Jaycee Dugard: Psychics Fail but Claim Success
September 3rd, 2009
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The discovery of Jaycee Dugard, alive and having been held captive for eighteen years, since her 1991 abduction has been big news recently. The discovery of the abducted 29 year old (who was 11 at the time of the abduction) was a relatively simple matter of alter police officers noticing that something was amiss. When Jaycee’s alleged captor, Phillip Garrido, went to UC Berkley and asked permission to hold a special Christian event, officials noticed he was acting suspiciously and alerted campus police officers.
After running a background check, it was discovered that Garrido was on parole for rape. It also was noted that he was listed as not having children, despite having two young girls with him, who he had claimed were his daughters. The two girls who accompanied Garrido, 11 and 15 years of age, were also noted as behaving erratically, and given the background of Garrido, police became understandably concerned. Further investigation lead to the discovery of Jaycee Dugard and the establishment of her true identity as well as the conditions she had been living under for the past eighteen yearpsyts.
This would seem like a prime example of alert cops doing their job and checking out something that just didn’t seem right. This opportunity could easily have been missed, if police had not taken the step of running a background check on the suspicious man with the two wide-eyed young girls. In general, this is how most long standing crimes and disappearances are solved: either by a chance discovery, police investigation or a combination of both. Clearly there’s no psychic involved here. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, since despite many trumped up claims, there is not a single documented example of a psychic providing information that lead to any case being solved.
Yet that does not stop them from claiming otherwise. With the media attention that Jaycee Dugard has gotten, it’s not surprising that a psychic or two would try to cash in on this event.
Via KOLO-TV:
RENO, NV – Dayle Schear, a woman whose claims her psychic abilities have been used internationally, says when she was hired to give some insight into this case in 1991, she told Jaycee’s parents–this day would come.
Schear says she has the recording from the 1991 reading she gave to Carl and Terry Probyn. In it she says she describes the two captors, and where Jaycee was being held. She mentions a white bridge, the same white bridge that is in Antioch.
Schear has worked on many crime cases, including some high-profile ones such as the O.J. Simpson case. But Jaycee’s case always stuck out in her mind.
Schear recounts the day she spoke to Terry Probyn, Jaycee’s mother. “I looked her in the eyes and I said please do not give up on this child…eventually she’ll walk through the door, you’re going to see her again.”
Schear also told Terry some unsettling details.
“I described general area and how she was being held I said it was sexual…I knew she was being held at force and she could not get to a phone to call.”
Jaycee Dugard’s mother always held on to the hope that she and her daughter would one day be reunited.
Schear says, “She never gave up hope in her heart and she always believed someday her daughter would walk through her door.”
So what does Schear say lies in the future for Jaycee? She predicts that Jaycee will pull out of this with guidance and counseling, and will become a spokesperson to help others.
Amazing. Despite failing to do anything useful, this fraud is actually trying to cash in on this news. No matter how many times this happens, I am still amazed by how shameless these scam artists are.
They even put the phone number and website of this scammer on the bottom of their story. (I decided to omit it) Despite the fact that this psychic supposedly predicted that Jaycee would return safely (she didn’t mention eighteen years of being brainwashed and raped), she didn’t provide any help at all in finding the missing girl. No location, no time for when she would return, no description of the captor, no description of the circumstances or anything else that could provide any help.
The simple answer as to why she was so unable to give detail? She made the whole damn thing up. She just wanted to get some attention and money. And yes, Jaycee Dugard’s mother did pay for the services.
Lets just consider something. There are really only two options for what a psychic can guess when it comes to the ultimate fate of a kidnapped child:
- They won’t be found alive – This one plays the odds. If the child has been missing more than a few days, then statistically, this is by far the most likely to turn out to be correct.
- They’ll be found alive and returned – Although more likely to be proven wrong, it also has its advantages. The parents will be more receptive to this, as it seems encouraging. Furthermore, it may encourage them to pay for more predictions and readings. After all, if the child is still alive, there is a greater sense of urgency and more on the line.
Regardless of what actually turns out to be the case, a self-proclaimed psychic can always wiggle their way out of failures, by focusing on the few successes that will always be present, as long as the predictions are vague enough. When they’re wrong, they either ignore it or say that they’re not always 100% successful. Those who want to believe or are desperate will continue to seek them out.
The fact of the matter is that Jaycee Dugard’s abduction was an event that got plenty of press, and like so many others, it caused a lot of those who claimed to have psychic powers to crawl out of the woodwork with promises to help. None did. Vague predictions were made. A few were correct, most were incorrect. None ended helping in any way shape or form. Nobody provided any details that could be validated. Despite claims of trying to use their mystic powers, nobody could say where she was.
This is an all to common story. Psychics do occasionally get in the way of investigations, but never help them. They do exploit them, however. If they have any power, its a complete lack of shame.
