Psychic takes up case of wife who vanished; Police believe Venus Stewart was murdered, but can't find her body
Published: Saturday, September 18, 2010, 8:36 PM Updated: Saturday, September 18, 2010, 9:42 PM
Michigan State Trooper Lane Booms, with his dog Lex, returns after searching for Venus Stewart's body in the Fulton State Game Area on July 15 in this file photo.
COLON — A middle-aged Indiana woman soon will drive to the Colon Township residence where 32-year-old Venus Stewart vanished last April.
She’ll wait to “feel the vibrations” of Stewart’s lingering presence, hoping to follow that “electricity” to the young mother’s body, wherever it rests.
Gale St. John, 50, who lives near Ft. Wayne, Ind., says there’ll be no spectacle “where I’ll be standing in the middle of the street, making strange noises” when she directs her “psychic-detective” powers toward finding the missing woman.
Michigan State Police Detective Michael Scott, the lead investigator in Stewart’s case, says more than two dozen self-described psychics have contacted authorities since April with “visions, feelings and dreams” about where Venus Stewart may be.
Venus Stewart
However, police say none of those tips has advanced the case in which Venus’ estranged husband Douglas is charged with her murder.
Despite their belief Venus Stewart is dead, months of investigation and several large-scale police searches, authorities have not found her body or several key pieces of evidence. That makes the case tougher to prosecute and leaves Venus Stewart’s family, including her two young daughters, with unresolved grief. Police have asked for the public’s help.
St. John was not called by authorities to offer her help or advice. And she has not called them to offer.
Police don’t have time for unconfirmed tips, according to St. John, who said she also works on a traditional Indiana search and rescue team with her cadaver dogs.
Gale St. John
Instead, St. John said she’ll make a brief stop where Stewart disappeared, then conduct a “blind drive,” where she says she’ll follow remnants of Stewart’s “vibrations” by car and then on foot.
St. John said she hopes to find evidence like clothing that police have been unable to locate to help in building their case against Douglas Stewart. To St. John, success means she and her dog will locate a body “and bring the family some closure.”
If she finds something she believes police need to investigate, St. John said she’ll call 911 and leave the scene untouched. If she’s unsuccessful, authorities won’t be bothered.
For such services, St. John says she seeks no compensation, regardless of an outcome she acknowledges is uncertain.
An associate who lives in the Grand Rapids area first alerted her to the Venus Stewart case, St. John said. Now, the Indiana woman will clear time from her day job operating a vending business to make the trip she says is financed from her pocket and donations from associates.
Psychic tips
Scott, a 32-year law enforcement officer, said it’s not unusual for people claiming paranormal powers to contact police in missing-person cases. And with the advent of the Internet, “Missing Persons” websites have multiplied, giving the cases a much wider audience.
Scott has never solved a case based on a psychic tip and he acknowledges sometimes it’s frustrating to divert his attention to vague leads that often describe little more than woods, fields and water.
“Their hearts are probably in the right place, but those things describe most of the state,” said Scott. “In the meantime, I have a case to get ready for court.”
St. John isn’t as patient with people who take their premonitions to police.
“I get calls from the same nuts they get, claiming they saw the body near water and grass,” said St. John, who claims to have located the burial area for Florida toddler
Caylee Anthony weeks before the body was retrieved. “I feel for the officers. If I listened to every e-mail I got from every nut on the planet, I wouldn’t be able to do anything else. And these people who bother grieving families? What’s the matter with them?”
While St. John claims to have found the remains of several dozen missing persons over her 35-year psychic career and has been interviewed by Larry King, Nancy Grace and Geraldo Rivera, she acknowledges public skepticism. Websites like “In Cold Blog” are critical of crime psychics. In a 2009 post, the site claimed St. John has “little to no corroborating evidence for her claims.”
Still with a Nov. 1 murder trial looming, Scott doesn’t object to St. John’s search.
“I don’t dismiss the idea that there may be people with an ability or a gift,” Scott said. “I’d love to have somebody find Venus Stewart’s body, especially for her family.”
Different approaches
Different psychics use different approaches, according to St. John.
She focuses on what she calls each person’s “signature vibrations” that she claims remain, like electrical residue, at locations where they have been. She compares it to a perfume scent that remains in a room after the wearer leaves.
Brian Ladd, another St. John associate, creates a “dream diary,” notations of words, images and feelings he has in dreams about a particular case. A dream diary on Stewart shows a series of disjointed notes scribbled in pencil.
One entry says: “outside Richmond, concrete rebar, by house, road in tree line, 36 feet.”
In another, the jottings refer to “May 10th ... she’s calling you ... GPS points do not match ... down street ... house boat ... 64AQ.”
The cryptic notes on a third page says, “WATER ... He was not at church. He was at garage ... Bags Bags.”
Det. Scott said none of the notes appear to link with his investigation.
St. John said she’ll arrive in Colon unannounced and local police won’t be contacted unless she spots evidence she believes is associated with the case — a body or a grave.
Then she said she’ll call 911 to summon authorities, without touching or disturbing the scene.
“I’m not going to contaminate a crime scene. I’m not working against the police.”
The Stewart strategy
St. John doesn’t disclose when she’ll begin her psychic search here because she says she doesn’t want to attract an audience.
Her plan is to begin where police allege Doug Stewart snatched his wife from her parents’ front yard.
“At that point you can feel the struggle and the vibrations from the people who created it,” she claimed. “You’ll feel the emotion of what went on and you have to shut that down because if you let emotion get ahold of you, you will not be able to do your job.”
St. John said she’ll likely sit quietly in her vehicle for several moments and then let her emotions tell her which direction to drive.
“What we hope for is to follow that vibration, that signature, to where it stops. The vibration changes somewhat after someone dies, but it’s still there. You sense other signatures that go along and then leave and if you sense a third signature, then there was an accomplice.”
Once the blind drive focuses on a site, St. John said her cadaver dog goes to work.
“When you have a psychic and a trained dog working together, it’s a good team.”
St. John says every case is different. Sometimes she claims the missing person “pulls me toward them,” like in a 2005 case where a Toledo Blade newspaper story credited her with locating the body of a missing auto worker.
After 35 years, St. John said she still remains skeptical of psychic solutions to murder and missing persons cases.
“I have to prove it to myself every time that it’s right.”
Psychic detective work comes with no guarantees, St. John said.
“I don’t know what goes on on the other side,” she said, referring to the after-life. “I can’t guarantee I will find Venus. I will guarantee I will do all I can.”
Gale and Debra will be starting the search tomorrow...I will keep everyone posted on how the search is going. Gale's press release is located on her site ands can be viewed here.
A redo has also been done and will post when appropriate.
Brian
"DNR concrete (sp)"
this is the same object in the first dd.
"S H can't see, O, look"
had problems recording what I saw...or did not see.
"police have item - red herring (sp) - 64"
From what I'm aware of LE does not have any item and this seems to confirm my suspicion that the suspect is playing games with LE.
Sorry, I do agree these DD's are too cryptic but I'm doing my best...if anyone out there would like to share what they have publicly, post it in the forum...WE WILL look at it.
