Annette Martin has been featured in numerous magazine and newspapers across the world. Her new book, "Gift of the White Light," is available on Amazon. The Wave Magazine, Oakland Tribune Paper, Cosmopolitan Magazine, National Enquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury, San Francisco Examiner, Court TV News, Contra Costa times, Inside Bay Area, Fate Magazine, Los Altos Times, Pacifica Tribune, South County Today Newspaper, Campbell Express, Rocky Mountain News, Peninsula Magazine, Honolulu Star- Bulletin, California Today, Valley Living, Radio & Records, Unicom-Guide, Noi, Blanco Y Negro, VSD, Manchett magazine, Contra Costa Newspaper and Psychic World Magazine. Here are a few of the articles: Friday, September 9, 2005 (San Francisco Chronicle) Crime-solving Duo Uses Psychic, Practical Skills Alex Horvath, Special to The Chronicle During the middle of a yoga class, a meditating woman has a vision of a dead body suspended in the air and of a street sign. Convinced she has clues to a murder, she rushes to a sheriff's office. There, she is greeted by, among others, a well-dressed detective sergeant who watches as she goes into a trance and provides remarkable details that match unpublished facts about a case they are working on of a young woman who had been killed in Novato. It sounds like a scene from "Medium," the NBC show in which Patricia Arquette plays a character based on real-life psychic Allison Dubois, but it's not. It's how Campbell psychic Annette Martin and homicide detective Richard Keaton of Novato met 30 years ago. The encounter led to a crime-solving partnership that continues today as the Campbell agency Closure4U Investigations, which opened in 2001, in which Keaton, who retired from the Marin County sheriff's department in 1998, and Martin work together to find missing persons and solve cold cases from around the country. Keaton brings his proven detective skills to the cases. Martin says she has known since she was 7 years old that she has psychic abilities, including a skill known as psychometry, the ability to get psychic readings off the energy from objects by holding them or placing them to her head, and she uses them to help solve the cases. Keaton said that Martin has worked on more than 150 homicide or missing person's cases around the country since 1975. Recently, Martin was featured on Court TV's "Psychic Detectives" series for solving a 1997 missing person casein Pacifica. They both appeared on a BBC television show about cold cases and the topic of psychometry. When Martin went to the sheriff's office in 1975, Keaton recalled, detectives were working on the case of a young woman who had been killed inside a metal shed at a trailer park in Novato. Terry Listman's body had been found May 28, 1975. "She had been left for five days in temperatures that had exceeded 100 degrees," Keaton said. "(However) Annette was able to provide details about the case that hadn't been released to the public. She said that she saw that a girl had been abducted -- and she had specifics about the suspect, like that he had stomach problems. She did this thing where (the suspect) was repeatedly putting things into his mouth, over and over again." After an hour of interviewing Martin, Keaton reported to his lieutenant, who suggested bringing her back that evening to meet with additional investigators. When she returned that evening, Martin was greeted by a squad of law-enforcement personnel including Keaton, sheriff's officials and the district attorney. Some of the officials present were real "Joe Friday, 'Just the facts, ma'am' types," Keaton said. What turned into a three-hour interview began with Martin taking three deep breaths and going into a trance. During the trance, Keaton said, Martin was able to relate to detectives information they already suspected, such as that the killing had been made to look like a suicide, and that the killer had fled the state. She also said that before he made his getaway, a person of authority had appeared, briefly stopping his exit. She said that when he was eventually arrested, he would be wearing all white. She pointed to a map of the United States and indicated that the killer would be found in Washington state. She also told detectives that before they caught him, he would have killed again. Keaton recalled Martin's reaction when he put some keys that had belonged to the suspect into her hands. "I leaned in and said, 'Annette, I am going to hand you some keys. Do you have any information relative to these?' " Keaton said. "She screamed, 'Oh my God!' And then she threw the keys across the room. I thought, 'What the hell did I do?" By the end of the meeting, Keaton said, Martin had been able to identify five of the six keys on the ring. Detectives arrested the suspect, Robert James McQueary, one year later -- in Washington -- where he worked in a hospital and was dressed in white at the time of his arrest. At his apartment, detectives found hundreds of antacid tablets, which Keaton said the suspect repeatedly took. They also learned that just as the suspect was making his getaway, his parole officer had stopped by on an unannounced visit. McQueary had served time before for various assaults on women. And there was one more eerie detail: The suspect had committed another attack. McQueary was convicted in Washington for assault with intent to commit murder -- he had bludgeoned a woman twice, buried her and left her for dead. In 1976, McQueary was sentenced to 45 years to life and he is serving time at Airway Heights Correction Center, a medium-security prison. McQueary's earliest parole hearing is April 27, 2007, and Marin County police intend to serve the outstanding murder warrant on him if he is released. Over the next two decades, Keaton said, the department would often call on Martin for assistance on cases that were tough to crack. It was always in an unofficial capacity, not announced to the press, and Martin was never paid. If her information led a particular direction, detectives would still need to corroborate it through other sources and find evidence before making an arrest, Keaton said. Trailside Killer A case that stands out is that of the Trailside Killer, a serial killer who roamed the trails of Mount Tamalpais, the Point Reyes National Seashore and a park near Santa Cruz between 1979 and 1981. "We were walking around the trails on Mount Tam, watching the birds of prey above looking for his target, that kind of thing," Keaton recalled. "I asked Annette, 'What do you think that he does for work?' She said, 'The only word that came to me was a carpenter." Keaton mulled over the information. It was when he arrested David Joseph Carpenter for the killings on May 1, 1981, he says, that Martin's words made sense. Carpenter was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Marc North, a lieutenant with the Marin County Sheriff's Department, worked with Martin on a missing person's case several years ago. "I was assigned a missing person's case and had absolutely no leads whatsoever," North said. "This person had wandered off into a remote area. He was from outside of Marin. Rich said, 'Do you want to pursue Annette?' So I did. "It was really quite something," North said. "She flooded me with the information that helped me to connect the dots and put the pieces together. The information that she put forth was information that had immediate relevance and was specific to the case. She told me the location and the position of the body in the case, as well as specific names of people that I would be talking with. I filed all of that away in the back of my head." Within an hour of having left Martin's office, North said, he went to the missing person's home to contact the family. The first person to meet him at the door was one of the names that Martin had mentioned. Inside the home, specific items that Martin had mentioned were located next to the person's bed. "We tend to dismiss that which is natural," North said. "We shut off from it. We consider it out of the ordinary. It's really not much different from Rich -- who is extremely intuitive -- accessing the same place that Annette does. "There are people that present themselves (to law enforcement) as psychics -- and they are charlatans -- cavalier in what they do. They really hold back the folks that really are legitimate. You see them all the time. One thing that impresses me about Annette is that she won't come to you -- you have to go to her." Early talent As a girl, Martin had aspirations of becoming an opera singer or an actress, and performed throughout her youth with the San Francisco Symphony. Born and raised in San Francisco, Martin said that she discovered her psychic ability at age 7 when she envisioned her friends suddenly turning on her with rocks and stones for no apparent reason. It happened later. Her interest in law enforcement might be genetic, she said, because her great-aunt Clara Dunham Crowell was the first female sheriff in Nevada. Another aunt, she says, was a clairvoyant nun who predicted the assassination in 1894 of French President Sardi Carnot with a knife that was concealed in a bouquet of flowers. Martin attended Sacramento State University. At age 40, she got a bachelor's degree in psychology. During the years in between, Martin, now 68, had worked as a medical intuit -- someone who can read a person's body and relay information to them about health problems, and, as a result, got a radio show on KGU in Hawaii, where she demonstrated her psychic skills. She returned to Marin in 1975 with her husband and two children. Keaton, 63, was raised in Marin County and graduated from Marin Catholic High School in 1960. He joined the sheriff's department in 1963 as a reserve officer and became a full-time deputy in 1964. His older brother, William "Buzz" Keaton had joined a year earlier, eventually becoming undersheriff. Like most deputies, Keaton started out working graveyard shifts in the jail. He eventually worked his way up to sergeant and later to the investigations unit. It was for his work in investigations, where he chose to carve out his career, that most people remember the detective. Through the years, Keaton said, he worked on several hundred cases. He stayed on as a supervising sergeant in the detective division through four sheriff administrations, and was responsible for training new detectives as they came into the division. Keaton retired and earned his private investigator license in 1999, forming his own investigations firm, which he runs out of his home in northern Marin. His casebook includes the Zodiac Killer case, which remains open. Keaton and his wife, Nancy, have been raising and breeding Bernese mountain dogs for the past 12 years. Smooth, thorough As Marin County's lead homicide detective, Keaton was known for having an ability to talk with anyone. This helped him bond with victims' families, as well as get confessions out of the bad guys. "As a detective for the sheriff's department, his reputation certainly preceded him," said Marin County Sheriff's Capt. Tim Little. "One of his strengths is that he always respected everyone," Little said. "If you were in the office and he was on the phone, you couldn't differentiate if he was talking with a victim or a witness or a suspect. I think that is why he was so successful -- especially with victims' families. He cemented the trust and confidence that people need." Over the years, Keaton said, he learned the importance of talking, interacting and even "BS'ing." It's how he nailed James Burgraff, a.k.a. James Von Burgraff, for a 17-year-old, execution-style killing at a hotel near Sausalito. And it's how he got Leslie Arthur Byrd, a bank executive from Novato who killed Cynthia Engstrom, a 19-year-old prostitute, in his bathtub one weekend in 1985 while his wife and family were away. The young woman's naked body had been dumped in a driveway in rural West Marin. Keaton said that Byrd was interrogated three times over a five-day period, but each time they had to let him go. The district attorney had said that while the circumstantial and fiber evidence was strong, Byrd would have to admit to the crime before charges could be filed. Byrd had only admitted to bringing the woman to his home and having rough sex with her, but said that she died accidentally in the bathtub while he was downstairs. "First of all, you don't call him Leslie; it's Art -- otherwise he gets insulted. Then he says, 'I'm going to tell you the truth -- I'm not going to lie.' I say, 'That's great.' And then he says nothing. "I started thinking that it was really us against him, that if you believe him, that you should let him go," Keaton said. "So I told him that I thought that he was lying. I told him, 'Let's take a walk up to the cafeteria and we'll each pick 10 people, randomly. I'll tell my story and you tell yours. Let's see who they believe.' He bent his head down and said, 'I wouldn't believe me, either.' "Those were words that came back to haunt him at the trial," Keaton said. "The trial, in essence, boiled down to 'Who do you believe?' " Byrd was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life. He was denied parole in 2002; his next parole hearing is in 2006. Skepticism, success Pacifica Police sergeant Fernando Realyvasquez said that using a psychic was something that had never entered his realm of thinking -- until the family of Dennis Prado, who had been missing for more than two months, asked him to call in a psychic. Prado, 71, had gone missing on May 14, 1997. His car had been left at his apartment, along with his wallet and other personal items. The home showed no signs of a break-in. Though Prado had some issues