An Italian psychic who led police to the body of a missing woman at the bottom of Lake Como says an unworldly vision allowed her to unravel the three-year-old mystery

Maria Rosa Busi, who skeptics call a fake, said she saw the last moments of Chiara Bariffi's life before she plunged into the lake inside her car in late 2002, and even heard a message from the deceased. "I went to the lake, and I saw where it happened ... I heard her, I saw her and I drew a map," Busi told Reuters. "Nobody thought she was in the lake."

Busi, who says she has clairvoyant powers, was first contacted by the parents of the victim earlier this year to find out what happened to their daughter. They sent her a photograph of Bariffi, who was around 30 years old when she disappeared. "When I saw the photo, I knew that she was dead," Busi said.

Police were baffled

Police had been baffled and the missing persons case had languished. Murder was a possibility and, since Bariffi had also battled with emotional problems, there was a theory she committed suicide. The family even heard that Bariffi might have left the country for Spain, Busi said. While refusing to say outright how she thought Bariffi died, something she only told the mother, Busi suggested bad weather near the northern lake probably played a role in her fate. "That evening there was a flood, a landslide, there were problems on the road," she said.

The discovery has generated a controversy, particularly comments by Busi that police refused to believe her, forcing her to seek help elsewhere in retrieving the body. She said police were "very embarrassed" when Bariffi's remains were located. Skeptics say Busi just got lucky, rehashing an old theory and making an educated guess about the woman, who lived in the area of the lake.

An educated guess?

"That Chiara ended up in Lake Como, and not in Venice or who knows where, was already known: it was in fact the most likely hypothesis," said Massimo Polidoro, the head of a skeptics group called the committee for the control of paranormal affirmations. Others have suggested that she more probably did some research on the Internet instead of speaking with the dead. But Remo Bonetti, a rescue worker who has led similar searches for bodies in the past, said that the mystery would not have been solved without Busi's help. "Without the directions of Maria Rosa no one would have ever been able to find her, unless by accident," Bonetti was quoted as saying in Il Messaggero newspaper. Busi said she has a steady job working in a health clinic. But since authorities found Bariffi's car at the bottom of the lake, she has been received calls for help from other families and has taken on three new "cases". "They're mums who are asking for help. They are missing children, babies," she said. "I will do what I can." 

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The case of Chiara Bariffi, a 30 years old woman disappeared between the night of the 30th November and the morning of 1st December 2002 while driving home from a night spent with friends. Her body was found 3 years later on the backseat of her car in the lake Como where rescuers and Police already searched profusely, thanks to the vision/tips of a psychic, Maria Rosa Busi. She was contacted by Chiara's parents, accepted helping the victim's family and started working on the case. 

Shortly after, she claimed to have had a vision of Chiara calling her from the bottom of the lake, trapped in her car. The family along with the psychic, who previously cooperated with the same rescue group that would recover the body of Chiara from the lake, decided to go to the police station with a map where the psychic drew a circle around the exact location where she was sure the car (and the body) was located. LE along with the rescue group and the psychic went to the lake and in the matter of minutes, Chiara's body was located and recovered from the lake, 3 years after she was last seen alive by her friends. 

There's been a lot of rumors regarding the psychic and whether her visions were genuine or maybe she had a little help from the locals who were already suspicious of the man who was frequently seen with Chiara and would later be charged with murder (and very shortly after released, free of all charges). She was present in court during the trial as well and claimed that the police actually enthusiastically accepted her help to later deny she had any relevant role in the "solution" of the case. I say "solution" because unfortunately nobody knows after all these years what happened to Chiara, who struggled with severe depression and whose only close friend was the same 60 years old man who would be charged in the trial for her murder, and later released and compensated for wrongful imprisonment, despite all the wiretapping/bugging evidence that was presented and admitted in court, as well as other evidence from witnesses. Sad case.

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You are referencing a specific and well-known narrative regarding the 2004 murder of Ashley Howley. While the case was officially solved through conventional police work, it gained significant attention due to the involvement of a psychic medium who, years earlier, had reportedly identified key details of the crime, including the location of Howley's body.

Here are the details of the case, focusing on the psychic involvement you asked about.

Psychic-involvement 🔮 The Psychic Narrative

The central figure in this part of the story is Kristy Robinett, a psychic medium from Michigan.

