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Patrick Burns and Haunting Evidence

PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 10:54 am
by curiosity
Aw geez...now there's going to be a longer list of recent topics that no one can shut off! :)

Here's a question:

I just caught an episode of Haunting Evidence for the first time on trueTV.
There are of course other shows, like Psychic Investigators, but I'm just wondering how much credibility law enforcement assesses to this kind of investigation. Any information retrieved would help 'cold' files, which is fantastic. Anyone know if this kind of evidence has ever been used in a court of law to convict an accused criminal? (in additon to physical evidence, of course.)

I would think any method that could take violent predators off the streets would be welcomed and implemented.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 3:19 pm
by CertainSum1
In the Ramsey case, I was disappointed to see that Patrick didn't try to contact Patsy Ramsey. Or that it was edited out if he did.

As far as the police, particularly in this case, I think they have a terrible image after the botched investigation they did and falsely publicly persecuting the parents. They know they can't afford to now have the public think they are chasing after leads from psychics, too. Hopefully, they'll do it quietly.

This show was hard to watch...tragically sad.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:33 pm
by curiosity
I can't imagine the pain any psychic/medium endures during this type of circumstance. Grounding or not, I would think it would be overwhelming.

With the Ramsey case being so high profile, I really wondered how the use of parapsychology would affect the credibility of anyone during a potential trial. I'm not that familiar with this show, but found it compelling that any law enforcement official would put their ass on the line, much less on tv after doing such a shoddy investigation to begin with. Hopefully it will benefit the investigation.

I sincerely hope this is not taken as an insult to anyone clairvoyant. Much respect to anyone that truly helps others locate missing individuals or assits in these types of investigations.

PostPosted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 5:15 am
by AbbeyGal
CertainSum1 wrote:In the Ramsey case, I was disappointed to see that Patrick didn't try to contact Patsy Ramsey. Or that it was edited out if he did.


I am assuming they didn't or didn't show it because it wasn't directly relevant to the case. Patsy Ramsey may have passed on, but that still doesn't make her a first hand witness to the murder.

PostPosted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 5:33 am
by AbbeyGal
curiosity wrote:I can't imagine the pain any psychic/medium endures during this type of circumstance. Grounding or not, I would think it would be overwhelming.


My psychic development group has been looking into the case of a teenager in my neighborhood who went missing. I was reluctant to get involved, but kept seeing the pain the mother is in when she stands outside her house with a poster of her daughter asking for any information. What happened to the girl is very ugly. One of us couldn't get into it very deeply because it was so disturbing to him. I'm pretty sure that we are on the right track, though, as all of us were picking up on the same key points. And now I have to figure out how to present the information to the police anonymously but in a way that they won't brush it off as just some crackpots who think they are psychic wasting the cops' time or worse, thinking that we were involved.

With the Ramsey case being so high profile, I really wondered how the use of parapsychology would affect the credibility of anyone during a potential trial. I'm not that familiar with this show, but found it compelling that any law enforcement official would put their ass on the line, much less on tv after doing such a shoddy investigation to begin with. Hopefully it will benefit the investigation.

I sincerely hope this is not taken as an insult to anyone clairvoyant. Much respect to anyone that truly helps others locate missing individuals or assits in these types of investigations.


It's not like they are going to present "well the psychics told us..." as evidence at the trial. The prosecutors will only present provable, real world evidence. If they've got DNA evidence tying the guy to the murder, it won't really matter if police were pointed in his direction by psychics. Even if the defense brings it up, they will downplay it as, "yes, psychics also told us this." I'm not sure that a defense attorney would bring it up in a place like Boulder, anyway, where the jury members might be just as inclined to believe the psychics as to brush it off as superstitious malarkey.

PostPosted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:48 pm
by curiosity
The 'crackpot psychic thing'.........that's what I was referring to about credibility. It doesn't matter what you think, or what I think, only what is presentable or can be discounted as evidence. Any leads could always reveal or direct investigators to physical evidence. One would hope the use of a sensitive wouldn't discredit the prosecution of anyone guilty, especially if physical evidence was scarce or contaminated.

I'm sure there has to be a lot of weighing issues when coming to a decision to asist of your own will. As a parent, my best wishes to you for your decision to become involved. That's every parent's worst nightmare.

A friend of mine (also an attorney) once said, "There's a huge difference between what's legal and what's moral."

Kudos to you, Abbey.

PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:29 pm
by CertainSum1
I think in general, detectives don't follow psychic tips because for each one they get that's accurate, there is at least one that is not accurate. And, they must first follow-up on the (often) hundreds of leads that are non-psychic first.

In the Ramsey case, even if the psychics on the show are completely right, I wonder if they are telling the Boulder PD anything they don't already know at this point. The retired detective said the suspect they pointed to was already high up on the suspect list before. So, with no new evidence, what more can they do with what the mediums told them?

Hopefully, they were able to provide more detailed information off-camera that could lead to, as curiousity said, physical evidence that could actually further the case along and maybe even allow an arrest.

Regarding contacting Patsy Ramsey's spirit...I would think that once she's in spirit, she would at least know who was responsible for her daughter's murder even if she was not a witness to it in life. And that she would want to help catch that killer to stop him from doing it to another child.

PostPosted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 4:46 pm
by curiosity
CS 1, I hope you're right.

I couldn't watch the whole show. It was just too disturbing.

Like you, I think there's a lot more to the investigation than what's being let out to the general public. But something really stinks about the way the whole case was originally handled in the first place. You don't have to be psychic to see that. Nor to see the pain in Patsy Ramsey's eyes pleading the general public to assist in any way they could shortly after the homicide occured.

Contacting Patsy Ramsey....what harm could that do? I firmly believe someone came into contact with both Joan Bennet and Patsy which eventually led to the murder. Give it a name, but that's just my own opinion. And I'm just guessing that a butt-load of evidence was probably contaminated/discarded at the crime scene or within a few miles. Another logical guess.

But for the love of Jesus, if I lived in that community, I would be outraged that there had been no further developments. Why not incorporate the use of psychics? Apparently the police weren't much use.