How A Psychic Helped Find The Body Of Mary Cousett

In April 1983, Mary Cousett from Alton, Illinois disappeared after leaving her home with her boyfriend Stanley Holiday Jr. (via Newspaper Archive). Little is known about Cousett's case, however, Holiday was arrested and would confess to her murder. The only problem? Investigators could not find the 27-year-old's body. After seven months of searching police took an unusual route. According to the Chicago Tribune, they called Greta Alexander, a woman with psychic abilities. Alexander was locally known for her talents and for greatly helping the needy.

She had once been a housewife and mother until a peculiar incident occurred. While pregnant with her fifth child, a bolt of lightning struck her room. Although she insisted that she had psychic abilities since childhood, she claimed the lightning awakened them. Soon, she turned her new talents into a full-fledged career.  Now, her skills were needed to find Cousett's body. According to TruthUncovered.TV, she had been assisting police with missing person cases since 1974. Alexander never charged the police for her services. 

Per the Chicago Tribune, Alexander circled an area on a map and told investigators to search there. Furthermore, UPI reports that she gave them 22 clues about Cousett's body that cited its "condition" and how it would be discovered. This included that her foot and head would be detached. Alexander also stated that whoever would find her would have a "bad hand" and that the initial "S" would be important.

On October 29, 1983, Mary Cousett's body was discovered near Peoria, Illinois (via TruthUncovered.TV). Interestingly, policeman Steve Trew, who had a deformed hand, found her. Cousett, a mother of two, had been stabbed to death. Her foot was missing and her skull was found a few feet away from the rest of her remains. In other words, most of Alexander's predictions had come true, and police heavily credited the psychic for finding Cousett.

One detective said that he was now a believer. Alexander herself said Cousett was waiting to be found. However, not everyone was convinced of her abilities. One skeptic later wrote that many reports had failed to mention the predictions that had not come true. Moreover, Cousett's body had been found far off from the area Alexander had initially circled. Despite her critics, she would continue her work with the police and the community until her death in 1998 at the age of 66 (per AP News).