Woman Uses Special Gift to Help Solve Mysteries

Gail Lionetti says she has a gift that has led her to work on high-profile police cases involving people whose names are familiar to those who follow such news events, names like Sam Manzie, Jon- Benet Ramsey and Natalie Holloway.

Lionetti is clairvoyant, clairaudient medium, who has put her gift to use working with law enforcement agencies throughout the United States as a private investigator.

After surviving a difficult childhood and two near-death experiences, Lionetti, who resides in Freehold, said she decided to use her psychic gifts to help people understand their lives from a spiritual and supernatural perspective.

Lionetti, who grew up in Hazlet, said that when she was 6 years old she realized she was connecting with something. She explained that a lot of times with children, spirits will connect with them through the child's most treasured possession. To the 6- year-old Lionetti, the spirits were communicating through her dolls.

As time went on, Lionetti began to question what was happening to her.

"There was one point in my life that I did not believe in this. I was very skeptical, I'm still skeptical on a lot of things. But I was able to open more by meeting with other people and searching things out and finding that I really did have a gift," she explained.

About 30 years ago, Lionetti said, she began doing readings for people, including some celebrities. She also began working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and said she has a 98 percent mark of finding a missing person. As a private investigator, Lionetti has her own company, Scorpion Investigations.

NEWBURGH ADDS SYSTEM FOR MISSING PERSON ALERTS

The search for missing persons in Newburgh will get a high-tech boost. The town’s police department has formalized an agreement with A Child Is Missing, an alert program that uses rapid telephone calls to help find not only lost children, but also missing elderly, college students and those who may be mentally or physically disabled.“A lot of times we have one officer working, and if there is a missing child or someone with Alzheimer’s out that we cannot find, it is easier if we have 1,000 eyes looking rather than just one officer,” said Newburgh assistant police chief Howard ‘Tiger’ Williams. “This thing can be used community wide. I hope the county applies for this as well, and I think the Chandler and Evansville police will apply as well. It will be a great tool for law enforcement.”When a police officer in Newburgh takes a report of a missing person, that officer will in turn call the A Child Is Missing (ACIM) center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.A technician will take the specifics, such as a physical description, type of clothing worn, and last known whereabouts.That technician can then record a customized message with those details.Then, using mapping systems, ACIM will place telephone calls to homes in the area, up to 1,000 calls in 60 seconds.
The message will tell local residents who to call if they have information regarding the missing person.“If you have 1,000 people going outside to look for an individual, it will help you,” said Williams. “And, if it calls your house and an answering machine kicks on, it will still go ahead and leave a message so you can listen to it when you get home.”To date, ACIM has helped with more than 370 safe recoveries. That includes a 9-year old boy who went missing in Muncie on Aug. 27, a missing elderly man who’d become lost in the woods behind his Bloomington home on Aug. 17, and a 6-year-old boy who’d gone missing in Monticello on July 14.ACIM is staffed 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. Multiple cases can be worked simultaneously, and the program can work across jurisdictional boundaries. If a person does go missing in Newburgh, those living outside the town could also receive telephone calls.Williams isn’t sure how much the ACIM program will be used in Newburgh, which has fewer than 4,000 residents.National statistics, however, show that a child goes missing once every 40 seconds in the United States.“I hope it is something that we never use,” said Williams. “But you know, with Alzheimer’s patients and things like that, there is probably a bigger chance we will use it.”

PI FEARS TROUBLE FOR MISSING STUDENT

A private investigator hired by the family of a Hungarian exchange student who dropped out of Oneonta High School in June said the 19-year-old may have been forced into prostitution.
Augustine Papay Jr., a retired New York City homicide detective, was in Oneonta late last week as part of his investigation into the disappearance of Natalia Timar.
"I am aware that she got involved in a bad crowd and may have befriended some criminal elements because she was naive and a trusting-type person," Papay said in a news release to The Daily Star.
"However, I have reason to believe that Ms. Natalia Timar may be an endangered missing person."
Timar, her passport, plane ticket back to Hungary and other belongings were found missing from her host family's home in Oneonta on June 2, according to Tom Overbaugh, vice chairman of the Youth Exchange Program of Rotary District 7170, which includes the Oneonta Rotary Club.
State police launched an investigation but later concluded there was no foul play involved, Overbaugh previously said.
But in Papay's release, the investigator said that although it was initially believed Timar's disappearance was voluntary, there is circumstantial evidence to suggest that she may be held against her will and was forced into prostitution in New York City by people involved in the sex trade.
"She was an ideal poster child for them and I believe that her movements and communications are now being restricted and she is being held against her will," Papay said.
Papay said he shared this evidence with the state police and FBI, but he did not disclose it to The Daily Star.
Timar's family has offered a $1,000 reward for information that leads to her whereabouts, he said.
"Natalia has not contacted her parents in the past three months and the family is devastated ever since they lost contact with her," Papay said. "Her mother is suffering from lung cancer and she hopes that someone will come forward with new information regarding the whereabouts of her youngest daughter."

