A psychic accurately predicted the place the stays of a lacking Utah school scholar — who disappeared greater than 50 years in the past — could be lastly discovered, in accordance with an investigator who closed the chilly case earlier this month.
The case of Douglas Brick — a 23-year-old College of Utah senior lively in a number of educational organizations when he disappeared from his dorm on Oct. 12, 1973 — had stumped police for 5 a long time.
Police and rescue employees performed a frantic seek for Brick that October, however the case went chilly for years.
A breakthrough occurred final fall when a hunter found cranium fragments within the foothills above the college and alerted authorities.
A DNA lab lastly confirmed in early Could that the stays have been certainly these of Brick, by getting a 99.9% genetic match with a residing relative, in accordance with a press launch from the College of Utah.
“We never stopped hoping for answers about Doug’s disappearance,” Brick’s household mentioned in a press release. “We are relieved to finally have some answers. After 52 years, this result, while sad, is nothing short of a miracle.”
When Main Heather Sturzenegger and Det. John Dial took over the case in 2022 all that they had was a pile of contradictory leads that went nowhere, the discharge mentioned.
Some folks theorized that Brick had dropped out and hitchhiked to a different city to begin his life over. Others thought perhaps he had fled the nation.
When the weathered fragments of his cranium have been discovered on the high of Black Mountain, it broke the case open.
Though cutting-edge science closed the case, a psychic featured prominently within the investigation – predicting Brick’s destiny 35 years earlier than his stays have been discovered, in accordance with the discharge.
Brick’s mom, Donna, who died in 2010, stored a journal monitoring her ideas and developments in her son’s case. An entry she wrote in 1990 describes an uncanny encounter that left an enduring impression on one of many detectives.
The heartbroken mother wrote that whereas purchasing at a division retailer in Salt Lake Metropolis, she occurred to satisfy a retailer clerk who mentioned she was a psychic.
“Maybe you can tell me what happened to my son,” Donna had requested.
“He really wants you to find him,” the psychic advised her, in accordance with the entry.
The psychic revealed particulars nobody would have identified on the time about Brick’s disappearance. She advised Donna that her son had gone to the foothills above campus, the place he contemplated ending his life. However he turned afraid, and since it was darkish, he slipped and fell, she mentioned, in accordance with the discharge.
“These details stuck out to me,” Dial mentioned in a press release. “Where the skull was located, the terrain I was traversing as part of the search, it is extremely steep and loose on both sides, and I was having a hard time in the daylight keeping my footing under me and figuring out where I was going.”
Investigators mentioned they nonetheless don’t understand how Brick died.
Dial, who flew out to California to inform the household the information, mentioned he developed a private reference to Brick in the course of the investigation.
“In a way, it’s hard to explain. There was a push and a connection that I felt was from Douglas,” Dial mentioned in a press release. “I have felt very strongly that I will always have Douglas in the back of my mind.”
“For me, I just wanted to try to bring closure to the family and solve the case so they can have some peace,” Sturzenegger mentioned.
