Psychic helps solve 1973 case, predicts correct location of missing US student’s remains: 'Miracle'

A DNA test conducted on the skull fragments earlier this month found a 99.9 percent genetic match with a living relative, proving that the remains were indeed of the missing student, Douglas Brick. (Representational image: Unsplash)

A psychic's prediction helped US investigators crack a 52-year-old case of a college student who went missing from his university dorm in 1973. The case had gone cold, but the breakthrough happened after hunters found Douglas Brick's skull fragments in the foothills above the University of Utah and alerted authorities. A DNA test earlier this month found a 99.9 percent genetic match with a living relative, proving that the remains were indeed of Bricks, the New York Post reported.

The case remained unsolved for five decades despite initial searches, but investigators recently came across an entry from a journal kept by Brick's mother, Donna, who died in 2010. A 1990 entry detailed her encounter with a store clerk who claimed to be a psychic. Donna asked, "Maybe you can tell me what happened to my son." The psychic replied: "He really wants you to find him." She then described the 23-year-old student going to the foothills above campus, where he contemplated ending his life but slipped and fell in the dark. Investigator John Dial, who took over the case in 2022, noted these details matched the "extremely steep and loose" terrain where the skull was discovered.

“These details stuck out to me,” Dial stated. “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.”

Meanwhile, Brick's family called it a "miracle". "We never stopped hoping for answers about Doug’s disappearance. We are relieved to finally have some answers. After 52 years, this result, while sad, is nothing short of a miracle," they stated.

Investigators still do not know how Brick died.