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Browne wrong again: Jamie Barker

Questioninggeller

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Joined
May 11, 2002
Messages
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February 22, 2001 Thursday Final Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. A1 / FRONT
LENGTH: 457 words
HEADLINE: Barker's body embedded in riverbed, psychic says
SOURCE: Windsor Star
BYLINE: Donald McArthur Star Staff Reporter
BODY:


Jamie Barker will likely remain buried forever in a watery grave beneath the Ambassador Bridge, his widow was told by a renowned psychic on the Montel William's Show.

"He's on the site, there's no doubt about it," psychic Sylvia Browne tells Marion Barker in an episode of the popular talk show aired Tuesday.

"Will he ever surface?" Marion timidly asks from the audience in a voice tinged with hope.

"Not unless they dig and I don't think they will," replies Browne.

Browne goes on to stress that too much emphasis is placed on recovering missing bodies for proper burials.

"Honey, please take my word for it, they don't care," she says.

"He's happy. He went so quick."

The show was filmed in New York City Feb. 15 -- three months and a day after Barker went missing when a city-block sized painter's scaffold collapsed beneath the Ambassador Bridge.
...
Marion hopes Browne's words will put an end to the taunts levelled at her and Barker's children that Barker is still alive and living off ill-gotten insurance money -- insurance money that hasn't materialized and won't materialize, without a body.
...
At Williams' request, an emotional Marion recounts for Browne and millions of viewers the broad strokes of the tragedy, including her agonizing wait at hospital when she believed her husband was still alive.

Browne listens carefully, nodding her head and encouraging Marion to go on and then concludes Barker is still somehow buried beneath the surface.

When Williams explains the scaffolding has all been hauled up, Browne doesn't waver but agrees with the show's host that the body of Barker may be embedded in the riverbed.

A popular talk-show psychic with her own Web site and book deals, Browne has made several appearances on Williams' show as well as Unsolved Mysteries, Sightings, Encounters and That's Incredible.

GRAPHIC: Jamie Barker
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In reality:

NEWSPAPER: Windsor Star (Ontario)
DATE: June 15, 2004 Tuesday Final Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 476 words
HEADLINE: Safety Rope Failed
BYLINE: Sarah Sacheli

BODY:

There was no evidence that the rope found connected to bridge painter Jamie Barker's harness broke the fall that killed him, the first day of a coroner's inquest into his death heard Monday.
...
Barker, 28, was one of 10 workers painting the Canadian side of the bridge on Nov. 14, 2000, when the platform suspended from the bridge collapsed.

While others scrambled onto the bridge to safety and two other workers were rescued from the Detroit River, Barker disappeared. His body was recovered nearly five months later after being spotted by a fisherman off the shoreline in LaSalle.
...
Earlier Monday, Ash had called the dentist who positively identified Barker's body through dental records and the forensic pathologist who performed his autopsy.

The pathologist, Dr. Michael Brennan, testified Barker suffered no broken bones or head injuries in the 15-storey fall. Brennan said Barker drowned.

Dr. Thomas Wilson, the regional coroner presiding over the inquest, told the five-man jury that their job is to determine the cause and circumstances surrounding Barker's death and make recommendations to "prevent deaths of a similar nature in the future."
...
Wilson said the inquest is not a trial, so no one can be criminally liable based on any testimony given.

GRAPHIC: Colour Photo: Marion Barker
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In sum, Browne said Jamie Barker's body was underneath the Ambassador Bridge and would not be found. In reality, it was found later in LaSalle, Quebec two months after the Montel Williams appearance. According to the medical report, Barker drowned. Drowning is not a "quick death," as Sylvia claimed his death was. Could Browne also be wrong in saying "they don't care" making her 0 for 4?
 
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Good find.

I hope someone's keeping a running tab of her hit-to-miss ratio.
 
