By  Seamus McGraw

July 17, 2006

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OCILLA, Ga.  (Crime Library) — To some, they are gifted seers, virtual mystics who can at times peer into the unseen world. On occasion, believers claim, the truly gifted can catch glimpses of the past and from those glimpses, if they're lucky, they can divine clues to help unravel seemingly unsolvable mysteries.

To others, they are nothing more than charlatans and opportunists, hucksters who shamelessly promote themselves as they prey on anguished families of crime victims, tantalizing them with obscure references laced with mystical numbers or vague references to common items or broad description of common locales.

Anita Gattis (left) with Carla Baron

But regardless of the controversy, psychic detectives, as some have dubbed them, have become increasingly visible in modern criminal investigations. Among the most visible is Carla Baron, a self-described psychic profiler whose exploits are detailed in the Court TV series "Haunting Evidence." Earlier this year, Baron joined the hunt for missing schoolteacher and beauty queen Tara Grinstead, who vanished last October after attending a local beauty pageant. Details of Baron's psychic investigation, conducted in March, will air tonight. In it, Baron meets with family members, does a reading, and discusses with them some of their fears and her own feelings about Tara Grinstead's fate.

Haunting Evidence (Court TV)

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