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Events, Not Even Wrong, Obfuscation, Paranormal, media, religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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September 3rd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
What do you expect? These people have not the slightest moral or ethical sense. They’re pathological self-serving liars. THey can look into the face of a desperate parent with a missing child and see an opportunity to make an easy and dishonest buck.
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September 3rd, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Isn’t that pathetic, but like Magic said, typical of the type.
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September 3rd, 2009 at 10:27 pm
My normal reaction to psychics is that a fool is soon separated from his/her money and it is their fault for being so stupid as to pay a psychic. However, this is a little bit of an exception. If anyone has the right to be irrational or desperate, it is a parent in this kind of situation. Who knows their anguish, maybe not even sleeping for days and grasping for anything that may give hope of any kind, however outlandish. They are the weakest victims and that makes it all the more disgraceful.
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September 4th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Q. What do police call a psychic who can accurately lead them to the body of a missing person?
A. “Our number one suspect”
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September 4th, 2009 at 8:55 am
O/T but noteworthy: Indian probe photographs Apollo 15 moon rover tracks.
So, y’know…I guess they’re in on the conspiracy now.
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September 4th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Despite their dismal success rate, people continue to support them. This is pretty much like your ________________ (insert perpetually failing local sports team).
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September 4th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
thesharkguy said:
I’m not sure that is the same. You can be a fan of a failing sports team because you want them to not suck and appreciate the fact that they represent your local area, even if they do suck in general. It would be idiotic to constantly bet a lot of money on them, knowing they are almost never successful.
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September 4th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
What annoys me is that a TV station would air this clown. Tabloid journalism at its worst. They have no more ethics than the “psychic”.
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September 4th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
leg said:
Absolutely. If you look at how it’s covered they even provide her contact phone number and website. It’s like a free advertisement!
The sensationalism and the tabloid effect in journalism seems to be getting worse. It might be competition with the internet and such, but the traditional news outlets and the trash gossip stuff at the supermarket checkout line is starting to look the same. The line is blurring more and more. I think this could just be a desperate attempt to compete with all the various online news outlets, the 24 hour news cycle etc.
It does get more viewers and that’s what the game is about, but I also think in the long run, it may hurt a media outlet. It’s easy to grab attention with something sensational, but people eventually get numb to that. Especially when you’re pandering to a demographic that is already saturated with competition.
The tabloid, shock-news, sensational demographic is one that is large, but huge number of outlets feeding the supply. You can try to keep going further and further the compete with other tabloids, but after a while people get numb to it. It’s cutthroat and you can easily drown in it. Eventually it becomes so sensational that you lose the serious news demographic entirely.
There are those who want serious, real news. The market might not be as hot, but it’s consistent and arguably it is becoming under served. Getting a reputation for good reporting takes a long time and a lot of effort and it can be killed almost overnight. I think that station managers and news editors need to consider the value of their venues reputation in the long run and whether grabbing attention at its cost is really a good investment.
BTW: @leg: would appreciate your take on a post about three or four back from this one on medical radiation.
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September 4th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
“And yes, Jaycee Dugard’s mother did pay for the services.”
Sorry, but we just don’t know if this is true. I’ve scoured the web and there is one and ONLY one source for this claim: the KOLO-TV article you quoted in full above. Linking to the MyFoxLubbock article proves nothing, since it is deriving its info from the KOLO-TV article too! And even when you look closely at the KOLO-TV article, the only person that is making this claim is Dayle Schear, herself. As far as I can tell nobody has corroborated her claim. Nor would I expect anybody to in the near future, either, since I’m sure Jaycee’s family has more important things on their mind right now. But the point is, for all we know Jaycee’s family has never even talked to this woman let alone hired her to do a reading on Jaycee. We only have Schear’s word that they did. Hardly a disinterested, trustworthy source.
This is just bad journalism all around. First you have KOLO-TV which credulously refers to Schear as a “psychic” as opposed to an “alleged psychic” or “self-proclaimed psychic”. Then they mindlessly repeat her claim as fact rather than trying to double-check it with multiple sources (or at the very least qualifying it by saying something like “Schear claims to have predicted blah blah blah but KOLO-TV has not been able to confirm her claims at this time.”). Then they shill for the “psychic” at the end of the article by including her website and phone number. Finally, you have other news organizations that just lazily refer to the original, poorly sourced article and continue to present the claims of this one person (with obvious conflicts of interest) as established fact. Do news organizations do anything nowadays? Or are they all just regurgitating each others BS?
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September 4th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Billy said:
Perhaps I liked the wrong article for that? However, the sources I have seen refered to her as being “hired” or otherwise indicate she was paid.
It is stated directly here:
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/090828-jaycee-dugard-psychic.html
It is also noted on Bad Astronomy and others have stated she was paid. I realize this is not a primary news source and I don’t know where Phil got that info.