Questioninggeller said:
In reality:
Could Browne also be wrong in saying "they don't care" making her 0 for 4?
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Well, I have always believed that the dead do, in fact, not care. But it is most of the times very important for the living. Not counting practical reasons as mentioned in the article about insurance money and such things, family, friends and relatives are aided in their grief if they get to know as much as possible about what happened (and that usually requires a body) and have a place to go to, to mourn. So I would say that that comment shows, as usual, that whatever Browne feels for the dead, she certainly has no care for the living! :mad:

ETA
When I say I believe the dead don't care, I mean that I don't believe in an afterlife, and so the dead are not able to care... or anything else.
 
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He survived the fall and drowned? That's sad.

Good guess, Sylvia. You knew they had been searching up and down the river for months and figured they'd never find the body so you knew you could say anything you wanted. Enspecially if it was a plausible explanation for why they'd never find the body.
 
RenaissanceBiker said:
I agree, Fran. It's not that they don't care, it's that they can't care.
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Yes! I realized I might have came off as harsh sounding as Browne in my comment, before I added that.

I can well understand the feelings that create the belief in an afterlife in people. My grandparents died a few years ago, and since I loved them dearly, and still misses them terribly, I think it would be great if their minds were still out there somewhere and there was a chance to see them again. But the likelihood of that is so small that I just can't hold on to such a belief even if I tried to. But that there is no afterlife is not an altogether despairing thought either. Especially seeing how my relatives behaved parting up their earthly belongings, and how much conflict that created, I am happy they are not up there somewhere (whereever that is) looking down on all that quarreling and greed. They deserve to not be worrying about the still living while they can't intervene or help. They had enough worries and hard times during their lifetime! Well, but that's how I personally feel. The non-afterlife is not such a scary thought to me.

Now, if you are to believe the likes of Browne though, should the afterlife exist, then that really seems like a scary place, where you are utterly confused, and are not even sure what your own name is :rolleyes:
 
-Fran- said:
I can well understand the feelings that create the belief in an afterlife in people. My grandparents died a few years ago, and since I loved them dearly, and still misses them terribly, I think it would be great if their minds were still out there somewhere and there was a chance to see them again. But the likelihood of that is so small that I just can't hold on to such a belief even if I tried to. But that there is no afterlife is not an altogether despairing thought either. Especially seeing how my relatives behaved parting up their earthly belongings, and how much conflict that created, I am happy they are not up there somewhere (whereever that is) looking down on all that quarreling and greed. They deserve to not be worrying about the still living while they can't intervene or help. They had enough worries and hard times during their lifetime! Well, but that's how I personally feel. The non-afterlife is not such a scary thought to me.
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You're not the only one to feel that way. I'm pretty sure my grandma doesn't deserve to see how quickly some promises made at her deathbed were betrayed ...


Now, if you are to believe the likes of Browne though, should the afterlife exist, then that really seems like a scary place, where you are utterly confused, and are not even sure what your own name is :rolleyes:
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You bet it's scary ... sounds like hell to any thinking person.
 
Flo said:
You're not the only one to feel that way. I'm pretty sure my grandma doesn't deserve to see how quickly some promises made at her deathbed were betrayed ...
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I'm sorry to hear that. Sadly, I am sure many people can relate.

You bet it's scary ... sounds like hell to any thinking person.
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Yes, just like the concept of heaven have always seems like some sort of hell too. It just seems like an eternity of total boredom to me :rolleyes:
 
If I were 100% sure in an afterlife then I would also be 100% sure that at the very least the deceased would give SB correct information when their loved ones ask as to where to find their bodies and how they died...unless even in death they don't want to be found! :rolleyes:
 
Browne wasn't the only thing that went wrong with this accident, but personally I hold her responsable for being a complete fraud. She made an impact on my family with this prediction, we believed we were never getting the body back, that there was going to be no closure. stopsylvia.com another site, dedicated to stoping her.
 
