'Psychic detective' a featured writer at Reidsville library's local authors event today

A psychic detective is one of the featured authors at today's local authors night at the Reidsville Public Library. Deborah Heinecker penned "The Reluctant Psychic" after solving a murder case using her psychic powers.

Heinecker, who recently moved into a Tudor-style house in Reidsville with her husband Bob, isn't your typical psychic. She doesn't consult a crystal ball. She doesn't read palms. She never uses the term "aura." What's more, she's a former children's librarian and a CPA.

"I mean, I'm an accountant. You can't be any more traditional than being an accountant," Heinecker said. "I like logic. I like everything to add up."

She even offers a scientific, rational explanation for her psychic powers.

"Everything in the world is made up of energy. I think every action leaves an energy stamp on the universe," Heinecker said. "I just focus on this specific incident (in time.) My mind goes out and retrieves that energy snippet from that point in the universe."

A believer in God, Heinecker offers a faith-based explanation for her psychic abilities as well.

"I think that God talks to everybody. I just listen better than most people do," Heinecker said. "I just ask God to tell me what he needs me to know."

Heinecker believes that her knowledge comes from God, because she is using them to solve crimes and see that justice is served.

"Why would the devil let me solve a crime and put a person in jail?" she asked. "Because of me, a lot of nasty, sick people are in jail."

One of the people in jail because of the psychic sleuth is a man who murdered his mother-in-law and buried her on his property. Heinecker's book, "The Reluctant Psychic," is based on her first murder case, known as the Louise Williams case.

Heinecker chose the Margaret Louise Williams case out of a stack of letters requesting her psychic services after she first used her psychic powers to find a missing police dog in Baltimore, Md. Williams was reported missing the day Heinecker found Vader the dog.

Williams' family sent Heinecker some of the victim's personal belongings. Heinecker came up with three of the four numbers in the home address of Williams' daughter and son-in-law Dawn and Billy. Heinecker "tuned in," using her psychic abilities, and figured out that Billy and Dawn had killed Williams and buried her body near their house. Finally after six months, law enforcement officials started to believe Heinecker's story.

In a twist of events, Billy dug up Williams' body and dismembered it. During that time, Heinecker said she kept hearing saws and bells. Later, Heinecker learned that Billy dismembered Williams with his buzz saw and he had a Liberty bell in his front yard. In another frantic attempt to mask his guilt, Billy moved Williams' body to a building with a tin roof on a chicken farm. Heinecker kept envisioning a building with a tin roof on it. By that time, Billy knew that Heinecker was catching on to his schemes.

"Billy just gave up and confessed. He said he wasn't afraid of anybody but me," Heinecker said. "I'm like a blood hound."

Heinecker has helped solve 53 crimes all over the country using her psychic abilities. She usually looks at a picture of the victim and handles the victim's personal belongings. Other than that, Heinecker goes in with a clean slate, not knowing anything about the victim or the case itself and oftentimes not even knowing the victim's name. She leaves the details to her partner, former FBI investigator Athena Varounis.

"I'm the front person," Varounis said. "I do all the research. I do the interviews of the people preliminarily."

Varounis collects the cold, hard facts. As a former FBI investigator, she's used to interrogating people.

"I'm an investigator. I don't believe anything," she said. After interviewing the parties involved, Varounis will pick Heinecker up without telling her anything and let her go to work on the case using only her psychic powers to solve the crime.

Heinecker and Varounis' next venture is collecting ghost stories in Rockingham County. Interacting with spirits shouldn't be a problem for Heinecker, who Varounis claims can "describe apparitions all the way down to her shoelaces."

The local authors' night will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Reidsville Public Library at 204 W. Morehead St. In addition to the psychic detective, the authors' night will feature a self-taught chef, a folktale writer, a former minister, a mystery writer, a psychologist and Anna Hayes, author of "Without Precedent: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp." Books will be available for purchase. The Reidsville Friends of the Library will provide refreshments.

• Staff writer Miranda Baines can be reached at mbaines@reidsvillereview.com or 349-4331, ext. 35.