with neighbors in the apartment complex and he had been threatened with eviction if the problems did not stop, there were no signs of foul play. "I had exhausted the leads that came my way as much as I could," Realyvasquez said. "I would make flyers on a weekly basis, and the family had also been making their own efforts. The family came to me after a family meeting and asked if we would consider bringing a psychic into the case." The detective said that he had been skeptical of psychics and the like for most of his career. Keeping an open mind, he said he first went to his captain, and then to the chief of police in Pacifica to get permission. "The chief said that if it was something that was going to make the family feel better, to do it," Realyvasquez said. Realyvasquez first ran a background check on Martin before contacting her, he said, including checking in with Keaton in Marin to get a read on her credibility. When the psychic passed the mini-investigation, Realyvasquez met Martin at her Campbell office. She held a photograph of Prado in her hands, and then looked at a map of the area around his apartment complex, including the 2,000-acre park that ran behind it. Martin said Prado had gone for a walk in the wilderness area. Taking the map, she drew a small circle, and said that Prado would be found in that area. Realyvasquez said he remained skeptical since the area had been combed by search-and-rescue teams. He shared Martin's information with Roberta Hauser, a search-and-rescue volunteer on Tuesday, July 15, 1997. The following Saturday, July 19, 1997, Hauser went to the area that Martin had pointed out -- and within an hour had found Prado's decomposing body. "The fact of the matter is that he had been missing for nearly three months," Realyvasquez said. "I am still a little bit skeptical, but on the other hand, in this particular case, we probably wouldn't have found him if it hadn't been for Annette Martin." It's the letting go In the old days, Keaton said, at the end of a case he would often find himself drained, fatigued and emotionally drawn. "We'd go to a place across from the Civic Center, and we'd smoke cigarettes and do shots," Keaton said. "Then you go home, and you are still consumed with it. It's always on your mind. It takes its toll. That's probably why some cops have alcohol and heart problems." Keaton underwent a quintuple bypass in 1992. He calls the way Martin deals with the stress to be her true gift. "People say, 'How can you do this, Annette?' It's because when the session is over she takes three deep breaths and wipes her hands. It's like wiping a blackboard clean. A week later, she doesn't remember it." Answering questions To reach Closure4U, call (408) 379-6669 or visit www.closure4u.com. Ghostly Encounters Odd sights, sounds signal of spectral visitors? By ROGER W. HOSKINS rhoskins@modbee.com last updated: October 31, 2007 02:50:44 AM Sometimes, ghosts run in the family. Sometimes, the family runs from the ghosts. Many times, getting the willies is just a matter of geography. But whenever things go bump in the the night (or day), people never forget what made their skin crawl and their hearts jump. Readers have heard the clatter of children dismissed for the day from a school closed more than 50 years ago. They have seen phantom trains that stopped running years before pull into foothill stations. There were demons trapped in mirrors and ghosts caught in bed by an unwary photographer. Here are their real-life Halloween stories, with some possible answers by a woman considered an expert in paranormal circles. Otha Lee Faltermier is a former Modesto county librarian and business owner. She says she never believed in ghosts until 30 years ago. Now she has three stories to make folks shiver. “My son and I returned to Modesto in March 1977. My family still lived here. In August of 1977, I was working in the library. I bought my current home in December of 1977. I moved in January 1978. I felt something strange in my new home, but couldn’t put my finger on it. My two grandchildren asked me if I believed in ghosts. I asked, ‘Why?’ They both said, ‘Every time we come here we feel someone’s here.’ “I noticed I sometimes felt a touch and there wasn’t anyone around. One day, I was running the vacuum cleaner. I definitely felt a weight on my shoulder and back. I had heard if you tell a ghost to leave, it will. So I said, ‘Go away, I have had enough.’ The weight lifted and I have never again felt the pressure.” Faltermier’s second story: “Shortly before my second husband died, we were sleeping and something woke me up. There at the foot of our bed, a man was standing. I could not see his face because the room was dark, but the large windows on the side wall in back of him let light in through the sheer curtains. A neighbor had a yard light on. I saw the outline of his body clearly. I beat my husband on his shoulder and he raised up, and I pointed and said, ‘There is a man at the foot of the bed.’ About that time, the man disappeared, but my husband had gotten a glimpse of him.” Faltermier’s final chapter: “My friend had a minor surgery and I took her home with me for overnight. She said she wanted to sleep on the couch. So I brought her a blanket. Next morning, I went in to make coffee. I asked her how she had slept. “She looked at me and said, ‘OK until something woke me up. I looked around and saw an old lady sitting across the room in your rocker.’ “I said, ‘What old lady?’ “She said, ‘Don’t ask me, she disappeared while I was looking at her.’” Kim Meu of Modesto was a young single mother working the night shift when a ghost routed her from her rented home. “About seven years ago, I used to live at a house on 13th Street in Modesto. Every night I would have dreams, seeing a dead cat, a skeleton in the back yard and a dead baby in the basement. During the day while I was asleep, I would hear male voices telling me to get out of this house. “And when I used to sit up using my computer, I heard noises like someone was coughing or a little boy saying, ‘Mama.’ But I never thought anything of it. “Until one day, after a year of living in the house, at about noon or 1 p.m. — I was working night shift — and my little boy was about 2 years old. He woke up and said, ‘Mommy, I want to watch TV.’ I was fully awake. I walked him to the living room and turned on a cartoon for him. “I stood there with him and watched cartoons, then all of a sudden I felt something like a finger scratched me across my shoulder. I turned around really slow and my heart raced to about 150 beats per minute at the time, and there was nobody (there). “I ran to the door to grab my son, milk and the diaper bag. I was in my pajamas (and went) straight to my mom’s house. I came back home a week later with my mom and sisters and never stayed there alone anymore. I moved out a month later.” Kyle K. Ford of Merced shared his family haunting of the father who wouldn’t let go. “In 1989, I was 15 years old and lived outside of Atwater. That winter, my father died at home from a massive heart attack. Though dead, he was not gone. We would sit in the living room and, while watching TV, you could hear him walk down the hall (he had a limp). Even the dogs would look up to see if Dad was coming. “My mom and I had the same experience when we finally moved away. As we drove off, it felt like cold hands wrapped around us and then went through us. We then drove to the landlord’s house to give him the keys, only to get a call from him later asking for the correct keys because the ones she gave him would not work. My father was a locksmith. “I know the house was rented many times over and then it was finally bulldozed.” Clyde Klose of Modesto told of a hitchhiking ghost who followed his family from house to house. It began when they lived next door to his in-laws in north Modesto. “We had a ghost who walked the hallway and turned lights off and on. We could be watching a TV show and down the hall we’d see the lights going off and on. When we moved across the street, the ghost came with us. I saw her and so did my wife and oldest son. She had long hair. We thought she was a Native American.” Klose said the family finally shed the ghost after imitating something seen on TV. “We told her we didn’t need her presence anymore and would she please go away.” The long-haired ghost did not return. One of the enduring legends of Modesto is the sound of children in the old John Muir School on Morris Avenue. For 50 years, it’s been the Morris building or Morris Youth Center. The former school was badly damaged by a fire Oct. 14. As the story goes, city workers in the basement often would hear the voices and thundering feet of children being let out of school between 2:30 and 3 p.m. daily. The workers would fly up the steps, go onto the main floor and find no one. One city worker who used to work at the Morris building admitted that was her experience, but she refused to allow her name to be used. She was afraid she might be branded a kook. Gary Hines of Modesto said that while he lived in the old Angels Camp train depot in the 1980s, he had several ghostly encounters. “I would sleep on the tracks, or where the tracks used to be 50 years ago. I would see the train coming and would think that ‘This isn’t possible. How did that train get here?’ The train would pass through me, but I never felt anything. Maybe it was a dream state. “I actually saw more ghosts of people, though. I saw my mother and my dog who died several times.” Gary Metzger of Modesto told the only story that might have been about a malevolent demon. Metzger was working as a busboy in an Italian restaurant in the Sacramento area in the late 1970s. His boss was an old Sicilian. “My boss told me to clean all of these gilded mirrors along one wall of the restaurant. He told me to leave alone one really old, dusty one at the end. Well, by the time I got to it, I forgot his orders. I dusted it off, squirted it with water and wiped it down. “There was one smudge in the lower bottom corner that wouldn’t rub off. I looked at it real close, and it was like I was looking through it at this tiny pinpoint of light. And then the pinpoint got larger and this demonic face was jumping at me. It stayed in the mirror, but I yelped and my boss heard me. He came and took me to a table. He asked what I saw. “He told me he had bought it in the old country and the salesman warned him there was a demon trapped in the mirror. He said the salesman also told him not to break the mirror or the demon would go free.” Jennifer Joy of Hughson remembered a sleepover with a friend when they were teenagers. “I grew up in a haunted house in Ceres, just behind Ceres High. Many unexplained things happened there, including doors opening by themselves and items disappearing. One morning, when I was 17, I woke up and that feeling of being watched came over me. “I looked around the foot of the bed and I saw what appeared to be a tall, black shadow of a man. As I watched, it faded in on itself, getting lighter until it was gone. The next morning, I told my friend that I had seen the ghost last night. “Her face went pale. ‘I saw it, too,’ she said. She described the figure exactly as I had seen it, right down to the way it disappeared. Except for one difference. She saw it in the middle of the night on my side, leaning over me, watching me sleep.” Mike Moon and Kent Scarlata sent in their story of a historic haunting. “We live in the only home in Oakdale that is officially recognized as having a ghost. The A.S. Emery home, built in 1885, has been the home to Mr. Emery’s spirit since he died here in 1913. He is content to share his home with us and his antics to date have been mild. “We have experienced doors shutting on their own, lights coming on without assistance and creaking stairs when no one is upon them. We had a psychic to the house and she commented that the back of the house, which was added on after his death, was cooler than the rest of the place. She said that this was because he refuses to enter those areas of the home that he did not frequent in life!” Annette Martin lives in Campbell, a community just southwest of San Jose. She has made numerous national and international appearances on TV, including “48 Hours,” “Montel,” “Good Morning California” and shows on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the Travel Channel and BBC. Martin said she has been seeing ghosts since she was 7. As does the character in NBC’s “Medium,” Martin sometimes works as a psychic detective with her partner, retired homicide police Lt. Chuck Seymour of Santa Clara, in assisting law enforcement agencies. Martin said there is a difference between “bad vibes” and a ghost. “If it’s a ghost,” she said, “there will be some interaction with the environment.” Most encounters, she said, are really bad vibes, which come from something intense or negative, such as memories of an intense or horrific event — a murder, rape or battle. Those powerful negative memories leave what could be called a psychic scar or imprint on a location. “The best thing to do then with bad vibes is hold a party,” said Martin. She said an event with lots of happy emotions usually masks or covers negative emotions like a bandage covers a wound. For honest-to-goodness ghosts, Martin and other ghostbusters test environmental factors such as magnetic activity or temperature drops. “When I go into a (haunted) room and I notice them, they are usually very grateful someone can finally hear them,” she said of the ghosts she encounters. Martin told a Campbell Express interviewer, “Sometimes the ghost doesn’t know it’s dead, sometimes it doesn’t want to leave and sometimes they just