PRIVATE EYE TRACES MISSING DOG

Members of a Derbyshire family have been reunited with their missing dog after hiring a private investigator to track it down.
The Kecks suspected their dog, a basset hound, had been stolen from their home in August last year.A website appeal, a call to police and a search by the RSPCA failed to find the animal.
A chance encounter with another basset owner gave daughter Alicia, 22, the potential lead they were looking for. Someone had "found" a dog fitting the description at about the same time the pet went missing.
The Kecks hired a private investigator to look into the possible link and the pet, now a two-year-old, was traced to another family in Long Eaton, about 30 miles away.The unsuspecting family took Ivy in good faith from a young woman who is believed to have stolen the dog, said investigator Rod Repton. The new family made the dog their pet and had even spent £400 on vet's fees when the animal fell ill.The Keck family was reunited with the dog earlier this month, more than one year after its disappearance.

WIDOW WANTED MURDER PROBED

Mulalo Sivhidzho asked her father-in-law to hire a private investigator to probe her husband’s murder in order to prove that she was innocent, the Johannesburg high court heard yesterday.
Sivhidzho’s legal counsel, Advocate Christo Meiring, told the court that when the deceased’s father, City Press editor-in-chief Mathatha Tsedu, visited her in the police cells, she pleaded with him to hire a private investigator .
However, Tsedu denied ever having such a conversation with Sivhidzho, pictured.
“All I asked her was if she had been involved in my son’s murder, she said no, and I left it there,” said Tsedu.
Meiring also said Sivhidzho will deny that she conducted interviews with journalists at her husband’s murder scene. But Tsedu referred to a sound clip that was played out on SAFM the morning after the incident, saying that the clip had been recorded at the scene.
The trial continues.

BONDSMAN: MOM NOT HELPING SEARCH FOR DAUGHTER

A week after her release from a Florida jail, controversy continues to swirl around the mother of missing toddler Caylee Anthony.
The bail bondsman who bailed Casey Anthony out of jail told ABCNews.com today that Anthony has not made an effort to help bounty hunters find her missing daughter.

Tony Padilla, the nephew of California bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, who arranged to have Anthony released on bond last week, said, "Maybe we got duped a little bit. Maybe we overestimated her."

Asked whether he would have bonded Anthony out of jail knowing what he knows now, Padilla said, "Hindsight being 20/20, probably not."

Leonard Padilla arranged to post Anthony's $500,000 bond, saying he thought he could persuade the 22-year-old to reveal what happened to her missing daughter.

Padilla's comments come as the Orlando Sentinel reports today that air sample tests taken from Casey Anthony's car found evidence that a decomposing body was in the trunk.

At a July bond hearing, police said "evidence of decomposition," including hairs the same length and color as Caylee's, was found in the trunk of the car.

DJ KERSHAW ON THE RUN

Former DJ Andy Kershaw says he is on the run and is sleeping on friends' floors to avoid arrest by the police.

Troubled Kershaw, who grew up in Oldham, has been arrested on a number of occasions and has already served a prison sentence for breaking an order banning him from contacting his former partner, Juliette Banner.

Father-of-two Kershaw had been with Juliette for 17 years, until they split in 2006. And in 2007 she won a restraining order against him.

In January he served 44 days of a three-month prison sentence for breaking the terms of the order on the Isle of Man, where the couple had made their home.

And now he claims he is living away from the island in the knowledge that the police from the Isle of Man have a warrant out for his arrest.

During the 90s Kershaw became one of the country's most respected broadcasters.

And after the couple moved to the Isle of Man in 2006 - amid worries about the standards of schools close to their former north London home - he continued to broadcast his show and brought performers to the island for a series of concerts.

But shortly after the move, Kershaw says Juliette discovered he had had a fling while in London, after reading a text message stored on his phone.

After Juliette moved out in October 2006, Kershaw repeatedly tried to convince her to return.

