Officials from PSI Tech, a Seattle-based company, claimed that more than a dozen of its members had determined the location of Elizabeth's body by using a special psychic process they call "Technical Remote Viewing."
Independently, the company claims, 14 visionaries all pointed to a concrete burial vault built by the state of Utah about 10 years ago. The vault, located in Salt Lake City's This Is the Place State Heritage Park in the mouth of Emigration Canyon, contains the remains of 75 American Indians, many unearthed by construction projects around Utah.
But the crypt was searched and no trace of the 14-year-old girl, snatched June 5 from her bedroom, could be found, said state archaeologist Kevin Jones.
"We searched it very thoroughly. The whole thing was very secure," Jones said. "I certainly didn't want to start opening coffins."
The investigators' fruitless Aug. 28 search through cobwebs and stale air was one example of how thousands of tips from self-proclaimed psychics have occupied overworked detectives desperately trying to crack the baffling case.
"Many of these [psychic tipsters] are well-meaning, but these tips certainly take manpower away from the investigation," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse.
Still, he said that investigators will check out every "psychic vision" if the tip is specific.
"I don't encourage it or discourage it," Dinse said, speaking of psychics sharing their beliefs. In fact, Dinse said officers still may recruit a psychic to assist with the case.
"To this point, we haven't brought in any psychics -- but I don't rule anything out," Dinse said.
While recently staffing the police department's Elizabeth Smart tip line personally, Dinse took several calls from psychics, some of whom he said seemed "apologetic," but nevertheless felt they had "to help however they could."
Contacted by Elizabeth's uncle, Dave Smart, PSI Tech gathered the company's "special operations team" of 14 professional "remote viewers," who attempted to discern from afar the location of Elizabeth's body.
The same group had decided Elizabeth was killed within hours of her abduction, PSI Tech CEO Dane Spotts wrote on the company's Web site.
"All people are born with natural psychic or sixth-sense abilities," writes Spotts, explaining his technique, which "result[s] in an accurate transfer of information from the viewer's unconscious mind into conscious awareness . . . During this process, the viewer becomes linked directly to the collective unconscious."
Using the process, Spotts said, his team created sketches which it believed matched the burial vault in the foothills of Salt Lake City.
The vault -- which is a simple concrete shaft protected by a steel grate -- "is a special and consecrated place," Jones said. He said he balked at allowing the group of visionaries into the crypt. "I said, 'I'm not going to open the vault unless there is a police presence.' I have the key. I guard that with the trust of the Native American people of Utah."
Dave Smart called the police for assistance, and two lead case investigators shortly arrived. "They showed up and we went in," Jones recalled.
But Spotts was not satisfied with the search, calling it a "cursory peek." He questions why a trained cadaver dog was not allowed inside the crypt.
"I don't know how that dog is trained, but I do know there are 75 remains in there," retorts Jones.
Dave Smart added that he was satisfied with how the police handled the situation. He said the detectives responded promptly and assured him that his niece was not down there.
Spotts remains unsatisfied, and believers have peppered Jones' office with more than two dozen angry e-mail messages. "Is Elizabeth's body inside this Native American burial tomb?" Spotts asks. "We still can't rule it out. As far as I am concerned, the site has not been officially cleared."
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Paragraphs are our friends. And I'm not picking on varina, I will do this to any article I see posted without the < p > in them.