don’t want to go into the light.” Despite common depictions of ghosts seeking revenge, Martin added that no ghosts she’s encountered have been aggressive. “No, they’re peaceful. Maybe upset and confused, but never murderous.” So the next time you hear something go bump in the night, remember: If it’s not a ghost, you may be in serious danger. Bee staff writer Roger W. Hoskins can be reached at rhoskins@modbee.com or 578-2311. FOR SALE, WITH GHOST San Jose Mercury News January 17, 2006 NEW CHAPTER FOR SITE WITH STORIED PAST By Kim Vo The Moss Beach Distillery, a Peninsula speakeasy-turned-institution, is up for sale -- ocean views, scandalous history, mischievous ghost and all. John Barbour, who has owned the restaurant for the past 15 years and has heavily promoted its spectral vibe, says it's time to go. He's turning 70 in June, ``so I'm old. I'm going to sell because I don't want to work anymore.'' The new owners will do whatever they want with the place -- since 1927 it's been a haven for bootleggers, an Irish-theme pub, a seafood restaurant. But if they're smart, Barbour said, they'll keep promoting the Blue Lady, the legendary ghost who has supposedly haunted the joint since a love triangle went awry, as they so often do. The Blue Lady is the restaurant's eternal guest, and no new owner can 86 her, said medium Annette Martin, who has held seances at the distillery and claims to regularly talk with the ghost. ``She has told me numerous times that no way is she leaving. She loves it there. She loves the people, she loves to tease the men,'' said Martin, who has an office in Campbell. ``It doesn't matter who buys it, she ain't going nowhere.'' The ghost story goes like this: A woman who always wore blue frequented the distillery back in the Prohibition days, when it was called Frank's Place and was a hot spot for politicians and silent-movie stars. Lore says the Blue Lady, though married, was sleeping with the speakeasy's piano player, often in the hotel next door. The woman was later found stabbed on the beach, in the same cove where rum-runners once sneaked in shipments of booze. Or maybe she died in a car accident; the stories vary. Either way, she's been hanging out ever since, mourning her lover, warning children away from the windswept cliffs, playfully snatching earrings from customers' lobes. Sometimes, they say, her phantom friends visit. The ghost story has flourished partly because it fit neatly with the coast's own ``colorful history,'' said Kathryn Slater-Carter, a longtime coastal resident. She takes out-of-town guests to the distillery and hopes new owners keep it a restaurant instead of turning it into a private home or club, as has happened with other businesses. ``I think the food is good, the ghost is intriguing and the view, if you go there for a drink, is spectacular,'' she said. Barbour said he didn't believe in ghost stories when he bought the place in 1990. The restaurant's rugged views of cypress groves and the ever-changing Pacific Ocean reminded him of the coastline in Oregon, where he grew up. But Barbour understood that without the Blue Lady, the stucco-and-stained-glass outpost on Beach Way was just another coastside restaurant serving salmon and scenery. To play up the legend, he installed pendant lights that swing when people saunter past. Bar stools now slowly sink to the floor. In the ladies room, a low giggle is heard underneath the music. And, sometimes, a blue face flashes in the trick mirror. That gimmick tickles Barbour. ``When kids go in there, they totally start screaming, `Get me out of here!' '' he said. Barbour, who won't reveal his asking price until he officially lists the Distillery for sale later this month, has never seen the ghost. He'd like to, though. ``Yeah, sure. Why not? I've been talking about her for years,'' he said. Then smiling about the amorous ghost, he added, ``My wife will get jealous.'' Contra Costa Times - 10/13/05 Loyd Auerbach, detector of the area's paranormal By Nargis Nooristani STAFF WRITER When there's something strange in the neighborhood ... who you gonna call? Loyd Auerbach! A parapsychologist, or "ghostbuster," from Pleasant Hill, Auerbach is the man to call when things go bump in the night. "I've had an interest in the paranormal since I was a kid -- probably because I used to watch the wrong TV shows," he said. Armed with magnetic field detectors to pick up changes in vibrations, Auerbach has come to the aid of frightened families and haunted houses to tracks down ghosts for more than 25 years. A long career as the go-to guy with questions on ghosts, vampires or anything mystical has left Auerbach with seven books and a few dozen television specials under his belt. The internationally known paranormal expert's seventh book was released earlier this month and an A&E special, airing this week, will feature the ghost hunter investigating the alleged hauntings of two nearby sites. "This is the month ... I can't imagine how many reruns I'm going to be seen on," he said. Around Halloween time, Auerbach can be seen sharing his spine-tingling knowledge in numerous eerie television specials on the Travel Channel, Sci Fi Channel, and History Channel. In his latest appearance on A&E's "Mediums: We See Dead People," airing at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, he and local psychic Annette Martin explored the hauntings of the Moss Beach Distillery in Half Moon Bay, and the USS Hornet in Alameda. "We used some of the technology we use in ghost hunting," Auerbach said about their efforts to uncover the mysteries. He said there were changes in magnetic radiation in both locations, adding more evidence to the theories that ghosts may reside in the old sites. Auerbach said he and Martin detected the presence of the Moss Beach Distillery's "The Blue Lady," a ghost named Kayte, during the filming of the special last spring. The ghost has been roaming the restaurant for more than 70 years, Auerbach said, because she feels at home there and likes being around people. On the Hornet, on the other hand, Auerbach said the ghosts of sailors aren't there for the company of people, but for the company of fellow ghost sailors. "For best we can figure, a lot of these guys did not die on the ship," he said. "It's a ghost party." Reports of tourists being pinched on the rear, he said, have added to the legitimacy of the "dead sailor party" theory. Auerbach's experiences with the USS Hornet and the Moss Beach Distillery are two of 13 different tales retold in his latest book, "A Paranormal Casebook." Auerbach said the book is different than the other "how-to" ghost-hunting books he has written. The 13 "ghost stories," as he likes to call them, are accounts of real encounters that Auerbach said he has had in his line of work. "I've wanted to write this book for a long time," he said. Ginnie Bivona, Auerbach's book publisher, said Auerbach has turned her from a skeptic into a believer. "I publish ghost stories because I knew people liked them. I didn't necessarily believe in the stuff," she said. "He's just a regular guy and you fully know that he's telling you what he's seen and done. It's opened my eyes." PACIFICA TRIBUNE Pacifica, California June 15, 2005 Segment to be aired in spring or summer By Elaine Larsen, STAFF WRITER "Beachcombings" PSYCHIC DETECTIVE ON NBC If you missed the recent Court TV airing of "Psychic Detectives, The Vanishing Paratrooper" featuring the Pacifica Police Department and psychic Annette Martin, there's another chance to see it tonight. NBC has ordered eight of Court TV's signature series, investigations showcasing the teamwork between detectives and psychics in solving some of law enforcement's hardest cases. These half-hour shows will air in one-hour episodes. The Vanishing Paratrooper features Pacifica Police Sgt. Fernando Realyvasquez' case seven years ago of a missing 71-year-old Pacific Oaks man, Dennis Prado. Realyvasquez eventually turns to Martin, who uses her psychic abilities to pinpoint the man's exact location within San Pedro Valley County Park. The deceased Prado is eventually found off a trail exactly where Martin said he was. The episode airs on NBC at 8 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, June 15. "A former paratrooper vanishes, leaving everything behind ‹ everything that is, except any evidence as to his whereabouts. With little to go on and desperate for a break, police call in psychic Annette Martin. Can her visions help locate the missing man within a massive 2,000-acre park." Psychic' case re-enacted for Court TV PACIFICA TRIBUNE Pacifica, California January 6, 2005 Segment to be aired in spring or summer By Elaine Larsen, STAFF WRITER Inside Bay Area PACIFICA — The Pacifica Police Department will earn its 15 minutes of fame — make that 30 minutes — when Court TV's "Psychic Detective" features the search for a local man. Seven years ago, then-Pacifica Detective Fernando Realyvasquez had exhausted all leads in his search for Dennis Prado, a 71-year-old Pacific Oaks man who had disappeared two months before. Extensive foot searches of San Pedro Valley County Park, where Prado was known to hike, proved fruitless. Stumped, Realyvasquez, now a sergeant, took the advice of the missing man's distraught sister and turned to the paranormal for help, consulting famous psychic detective Annette Martin of Campbell. She was able to lead rescuers in the right direction, and on July 19, 1997, Prado's body was discovered about three-quarters of a mile up the eastern end of the popular Valley View Trail. Badly decomposed, the body was about 15 feet off the main trail in some bushes — exactly as Martin had envisioned it. Prado was discovered by Roberta Hauser, a volunteer ground searcher with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team working in tandem with Morris Atwell, a member of the California Association of Rescue Dogs, and his specially trained German shepherd. Court TV segment The entire investigation — from the time Pacifica Police first received the missing person's report, to the successful discovery of Prado's body — will be re-enacted in an episode of "Psychic Detectives" airing this spring or summer on Court TV. The 13-part series takes viewers behind the scenes and into the center of police investigations in which a psychic's involvement played a key role in solving a crime. Producer Pat Rogers of Story House Productions and his crew shot days of footage that will help re-create every aspect of the events of the case. "It was a lot of fun, but a lot more hours than I expected," says Realyvasquez, who spent off-duty hours on the project. "When they first contacted me about doing this, I didn't know what to expect. It's amazing how many hours of film they had to get." Realyvasquez — who was nicknamed "RV" by the Story House crew — took some good-natured ribbing from police colleagues, who joked about the "star" in their midst. But in the end, everyone from the chief on down supported both him and the whole filming process from beginning to end. "I looked at it as a little PR for the Police Department, and definitely something fun and interesting to do," Realyvasquez said. The shooting began with a segment involving Sgt. Joe Spanheimer, who, seven years ago as an officer, took the first report of the missing Prado. That filming took place at the Pacifica Police Department. The next day, Realyvasquez was filmed being interviewed about the case, followed by a mock "briefing" with officers in the patrol room with Cpl. Duane Wachtelborn acting as watch commander. On Wednesday, the crew spent the day in Campbell interviewing Martin in her office. Thursday, she was filmed talking with Realyvasquez about the case. Saturday was devoted to footage taken outside the Pacific Oaks senior complex on Oddstad Boulevard. Earlier that morning, the crew dodged poison oak to film atop the heavily brushy portion of Valley View Trail, where Prado's body was found. The next few hours were spent re-enacting Realyvasquez consulting with Hauser with the map circled by the psychic. It required only a few takes for lighting and sound adjustments before both Realyvasquez and Hauser delivered their parts with amazing ease. Although the entire case was broken down and scripted by the Story House crew beforehand, the "actors" were given only brief direction and allowed to improvise on their exact lines in order to capture a natural result. Others on camera By the end of the week, several other members of the Pacifica Police Department got into the act. Sgt. Dave Bertini got a brief on-film walk-on during which he casually asks Realyvasquez "How's your missing person case going?" Capt. Jim Tasa played a detective supposedly sent by Realyvasquez to investigate a potential lead. In real life, someone recalled seeing Prado at the Sizzler Restaurant in Colma. Tasa re-enacts that follow-up investigation with a visit to the Salada Beach Caf in Pacifica. Crew members concede that while they exercised some artistic license in how the scenes were re-created, they strive to stick as true-to-life as possible. "We keep the facts the same, but do take some license with the visuals," says Rogers. "Police departments we've worked with almost always agree to cooperate. It's on Court TV, and is a show that highlights the good work of police and psychics working together," he added. " There's a lot of hours spent filming, but it's in the five weeks of editing where it all comes together." We Know What You'll Do Next Summer Five Bay Area psychics bring us the world of the future maybe BY stewart rudy The Wave Magazine - February 11-24, 2004 If you definitely want to know what the future holds, consult a psychic. Just don't