• Initial Contact: According to Robinett, in 2005 (approximately one year after Howley's disappearance), she was awakened one night by the spirit of a young woman. This spirit allegedly identified herself as "Ashley" and communicated that she had been murdered by her boyfriend.

• Details of the Crime: The spirit reportedly showed Robinett images of the murder, indicating she had been choked and her body was encased in cement.

• Identifying the Location: "Ashley" allegedly gave Robinett specific directions to find her remains. She described a location in Columbus, Ohio, near a highway (specifically Route 315), a body of water, and a specific building.

• Contacting Authorities: Robinett, who had no prior knowledge of the case, searched online and found the missing person's report for Ashley Howley. She contacted both the Columbus police and Howley's family with the information.

• Validating the Location: Robinett traveled to Columbus to meet with Howley's family. Following the directions she claimed to have received, she led them to a specific wooded area near state Route 315. She pointed to a precise spot and stated that this was where Ashley's body was hidden.

At the time, authorities were unable to act on this information, as there was no probable cause to excavate the private property.

🏛️ The Official Investigation and Resolution

While the psychic's story was unfolding, the official police investigation was separate. Here is how the case was officially solved.

• Disappearance (June 16, 2004): 20-year-old Ashley Howley disappeared after filing an assault report against her boyfriend, Robert P. MacMichael. He was the primary suspect, but there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

• A New Crime (December 2007): The case went cold for over three years. Then, in December 2007, Robert MacMichael was arrested for the brutal murders of his mother and her boyfriend.

• Connecting the Cases: With MacMichael in custody for a double homicide, investigators re-focused on him for Ashley Howley's disappearance.

• Discovery of Remains (April 4, 2008): Acting on new leads (generated from the 2007 murder investigation, not the psychic's tip), authorities began searching the area near Route 315. They discovered human remains encased in quick-set cement.

• Confirmation: The remains were found in the exact location that psychic Kristy Robinett had pointed to three years earlier. Dental records confirmed the remains belonged to Ashley Howley.

• Conviction (July 22, 2008): To avoid the death penalty for the three murders, Robert P. MacMichael pleaded guilty to the aggravated murders of Ashley Howley, his mother, and his mother's boyfriend. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In summary, while the case was officially solved by the perpetrator's own subsequent crimes leading to his arrest, the psychic narrative is defined by the fact that Kristy Robinett had accurately identified the victim, the killer, the manner of death, and the precise, hidden location of the body years before it was officially discovered.

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A Covenant teen survived being trapped in her car for eight days

Do you believe in miracles? Even the staunchest of skeptics had to do a double take over the story of Laura Hatch, which grabbed newspaper headlines and made national television news. On Sunday, October 10, the seventeen year old was found alive a few miles from her home in Redmond, Washington, after being trapped for eight days in her wrecked car without food or water. Laura had been missing since October 2, when she was seen leaving a party at a friend’s house. Over the next week, her family, neighbors, friends, and church family at Creekside Covenant Church in Redmond organized search parties and held prayer vigils. Amy Hatch, twenty-five, the eldest of the the family’s five children, helped organize the search effort, and got up at 3:30 each morning to go out and post missing person flyers about Laura. She says there was “a lot of crying and not much sleep” at home. “It was eight days of hell,” she says. “Not knowing was the worst.

It was worse than having an answer. I just wanted to know where she was. I couldn’t grieve.” Still, Amy says, she and Laura’s twin sister, Karen, refused to believe Laura was dead. “It was my survival mechanism, I think,” she says. “But I had absolutely nothing to go on—eight days with no word of any kind.” 

The Hatches, Todd and Jean, along with Amy, Daniel (twenty-two), Kathleen (nineteen), and Karen, kept going with the help of family and friends, along with a chaplain from the city of Redmond. Creekside pastors Randy Phillips and Kim Hjelm spent a lot of time at the house as well. “Mom was losing hope, but the one thing she had was her faith,” Amy says. “Her only consolation was, ‘If Laura is gone, at least I know where she is.’ She really appreciated her friends from church who cared for her and prayed with her.”

Laura was found by a family friend, Sha Nohr, who discovered her car crashed in a ravine, obscured by vegetation. Nohr, whose daughter is a close friend of Laura’s, says that a God-given vision led her to the crash site. On Saturday, October 9, Nohr’s daughter had come to her, distraught over her missing friend, and wondering what they could to do help find Laura. Nohr told her daughter that all they could do was pray.

