Diane Lazarus from Llanelli in Wales has helped the authorities track down numerous missing persons and worked on several murders. She is also on the ‘official’ list of police psychics.
One of her most chilling cases focused on the murder of 17-year-old Raonaid Murray in Dun Laoghaire, in the Republic of Ireland, in 1999.
“When I visited the murder scene I felt the knife go into the left hand side of my body,” says Diane. “That knife is now in someone’s kitchen drawer.”
Diane was invited onto the case by Detective Inspector Eamon O’Reilly of the Irish Garda. To prove her ability, Diane told DI O’Reilly and one of his assistants some personal information known only to themselves.
“It was disturbing,” says DI O’Reilly. “Diane is a very impressive lady. She really frightened me.”
After proving her mettle, Diane was taken to Raonaid’s home and to her bedroom. She asked the girl’s parents what had happened to the poetry that Raonaid had written on the wall. It turned out that her distaught parents had wallpapered over it. DI O’Reilly maintains that she could have not known about Raonaid’s poetry by any conventional means.
The officers then took Diane to the murder scene, where Raonaid’s spirit re-played the whole shocking attack. It was a devastating experience that Diane has difficulty talking about even now.
According to Diane, Raonaid was stabbed to death shortly after midnight on September 4th 1999. She was rushing home from work when, Diane says, a man approached her with a knife. He was a regular in the pub where she worked and had spent the entire evening watching her every movement.
“He was a stalker,” says Diane. “He was waiting for her in the lane. He approached her and started trying to grab her bags but I think he was out to kill her. He slashed her arms as she struggled to break free. Then he stabbed her. She fought to the last.”
Diane’s description of the injuries closely matches those discovered in the post-mortem. DI O’Reilly maintains that this information was a closely guarded secret. Again, Diane cannot have known about them through any conventional means.
Diane’s grim evidence is proving useful to the Irish Garda. She told them the initials of the murderer – and they match those of the prime suspect. Diane also gave them a detailed description of the murderer. Again it matches that of the prime suspect.
Eamon O’Reilly is convinced he knows the identity of the killer. But just as in the case of Jacqui Poole, the suspect has an alibi. And just as in that case, only time will tell whether it will outlive the suspect.