consult more than one. We did, and now we're more confused than ever. That is, unless all of these psychics are right. But that can't be… that would mean George Bush would have to lose the election and get elected, as if that could happen. We asked some of the Bay Area's top psychics to look far into the future (in some cases, as far as December 2004) and tell us what they see. Here are their predictions: Annette Martin Psychic Detective: Campbell | (408) 379-6669 | www.annette-martin.com What will be the biggest news stories of 2004? I see it being a wonderful time for entrepreneurs to form new ideas, new companies and new products. I see Bush being re-elected, and I feel they will find Bin Laden this year. Another terrorist attack? I do not see one in the U.S. this year, or any after that. Will J. Lo find true love? I think she's very sad, and I think it will be several years before she finds somebody. I see a lot of depression there. I'm thinking of a number between one and 10: Eight. [Editor's note: The number was six.] THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE Article Last Updated: Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 11:04:43 AM MST Restaurateur says his place is haunted By Angela Hill STAFF WRITER PAULA, ARE you out there? Francois lives to find you. Sort of. He searches the faces of everyone who comes into the Cafe Van Kleef in downtown Oakland, just in case. Asks about you all the time, although no one listens. Knocks things over and turns off the stereo system, just because he can. He's not melancholy, which is odd considering he's a former lady-loving, party-happy, live-life-to-the-wee-hours French gigolo who's now got no body -- seeing as how he's dead and all. Yes, Francois supposedly soiree-ed a little too hardee one night and keeled over from a drug overdose more than a decade ago when he lived on the fifth floor of 1621 Telegraph Ave. So now he's stuck -- haunting the hallways, the first-floor cafe and its art gallery. Ooh, and especially the creepy elevator. "Once you get in the elevator, it hesitates, then goes -- unless somebody has pushed the button outside to get on," said cafe owner Peter Van Kleef. "But a lot of times, I've gotten on, the door closes, it hesitates -- then opens like someone was out there who pushed the button. But nobody's there. "Some people are pretty scared of that elevator," he said. "But I say, 'Come on in!'" Fortunately, Francois is not a fearsome ghost. He seems surprisingly cheery about being dead. Spirited, one might say, and one did. He has a great time hanging out with Van Kleef, who has been puttering around getting his very cool, eclectic bar, cafe and gallery ready to re-open in the next couple of weeks after a four-year closure. "I feel like I know him," Van Kleef said. "It's a constant thing. You see something go by out of the corner of your eye, but there's nobody there. I've never felt anything but positive or good feelings from him. It's kind of like having a cat. First he's there, then he's not. He turns off the stereo. Knocks something off in the back. "I welcome the company, especially on occasions when I work by myself," Van Kleef said. "I'm not a ghost believer, but I don't discount any of this." Oui oui, Francois has a pretty good life for a ghost. He is content. But he misses Paula. Oh, and cheese. He misses cheese. All this was discovered last week during a preliminary para-normal investigation of the old 1920s building, led by an electromagnetic-meter-wielding Loyd Auerbach, sensitive psychic Annette Martin, a couple of companions with video cameras and some people who just thought it was cool. These are some of the big paranormal guns. Auerbach is one of the East Bay's resident experts on the eerie. He's the director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations in Pleasant Hill and has literally written the book on the subject, "ESP, Hauntings and Poltergeists," in addition to several other related books. Martin, a psychic from Campbell, has a degree in psychology, was once an opera singer and says she's been communicating with the decidedly deceased since she was a child. She has worked as a psychic for about 35 years, assisted in police cases and been on TV too many times to count. She frequently accompanies Auerbach on investigations. That's the best way to hunt a ghost, you see, combining the scientific and the spiritual. Auerbach seeks out the physical evidence on film, tape, electromagnetic devices and through witness reports. "Then if a psychic is having an experience at the same time something shows up on technology, you definitely have an anomaly happening in the environment, regardless of what you call it," Auerbach said. "That's the kind of thing we're looking for." He has investigated the very haunted U.S.S. Hornet in Alameda and the notorious Moss Beach Distillery near Half Moon Bay, where a ghost named Kate or "The Blue Lady" lives. So to speak. Francois is 'new.' These folks know ghosts, and they were excited about Francois. He's a "new" ghost. Nobody's heard reports of him before, but Van Kleef and others say he's been bumping around in the building for at least five years. Auerbach, who is also a professional magician and psychic entertainer, heard the story when planning future entertainment seances, which will soon be held at Cafe Van Kleef. So the ghosthunters came to the cafe one afternoon last week, hung out for a while sipping Van Kleef's trademark "Dutchman" coffee -- a double espresso with bittersweet and sweet chocolate imported from Europe, which is so good it's probably why Francois is hanging around. Then they headed up to the fifth floor, where Francois supposedly departed from the land of the living. "We're going up," Auerbach announced to the group, which prompted the elevation of numerous neck hairs. They took the elevator. Rather industrial-looking, with warm-yellow metal walls, and cramped. Kind of like being inside an egg. Francois did not get in, however. (It would later be learned that he was already upstairs.) The elevator opened to several bright rooms, walls of Crayola yellow, purple and blue. No spooky cobwebs. This part of the building once held several apartments where Francois used to live, but now houses three youth-oriented nonprofits. Workers there hadn't experienced Francois. Dang. But Martin did. Instantly. She took a deep breath. Psychic's 'goosebumps' "Oh, I'm getting goosebumps," she said. "It's gone now. It was like he just went right by me." Everybody got quiet. Auerbach headed down a hallway, holding a meter in front of him, looking for all the underworld like Spock carrying a tri-corder. Martin stopped and closed her eyes. "I'm getting a man with long brown hair. Some kind of moustache. Slight build. He's almost like a ballet dancer, he moves so gracefully," she said. "And I'm getting a nice reaction here on the natural magnetic field meter," Auerbach said. The pointer bounced back and forth when Auerbach stood near the kitchen area. "Well, the fridge has certainly set this thing off," he joked. Martin moved near the bathroom. "There's something here. An impression," she said, pointing to the floor. "I see a body on the floor." An impression, Auerbach explained later, is different from a "ghost." It's like holding an object in your hand and talking about it. Or like a film strip playing over and over. But a ghost -- there's an actual presence there, who can be communicated with. There go those pesky neck hairs again. Martin sighed heavily. "I hear him singing. Humming. Kind of dancing around a little bit." "He's not singing 'Just a Gigolo,' is he?' Auerbach asked. (Paranormal humor.) "He's very loving," Martin continued. "A very different kind of personality. A lot of female mixed up with male in his personality. He's asking a question of what we're doing here, why we're trying to find him." Suddenly, the natural meter went crazy, then bounced gently. "There's definitely a fluctuation here," Loyd said. "That's not the refrigerator." Someone asked why Francois is sticking around. "Memories," Martin answered for Francois. "Lots and lots of wonderful happy memories for him here. Parties. Music. Wine. Cheese. Oh, how he misses the cheese. Mmm. He says he wishes he could taste cheese again. "And he's looking for people. Goes around and looks in their faces to see who they are. He prefers the bar where people are laughing and talking. "He's looking for a very beautiful young woman," Martin muttered. "Pale skin. Long, straight nose. Brown eyes. He's looking for her." Martin paused. Stood perfectly still with eyes closed, hand extended, as if frozen mid-sentence. Hearing words in the quiet. Looking for Paula "Paula," she muttered. "Her name is Paula. That's who he's looking for." Francois must have tired of talking, and the conversation seemed to come to an end. Everyone moved to another room except Martin, still frozen but seriously sweating. She sighed, opened her eyes. "Is it hot in here?" she asked. It wasn't. All told, the preliminary investigation went well. "The natural meter, which usually doesn't react at all except at Kate's and at the Hornet, was totally going nuts," Auerbach said. The next step is to interview more witnesses. Take more readings. Try to find actual details of Francois' death in county records and coroner's reports. Rule out possible physical explanations, such as short circuits in the stereo system. After Martin's "conversation," Van Kleef confirmed much of the story. "I never met Francois, but a friend of mine lived in this building for about seven years and he knew him," Van Kleef said. "He described him to me as a beautiful young man. Angelic. Cherubic. Long hair. More beautiful even than his girlfriends, which was a blessing and a curse. "The story goes that, because of the way he looked and spoke, people would give him anything he wanted," Van Kleef said. "So he quit working and his girlfriends started supporting him. "Then he met a very beautiful worker in the entertainment industry -- she was a stripper in San Francisco. That might have been Paula. "She drove in the fast lane in more ways than one. She was wise in the ways of the world. He was more of an innocent. She introduced him to elements of the dark side, and one of those elements did him in on the top floor by the bathroom. He overdosed." "Francois likes your energy," Martin told Van Kleef. "The way you make people laugh and tell them stories. He's around you more than you think." "Does he mind hearing the same jokes and stories over and over?" Van Kleef asked. "No," Martin said, smiling gently. "He said, 'Merci beaucoup, mon ami.'" THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE Article Last Updated: Friday, October 18, 2002 - 11:04:43 AM MST Paranormal experts say it's not all funny business By Angela Hill STAFF WRITER CONTRARY to popular belief, the life of the ghost hunter is not all lurking in attics, tape-recording bumps in the night and lying in wait for hours in somebody's stuffy broom closet for the ghost of great Aunt Selma to appear. Sure, there's that glamorous side. But there's also some housekeeping involved. Perish the thought! It's enough to make Aunt Selma do The Twist in her grave. Still, a group of paranormal investigators, clairvoyants, psychics and researchers from all over the country got down to the practical side of ghost hunting a few weeks ago in a bland, decidedly non-haunted conference room in the Concord Hilton. There, any cold spots were just fierce air conditioning, and electromagnetic fields were generated only by a tweaky fluorescent light. These are the professionals. People who seek out the dead -- not to make a living, but for the need to know, and to help folks who may have had odd and often frightening experiences. These are people with actual academic degrees in parapsychology, or 20- and 30-plus years investigating hauntings. They know ghosts. What they don't know is how to legitimize their field -- free it from the goofy "Ghostbusters" specter and let the world know they're dead serious about their jobs. So about 25 of them gathered for a two-day session, talking about just that -- organization, standardization of terms, databases, dealing with the media and what to do about the explosion of amateur groups out there. They talked technology, from infrared-- thermal-vision devices to Geiger counters. They even came up with an official name: the Paranormal Research Organization, or PRO. Oh sure, they threw in a few juicy ghost stories too, all oohing and ahhing like kids at a campfire when somebody's holding a flashlight under their chin. They can't help themselves. But it was all work-related. The meeting was arranged by one of the East Bay's resident experts of the eerie, Loyd Auerbach of Pleasant Hill, director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations who has literally written the book on the subject, "ESP, Hauntings and Poltergeists," in addition to several other related books. "I think this is the start of something brand new for the field," Auerbach said. "It's to help us find out where we need to put our energies, where we need to focus, trying to figure out what is really going on in all these cases. "We generally attend conventions with formal presentations, but we never get together and just talk," he said. "This is really about brainstorming." And so they stormed. First off, they all admit there's a division in the ranks between the scientific and the spiritual, and the meeting brought both together -- several experts who seek out physical evidence on film, tape recordings, electromagnetic devices and through witness reports, plus several renowned psychics and clairvoyants. Ultimately, when