Individuals who have an ability to see visions in their mind's eye have been with us almost since man can remember. They are called seers, prophets, psychics, mind readers, clairvoyants, or mystics. But, as with most things that many mere mortals can't quite grasp, these unique people are often viewed with skepticism, disdain, and mistrust.
As we enter the 21st century, the ways of the psychic are becoming more and more accepted, but still are not mainstream, by a long shot. Science, too, is beginning to build on empirical evidence gathered in the past twenty years that proves some people among us are undoubtedly talented in psychic ways. One of those people lives and works in Littleton; her name is Cyd.
Cyd has had the gift of a psychic for eleven years, but, initially, she, like the rest of us, didn't completely trust what her mind was telling her. Now at 40, and well rounded with psychic experiences, she says it has taken many years of paying diligent to weed out the extraneous and only concentrate on the pertinent information that she receives.
Standing just over a diminutive five feet, with bright blue eyes and an easy disarming, almost mischievous smile, Cyd sat across from me in her office. Having just spent a hot summer weekend high in the Rockies, she was well tanned, making her blonde hair glow even more in the morning sun that was streaming into her nicely-decorated office.
The type of psychic work Cyd does differs greatly from the neighborhood seer that people visit to "have their fortunes told." In those instances, the psychics often use clairvoyance, tarot cards, runes, or numerology to assist them in their predictions.
A psychic is a conduit for information for the relationship or spiritual questions being asked by the typical customer. He or she will pass along all, if any, guidance that is given, but, aside from that, they frequently aren't involved much with the customer beyond the reading. Cyd is more than capable of this type of clairvoyant reading but, over time, has come to seek the more difficult, demanding public work with police departments and families of victims.
In 1992, Cyd was part of an investigation that resulted in her being tested by the FBI; they revealed that she possessed a 98.7 percent information accuracy. Since then, she has worked with numerous law enforcement agencies across the country and has appeared on national television and radio stations.
The neighborhood psychic often will seek out the murder or missing person case hoping to assist and make a name for themselves. And that, according to Cyd, is why they are rarely successful.
"The case has to seek out the psychic," said Cyd after a thoughtful moment. "The police or a family member have to contact me directly, otherwise I won't work on it. If the powers of the universe want me to be invovlved, they will bring the parties needing help to me, not the other way around. Then, in my process, I access the suspect, and profile them psychically. I intimately become them, feel them, think like them, and see what they see."
"I waited many years until I had more experience, more confidence," Cyd continued, "before I would allow the real work I longed for to come to me. I knew all along I wanted to work on cases where I could really help people with a serious need. Ultimately, that would involve the police searching for missing persons, murders, slain victims, terrorists, etc."
Shifting her position to sit on both feet in a well-stuffed antique chair, Cyd shared more. "The first case I accepted was the Sky Dancer murder here in Colorado. Her death was originally thought to be a suicide, but, after her family contacted me and I opened up to receive information, I knew it wasn't. I was receiving insights that she was shot. I then gave the description of her live-in boyfriend, Larry Patton Lee Barnes, as the person that was doing the shooting, and that it was not suicide."
On December 4, 1997, the body of Sky Dancer, a white, 37 year-old female was found in her car, shot in the head in Thornton, Colorado. The case was opened as a murder investigation, but, after some initial work, the detectives found out that Sky had attempted suicide in 1983 and 1985, so they changed the case to possible suicide.
A month earlier, an article in The Denver Post that stated Cyd's Super Bowl predictions for the Denver Broncos led Sky's cousin, Deana Paprocki, to write Cyd asking for help.
"This was going to be my first actual work with a police department and I was apprehensive," Cyd recalled. "I knew I would have to learn a whole new language, a way of communicating with officers and detectives. Through their training, they are taught to work backwards from the murder and put the puzzle together as they collect evidence. On the other hand, I 'see' the clues that often led to the murder, and work forward."
"I found evidence psychically that I hoped would direct them to additional clues, to help piece everything together. For several days, I totally immersed myself into the Sky Dancer case and then had a meeting with the lead investigator. After my meeting with Detective David Lewis and others of the Thornton Police Department, they said, 'Thanks, but we won't need any further assistance.' I was saddened by their reaction, to say the least."
I could see the disappointment still lingering in Cyd's eyes even now, some five years later. She then informed me that Sky's mother was coming to her office in a few days to discuss the case and wondered if I would like to attend; I readlily accepted.
Three days later, Cyd introduced me to Laura Fisher, a heavy-set woman in her sixties. "Cyd had provided much information that the police already had, but hadn't revealed publicly," said Laura. "We thought that made her so credible and that she would be allowed to continue to work on the case, but they shut her down after the first meeting."
Laura spoke quietly, occasionally dabbing her eyes with a tissue. "She (Cyd) psychically saw the gun shot to the left side of Sky's head, just in back of and below the left ear, and, without knowing so, she said that Sky couldn't have committed suicide this way, because she was right-handed."
As Laura continued, a tear slowly trickled down her right cheek. "Sky was a very talented, beautiful, and vain woman, and, for her to have her makeup done, her hair done, having just picked up her mail, her day timer lying on the seat beside her--to go to a deserted field and shoot herself in her car just makes no sense."
"Cyd saw in her visions two men, one with a ponytail and one without," Laura added, tugging at her graying hair pulled back with a beret. "When Sky was killed, Larry had a ponytail, but, by the time Cyd talked to the police, he had cut his hair short. Obviously, she was seeing the same man two different ways. Sky had told her sister and me a few days earlier that she was planning to leave Larry because he wasn't working; she was paying all of the bills, and they were fighting a lot."
"As Cyd looked further, she saw Sky's ex-husband, and described him perfectly, right down to his tattoo, but she ruled him out as a suspect, just as the police had done. Things like this should have made the police eager to work with Cyd, but they, apparently, didn't want to be showed up by a psychic."
Cyd confirmed this, adding, "Unfortunately, my first venture into the world thatpolice occupy wasn't met with much enthusiasm. I was sad and dismayed, to say the least. I had information for them, and, since the flow of information snowballs as I work, I felt frustrated I wasn't allowed to continue. But, no matter what I would come up with, they weren't going to listen."
The murder case of Sky Dancer remains open, as all unsolved murders do, since there is no statute of limitations. Larry Barnes, who had pleaded innocent all along, was found fuilty of negligence, in a wrongful death civil suit filed by Mrs. Fisher in 1999. A settlement of $50,000 was to be paid by Barnes to Sky's mother, and he was ordered to return the last of Sky's possessions as well. Later in 1999, Barnes declared bankruptcy, never returned the possessions, nor paid the settlement.
The case had arrived at an impasse.
As Cyd gained national attention in the past year working on the missing persons case of Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City, the Washington sniper case, appearing on CNN, and the Catherine Crier Show on CourtTV, Hollywood has suddenly taken notice. Cyd is currently in negotiations with a group of producers in LA to star in her own investigative television show to find missing persons and other criminals, live, on air.
"I'm going to use the Sky Dancer murder as one of the first cases on my show when it airs next year," Cyd told me. "Since it was my first, and it was never solved, I'd like to revisit it and see if we can't clear it up. Laura Fisher and her family need the closure, and someone should pay for her death, whoever they are."
So, the world of the psychic is going mainstream and gaining credibility as it steams into the 21st century. As this story unfolds, I'll keep you informed.
