NO NEED TO SEARCH, HE WILL RETURN BY ITSELF
In May 2012, ten-year-old Danila Belykh disappeared on his way to school. A month later, a UAZ policeman drove up to his house in the village of Bolshaya Kuzminka, Lipetsk Region. Three men in civilian clothes and two policemen came out. They asked the owners for shovels and began to dig the ground near the house. Danila's mother Lyubov Anatolyevna was surprised: “I looked out the window, I see: some men came to our garden, they were digging something. She said to her husband, and he laughed and replied: "Let them dig, we won't have to dig later."
A little later, Lyubov Anatolyevna learned that they had come to dig a garden at her home at the direction of Interior Ministry Colonel Sergei Popov. He, in turn, received a tip from the clairvoyant Svetlana Proskuryakova: the psychic said that Danila should be looked for near the house. The boy was not there, but this did not undermine Sergey Popov's faith in the amazing abilities of psychics.
“Our investigative committee was constantly talking about him. The police laughed and joked that Sergei Yegorych would soon put psychics on a polygraph. I don't know if he really believed them, but all the same he turned to one, then the second, then the third, says Lyubov Belykh.
The woman herself in psychics was disappointed. “One hundred percent scam,” she says about the participants of the popular in Russia program “The Battle of Psychics”, and about the clairvoyants from the center of Mikhail Vinogradov, who claim to cooperate with the Investigative Committee. Some said that Danila was given "for organs", while others asked for information about the missing boy, which was too much for the Belykh family at that time, 15 thousand rubles.
“Previously on the Second Channel there was a program“Case X”, there was a whole episode with psychics about Danila. Vinogradov and I almost had a fight there. When I turned to him without cameras, he literally sent me. I told him: "Well, they show you on TV." And he says: "On TV, one thing, and you have another." He turned around and left,”Lyubov Belykh recalls a personal meeting with Mikhail Vinogradov.
Lyubov Anatolyevna a little believes only "grandmothers" - healers who do not appear on TV and do not take money for predictions. One such grandmother told a woman that her son was alive, but there was no need to look for him, he would return home himself. “As a kitten enters the house, so it will come,” Belykh recalls the old woman's prophecy.
More than seven years have passed since Danila disappeared, he did not return home. The version of the investigation: the boy left himself. “The police say there is a high probability that he is alive. The version of an accident, theft was being worked out. But then there would be at least some evidence: his cap would be found somewhere, a bag, a shoe. But no evidence has been found. Twenty volumes of the case - and not a single piece of evidence,”says Lyubov Belykh.
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Search for the missing. Photo: press service of the detachment * Lisa Alert South *.
WHAT CASES EXTRACENSES WILL INVESTIGATE
In 2018, the investigating authorities received 13,683 complaints about the disappearance of minors. In the first half of 2019, there were 8,383 such requests. The disappearance of a child is an incident that always resonates, a huge number of volunteers and caring people are involved in the search. Among them are scammers and those who are sincerely confident in their extraordinary abilities.
Clairvoyants begin to "attack" the child's parents, search engines, fill up with comments local communities, where the coordinates of the disappeared appear, says the coordinator of the search team "Lisa Alert South" Maxim Maksimenko. Some go directly to the police department, which is looking for. But, says Maksimenko, he never met police officers who would take the visions of psychics seriously.
A former employee of the Investigative Committee for the Omsk Region, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Kozlov, does not agree with this.
“In recent years, the police are increasingly turning to psychics for help. Confidence in clairvoyants, as well as in everything non-traditional, has increased, which was facilitated by television programs, for example, "The Battle of Psychics", - said Kozlov in an interview with Present Time.
Investigating the disappearance of schoolgirl Liza Tishkina from Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region, law enforcement officers traveled to Moscow to the Psychic Center. When the clairvoyants pointed out the place near the river where the girl's body was allegedly located, they combed it down to a millimeter, but Lisa was not found.
“Psychics from the center of Vinogradov looked at Lisa four times and each time they said different things. They just looked at different years and, apparently, forgot that this was the same child. I think the police, the police did everything necessary without any clairvoyants. And what these psychics were carrying was pure delirium, Liza's mother Dina Gorshkova said to Present Time.