But by July 2007, by which time Juliette had a new partner, there had been a number of disagreements between them and Juliette obtained a restraining order against him.

After a series of breeches of the order, Kershaw was sentenced to three months in prison in January, of which he served just over half.

Speaking of his time in prison on the Isle of Man, he is reported to have said: "It would have made Charles Darwin wince. The place was full of heroin.

"I feel no bitterness or hostility towards the officers in that jail, the majority of whom were very nice and sympathetic. Just about every officer and prisoner said I shouldn't be in there. The majority were in there for drugs offences.

"I was with heroin dealers and men of violence. They realised I was a regular bloke and that I was in there for an enormous injustice.

"The main problem that I had was the sheer, crushing boredom. I read 32 books in 47 days. Unless you go in there you won't understand how boring it is. You are locked up for 22 hours a day.

Just days after his release Kershaw was arrested for breaching the restraining order and at a court hearing he was given a one-year jail term, suspended for two years.

Now he is living in a secret location - reportedly sleeping on friends' floors and sleeping rough - amid fears that the police in the Isle of Man have a warrant out for his arrest.

At one point he was reported as a missing person by his sister. And after contacting police in Derby, in order to be taken off the Missing Person's Register, he says police from the Isle of Man made an attempt to arrest him.

In the interview Kershaw, who says he now has a new partner, says he intends to seek legal advice later this month in order to take the matter forward.

UNEXPECTED ASSISTANCE

Did you know that the U.S. Social Security Administration will forward a letter to a missing person?

It’s not as simple as asking the agency to send a message because you’ve lost track of that person. The program has some pretty stringent rules. And obviously, in cases where foul play is most likely, Social Security is unlikely to yield any results, anyway. But if you can meet the requirements, there is the possibility you could at the very least contact a missing loved one who, for whatever reason, has voluntarily disappeared.

Here is what Social Security Online says about this:

“We will attempt to forward a letter to a missing person under circumstances involving a matter of great importance, such as a death or serious illness in the missing person’s immediate family, or a sizeable amount of money that is due the missing person. Also, the circumstances must concern a matter about which the missing person is unaware and would undoubtedly want to be informed. (Generally, when a son, daughter, brother, or sister wishes to establish contact, we write to the missing person, rather than forward a letter from the relative.) Because this service is not related in any way to a Social Security program, its use must be limited so that it does not interfere with our regular program activities.”

The agency does not charge for the service when there is a humanitarian purpose, but does assess a fee of $25 to cover its costs when it involves a financial matter.

While it certainly won’t work for everyone, it might be an unexplored bridge to a loved in some cases.

SON FINDS DAD 30 YEARS LATER

A nickname, a name of a ship and the longing of a son to meet the father he never knew. That was all a private investigator had to solve a 30-year-old cold case.

But last week, he closed the case when his client Richard Terwin returned from Cuba after meeting his dad.

Their reunion was the culmination of a five-year-long search by private detective Christian Botha, who began the case with very little to go on.

"All Richard had was a nickname, Babis Voreas, and a letter from a ship's captain allowing Richard's mother to board the ship while it was in harbour," said Botha.

Voreas had come to East London as a mechanical engineer on board a ship, just over 30 years ago. While in the coastal town, he met Terwin's mother. A romance blossomed and she fell pregnant.

But there was a problem.

"He had promised to marry someone in Greece, I think it was sort of an arranged marriage," Terwin said.

Terwin's father left East London but he wrote letters to his mother until his son was 2 years old.

At age 18, Terwin began searching for his father, and in 2003 he asked for a professional's help.

Right from the start, Botha hit dead ends: "I found out that the shipping company no longer existed, and the ship was scrapped about 15 years ago."

The years went by and Botha's luck didn't change.

Then about a year ago Botha got a lead. "A Greek friend of mine told me that Babis is short for Charalampos. I found a phone listing for a Charalampos Voreas in the Greek resort town of Kranidi."

But the phone number no longer worked.

Botha fired off hundreds of e-mails to people living in the town. He got lucky. "Out of the blue I get this e-mail, which said he knew Babis and that he was in Cuba."

Botha got a cellphone number for Voreas and dialled it. "I asked 'Are you Babis Voreas and did you have a son called Richard?'. He said yes, then started crying. He didn't want to put the phone down."

Terwin made contact with his father, and a year later made the trip to Cuba.