they work together, the result is much more impressive, they say. "Both are valuable," Auerbach said. "When a psychic is having an experience and technology is getting something at the same time, then you can be sure an anomalous experience is taking place in the environment, regardless of what you call it. It comes down to having lots of evidence. Not just one photo or one psychic experience." There was one case, he said, where a psychic said a little girl -- a ghost -- was holding her hand. "With infrared thermal vision, you could see that the psychic's hand got warm, then cooled at the exact same moment she said the little girl was gone," he said. "That's the kind of evidence we like." "That's, of course, the ideal situation," said Kerry Gaynor of Santa Monica, who has investigated at least 1,000 cases of haunted houses during the past 25 years. "It's very hard to be at the right place at the right time." Gaynor was quiet during the spirituality part of the conversation. He looks a little like Fox Mulder with a puff of brown hair and sharp eyes. He sat next to Auerbach, who has a goatee and a common-sense way about him that makes talking about ghosts seem no more unearthly than discussing vaporlock. To his right was Annette Martin of Campbell, a psychic who has a degree in psychology, was once an opera singer and says she's been communicating with the deceased since she was a little girl. Someone suggested a database and guidelines for amateur or new researchers. "We could have lists of good calibration centers to go to (for technical devices)," said Pete Haviland, a researcher from Houston. "And a certified photo analyst, for someone to say, 'This is real, this is a hoax.'" The group held a brief debate on semantics. Aann Golemac, a clairvoyant medium from Alameda who has done extensive work on the USS Hornet said she doesn't want to be called a ghostbuster. "When I was on the 'Today' show, they even used the 'Ghostbusters' theme music," she said. "The media just doesn't get it. We are doing serious investigations. We are paranormal investigators. I am not a psychic. I am a clairvoyant medium. I see, I hear, I sense and I bring messages from the other side. "I am not a ghostbuster," she said. Others in the group, though, felt that a sense of humor can help, especially when dealing with the media. "When the movie 'Ghostbusters' first came out, I got all sorts of calls from the media saying, 'We know that's not real. So what do you guys really do?' I looked at it as an opportunity. I think there's a way to present that sense of humor and still be credible." Kathy Rehm of Belmont, the only amateur in the group who has taught a college course on ghosthunting with your camera, said it's amazing how many people have had ghostly experiences. As soon as I tell someone I'm a paranormal investigator, they immediately come up with a ghost story: 'My Aunt Edna died two years ago and I still smell her perfume. Is that OK?' Rehm said. The point is, everybody's got a story like this. It is a common thing. Part of life. We can be normalizing the experience for them by saying, 'Yes, it's OK."' San Francisco Chronicle             Sunday, June 10, 2001     Exorcising ghosts of past New owner hopes to reopen resort haunted by 20-year-old slayings Keddie, Plumas County -- It had been more than a year since she ran screaming from the inexplicable, dark things she saw there, yet Ashley Conte still shivered as she stood in front of the battered little house. "Anyone with any brains will never set foot in there again," she said, mustering all the conviction her 16 years would allow. "You can never change what happened inside. The house should just be ripped down." She wrenched her gaze from the twilight shadows creeping onto the boarded up windows. "It's haunted," she whispered. "Everybody knows it. Rip it down." Whether the terrors Ashley and others say they saw inside Cabin #28 of the Keddie Resort -- chairs and bodies floating mid-air, carvings disappearing from walls -- were figments or genuine spooks is up for grabs. But what took place 20 years ago this spring is not. Back then, a mother, her two children and a teenage friend were butchered here in a one-night frenzy so off-the-charts savage that to this day cops don't like to step inside the house.  The murders ruined this northern Sierra mountain resort, a 3,205-foot- elevation enclave so popular people used to drive hundreds of miles just to eat at its log-walled lodge. In short order, appalled tourists began staying away in droves. And even now -- spirits or not -- the specter of the killings continues to keep this pretty resort empty.  "It's spooky, a real ghost town," said Scott Lawson, director of the Plumas County Museum in nearby Quincy. "Nobody goes there, really. And I doubt anyone will until they find out who killed all those people.  "But that," he said, eyes going wide, "is the whodunnit of the century around here."  Twenty years ago, Keddie Resort was in the latest of many heydays dating from its founding in 1910, a placid getaway where you could rent one of 33 rustic cabins or a room in the hand-crafted, two-story lodge. The streams had great trout fishing, and pine-studded trails beckoned all around.  The Keddie Lodge restaurant was packed most every night with customers who came from as far as San Francisco to dine on barbecued bear ribs, sherry- basted racoon steaks -- all shot locally -- and fine wines.  "It was always a special, pretty place to go, a real draw," said Lawson.  Then came April 11, 1981.  Sometime between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. that day, 15-year-old John Sharp and his buddy, 17-year-old Dana Wingate, were seen hitchhiking from Quincy to Keddie Cabin #28. John had been living there for months with his 36-year-old mother, Glenna Sharp -- and once the two boys walked through the door, police say, the horror began.  A pair of killers either went in with the boys or were waiting with Glenna Sharp, and they tied up all three with duct tape and electrical wire. Soon after, John's 13-year-old sister, Tina, showed up and was bound, too.  What followed was a night of torture.  By the time the killers left 10 hours later, they had used steak knives and a claw hammer to such effect that the victims were barely recognizable.  "Whoever did this stabbed the victims so violently they bent one knife totally double from the force," said Sheriff's Patrol Commander Rod DeCrona. "They stabbed and pounded on everything in sight -- the walls, the people, the furniture. Everything."  He shuddered at the memory of first walking into the murder scene. "There was blood sprayed absolutely everywhere," DeCrona said. "You knew right away we were involved with a psychopath."  The carnage was only discovered the next morning by John's 14-year-old sister, Sheila, who had been at a sleepover next door. To the enduring surprise of police, nobody outside the charnel house had heard a thing.  And the mystery only deepened: Not only was the body of Tina, most likely killed at the scene, missing -- but three near-toddlers sleeping in one bedroom had been amazingly left untouched.  Tina's severed head was found three years later by a bottle-digger, 50 miles downhill at a waterfall. One of the children in the bedroom -- two were Sharp brothers, the other a play-pal -- remembered enough so police could make a sketch of two killers, but the boy was so young the picture's accuracy is considered questionable.  Thousands of leads and suspects have been picked over since then by deputies, the FBI and state investigators -- but nothing panned out, DeCrona said. A timeline of the case dominates three walls of the sheriff's office, tips still come in, and DNA samples were sent to the state crime lab just two months ago, but nobody's holding his breath.  "Usually in a crime like this, the killers get sloppy and leave more behind, " said DeCrona, sighing. "I wish it were that simple. We have no motive, no suspects."  Dana's father, Gary Wingate, thinks there were so many police agencies involved that they "stumbled over each other and fouled up the case." But he tries not to stew about it. He never even calls the Sharp family -- who declined requests through intermediaries to be interviewed.  "Nobody has the faintest idea who killed my son, so I long ago had to let this thing go or it would eat me alive," said Wingate, who lives near Quincy. "I don't think about it, I don't go to that ghost town and I have no idea if ghosts exist there.  "But I do know this. There is evil in this world, and evil was in that house that night."  Ashley Conte and her neighbors think the evil is still there.  People began to shun the resort after the killings, and within a year it was empty. The owners put Keddie up for sale in 1984 for $1.8 million -- and nobody bit.  Over the next decade or so, it rotted into a refuge for squatters and hobos, and the county condemned most of the buildings. But in the past few years longtime owner Gary Mollath has gone on a furious restoration campaign that has the old resort looking pretty much as it did in 1981 -- sans people.  He's rented out a couple of the best cabins, and says he hopes to rehab the rest enough to reopen in a year.  But first there is Cabin #28 -- dubbed "The Murder House" by locals -- to contend with.  The condemned building's yellow-and-white paint is flaking, doors are nailed shut and most windows are covered with plywood. Bums and kids -- including Ashley, Mollath's stepdaughter -- have often broken in for kicks, but by several accounts they all flee in a hurry.  Ashley said that aside from seeing murky forms and rocking chairs in the house, she once saw a pitchfork and the word "no" carved in the kitchen door. "When we went back a half-hour later, the words and the pitchfork were gone," she said.  Other locals, including 22-year-old Forest Jones, said they heard moans, doors slamming and footsteps when the house was obviously deserted. Others don't buy all the spooky stuff.  "I hate it when people call this a ghost town," said Lynn Seavy, 46, who lives next to The Murder House. "Keddie is a nice, peaceful place where you can hear the wind in the trees. I wish people would get over what happened."  Mollath's solution is just as his step-daughter suggests. "That house has been such a negative point for so long that I intend to tear it down and put a park there," Mollath said. "Then I'm going to open this place back up and cater to groups -- with people traveling closer to home now, I think the timing will be just right.  "I want people to come and say, 'Wow!' when we start up again. Not be scared."  Before he flings open the gates, though, he'd better do more than just raze The Murder House, maintains Annette Martin, a psychic in Campbell who advises police throughout the nation on murder cases.  The trouble in Keddie, she said, is that because the mayhem was so abhorrent, the victims's ghosts are probably in shock and don't know they are dead. So even if their house is demolished, "they'll still be there, hanging out."  "We often find this type of poltergeist activity in cases like this, especially if people were chopped up," said Martin. "My guess is that the 'no' the girl saw was the victims still trying to say 'no' to their killers. There is unresolved business there."  The only way to cleanse the area of spirits, she said, is to have someone spiritual perform a healing ceremony after the house is gone.  "Otherwise, whatever is in its place will be haunted," Martin said. "And it will stay haunted."  E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com Fate Magazine December 1996 PSYCHIC FRONTIERS BY LOYD AUERBACH PSYCHIC UPDATE In the August issue, I focused my column on Annette Martin, a psychic practitioner here in the Bay Area.  The intro to the article mentioned a woman who Annette kept insisting should see a doctor.  Recently, Annette got a follow-up call about this woman, who we'll call Sandy, and forwarded the  information to me. Annette had perceived a problem with Sandy's heart.  Sandy and her friend Jane asked Annette for more feedback and again received Annette's warning to see the doctor. According to friend Jane, Sandy didn't do anything about Annette's advice, and didn't see the doctor, even though Jane insisted that she do so.  A few weeks later, Sandy apparently began have blackouts, but wrote it off to work-related stress.  Sometime after that Sandy went to a health fair and while there, had an EKG done.  The technician told her that there was a problem with her EKG and that she should see her doctor immediately.  Sandy went to see her doctor the next day with the EKG in hand, whereupon he insisted that she come to the hospital early the next morning for an operation.  According to Jane, Sandy called her asking if she should go through with the operation.  Jane was adamant that Sandy do it and Sandy's indecisiveness disappeared. Sandy's doctors ended up putting in a pacemaker.  Without it, her future was very likely non-existent.  Today, Sandy is doing well and no longer suffers from blackouts. On January 13th, 1997, Sandy called Annette Martin on her San Francisco "Your Psychic World" Radio Show. "Annette, this is Sandy, the woman you told to go and see her doctor because you felt there was a heart problem.  I want to thank you for being so persistant with me.  I didn't want to believe that there could be anything wrong with my heart and did not go to my doctor.  But when I attended the health fair a little voice kept saying, ' Listen, to what Annette said and have an EKG, just to make sure.' Thank you for saving my life!  I know that I never would have gone and had the EKG if you hadn't read me that night.  