Investigators turn to them for help on a weekly basis, the Mikhail Vinogradov Center told Present Time. “If our work was ineffective, we would not be contacted. But we are always told that the recommendations of our specialists help to solve crimes quite successfully,”said an employee of the center, who introduced herself as Marina Vladimirovna. According to her, the center receives requests from law enforcement agencies from all over Russia, but psychics cannot disclose details of cooperation, so as not to violate the secrecy of the investigation.
“Usually we are asked to establish the circumstances of death, crime. Often these are "hangs", when all versions have already been worked out, and the crime has not yet been solved. But there are even cases related to terrorism, fraud, search for the killer. It's all classified as "secret". We shouldn't talk about it,”said the center of Vinogradov.
“If a psychic at least once really showed the place where to look for the missing, I would carry this person in my arms. Seriously, if one comes along, I'll shake his hand. But in my experience I have never met such a magician,”says Maksim Maksimenko, coordinator of Liza Alert Yug.
Search for the missing. Photo: press service of the detachment * Lisa Alert South *.
POLICE OFFICER-EXTRASENSION AND CONVERSATIONS WITHOUT AN ATTORNEY. HISTORY OF THE QUESTION
Modern psychological science and physicists do not recognize the existence of paranormal abilities or forms of perception. The US National Science Foundation and the RAS Commission on Combating Pseudoscience classify extrasensory perception as pseudoscientific delusion. The James Randi Educational Foundation has been operating in the United States since 1996, which promises $ 1 million for the demonstration of paranormal abilities in a scientific experiment. Nobody managed to get the prize. In Russia, there has been a similar award named after Harry Houdini since 2015.
There are no official statistics showing how often police seek help from psychics. But interest in "non-traditional methods of investigation" among Soviet and Russian investigators and police officers appeared long ago, back in the late 1980s.
According to the article by the criminalist Nikolai Kitaev "Psychics and shamans in the investigation of crimes", in 1993 the Main Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia sent requests to the regions with a proposal to report "positive examples of involving psychics in solving crimes." In 45 regions, police officers at least once turned to psychics, in 20 regions they systematically collaborated with clairvoyants. In eight regions, the relatives of the victims contacted the psychics, and the information received was passed on to the authorities.
In 1999, in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, Colonel Leonid Grimak talked about an amazing incident in the Stavropol Territory. Senior sergeant M. served in the local militia, who, thanks to his extrasensory abilities, helped to solve 16 crimes. It was enough for a man to simply look at the suspect to begin to reproduce the circumstances of the crime, usually a burglary. True, when the sergeant was brought to Moscow, he could not help in solving more complex cases.
“Apparently, from time to time he fell into some borderline states. It was no longer possible to repeat the success - moreover, he lost his mind, the Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted Colonel. After a trip to Moscow, senior sergeant M. was hospitalized with signs of acute mental illness. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and fired from the organs.
Later, Nikolai Kitaev contacted the sergeant and spoke. From the words of the policeman, it became clear that he obtained the testimony of the suspects not with the help of his psychic abilities, but through the use of dubious and, possibly, illegal interrogation methods: the detainee was forced to sit motionless for a long time, there were several operatives in the room at once, and the lawyer to the suspect were not allowed.
"AND THE BODY WAS SPITTED BY CROWS." WHY EXTRASENSES FOR FOLLOWERS
In 2003-2005, Nikolai Kitaev himself repeated the 1993 experiment. He made inquiries to 89 ATCs in different regions of Russia with a request to talk about cooperation with psychics. 63 regions responded. It turned out that in 16 subjects of the federation, operatives and relatives of the victims turned to psychics for help, but in no case received information that would allow them to solve the case.
Nevertheless, articles and interviews regularly appear in the regional media, which talk about the successful experience of cooperation between psychics and investigators.
In an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets, Natalya Goryacheva, senior criminal investigator of the Investigative Committee for the Moscow Region, told how the investigators turned to clairvoyants in order to solve the murder of two women in Lyubertsy near Moscow: “Several people work for us. They help quite successfully. In this case, they gave us a certificate that the women were killed. [Certificate] is filed in a criminal case, just like other documents."