Caylee Anthony: "We're Probably Looking For a Body"

Orange County sheriff's investigators turned their attention Sunday to the possibility that missing 3-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony is dead, and joined with hundreds of volunteers to canvass wooded areas in southeast Orlando in search of the toddler.

"Since we've gotten things back from the FBI lab, we know that we're probably looking for a body," said Sgt. John Allen, the lead investigator in the case. "We're to the point in the investigation where we think it'd be good to go back and retrace some of our steps."

Caylee Marie was last seen in mid-June and was reported missing to authorities July 15. During a bail hearing in July for her mother, Casey Anthony, investigators said they had found strands of hair, a stain and dirt in the trunk of the woman's car, which had been abandoned in a parking lot.

On Wednesday, the Sheriff's Office said air-sample tests from the abandoned car show that the trunk once held a decomposing human body.

The results of DNA samples sent to FBI forensics labs have not been made public.

Television stations said Sunday that Allen had gone further -- telling them lab results indicated the body in the trunk of the Anthony's white Pontiac was in fact Caylee Marie.

"We clearly have evidence that indicates that there was a dead body in the trunk of Casey's car, and that that body was Caylee," Allen told WFTV-Channel 9 in an interview that aired Sunday evening.

Hundreds of Immigrants Disappear a Year Trying to Cross the Border

On the night of April 4, 2007, Leticia Gonzalez, a native of El Salvador, was overjoyed when she received a phone call from her daughters, Luz Karina Campos, 12, and Blanca Lilian, 10. The girls were in Tampico, Mexico, and preparing for the last leg of their journey to join their mother in Los Angeles. She never imagined that this would be the last time she would hear their voices.

Gonzalez had been working to build a better life for her family in Southern California for eight years. When little Luz Karina was asked what she wanted for her birthday, she said all she wanted was to spend it with her mother. Gonzalez paid coyotes nearly $20,000 to assure the safe arrival of her children. But a week after the call, the girls had not arrived and she had received no further news. Fearing the worst, she turned to consular officials and community organizations for help.

From October 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, a documented 256 immigrants have died on the border between the United States and Mexico. In the same time frame the U.S. Border Patrol reports having rescued 853 immigrants who were still alive, left behind to die in the desert by coyotes or brought in as missing persons.

Family members of immigrants are confronted with innumerable problems in finding information about loved ones who have disappeared. There is no system in place to track them since authorities do not currently have a database of immigrants reported as missing. Additionally, with the exception of Mexico, Latin American countries do not maintain resources to aid family members in their searches. Consular authorities receive reports of missing persons, but there is no established procedure for follow-up when a person vanishes on the way to the U.S.

PI Helps Locate Missing Children

A former lieutenant with the Waldo County Sheriff's Department, who now works as a private investigator, assisted authorities in finding two girls who went missing Monday, Aug. 24, from Maine.

Jodie Perfect of Carroll Plantation hired Gary Boynton, who operates World Wide Investigations in Belfast, to help find her two daughters, Aleah Perfect, 6, and Amara Perfect, 2.

Jodie Perfect reported the girls missing Monday, Aug. 25, after their father and her estranged husband, Peter Perfect, 44, did not bring the girls home Sunday.

Jodie Perfect hired Boynton, a 26-year veteran of the Waldo County Sheriff's Department, soon after reporting her daughters missing to the Maine State Police.

Jodie Perfect had reportedly recently served her husband with divorce papers.

Friday afternoon, Boynton returned from Ohio with Jodie Perfect and her daughters after retrieving them from the home of Peter Perfect's brother in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.

Israeli Police Search For Missing Child

Police in Israel are searching for a missing girl who detectives fear was killed by her grandfather and whose disappearance has gripped the nation.

Divers were yesterday working through the Yarkon river, north of Tel Aviv, looking for the body of Rose Pizem, four, who police think was killed, bundled into a suitcase and then dropped in the water as long as three months ago.

The girl's mother, Marie-Charlotte Renault, 23, and the child's paternal grandfather, Ronny Ron, 45, who were in a relationship, are both being held on remand suspected of involvement in the murder.

Although Rose disappeared in May, police only heard of her disappearance two weeks ago when they were alerted by welfare workers that the girl was missing from her home in Netanya.

Rose was born in Paris in 2004, when her newly married parents, Renault and Benjamin Pizem, were still teenagers. After a year the couple travelled to Israel to meet Pizem's father, Ron, whom Pizem had never met before.

But after some months Renault announced she had fallen in love with Ron and was staying in Israel to be with him. Pizem returned to France with his daughter, Rose.