothing.
Petry says the body must have washed away.
ABC News went to another psychic, Kathlyn Rhea, who some police
officers say has helped them find bodies.
Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine, suspects that
something a little less magical than psychic powers is producing the
officers' enchantment. "They simply are misremembering the hits and the
misses," he says. (Browne claims on the Web to have predicted Brad Pitt and
Jennifer Aniston's marriage wouldn't last. Wow. What a gift of prophecy! How
could anyone have expected that? And how many things did she — and we —
predict that never happened? People tend to forget those.)
"The psychics go to the police department," says Shermer. "They
give lots and lots of statements. 'I see the body in a — body of woods,
some water, a railroad track, and so on.' When the body is finally found,
they retrofit the statement to see how it fits with what actually happened.
So, 'Oh, yeah, that psychic said something about a railroad track.' Yeah,
but the psychic also said something about 100 other things." Often psychics
say, the body is "near water," but water can mean an ocean, stream, puddle,
bathroom, underground pipe, or most anyplace. If the body is found by a
puddle, someone might say, "Wow, the psychic said 'near water.'"
Rhea charges a fat fee. ABC News managed to get a special, low
price: $1,800. Rhea explained to Kupka and the private investigator Kupka
hired that Kristine had been murdered. Rhea was confident that she knew
where Kristine's body was. Rhea told us to go 30 miles north of Kristine's
old neighborhood, looking for a road that branches off like a Y, something
that looks like a country church, and something with the letter S. We tried
to follow her instructions, using map companies, contacts with police, and
numerous trips, but it turned out there were hundreds of Y's and V's in the
road and all kinds of signs with S's. We were stumped. When I complained to
Rhea about that, she said, "What do you want me do, the leg work?" Facing
yet another useless "psychic vision," Kathy collapsed into tears.
"My heart just fell," said Kupka. "I was like, she doesn't
know."
Psychics don't know. But they do break hearts.
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