In Omsk, according to Vladislav Brazhnikov, deputy head of the Omsk Department of the Investigative Committee, psychics helped to investigate the murder of seventeen-year-old Yulia Petrenko: "The information received from psychics was used to put forward investigative versions, one of which was later confirmed."
Photo: press service of the detachment * Lisa Alert South *.
If the case is a potential "wood grouse", investigators can ask for help from clairvoyants. This helps to start building at least some versions, explains Sergey Zerin, an employee of the Main Department of Criminalistics of the ICR. According to him, in the Tambov region, with the help of psychics, it was possible to solve the murder of a school teacher: “The investigators had no leads at all, and the psychics showed that the culprit was her former student. The killer was arrested two weeks later. He confessed everything."
According to Zerin, psychics do not receive money for helping investigators. “Their data is never presented to the court as evidence. But they can sometimes give a very accurate, albeit probabilistic, answer,”he said.
In 2011, investigator Ivan Kozlov was looking for Dasha Nekrasova from Omsk, who disappeared in 2008. She was returning from school, but she never made it home. Ivan Kozlov admits: immediately after Dasha's disappearance, the investigation was not very active. Then, when all the traditional methods were used and the investigation reached a dead end, the head of the Investigation Department invited his colleagues to seek help from psychics.
“First, we wrote to the Battle of Psychics, received information there. Then I went to Biysk, to the village of Srostki, to a psychic woman. I took Dasha's photo and a map with me so that the clairvoyant could point out the girl's whereabouts. Unfortunately, the psychic said that Dasha was no longer alive, and her body was pecked at by crows,”says Ivan Kozlov.
“They told us a lot,” recalls Dasha's older sister Yulia Nekrasova. - About rape, about murder, about being taken away and dismembered. But there is no evidence of this. Therefore, our family supports the version that she was hit on the head, taken away, and now she simply does not remember anything and cannot return. We do not want to accept the fact that she is not alive."
More than ten years have passed since the disappearance of Dasha Nekrasova, the case has not been solved. Julia still receives reports that people have seen a girl somewhere that looks like her sister. Not without sorcerers. Last year, the psychic sent the girl the coordinates of the place where, according to his visions, Dasha is.
The Omsk police immediately assembled a task force and drove out where the clairvoyant indicated. Yulia Nekrasova went with them. The girl says that the police literally tore everything around the specified point, interviewed local residents and passers-by.
“We, of course, did not find anything there, but I have no complaints about the police. They check all possible versions, grab any leads. Even though many years have passed, the case is not closed. From time to time I find out that they covered some rapist and checked him for the presence of Dasha Nekrasova's things. This case remained in the hearts of many, for them to reveal it is a matter of honor,”Yulia Nekrasova believes.
Sometimes the search for the missing is really deadlocked, agrees the coordinator of Liza Alert Yug Maksim Maksimenko. If, a few days after the disappearance of the child, the police do not give any results, the authorities - the central administration or the Ministry of Internal Affairs - begin to ask questions and demand reporting. In this case, according to Maksimenko, not entirely conscientious employees can begin to simulate violent activity, sending search groups according to the coordinates received from psychics.
“They say: well, we are obliged to react to all the evidence - so we react. A person came who sees something there, we are checking the version,”says Maksimenko.
Lyubov Belykh, the mother of Danila, who disappeared in 2012, believes that operatives can rely on the versions of clairvoyants when they do not want to work for real.
“When the child just disappeared, they were looking for him only in our village. It's not even the whole Lipetsk region! Why didn't the neighboring territories work? Why didn't you pick up the video from the DVRs? When a new investigator took up the case in August, he said: what is this investigation? And they clung to some Proskuryakova,”complains Belykh.
Search for the missing. Photo: press service of the detachment * Lisa Alert South *.
