North Jersey Media Group Inc.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
February 10, 2004 Tuesday
All Editions
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1339 words
HEADLINE: A psychic on the case;
Husband of missing Bogota woman asks for help
BYLINE: By KAREN MAHABIR, STAFF WRITER, North Jersey Media Group
BODY:
In the nearly three years since Jim Viola's wife vanished, the Bogota father of two has created a Web site dedicated to finding her, canvassed New Jersey with fliers and video CDs, and pleaded for help on radio and television programs.
Not finding a single clue, he has now turned to a psychic.
...
Cindy Brown of Browns Mills consulted a psychic after her 29-year-old son disappeared in March 2003. He was with an older woman in California or Florida, she said she was told.
Shortly after Christmas, the psychic told Brown that she soon would receive news about him.
On Jan. 9, a hunter in the woods found the badly decomposed corpse of Jimmy Lee Brown. He had hung himself with a shoelace about 48 feet up in a tree - five miles or so from home.
"A lot of things she said were wrong," Brown said.
...
"We haven't had a case that's been solved as a direct result of psychic activity," said Kym Pasqualini, president of the Nation's Missing Children's Organization and Center for Missing Adults. "We've experienced psychics who emerge who we've never heard of before. They'll start telling the family that they have information - but that they need money."
...
On Friday, it will be exactly three years since Jim Viola last saw his wife. He still has the Valentine's Day cards he bought her, along with other holiday cards, in a bag under the mantle in his home. Several framed photos of Pat adorn the living room, and downstairs Viola has installed shelves next to his computer to hold binders of notes and video equipment for his Web site.
...
The search held no tangible signs of hope for Viola until recently, when he directed a private investigator to Akron, Ohio.
The source of the tip: psychic Sylvia Browne.
Browne told him that Pat "left the house voluntarily and had a major seizure." Browne also claimed Pat has been suffering from amnesia and may have been picked up by a grocery truck driver, Viola said. She said he should concentrate his search efforts in Akron, he said.
"Going in, I was a bit of a skeptic," Viola said. "But I did research, and talked to a private investigator, and learned that she is very well-known. That gave me a better feeling."
...
Browne has taped an appearance with Viola and five other families with missing loved ones for an episode of the show scheduled to air locally Wednesday.
Browne is a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and earns a minimum of $847 for each appearance on a talk show, a spokeswoman for the union said. Despite several attempts to reach her by phone and e-mail, her business manager last week said that Browne "does not have time" for an interview.
...
Some psychics will employ "retrofitting," in which they will match predictions or observations to facts in the case and discard the rest, said Joe Nickell, a former magician and private detective who is now with the
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal in Amherst, N.Y.
...
Jim Viola maintains a Web site dedicated to finding his missing wife. It is
www.patriciaviolamissing.homestead.com
