The Lost Girl Investigating a Case of “Psychic Detection”
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SI Nov. Dec 11_SI new design masters 9/27/11 12:43 PM Page 26 NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD] M A S S IMO P OL IDOR O Massimo Polidoro is an investigator of the paranormal, lecturer, and cofounder and head of CICAP, the Italian skeptics group. His website is at www.massimopolidoro.com. The Lost Girl Investigating a Case of “Psychic Detection” n September 2005, the Italian media Bariffi, who was around thirty years old lice searched, but three years passed by was flooded with news about a psy- when she disappeared. “When I saw and no trace of her was ever found. Ichic, Maria Rosa Busi, who appar- the photo, I knew that she was dead,” Then a psychic came along who ently led the police to the body of a miss- Busi said. “I’m a clairvoyant. I can tell through magic visions saw and heard ing girl at the bottom of Lake Como. when someone is living or dead.” the girl calling from the depths of the Television and newspapers gave ample Police had no leads, and the missing lake, where rescue workers finally found coverage to the psychic, who claimed persons case languished. Murder was a her. A miracle! that an otherworldly vision allowed her possibility and, since Bariffi had also That is, until we looked deeper into to unravel the three-year-old mystery. battled emotional problems, some sus- the case. Along with CICAP’s col- She said she had been able to “see” the pected suicide. The family even thought league Marco Morocutti we decided to last moments of Chiara Bariffi’s life be- that Bariffi might have gone to Venice investigate. First, we retrieved press fore she drove into the lake in her car in or left the country for Spain. news clippings and articles relating to Busi. We found that she had also late 2002. She even claimed to have Remo Bonetti, a rescue worker who claimed success two years before, after heard a message from the deceased has led similar searches for bodies in finding the body of a woman who com- woman. “I went to the lake, and I saw the past, said that the mystery would mitted suicide in the Lake of Iseo. where it happened.... I heard her, I saw not have been solved without Busi’s However, in her statements she forgot her and I drew a map,” Busi said. “No- help. “Without the directions of Maria to mention that the husband of the body thought she was in the lake.” Rosa no one would have ever been able woman had also committed suicide, The psychic, who claims clairvoyant to find her, unless by accident,” he said. and his body had been retrieved from powers, was first contacted by the par- How “Psychic” Is the Seer? the waters of that lake just before the ents of the victim, who were trying to woman’s suicide. Also, the police had find out what happened to their daugh- This is how the case was first presented found the couple’s car, a purse with per- ter. They sent Busi a photograph of in the media: A girl went missing. Po- sonal documents belonging to the miss- ing woman, and her cell phone by the same lake. Furthermore, before disap- pearing the woman had recorded a tape in which she expressed her intention to take her life. The fact that her body was found in the lake not far from where her husband was found does not seem as impressive once the background cir- cumstances are known. Busi had also been in the news for claiming that the legendary “gold of Dongo,” the supposed treasure of Mus- solini, was buried in the Vittoriale, the museum that was once the house of cel- ebrated poet and Mussolini supporter Gabriele D’Annunzio. Several holes were dug in the park, but no treasure was ever found. “The treasure is there, I say. They just did not look hard enough,” the psychic still claimed. Self-proclaimed psychic Maria Rosa Busi holds up a photograph of Chiara Bariffi. Busi claims she knew Bariffi was dead as soon as she looked at the photo. 26 Volume 35 Issue 6 | Skeptical Inquirer SI Nov. Dec 11_SI new design masters 9/27/11 12:43 PM Page 27 What Really Happened at the Lake Now that the record of the claimed psychic was a little bit clearer, it was time to learn what happened at the time of Bariffi’s disappearance. On the night of November 30 and early morn- ing of December 1, 2002, Bariffi was driving back home from an evening with friends. The drive was less three miles, but part of the trip was along the edge of Lake Como. That night, the weather bulletins tell us, a violent storm passed over the area. It was so strong that it created landslides on surround- ing hills. Bariffi would never reach home that night; both she and her car vanished. Her disappearance was not so sur- prising once we knew a little more Chiara Bariffi is believed to have driven into Lake Como after losing control around this dangerous curve. about the circumstances surrounding it. without telling anyone. So a journalist less impressive than it did in the begin- Both Bariffi’s family and the police friend of Busi suggested to them that ning. Furthermore, as a consequence of supposed that the most likely explana- they contact the psychic and seek her the enormous exposure that Maria tion was that Bariffi’s car crashed help. The woman went to Como, Rosa Busi gained, she was later con- through the railings and plunged into learned the whole story, and then took tacted regarding other missing persons the water below. There was in particular a look at the road. At that moment, ei- cases. In 2006 a small boy was kid- a very dangerous and sharp bend in the ther by some “spirit message” or by napped near Parma, and a month later road overlooking the lake where, in the sheer deductive reasoning, she said that Busi claimed that she saw him alive and past, other cars had broken through and Bariffi had fallen into the lake in the well. After all, she had said that through fallen into the lake. Marco Morocutti very same spot where the police had her clairvoyant power she could “tell went to Como and saw three tomb- searched three years earlier. when someone is living or dead.” It later stones along the road: a grim reminder Maria Rosa Busi, however, had an turned out that the boy had been killed to drivers of how risky that bend can be. advantage over the police. She could by the kidnappers only a few hours after He also talked to residents who ex- count on the generous help of the vol- they took him. plained that there was road work being untary rescue group led by Remo Bo - After that, Maria Rosa Busi again conducted at the time of the disappear- netti, a group that had already found gave directions and drew maps that she ance and that sand was piled up along 120 lost people, most of them dead. said would help in finding a canoeist the railings—a situation that, coupled Unlike the police, the group had no who had disappeared in the Lake of with a slippery road and visibility made time limit and could use all kinds of Pusiano. Six years later, the canoeist is poor by the storm, was clearly a recipe modern technologies in their search. In still missing. for disaster. particular, they employed “Mercurio,” a But it seems that the media never The waters below that particular robot submarine that could reach a learn. Last January, after the month- bend were the first place the police depth of 1,600 feet—a faculty that the long disappearance of Yara Gam birasio, went searching. The only problem was police lacked. a thirteen-year-old girl who was last that the lake in that very spot is ap - It was just a matter of time and pa- seen leaving her school gym, Busi tried proximately seven hundred feet deep. tience before the cameras of the robot a comeback. “I am here because my Another car that had fallen there ten eventually found a car whose license conscience calls me. I feel I must do years earlier was never found. Scuba plate matched Bariffi’s. The lost girl something for that poor little girl,” she divers went looking anyway, but they had been found. said to journalists. “I feel she will be had no success. The Media Never Learn found; the family should be serene. After a while, the search for Bariffi Love will prevail and all will be well.” was interrupted. Bariffi’s parents started So that’s how things really happened at Two months later, the dead body of to imagine that maybe their daughter Lake Como. Once we know all the Yara was found in a nearby field. The was not dead after all but had run away facts, the psychic’s feat appears much killer is still at large. Skeptical Inquirer | November / December 2011 27.