A PATHOLOGY CHANGES THE PROFESSION. EXTRACTION STORY
Clairvoyant and astrologer Svetlana Proskuryakova, who was involved in the investigation of the case of Danila Belykh and to whom Sergei Zerin, judging by the interviews, turned more than once, says that her unofficial cooperation with the authorities began in the 90s. By specialty Svetlana is a forensic medical expert, she worked as a pathologist for a long time. Having discovered the gift of clairvoyance, she took part in the first season of the "Battle of the Psychics" and became known throughout the country.
First, Proskuryakova worked with victims, relatives of missing or killed people. But now, when it comes to crimes, he cooperates only with the Investigative Committee. According to Svetlana, this is more comfortable for her, since the investigators give the necessary feedback to the psychic: they tell where she was right and where she was wrong.
“When I am invited, I do not know in advance which case I will receive. I am acting as a consultant on unconventional investigation methods, a note is being written about this, but my version is not used in court. What I say is always recorded on a dictaphone, recorded. I can't say that all my versions coincide by 100%, but the results are not bad, my cooperation with the UK has been going on for many years,”Svetlana Proskuryakova told Present Time.
Svetlana Proskuryakova. Photo: official website of the Center for Psychology and Parapsychology * Magic Power *.
According to the clairvoyant, now she helps to investigate about 50 cases a year, and in 10-15 cases her version completely coincides with reality. “Often, of course, the coincidence is partial, but complete nonsense, so that nothing would come together at all, does not happen,” says Svetlana.
The main place of work of the clairvoyant is the Center for Psychology and Parapsychology "Magic Power". The center's website has a page with photos of diplomas and several medals. According to Svetlana Proskuryakova, she has two official awards for assistance from the Investigative Committee.
“But I don't need anything, it's just a very interesting job, I'm interested in testing my abilities. Since I have worked as a forensic physician, pathologist for many years, this topic is close to me. Maybe that's why it turns out,”says the psychic.
NOT JUST A SOLDIER, BUT EXTRASENSION WITH LITERATURE. WHY FOLLOWERS EXTRASENSES
Both the investigators and the clairvoyants themselves say that cases of police turning to "non-traditional methods of investigation" are usually not formalized. But there are exceptions, says Mikhail Lidin, co-founder of the Harry Houdini Prize, exposer of psychics.
“For example, a clairvoyant is awarded a certificate for helping in some business, and then with this certificate he begins to serve the population for money. True, it is not entirely clear what kind of work is behind this diploma. There is a certificate, some kind of seal and even a signature of a real employee, but there is zero reliable evidence,”says Lidin.
For example, in 2014, the Nizhny Novgorod linear transport department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia awarded the clairvoyants of the Astral Club Rauf Jafarov and Valentina Serdyuk with gratitude "for invaluable assistance in the investigation of a criminal case."
In 2018, Rauf Jafarov applied to participate in the tests of the Harry Houdini Prize. In the application, the psychic wrote: “I have psychic abilities, I don’t like to take information, I work myself without prompts and is ready for any tests”. According to the terms of the test, appointed by the organizers, Jafarov had to determine which of the ten screens the men were sitting behind. The clairvoyant gave four incorrect answers and with this completed the test.
Rauf Jafarov (center) testing the Harry Houdini Prize. Photo: Harry Houdini Prize.
Clairvoyants and Self-Judgment
No community on a social network dedicated to a missing child is complete without comments with advice to contact a fortune teller or "grandmother." Maksim Maksimenko from Liza Alert Yug says that members of the search teams regularly clean the pages of such records. This helps keep concerned people safe from scammers and avoid situations that could threaten more than just the wallet.
“For example, a psychic comes to a group and says: I see a house with a green roof on the outskirts, next to a black“nine”- a child there. There are some of the townspeople who are very empathic with the situation and who adhere to the principle that any means must be used. They break off and go to look for this house, they can even block the road and stop all the black nines,”says Maksimenko.
Further, the plot can develop unpredictably: from conflicts between residents to real punishments for damage to property and illegal entry into someone else's home.
“Even if offenses do not happen, anyway a certain number of people, instead of doing a real search, will check the versions of the so-called psychics. And time, precious in such situations, is running out. It can be very harmful, says Maksim Maksimenko.
Author: Nika Repenko
