THE MURDER DETECTIVES AND THE MEDIUM: A TRUE STORY

By Emma-Louise Rhodes

On February 26, 1980, the body of twenty year old Elizabeth McCabe was found in a clearing at Templeton Woods outside Dundee. Twenty-seven years later, in October 2007, Vincent Simpson went on trial, charged with her murder. On November 7, 2007, the jury at the High Court in Edinburgh heard that during the initial investigation, detectives took part in a séance at the house of a local medium, in order to try and find out who had killed Miss McCabe.

Although police forces across Britain generally deny using psychic mediums, this incident illustrates the motivation behind such rare involvement (from a police point of view), as well as with the obvious outcome.

EVERY POSSIBLE AVENUE OF INQUIRY

On March 13, 1980, at around 8:50 pm, Detective Constable Norman Robertson, along with an unnamed Detective Sergeant, had attended a séance in a darkened room with a trance medium in an attempt to shed some light on the murder.

Whilst giving evidence regarding the case, now retired Norman Robertson claimed that:

‘(consulting the medium) showed Tayside
Police's desire to spread into every possible
avenue of inquiry. It was not one which I
thought when I went to it I was particularly
hopeful of a conclusion (sic), but it was
something I was involved in.’

When asked whose idea it had been to consult the medium, Robertson answered that he could not remember whether it was the officer in charge of the investigation or someone else. He described the séance by stating that that they had held hands around a table and the medium had gone into a trance. Prompted further by Mark Stewart QC, the retired detective added:

‘She then gave us information which I
doubted seriously from the outset. It did not
go very well... It was never a serious line of
inquiry. It would not be thought of as leading
Tayside Police to a suspect or the accused in
this case …. I am confident, and I am
confident my colleague thought this was not
a worthwhile line of inquiry.’

Robertson stated that the medium had given details regarding the location of a vehicle, but that none of the information passed on at the séance from the medium’s ‘spirit guide’ had been of any use to police. He stated that one of the reasons they had visited the medium was because witnesses might find ways such as that to give information to the police, and so for that reason it had to be tested.

However, Robertson dismissed the efforts as a ‘charade’ which did not last long. The medium, he stated, was unable to continue and the police left the séance having gained no valuable information at all.

A SHINING EXAMPLE

The defense council had, earlier in the trial, accused Tayside police of ‘extremely sloppy methods’ and the declaration, almost out of the blue, that they had consulted a medium in the hope of leading them to Elizabeth McCabe’s murderer was a very obvious tool in demonstrating this conviction.

Although many British psychics claim to have helped the police in their investigations, there is very little evidence to back this up. Medium Sharon Neill states that the police generally deny any psychic contribution that may help them in their inquiries, asserting :

‘Unfortunately, the police forces in the UK
won’t admit that they use psychics to help
them solve crimes.’

In their paper Rhetoric in ‘Psychic Detection’ Ciaron O’Keefe and Laurence Alison are slightly more objective in their study of the subject, stating that:

‘In high profile murder and rape cases there
is a pressure on the police to follow up any
leads, however seemingly obscure. Any
information volunteered to the police has
to be recorded …. Of the devices examined,
many are associated with methods
employed in cold reading—a related set of
techniques known to convey convincingness
about advice/opinions, though there is no
substantive evidence within the account.
Whether these processes relate to self or
other deception is uncertain, though
clarification of their existence and
structure may go some way to exploring
the distortions that they may present to an
enquiry.’

Interestingly, Tayside Police were among those who did not reply to Eddie Silence’s letter and subsequent study in 2006, inquiring whether their police force had ever, or would ever consider, using a psychic medium to aid them in their investigations.(1.) However, the fact that the force did, twenty-six years previously, use a trance medium to assist them in a murder inquiry, demonstrates an interesting insight into the desperate need to find evidence when dealing with such serious and horrendous crimes.

Unfortunately for the likes of mediums such as Sharon Neill who are keen to praise the unsung ‘psychic detectives’ who have allegedly helped police solve numerous investigations, the case of Elizabeth McCabe provides a shining example of what happens when detectives decide to consult a psychic medium. The very fact that retired Detective Constable Robertson referred to the episode as a ‘charade’ exemplifies the nature of the ‘medium as detective’ along with the waste of police time spent on following up such leads.

REFERENCES

(1.) Silence, Eddie, The Police and Psychics, UK-Skeptics, 2006 - www.skeptics.org.uk

BBC News, ‘Woods Murder Police ‘Held Séance’’ - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/7084981.stm

Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Alison L. and O’Keefe, C., ‘Rhetoric in ‘Psychic Detection’’, Vol. 64, 1, No. 858.

Neill, Sharon, Second Sight, Orion, 2007.

The Scotsman, ‘Murder Police ‘Held Séance’ With Medium’, John Robertson (8 November, 2007).