You are truly wonderful!" Fate Magazine August 1996 PSYCHIC FRONTIERS BY LOYD AUERBACH ANNETTE MARTIN PROVIDES clues to past events and the conditions of her clients' bodies by connecting with her targets and perceiving psychically what others tend not to see. SEEING PAST AND PRESENT  THROUGH CLOSED EYES Annette Martin stood in front of the April gathering of the California Society for Psychical Study in Berkeley, California.  In front of her was a woman who had volunteered for a demonstration of psychic diagnostics. Martin was going to psychically look into the woman's body and try to determine the status of her physical health. Martin took a few deep breaths and exhaled, making a sound that seemed like a wind moving swiftly through dense trees, a sound that seemed to be coming from all around me rather than from the down - to - Earth psi practitioner.   She then spoke to her volunteer about specific health issues.  What impressed me most, however, was that Martin continually suggested that the volunteer see her doctor.  The target of the psi scan thanked Martin profusely and sat down.  Martin commented on the diagnosis briefly before calling for another volunteer. This demonstration capped an interesting lecture by Martin, who described just how she had realized she was psychic. Martin described a seven - year- old girl whose friends suddenly and viciously turned on her (though she bravely fought back and even broke the nose of one of her attackers).  She had seen the incident in a vision just minutes before it happened to her.  Three days later, the friends wanted to play with her, even the boy whose nose she had broken, as though nothing strange had happened. Two weeks later, Martin's mother's friend Pauline came for a visit.  The little girl sensed something about Pauline's right big toe that was not obvious from Pauline's behavior:  She was in pain from something wrong with the toe.  Later, Pauline learned it was infected. These two incidents occurred at the start of Martin's path toward psychic diagnostics, though it wasn't until years later that she did anything overt with her psi talents. It probably didn't hurt that her paternal aunt, who was a nun in France, was clairvoyant (a vision warned her of an impending invasion of the Nazis into the nunnery, allowing everyone to get out in time).  Her maternal grandmother also seemed very intuitive, using ordinary playing cards to do readings for others. In 1970, Martin's husband was transferred to Hong Kong.  When Martin and her husband arrived there and stepped off the plane, Martin heard a voice say, "Now is the time."  She knew her life was about to change.  A week later her phone started ringing.  The callers claimed they had heard she was a psychic, even though Martin says there is no way they could have heard that from anyone, at least at first.  From that point on, she began giving readings.  Her clients learned of her by word of mouth, and at first she didn't charge for her readings.  But she got so busy she decided to charge a fee, thinking this would keep the client list shorter and free up her schedule.  But people still came in droves. From Hong Kong, the Martins moved to Mexico and finally back to northern California in 1975.  Martin set up an office in Marin County, where she did readings and psychic consulting.  She was interviewed by Dr. Gerald Jampolsky, a psychiatrist working on visualization techniques for cancer patients.  Martin demonstrated her diagnoses using psi, and Jampolsky was impressed enough to continue working with her for years, even making a film about her work to show other doctors.  It was during the period she work with Jampolsky that Martin headed off in another psi direction.   While  she was meditating during a yoga class, she got a clear vision of a dead body and a street sign - a murder.  Her secretary convinced her to go to the Marin Sheriff's Department, where she spoke with Sgt. Richard Keaton - for five hours.  Apparently, she had picked up on a murder that had occurred during her class time.  The police drove her around, searching for what she had seen in her vision.  She described "beads of water spurting out of my hands" as they drove by a trailer park.  They took her back to the sheriff's department, got a warrant, and returned to find the body. In subsequent sessions, Martin described several key pieces of information about the suspect and his whereabouts, though none were specific enough to allow the capture of the man.  A year later, however, he was caught in an area Martin had described.  Keaton was impressed enough by the details Martin supplied that he has continued to consult with her on cases and has acted as liaison for her with other law enforcement agencies.  Over the years she has worked with law enforcement officials all over the U.S. and beyond, from Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, and New Mexico to Hawaii and Hong Kong. While her psi abilities have come to seem normal to her, from time to time Martin has been surprised.  Back in her Hong Kong days, while doing a body scan of a client, the woman's eyes suddenly widened as Martin felt a hand on her shoulder.  Her poofy blouse was pushed down as if a real hand were there.  The client, her husband, and Martin's husband all saw the fabric depress. Martin learned that the invisible hand belonged to Edgar Cayce. She was confused because she had no idea who Cayce was until her client told her about Cayce's life as a psychic and medium who had conducted thousands of psychic diagnoses.  Martin believes Cayce often comes to help her with her own diagnoses.  In the case of diagnosing a client, she uses her psi to scan inside and outside the body.  She travels up the body with scan to look for the cause of illness, for what part of the body is actually responsible, and where the doctor has to go to fix it.  She believes that treating symptoms is not good enough, because a pain in the foot may be a symptom of a deeper problem.  Putting a Band-Aid on the part that hurts is a treatment, not a cure. Police work also may involve medical aspects, ranging from the health of the suspect (including whether he or she is taking drugs) to what an actual cause of death may have been. Martin may go to a murder scene and diagnose it, reaching back into the past to replay the events in her mind, "to see a movie of what happened," she says.  She has also applied this technique to help locate missing people and items and to aid fire departments in the greater Bay Area, helping identify how the fire started and, if started by a person, who that person might be.   I have been impressed by Martin for several reasons.  She is different from the majority of self-professed psychics.  First, she is very normal, the kind of person you'd be very surprised to learn was psychic.  Many psychics "see themselves a lot bigger than they are," Martin says.  "There's often a theatrics to (psi) and people get caught up in that."  While such theatrics and ego-involvement may help insure themselves a place in the media, it tends to create doubt about their credibility, and it certainly helps make them targets for the skeptics.  I was also impressed by her persistence in advising people to see doctors. Martin, like few others I know, sees herself as a tool for doctors, albeit a non-traditional one.  Let's face it, if someone like Martin can help a doctor pinpoint where to start testing for illness or damage (rather than relying on the typical hospital battery of tests), time and money are saved and the patient has a shorter period to be hurt or ill. Something else that has impressed me about Martin is her attitude toward working with law enforcement.  Unlike some of the psychics you see or read about in the media, Martin does not make any claims about solving crimes. Unfortunately, too many self-professed psychic detectives do claim to have solved crimes.  Is it any wonder police often deny having consulted these people?  In fact, Martin does little in the way of promoting her police work to the media, though she does talk about it when asked.  She can only talk about specifics of a case after it is resolved, however.  By keeping a low profile, at least on active cases, Martin and a few others like her can work unobstructed by public attention and intrusion by the media.  This helps the police work better on cases and improves working relationships that develop between people like Martin and law enforcement contacts.  By not claiming credit for solving the crime, Martin allows the police to get the attention truly due them, and this frees them to honestly cite any aid given to them by consultants (psychic or otherwise).  Finally, what has helped clinch my good feelings toward Martin is her attitude towards psi in general.  Martin believes everyone is psychic to a certain degree, and she has designed a book to help others recognize and develop their own psi abilities. PSI WORKBOOK Discovering Your Psychic World is a well-planned workbook that addresses both psi functioning itself and some human faculties necessary for improving psi. Focusing on the extended perception abilities (ESP), Annette Martin's workbook takes the reader step-by-step through exercises designed to help them understand the conscious and subconscious mind, improve creativity, and aid in decision making.  These things are extremely important if one is to sort psychic information from normal perception and improve upon what one recognizes as psi. This is truly a working workbook. It will help readers understand past experiences, and maybe even help them recognize new psi experiences when they happen spontaneously.  Unless the exercises are practiced, however, improvement may be minimal.  Martin provides exercises to improve telepathic connections with others, to pick up information from objects, locations, and even people, and to do remote viewing.  In my experience with a wide range of development techniques, as well as in looking at spontaneous psi experiences and laboratory studies, Annette Martin really has a handle on things. Her book in available from better book stores and from her publisher (Artistic Visions, Inc. 2075 Winchester Blvd. #107, Campbell, CA 95008, (408) 378-1435. SOUTH COUNTY TODAY NEWSPAPER January 23, 1995 Recognizing and enjoying your "sixth sense" It's wise to keep your mind blank when you approach Annette Martin or else risk the mental tapping of all those dark secrets you harbor deep inside your brain. Martin is a psychic, considered by many the best in the country. But she assures me - as we sit in her meditation room at her office "Institute of Intuitive Research" in Campbell - that she does not snatch thoughts from unsuspecting minds. I feel better, but then my devious side uncontrollably begins playing back scenes of death and destruction just to see if I can throw her off. The striking 56 -year -old grandmother is true to her word, her barely wrinkled face breaking into a warm smile as she talks about her ability to tap into her "sixth sense." She claims her psychic powers come naturally and - here's the good part - that everyone else has the same innate ability. "Every child that comes into the world is sensitive, but rarely is the child encouraged to recognize and enjoy the benefits of their sixth sense," she says. Martin, who calls herself a "psychic counselor," will attempt to prove this during a local lecture Friday at Gavilan Hills Church. Details: 847-0772. Author of the book, "Discovering Your Psychic World," Martin insists she can teach people to become intuitive, if not altogether psychic. "We've completely closed down our sixth sense," she said. Strangely enough, in the forward to Martin's book is an endorsement from an investigative police detective. Martin has worked with law enforcement agencies throughout the country for nearly 20 years, breaking previously "unsolvable" cases along the way. A 1991 article in Cosmopolitan magazine chronicles her amazing mental discoveries where she helped break open a 35- year old double murder case. Martin knew names, she knew dates, descriptions. She spoke in detail about bits of unreleased evidence. In one psychic session she pieced together a murder puzzle that authorities could not solve in 35 years. For Martin it's hard to describe the reward she gets when she finds a missing child or solves a murder. She takes no money for her tips, although a 45- minute personal session will cost you $175.00. Currently she is the host of a monthly radio show, "Your Psychic World" on KEST 1450 AM. In her main practice she assists physicians and psychologists in diagnosing physical and psychological conditions. Martin has appeared in two documentary films. She has taught classes in parapsychology at Stanford University and the University of Hawaii. But with all her "credentials," she still couldn't quite explain to me, the kind of skeptics, how it all works. In her literature, she writes: "The adventure begins by showing the user how to perceive their inner light. The master key being self-awareness through creative relaxation. Users learn to see auras, feel the emotions of others, practice telepathy and interpret their dreams." She tried the simple approach with me. "There is a conscious mind and a subconscious mind. I have developed an arch that connects the two." The way I understood it, she translates electromagnetic fields into images. "I hear it, I see it, I taste it. Like a 3-D movie in color." During our visit, she never tried to show off her abilities, although she somehow knew I had a 3-year old daughter. I left intrigued but still on the side of skepticism. But driving home, I recalled a flight I took to New York three years ago. The