ASHBURN, Ga. - Was it mystical power or a mere coincidence that led a "psychic detective" to wade into a south Georgia pond and find the body of a man who had been missing for days?
The mystery of how the body of 30-year-old Greg Wallace came to be found is almost as tantalizing as what caused him to go missing in the first place. But for now, investigators aren't willing to credit the discovery entirely to psychic phenomena.
"The psychic found the body floating and that's about all we can say," said Turner County sheriff's chief investigator Steve Mauldin.
Lynn Ann Maker, a 33-year-old Iowa psychic who had been contacted by Wallace's family over the Internet, made the discovery March 19, five days after the man disappeared while driving to his job a half hour away in Tifton. His car was found abandoned just off a highway with the hood up and the keys in the ignition
For reasons Maker can't fully explain, she felt the need to wade into a nearby pond in an area police had already searched.
"I walked four or five steps and in front of me I saw something come out of the water," she said. "It was the top of his head. I didn't know for sure it was him.
"After his neck came out of the water, he turned," she said. "I could see it was him and I called 911."
Authorities are still investigating Wallace's death. The cause of his death and the circumstances remain unclear.
Wallace's mother, Geraldine Wallace, said family members contacted the psychic to satisfy themselves that everything was being done as part of the search.
"Some people believe in psychics," she said. "I can't say I believe in them fully ... but I believe in them more."
On Maker's Mystical Touch Web site, the 33-year-old psychic offers services as a medium, a palm reader and a "psychic detective" specializing in murder and missing persons investigations. She describes herself as a "psychometrist," meaning she has to touch personal items to receive her visions.
While she normally charges for her services, Maker agreed to travel at her own expense from her home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to this south Georgia farming town of 4,000.
After holding one of Wallace's shirts, Maker said she got a sense that he had "passed on" and was submerged. Later one of Wallace's cousins gave her a photo of the missing man, and she was drawn to the site where his car had been found.
"I kept feeling he was near the car," she said, which led her to the nearby lake.
The sheriff has turned the investigation over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Gary Rothwell, special agent in charge of the GBI's Perry office, confirmed that Maker found the body, but added, "In my opinion, it's a coincidence."
Maker said she's been sensitive to things beyond the normal range of perception since childhood. Contrary to what some may believe, psychics are not "all-knowing, all-seeing," she said.
"I'm a human," she said. "I don't choose what I see. It just comes to me and I relay it. God wanted him to be found. God led me there."
By Elliot Minor - April 12, 2005. www.news-expressky.com