RavenWolf said:
Browne wasn't the only thing that went wrong with this accident, but personally I hold her responsable for being a complete fraud. She made an impact on my family with this prediction, we believed we were never getting the body back, that there was going to be no closure.
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Can you tell us more?

RavenWolf said:
stopsylvia.com another site, dedicated to stoping her.
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Yes, Robert posted Jamie Barker's story on his website after seeing it in this thread.
 
Reno said:
You were related to Jamie Barker, RavenWolf?
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Jamie was my brother. As for sylvia browne, she basically said we would never get him back. That is a lot to take when all you want to do is burry the body, to have some form of closure. How does she sleep at night I wonder. The damage she did to my family was minor in comparison to what she has done to others, and from what I've read her sons going to be taking over the family business some time in the future. As for any more information you want, you need to be more specific.[It was the 8th anniversary of his death this past sunday.]
 
RavenWolf said:
How does she sleep at night I wonder.
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I wonder that too. I wonder that a lot.

My condolences to your family on the 8-year anniversary of this tragedy.

If you haven't already been corresponding with him, I know Robert Lancaster would always like to hear from you. I think Sylvia Browne's involvement in this type of tragedy is one of the main reasons he started his site. At this time he's in the hospital recovering from a stroke, with limited access to a computer, so might be best to write him snail mail instead of e-mail, if you decide to do so. Either way, you've found a community here who sides with you completely in your opinion of Sylvia Browne.
 
RavenWolf said:
Jamie was my brother. As for sylvia browne, she basically said we would never get him back. That is a lot to take when all you want to do is burry the body, to have some form of closure. How does she sleep at night I wonder. The damage she did to my family was minor in comparison to what she has done to others, and from what I've read her sons going to be taking over the family business some time in the future. As for any more information you want, you need to be more specific.[It was the 8th anniversary of his death this past sunday.]
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Welcome to the forums. I hope to stick around.

I'm sorry to hear that. Once Robert recovers from his stroke, you should contact him and he'll likely add your thoughts to StopSylviaBrowne.

So your family believed Browne? Did she offer to do a reading over the phone at some other point for a fee? Did your family meet with her before or after the show? Was there anything relevant that got edited out of the broadcast? Did your family contact Montel's show about how wrong and destructive Browne was to your family?

As for other families, I've been working on a list of missing persons cases involving Sylvia Browne. Of the ones that have been documented, she has gotten 0 right out of 103. Click on that link for more details.
 
RavenWolf said:
Jamie was my brother. As for sylvia browne, she basically said we would never get him back. That is a lot to take when all you want to do is burry the body, to have some form of closure. How does she sleep at night I wonder. The damage she did to my family was minor in comparison to what she has done to others, and from what I've read her sons going to be taking over the family business some time in the future. As for any more information you want, you need to be more specific.[It was the 8th anniversary of his death this past sunday.]
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My deepest condolences to you and your family. You must have been overjoyed to finally have found Jamie's body, despite what that woman lead you to believe.

If I can ask, do you know any of the statements she made were demonstrably untrue? Robert didn't mark them "Wrong" in his article, just "Unknown", although it seemed quite clear that everything she said could reasonably be called wrong.
 
Im going to attempt to anwser everything in a single post so I appologize if I miss anyone. Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who sent condolences, it was apprecieated. secondly, the family didnt meet with her at all, we have a copy of the show transcrip somewhere but it was included with what the police took before the inquest so I am unsure as to its whereabouts currently, I will take a look for it as well as the copy of the video. No one in the family contacted the show, we were just trying to get through the days at that point and hoping that he would turn up. As for the unknown, there was no indication that there was trauma to the body other than the water in the lungs, none of his bones had been broken and there was no indication that he had a stroke from his fear of heights, he was not burried under the scaffholding because there was divers down there for days untill the water turned too cold for them to be down there, they were under the water when they lifted the scafholding out of the water as well. I hope that was helpfull to everyone, it might be a few days till I'm back here I have midterms.
 
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