night before my departure, I had a vivid nightmare in which my plane exploded and crashed. The next night I arrived at the airport alone and waited for the red-eye to Rochester. The airline suddenly delayed the flight and the passengers grew alarmed to see uniformed policemen and dogs board the aircraft. There was a bomb threat, we were told, and the flight would be delayed at least an hour. For some reason I boarded the plane anyway and flew without incident (unless you call six gin and tonics an incident). But it got me thinking. Was that just a weird dream or a psychic experience? Do I have intuitive power? A sixth sense? For $7.50 you can find out more by attending her lecture. Skeptics are welcome. Campbell Express March 23, 1994 By Salley Howe Former Opera Singer Helps People Develop Their Psychic Powers A former opera singer is helping people develop their psychic powers, has written a children's book and is making predictions about earthquakes. Annette Martin, daughter of Charles and Viola De La Roche, proprietors of the Winchester Hardware Store, has established a training program complete with video meditiation tapes, which she hopes will allow others to develop the psychic powers that she feels were always with them, but may have been lost in modern society. I first met Annette when she was working with her parents, (her son, Craig, now manages the hardware store). I knew she was a musician but had no clue that not only was she a well-known psychic but that she came from a long line of psychics. As a child, Annette felt compelled to point out undiagnosed health problems to others. Her parents accepted her visions and did nothing to discourage her abilities. In 1970, as a married mother of two, she and her husband went to live in Hong Kong where the demand for her abilities caused her finally to take a more "commercial" view of her talents. To her amazement, charging for her readings only made them more popular, so she succombed to making them her main focus, although she had a successful singing career in place. During the intervening years she has consulted with law enforcement, doctors and psychiatrists. She had appeared on the Montel Williams show in connection with a Cosmopolitan Magazine article in which she worked with a Montana sheriff's department on a thirty-five-year-old lover's lane murder of a teenage couple. She has become known as the "Radio Psychic" for her talk show in Hawaii, and currently appears weekly on Radio KEST. Her current predictions include her feelings that great changes are needed in the way we do things and that change takes a great deal of energy. She feels strongly that there is a great nead to "let off the old" and "get on with it" and that her role is to help these changes take place. Up until a few years ago she continued her singing career but now concentrates on giving readings, especially to individuals who are running their own companies and consult with her to make decisions as to who among their employees can best accept responsible jobs. Silicon Valley CEO's bring photographs of their employees to her, and by holding them in her hands, she determines their personalities and characteristics. Although, she says, often what CEOs label "gut" feelings is just a manifestation of their own accurate intuition. Her training programs and guided meditations, made in cooperation with noted musician Steven Halpern, allow students to "Discover Your Psychic World," and in fact, a book of that name is due for publication. Currently, a children's book entitled "Annie Sunshine and the White Owl of the Cedars" is due out on audio tape, as she feels that children are particularly sensitive to their own psychic abilities. When asked her feelings about the possibility of more earthquakes, she admitted that she feels more are due, but expressed a particular concern for southern California (The following Sunday, a strong tremor was recorded in the southland.) She also expressed concern for Baja California. Long-range, Japan is a big worry. (She had made a number of accurate predictions, pin pointing the day, regarding the volcanic eruptions at Mr. St. Helens on her radio program.) Annette feels strongly about using her abilities for good and that they come from a "superior source." There's lots more to tell, but space being a factor, I'll save that for another time. NATIONAL ENQUIRER 1989 By France Owen Psychic Warns Housewife She Needs Surgery Hours Before Doctor Confirms It When Jean S. visited San Francisco psychic Annette Martin for a "psychic reading," she was shocked to learn that she needed surgery. "Annette said I was going to take a trip, but first I must have surgery," recalled Jean, of San Francisco. "She drew a picture of my gallbladder, with little round black things inside." The same afternoon, Jean went to see her doctor- and he immediately ordered her into the hospital for a gallbladder operation two days later. "The psychic was correct in her diagnosis," confirmed Dr. Richard Gardner, a San Francisco surgeon. "I took the gallbladder out and it was full of gallstones. They're dark green, but they look black." This was just one of the many incredibly accurate diagnoses made by Annette, who claims she is aided by the spirit of Edgar Cayce, a famed psychic diagnostician who died in 1945. Annette says Cayce first appeared to her in a vision in 1970, while she was in Hong Kong. Since then, he has reappeared many times, she said. Dr. John H. Borghi, director of the counseling center at San Jose State University, said he has collaborated with Annette in diagnosing "a large number of patients" in his private practice. "She seems amazingly accurate," he said. Sometimes "I'll have Annette come down and do a reading in the office with the patient and myself. Sometimes it provides a real breakthrough." Ezra L. of Los Altos, Calif., had a painful skin problem that afflicted him for 15 years, despite two operations, X-ray treatments and injections. "Then I went to Annette Martin," he said. "During the reading, she said Edgar Cayce was there, and that he had given her a diet for me to follow. "Annette told me to stay away from milk, milk products, meat, fats, proteins, grains, even white rice. It cured my skin condition - and I lost 50 pounds as well." Dr. Benjamin H. Moore, a Palo Alto physician who treated Ezra, said: "This diet seems to have had a positive effect on what was a serious skin condition. I'd say within a month he'll be completely healed." Rapport with clients helps psychic remold lives Los Altos TOWN CRIER September 16, 1981 Annette Martin, who has had the gift of psychic ability since she was a child, is determined to gain respect and recognition for psychics. "I feel like a pioneer," she said during a recent interview in her Los Altos office, where she practices as a psychic consultant. "I want to validate psychics so they are not thought of as gypsies or charlatans." Annette an animated, outgoing woman of 42, is now doing graduate work in psychology. Her goal is to earn a doctorate degree and become a licensed psychologist. In her career as a professional psychic, she has worked with the medical profession and law enforcement agencies, lectured, taught for eight years in local colleges, done radio and television programs and provided counseling. She is obviously pleased by being asked to join the Quota Club of Los Altos, service club composed of local business and professional women- a group not given to selecting gypsies or charlatans for its membership. In her State Street office, invitingly furnished with dramatic peacock rattan chairs and framed antique Oriental silk embroideries - acquired during her five years residence in Hong Kong - Annette discussed her experiences as a psychic. She discovered her psychic abilities when she was seven years old. "It runs in the family," she said. "I do believe everyone is psychic, but in some families it's more pronounced. I have it from both sides of the family." Her mother's mother, "extremely psychic," read cards in restaurants and her paternal grandmother's sister was a clairvoyant nun in France who predicted the assassination of Pope Pius X. My father is very, very psychic and uses it in his business- a large hardware store in Campbell," she continued, adding that her two sons, 21 and 18, both now in college, are also very psychic. Annette's psychic ability was enhanced by a career as a professional actress and singer. "I was a singing actress," she said, "with the capability to jump into other personalities and become that person for a short period od time." She credits her drama teacher, "a total genius in her 80s" with whom she trained for eight years, with teaching her to focus her attitude and take on another personality "without fear of losing myself." This skill has been invaluable in her psychic work. "I become you for that short period of time," she explained. "I can feel your aches and pains." Through trial and error and "lots of experience," she has learned how to counsel people - "to reflect to the person what I'm picking up in a loving and caring way." "Rapport with the client makes the changes," she continued. "I've seen tremendous changes in people. I've had lots and lots of feedback." Annette noted that one danger with making predictions in readings is that "we have free will and we can change the future." As an example, she cited a person who, told that he is going to get a certain job, relaxes and sits back on his laurels, confident that the job is in the bag. "He thinks, well, I'm going to get the job so I'm going to just sit here. You have to convey to the client that if he doesn't continue with the momentum, that's his choice. But don't sit back and wait for it to happen." She added, "What I, or any psychic, says to you is not God's word. There's no way we can be 100 percent accurate. We're just a tool to help you see that you can help yourself." Annette is deriving great satisfaction - and fun - from a weekly radio program she does 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesdays for station KFBK in Sacramento. As many as 49 listeners call in during the one and a half hours. "Once I get moving with the energy, it's so much fun to talk to that many people with such varied questions," she said. The callers range from senators to housewives to young kids, according to Annette. Among recent callers was a woman who wanted to know if she was going to move. "Immediately I got goose bumps - I call it my double whammy - which means it's going to be true," Annette recalled. "I said, "Oh, my gosh, I see you in a covered wagon with horses pulling it and going very far north." The startled woman exclaimed, "A friend is building a covered wagon. I have four horses and we're going to Alaska! Annette you are incredible!" In finding lost persons or animals, Annette relies on psychometry, using photos, maps, pieces of clothing or jewelry. "When I use a map, I'm following the energies of what I'm looking for," she explained. She was recently asked for help in finding two lost horses. One had run away and the other, "his friend," had accompanied him. Describing how she found the animals, Annette said, "I held a photo of the horses over a map. The one horse was telling me through the photo of his woman owner's idiosyncrasies - what he liked and didn't." The woman's husband agreed with the message which was coming through to the psychic By way of explanation, Annette said, "We're electrical beings. We have electromagnetic waves that go around us. I've trained myself to plug into your electro magnetic wave system. I'm reading that and getting information from it. "It's not complicated. It's not scary. It's not mystical. It's very much a part of us. It's all involved with our sixth sense - on the right side of the brain, the creative side. We've been trained to just use the left." She added, "The trick is to teach children and adults to use the right side of the brain." "Children are very open to psychics," she continued. "They're easy to read and very receptive, but getting them to want to make any kind of changes is another story." Annette works frequently with members of the medical profession. She has a list of doctors who send her their patients whose maladies remain undiagnosed after all traditional tests have been administered. One day a week she shares an office with a chiropractor, Dr. Jerry Spencer, at 450 Sutter St. San Francisco. Annette has made guest appearances on a number of radio and television programs and had another program of her own on a San Jose radio station, KXRX, before it changed to an all music format. One of her most enjoyable TV appearances was on the show, "Sound Off," when she was pitted against a magician who was a psychic debunker. "I won!!" she reported jubilantly. "The pendulum totally swung over to the other side." Summing up her philosophy, she said, "All I want to do is make people happy. In the theater, I thought I was fulfilling that but when I decided to become a professional psychic, then total fulfillment began to come in sight. "When you're helping people remold their lives, that's exciting." Psychic Advisor of The Airwaves San Francisco Examiner Tuesday July 22, 1980 By Lauri Itow Advice- from tips for the lovelorn to clues to finding lost items - is being dispensed each Sunday by a radio talk show host whose expertise is clairvoyance. Psychic Annette Martin, 42, has taken her one-hour program beyond the usual confines of radio. And Martin reaches into the lives of some telephone callers in a way they might not have imagined possible. Callers to San Jose station KXRX are allowed one question on any subject except medical matters. Although medical counseling is one