Thursday, 15 June 2006
Reporter: Jack Kerr
What do you see?
What would you do if a medium you'd taken to look for spirits in the forest was drawn to a 15 metre deep shaft at the bottom of which you could see bones that looked like a young child's arm and hand?
Comedian Greg Fleet calls South Australia the "shallow bush grave capital of the world", and the state's largest regional centre, Mt Gambier, has so many hectares and hectares of sinkhole-riddled pine forests that it is bound to have a dark saga or two waiting to be uncovered.
So, with this in mind, I sought out the help of a medium to see if we what secrets of the pines we could he uncover.
My research brought me in contact with the Western Australian psychic, Anthony Grzelka. The Bunbury based "ghost whisperer" travels the country giving workshops and as luck would have it, he was coming to Mt Gambier on a return visit following some successful sessions last year.
I picked him from his hotel and, with his entourage in tow in their hired 4WD, we headed out to the Caroline Forest.
About 15kms south-east from the centre of town, the Caroline Forest is one of the closest plantations to town.
It's a spot, I'm told by a contact from the local constabulary, that the police have their suspicions about, though nothing specific had ever turned up.
As our convey entered the woods, something piqued Anthony's interest. As a shiver ran down my spine (was it anticipation or something more supernatural?), Anthony said we needed to turn left.
A few hundred metres down the next track, we stop the car and he tells me he feels the spirit of a young bloke in his 30s called John who was found about five or ten years ago.
"I feel like (John) was left here. Or just discarded here. Discarded would be a better word because I don't feel this person was treated with any respect.
"I do believe this person was murdered and I feel like...either I was choked or stabbed or something around this upper area here.
"I do feel like there was more than one person responsible for my passing here and I feel that there was at least two people and one of these I think is somewhat known to this person.
"It was not a pre-calculated thing. Maybe an argument got out of hand or there was an argument that got out of hand or there was something else that happened and all of a sudden this guy winds up dead.
"I actually believe that this person's been found though. I don't feel like he's still here.
"I don't think he was (well hidden), maybe some scrub thrown over the top of him. Certainly wasn't buried. Very shabbily done."
The voice, he tells me, isn't a scream or a plea for help - "nothing quite as dramatic as that...and that's television that give you that idea". It's more that 'John' has left a psychic fingerprint in the area.
"I'm going to try and find were he was."
We keep heading down the track and the feeling get's stronger.
"It's funny, because I feel like there's a signpost that would say, like, water or there would be some connection to like a water supply and that will mark the road that we need to turn down."
We looked at our map for the first time, and headed further along Hutcheson's Rd towards a dam. The feeling becomes weaker and as we head back, notice something 20 or 30 metres deep within the forest that slipped by initially.
"(You can't) say that you're going to find a water tank out in the middle of this forest...and here we are, standing right next to a corrugated iron water tank."
Time has had it's way on the tank - it's rusty and partially collapsed and it's based is being dislodged by the roots of the giant pines that it's in amongst.
Eerie, yes. But it's not what he is looking for. For starters, it's on the wrong side of the road. But Anthony's calling is drawing us back towards where we first stopped.
Perched up a little higher in their our 4WD, our companions tell us they spotted a well down a track earlier in our venture. Bingo!
"Earlier on in the investigation, as we were coming down the road, I said to you we've got to get a bit further but then we've got to turn left.
"To one side of us is all new forest (five to ten years young), so it wouldn't surprise me (if) maybe this guy was found when they harvested the old forest."
This is the spot to which Anthony feels he has been summoned.
Anthony reckons this is as far as he'll be able to trace the psychic fingerprint. After all, there was no body to be found.
But just as we're wrapping things up, Anthony's wife, who has been travelling with us, nearly stumbles in down a 15 metre deep, concrete shaft which has been covered over by weeds.
Anthony shows little interest at first, but everybody else is not so sure. It would be an easy spot to ditch a body - or an easy hole for a child to fall down. The plot thickens.
While I rummage around for a torch in the car, one of the entourage peers down the well and - when his eyes adjust - he can make out some white sticks: bones.
My torch is out of batteries, so Anthony's wife uses the high powered flash on her camera to take a shot.
Looking at the viewer screen, what we see makes everybody - even Anthony a little - shaken.
It looks like the arm and hand of a small child.
Nervously, I call the police and offer to bring the photo in. They tell us to wait and as we do, all the possible scenarios are played out.
"By the look of these bones, they look very suspicious," says Anthony. "They could well be animal bones, but I think it was our duty, because of the way we got here and what's happened, that we did call the police...just in case."
Anthony continues to say that whatever the outcome, this isn't what he has been called out for.
"But it's weird how we got led to this exact spot and perhaps have found some bones that could be human."
The police arrive and with their torch lights. They aren't anywhere near powerful enough but, eventually, they can make out a skull with a long jaw - like that of a kangaroo or dog.
As we wait for a vet to come and identify them (and a forestry ranger to seal the hole before anyone falls down it for real), I start to think about the passing traffic on the nearby road.
It's the road we came down from Mt Gambier. With all our left turns, we've done a loop. Could Anthony or one of his crew have spotted this well and created a hoax to get us back here?
This wait gives us time to quiz the cops. They tell us no bodies have been found here in the last 15 years, or not that they are aware of at least.
The vet identifies it as a dog - but understands our earlier concern, saying that bones of a human arm and dogs front legs look very similar.
Anthony's conclusion?
"I don't even feel the vibration (or the calling from the spirit) now, so I feel that we've go it right. It might be different if he was undiscovered. But he's been found and I just feel like I'm in the area where perhaps he was found.
"A psychic's job or a medium's job is never to solve a crime. I don't think we can. But we can do is add pieces in to the jigsaw.
"The forearm really spooked you...but that wasn't the reason I got drawn to this area.
"It's just weird how it's all fitted in to place and we've got to this exact spot."
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/southeastsa/stori ... m?backyard