Now as for the word of Dayle Schear: I don’t see why she would lie about charging money for this if she didn’t. I could see her lying about not charging money when she did in fact charge money. Sylvia Browne has done that. It makes one look like a much less generous, helpful person when they require payment.
Billy said:
Possible, although it seems like a dangerous lie to tell, when you haven’t even met them. It’s not something I’d really think unreasonable anyway. Psychics are attracted to parents of kidnapped kids like flies to ****.
In any case, she is still claiming success and flaunting this in the media, getting attention whereever she can and using this event to elevate her own interests, which was my main point.
Billy said:
Okay, I take your point. I didn’t repeat this mindlessly, but rather criticized the journalism as being pandering to this fraud. Clearly she is claiming credit and cashing in on this. She’s a liar any way, but whether or not she made up the part about even being consulted (or paid) to begin with is not directly verified.
In any case, we know that’s what she says and true or not it’s really just as bad. Either she’s lying or she is telling the truth, in which case, she’s admitting to defrauding someone for useless services.
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September 5th, 2009 at 11:56 am
“They’ll be found alive and returned – Although more likely to be proven wrong…”
Is it, though? I suppose it depends on when you make the prediction. There must be a point at which most missing people are etiher found dead, or never found. Presumably, if the body is going to be found (i.e. it has been disposed of stupidly), it will probably be found sooner rather than later.
I don’t know the stats but I would imagine that if you predicted that every missing who had been missing for 1 year was going to be found alive, you would rarely be proven wrong…
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September 5th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Neuroskeptic said:
Good point. As time goes on, the probability of someone being found alive plummets, to the point where after a year only a handful are found alive. I think the probability of finding a body is higher, because human remains are found from crimes years ago, but after a few years, if they’re not found chances are they won’t be. I don’t know the absolute probability though.
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September 6th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I seem to remember a quote from an undercover NYPD officer whose job it was to go after palm readers and such. She said something like “I’ve heard these psychics tell me many wonderful things, but I’ve never yet heard one say, ‘You’re an undercover vice cop and you’re here to arrest me.’ “
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September 8th, 2009 at 10:05 am
drbuzz0 said:
No, I think you quoted the right article. It does say she was hired by Jaycee’s family, as do lots of other articles as you point out. But my point is that as far as I can tell the primary source for this claim is the KOLO-TV article. All of the other articles that repeat this claim either quote from it or link back to it directly or indirectly. Like I said, I’ve scoured the web and I can’t find any other independent source for this claim. And the only source that the KOLO-TV article uses is Dayle Schear, who is hardly unbiased.
You could be right about Schear having no motivation to lie and, in fact, taking quite a risk if she is. It could be that she really did do a reading for Jaycee’s mom and took money for it. As you say it wouldn’t be the the first time some “psychic” con artist took advantage of the grieving and desperate. All I’m saying, though, is that KOLO-TV did not practice responsible journalism by repeating her claim as if it were a fact without doing more to verify it. And other new outlets perpetuated the bad journalism by simply repeating the KOLO-TV article’s claims without doing their own research.
drbuzz0 said:
I apologize if I came across as being overly critical of you. Your article was right on target and the question of whether Schear actually actually was hired by Jaycee’s family or not is ancillary to your main points. I wasn’t accusing YOU of repeating anything mindlessly, I was accusing the news organizations of doing so. Given the sloppy journalism, it’s understandable how you and other readers might believe that it was established fact. I just thought it was worth pointing out that it is not as cut and dried as media accounts are making it out to be.
drbuzz0 said:
Yeah, and that’s only the half of it. Check out her own website to see how far she’s willing to go to cash in on this. She has a link there entitled, “Click. Jaycee Lee Dugard”. If you hover over this link (in IE) you will see the text, “Click here to read about Dayle’s solving of the Jaycee Lee Dugard case in 1991.” Yep, that’s right. She’s gone from claiming to have made a few vague, unhelpful predictions about the case to claiming she actually solved it! Wow, I bet this will be news to Jaycee’s mom who’s been wondering where her daughter was for the last 18 years! But here’s the clincher: if you click on the link, it takes you to a PDF doc containing a screen shot of the KOLO-TV article. That’s it! That’s her big evidence that she’s presenting to the world that she “solved” the Jaycee Lee Dugard case back in 1991… a lame little write up by a credulous TV reporter. Pathetic. All I can say is that if she’s willing to stretch the truth (to put it mildly) like this, I don’t put much stock in anything this woman has to say.
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September 9th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Sadly these psychics tend to get involved in this kind of thing a real lot because they believe it can get them free publicity and advance their fame. Some just want attention. A high profile kidnapping typically will get several calls to police or family from people who report to have had psychic visions and never does it actually help. If it does anything it just gets in the way.
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