Desperate families turning to psychics

Desperate Rotorua families are turning to psychics to try to solve murder and missing person mysteries.

Kararaina Brown's sister Tewhai Brown disappeared 10 years ago, aged 31.

Now, Kararaina is hoping a television psychic coming to Rotorua can help unravel the mystery behind Tewhai's disappearance.

The psychic - Australian Deb Webber - has already helped the Rotorua family of Olive Walker, 18, who was murdered in 1970.

Bizarrely, Olive and Tewhai are related - they are cousins.

Olive's death featured on television programme Sensing Murder earlier this year, in which Ms Webber investigated her death.

Ms Webber has since claimed that Olive "jumped in my body" as she communicated with her.

Although the episode did not identify a killer, it prompted a flood of fresh information from viewers to Rotorua police on the historic case.

Ms Webber is now touring New Zealand.

Kararaina said she wanted to meet Ms Webber when she was in Rotorua next month to see if she could shed any light on Tewhai's disappearance.

The then 31-year-old was last seen walking along State Highway 33 towards Tauranga from her Okere Falls home on a Thursday morning in March, 1996.

She has never been seen again.

Kararaina said Ms Webber was a last resort for finding news of her sister.

Communication with the spirits of the departed was an integral part of Maori culture, she said.

Although the Sensing Murder production crew had contacted her when the Olive Walker episode was being filmed last year, she had not heard from them again.

Kararaina's sister, Aroha Brown, said she wanted to find out what had happened to Tewhai.

However, she was wary of the spirit of their recently deceased mother being unwillingly dragged into any seance, particularly one on stage in front of an audience of strangers.

"In our Maoritanga we have our own tohunga [spiritual healers]. We should really go to our own before reaching out to anyone else."

Meanwhile, Olive Walker's sister, Mary Dillon, said she had no regrets about the Sensing Murder episode on her sister's murder. However, she would not be attending Ms Webber's Rotorua show for fear of being hit with a sudden revelation about the identity of her killer.

"We were told [by the television psychics] that we were supposed to know him and he knew us.

"I don't know if I would be able to handle the shock if that came out there and then."

She was rapt with the huge response to the episode.

Rotorua police are still investigating the Olive Walker case.

The Central North Island family of missing Hamilton woman Francesca Martin, who disappeared a year ago, have also recently employed three psychics to find her. Ms Martin's car was found abandoned in Wairakei.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)