That night, Nohr said she had several dreams of a wooded area. She said she heard the message, “Keep going. Keep going.” She woke the next morning feeling a sense of urgency to go look for Laura. She and her daughter drove to a spot by a steep embankment. Nohr got out of her car and inched her way more than 200 feet down through thick vegetation. At the bottom, she didn’t see anything at first and was about to leave. Then she saw something that looked like a car. It was Laura’s 1996 Toyota Camry.

With help from a passing motorist who had stopped and joined in the search, Nohr reached the car. They paused for a moment, fearing what they would see. One of them accidentally bumped against the car and they heard a moan from inside. It was Laura.

“I told her that people were looking for her and they loved her,” Nohr told The Seattle Times. “And she said, ‘I think I might be late for curfew.’” While Nohr was climbing into the ravine, the congregation at Creekside was gathering at Redmond Junior High for the first of two Sunday services.

In the days after Laura’s disappearance, the church family at Creekside had been gathering to pray for her safe return. The day before Laura was found, hundreds of people met at Redmond High School and searched a five miles area for signs of her. The next morning, people were surprised to see Todd and Jean in church for worship.

“They just wanted to be there,” says Randy Phillips. “They wanted to worship, see their friends. At the end of that first service, we knelt and prayed for Laura.” The Hatches had just arrived home from church when the phone rang.

Todd Hatch answered—it was Sha Nohr. “I have your daughter,” she said. He could hear an ambulance in the background. When Nohr told him that Laura was alive, Todd began to cry. Nohr handed the cell phone to Laura, and Todd told her, “Hi Sweetie, I love you.”

“I love you, too, Dad,” she said. “Don’t worry. I’ll be O.K.” Amy walked into the house during this phone conversation. (She had been at Starbucks after church.) She drove her parents to the crash site off of Union Hill Road in Redmond. When they arrived, rescue workers were trying to get Amy out. She was in rough shape. “I touched her hand and told her I loved her,” Amy says. “She said, ‘I love you, too.’”

It took about forty minutes to get Laura out of the car, and she was rushed to Harborview Hospital. The second Sunday service had just ended when Randy got a call from Todd. He was at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Laura was alive. “I couldn’t quite believe it,” Phillips says. “I turned to the folks in our church, and said, ‘They’ve found her.’ We knelt down and prayed, and then I rushed to the hospital.” 

As news spread that afternoon that Laura had been found alive, a prayer vigil for Laura that evening became a service of praise and thanksgiving. Over the next several days, Phillips was deluged by calls from media outlets—Dateline NBC, The Today Show, CBS Morning Show, Fox News—as well as local television and newspaper reporters. Phillips told reporters that Hatch’s rescue was the result of prayer, the show of strength by her family, the support of the Creekside congregation and other friends. “It’s obvious that prayer affected the quality of relationships here—and it also affected the outcome,” Phillips says. Laura, who has no recollection how she wound up at the bottom of the ravine, was in rough shape when she was rushed to the hospital. Her right eye socket, cheekbone, and nose had been crushed. She had a blood clot in her brain, and she was severely dehydrated. Doctors said that dehydration probably saved her life, because the lack of water kept the blood clot from expanding. 

Laura had surgery on November 2 to remove the blood clot and reset facial fractures. She faces a long recovery, and will likely miss the rest of the school year. She tires early and there are days when Laura has a lot of pain because of injuries to her head and neck. 

“Her life won’t be normal for a while,” says Amy. The Hatches have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love they have received, and are grateful for the love and prayers of friends and strangers. So are those who were able to help.

“Those of us who caught a glimpse of the anguish that the Hatch family experienced, and then shared in the amazing joy of Laura being found, cannot be left unchanged,” says Kim Hjelm, associate pastor at Creekside, who helped organize congregational support during the eight-day ordeal. “Our lives should be impacted deeply and noticeably.”

Do you believe in miracles? Randy Phillips does. He has for quite sometime. He sees them every day. “A reporter asked me if this was the biggest answer to prayer I had ever seen,” he said. “I said, ‘No way.’ Was this one dramatic? Yes. Exciting? Yes. But I get to see answers to prayer every day. . . . From a human perspective, this is a big deal. But from God’s point of view, he’s doing this kind of thing all the time.” 

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