of her specialties, she doesn't practice it on the air because she isn't a physician, and she'd not licensed to do so. From 7 to 8 p.m. each Sunday, about 30 Bay Area listeners consult with Martin without paying the $60 fee she charges for a 45-minute session in her Los Altos office. Martin asks callers their first names only, and says her "tremendous power of concentration" allows her to probe quickly and respond to questions. In the small brightly lit studio, Martin entertains and converses with her audience. There are no Tarot cards, crystal balls or other paraphernalia often associated with mystic practices. Instead, Martin claims to receive and "read" electrical energy transmitted by the caller's voice. Her predictions usually are made by interpreting images she visualizes. But she adds that if she feels goosebumps after being asked a question, that's a signal for a "yes" answer. To her knowledge, her Sunday talk show is the only one in the state hosted by a psychic although there are several nationwide. The program, which began March 30, was proposed after Martin appeared as a guest on a KXRX talk show, and the station was swamped with calls, according to Diane Raymond, station director of talk programs. Raymond attributes the interest in Martin to the public's quest for answers in today's complex world. The station has noted a large audience interest in astrologers as well as in psychics who offer an alternative in their search for information. Although only about 30 calls get through to Martin in each program, the phone company has recorded more than 500 attempts to reach her while it monitored one of the seven telephone lines used for the show. Raymond points out that before the show, the station airs a disclaimer, warning listeners that accepting Martin's advice is their own decision. "It's gret entertainment," Raymond says. Martin describes her psychic ability as a "finely tuned sixth sense," one she believes everyone possesses, but that not everyone uses. She says she first recognized her extrasensory perception when she was 7. But it wasn't until 1970 that she decided to make psychic counseling a profession. Martin, divorced and the mother of two teen-age sons, had worked as a professional actress and musical comedy and opera singer, so she felt comfortable tackling a radio talk show. In fact, she hopes the show might lead to nightclub appearances at Las Vegas casinos. In a typical Sunday program, callers might ask about a missing gold ring, a broken love affair or a troubled business. Psychic of the Airwaves Delves Into Hearts of Callers For example, a caller named Dennis for Palo Alto told Martin that he had a good job with a large firm, but he was wondering if he should quit to spend more time with his own small company. Martin told him that the large company he works for seems to be in "financial straits," a fact he confirmed. The company probably would lay off a lot of people in the future, she continued, but he wouldn't lose his job. Martin accurately described his private company as one which deals with "tiny" products, and she assured him that his business would improve. Her advice was to keep his job and continue nurturing his company. Dennis ended the conversation sounding relatively surprised and impressed. But not all her callers are left with that sense of satisfaction. When a woman asked Martin if her son would pass a real estate exam, she replied no. Martin had visualized a line with the son's name below it, signifying that he hadn't passed the exam, she told the caller. But the woman complained, "Last week, he (the son) called and you said he would make it." Martin says she can't explain why that happened. She told the caller that she'd be interested in knowing the test results, and the woman agreed to send her a postcard to let her know. The postcard arrived a week later and the son did not pass the exam. Martin estimates that she's 75 to 85 percent correct. "I know I'm not perfect" The cross Martin wears around her neck symbolizes "positive and negative energy" and also fits her Catholic upbringing. Although she believes in reincarnation, she still maintains a strong belief in God and the Bible, she says. Martin believes that psychics are more widely accepted today by the public as well as by part of the scientific community, and she hope the state someday will institute a licensing and testing procedure for those in her field. But she says to skeptics, "I'm not out prove anything." SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS June 4, 1980 By Aleta Watson She isn't your run - of - the - mill counselor The elegantly decorated second-floor offices with their exotic rattan furniture and ancient Chinese silks on the walls could belong to any manner of counselor. Annette Martin, however, is not your run - of- the- mill marriage counselor or psychologist. The shingle on Ms. Martin's door proclaims her a psychic counselor. For the last seven years, she has made a business out of the extraordinary powers she has claimed since childhood. From her offices on State Street in Los Altos, she works with business executives seeking financial help, searching for runaway children, sick people looking for the root of their illnesses, students attempting to develop their own sixth senses and even police detectives trying to solve a crime. Some have been referred by psychiatrists or doctors willing to accept a spiritualist's opinions. Others have heard about her from a friend or read about her in sources as varied as Peninsula magazine and the National Enquirer. Last year a Los Altos woman sought out Ms. Martin for reading on her missing daughter. The psychic, told the mother and police that Laura Anne Beyerly could be found, face down, under a bridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Felton. "I had seen a brushy area that looks like the Santa Cruz Mountains," she explained this summer when a portion of Laura's skull was found on a remote logging road in the area of Big Basin State Park. She also said she only heard the word "Felton" while she held Laura's picture and a piece of her clothing. That work made the newspapers but most f the counselor's police work is hush-hush. "I do that very quietly," she says. Her medical work is better known. It has even been written up in the Enquirer. "I do a lot of medical people who have been to 10 doctors and the doctors don't know what's going on," she said. "Sometimes the problem looks so complex and when I look at it, it's so simple." Ms. Martin settles into one of the throne-like chairs in her inner office. She's wearing a simple knit dress and a large gold cross hangs on a chain around her neck. "I don't even really like the word psychic," she confessed with a theatrical air born of years on stage as an actress and singer. "I'm trying to erase that," she said. "It gives a connotation of different, out of the ordinary and it isn't. Everyone has six senses. So-called psychics, she explains, have fine-tuned their sixth sense so they can tune into the electrical impulses projected by their subject. Ms. Martin said she has been able to feel those signals ever since she was 7 years old and sensed that a group of playmates in San Francisco was going to kill her just minutes before they began to stone her. Over the years, her unusual sensitivity has grown to the point that she says she now can "read" a stranger, although she does not give many free reading of emotional and physical health. "If people get a free reading," she said, "what I find is they don't listen." Ms. Martin does not want to stop at readings, though. She said she has a larger goal. "I want to educate the pubic," she said. "I don't want to give readings the rest of my life. I want to educate the public to a broader understanding and realization of what this is, that everyone has this capability and they can use this for everyda Medicine and The Medium San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle July 30, 1978 By Antoinette May The doctor is stymied. His patient does not respond to treatment. What to do? For the psychiatrist it maybe back to the couch. For the internist it could be, "Let's run another series of test." In either case, for the patient it will mean more time and money spent before a cure is effected. Now, for a few, there is an alternative: the psychic. A small number of local doctors are forming associations with mediums. In an effort to demonstrate psychic diagnosis, Dr. Gerald Jampolsky, a Tiburon psychiatrist, set up an experiment. On the evening of December 10, 1975, Annette Martin, a San Francisco medium, was taken to San Rafael High School where she was confronted by a research team of doctors. The patient, who was introduced to her as "Barbara," was seated at a desk. As Martin confronted her she became very agitated. "Something's severed!" she gasped. "It's between the waist and the top of the spine." Tears began to pour down Martin's face. "I don't see any movement. You're paralyzed." "That's right," Barbara nodded. "I see an automobile hit a wall and I hear a terrible crash. It's a car accident and you're pinned inside. That accident has left you paralyzed." After verifying that Barbara had been paralyzed as a result of a car accident (she had been lifted from her wheelchair and seated behind the dest for Martin's reading), Dr. Jampolsky suggested that the psychic describe Barbara's personality traits. "She has a lot of tension, a tremendous amount of stress," Martin said. "Barbar's personality is introverted and she's inclined to hold anger within herself." A personality profile that Barbara had filled out prior to the experiment matched this description. Martin then went on to point out a hearing problem. Barbara nodded, explaining to the doctors that she had once had a mastoid infection. "It affected your balance, didn't it?" Martin asked, and then continued without waiting for an answer. "I see you listing to the left." "Yes, that happened when I was a child., Barbara answered. "I couldn't walk without holding on to something because I'd fall to the left side. The infection was in my left ear. I still have some hearing difficulty." Annette Martin has no medical background whatsoever. The information comes to her, she says, by way of Edgar Cayce, a world famous medium who died in 1945. "Mr. Cayce first appeared to me in 1970," Martin explains. "He introduced himself and said he'd help me to help other people. Two friends who were with me and my husband at the time heard nothing but saw the indentation of a hand pressing down on the fabric of my blouse at the shoulder where he touched me. Since this time, "Mr. Cayce" (Martin says he's very formal and always wears a dark suit) has appeared many times, she claims. Dr. Jampolsky became professionally involved with Annette Martin after she successfully demonstrated her psychic abilities for him. "She was surprisingly accurate," he says. "I became intrigued by the possibilities of a psychic supplement to medicine. Imagine the new hope this could bring to situations where the conventional approaches have been exhausted." Psychic Begins Pilot Program In Counseling Rocky Mountain News Denver Colorado July 15, 1978 By Antoinette May PALO ALTO, CALIF. When Annette Martin was seven years old, she had an experience that determined the course of her life. While playing with a group of other youngsters in her native San Francisco, she discovered that she had psychic powers. Annette had a vision in which she saw her "friends" suddenly turn on her with intent to hurt her. "Pick up that stick and be ready to defend yourself," a voice inside her warned. The stick and the advance warning became an ugly reality. FOR NO APPARENT reason, Annette's playmates turned on her, forcing her into a doorway where they began stoning her. Annette's grandmother glanced out the window and was able to rescue the bruised and bleeding child who was just managing to hold off her attackers with the stick. That youthful experience was only the beginning. Soon afterward, Annette became aware of a new ability to tell when friends and relatives were not telling the truth. "I thin it was all a kind of psychic set up intended to jolt me into a conscious awareness of my paranormal abilities, says Martin today. These have been developed to such an extent over the years that she is now involved in a pilot program which represents a new concept in counseling - a psychotherapist and a psychic working as a team. After an initial session with the psychotherapist, a patient receives a reading from Mrs. Martin in the presence of the therapist. This added insight is a great time saver for the doctor and subsequent money saver for the patient, they believe. Mrs. Martin's experimental work is being done with Dr. Gerald Jampolsky of Tiburon and Dr. Jerome Littell of San Rafael both in the San Francisco area. The work grew out of an effort nearly three years ago by Jampolsky, a psychiatrist, to set up an experiment to demonstrate psychic diagnosis. On the evening of December 10, 1975, Annette Martin, was taken to San Rafael High School where she was confronted by a research team of doctors. THE PATIENT who was introduced to her as "Barbara," was seated at a desk. As Martin confronted her she became very agitated. "Something's severed!" she gasped. "It's between the waist and the top of the spine." Tears began to pour down Martin's face. "I don't see any movement. You're paralyzed." "That's right," Barbara nodded. "I see an automobile hit a wall and I hear a terrible crash. It's a car accident and you're pinned inside. That accident has left you paralyzed." After verifying that Barbara had been paralyzed as a result of a car accident (she had been l