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REIDSVILLE — Barbara Moore got more than a sale as psychic Deborah Heinecker’s real estate agent.

The two became close friends as they searched for just the right house, and one day, Moore mentioned that she had lost her keys. Heinecker told her she would find them in something blue, and that she’d have to pull very hard to get them out.

Moore later found them in the lining of her blue ski jacket. But Heinecker, who moved to Reidsville last spring, uses her psychic abilities for problems that are more serious than lost car keys.

She has helped law enforcement agencies solve 53 cases. One of those cases will be featured tonight on “Psychic Investigators,” which airs on the Biography Channel.

The episode re-enacts how, with Heinecker’s help, police solved the murder of Laura Houghteling of Maryland. The show includes interviews with Heinecker.

But those who watch shouldn’t expect to see Heinecker peering into a crystal ball. How she helps bring closure to victims’ families is simpler and more spiritual than some might think, she said.

“I don’t say that I have any powers or that I’m the chosen one or anything,” Heinecker said. “God talks to everybody. I just listen a little better.”

The reluctant psychic

In some ways, Heinecker’s psychic abilities clash with who she is. For years, the Maryland native made her living designing computer systems for companies; she later worked as a children’s librarian.

Never did she plan on becoming a crime-solving psychic.

But it was her soft spot for animals that led her to offer help to Montgomery County, Md., police in the summer of 1991.

einecker read a newspaper article about a missing police dog and feared the dog would die of dehydration in the heat.
No picture accompanied the article she read. But she got a vision of a reddish-brown dog in a wooded area.

“God just kept saying, 'You need to go find that dog,’” Heinecker said.

Police readily accepted Heinecker’s offer of help when she called them. She sat in the back of the cruiser where the dog rode and directed officers to a wooded area near a state park. The animal was exactly where she told officers it would be.

“The dog ran right up to me and licked me like he knew that I was the one that led them to him,” Heinecker said.

Heinecker took no money for that case, but told Montgomery County authorities she wanted to remain anonymous.

The next day’s headline read “Psychic Finds Dog in Woods.” And while the article didn’t mention her name, Heinecker said the police were swamped with calls and letters asking for her help.

As word of her abilities spread, Heinecker would eventually give in to demands, assisting with crimes in Maryland, Maine, Virginia and elsewhere. But she’s adamant that the role she plays is secondary to that of law enforcement. “They have to do their police work, but I provide them with information to help them with the case,” she said.

Heinecker doesn’t watch television or read articles pertaining to crimes for fear they might taint her if she’s asked to get involved.

To learn more about what happened in a case, Heinecker visits the crime scene and carries something with her that belonged to the victim. She enters into the situation cold, not even knowing the victim’s name sometimes.

Then, as if meditating, she tunes in and listens. The answers don’t always come to her in the same form, she said. “Sometimes I will get an exact command of what to do, but it’s not some roaring voice.”

Other times the events of what happened play out like a movie in her head, and often lead to very intimate connections with victims. It’s not uncommon for her to feel pain in her body where someone suffered a gunshot wound. In a case in which the person had been beaten to death, Heinecker got a pain in her head that resembled a headache.

In 2001, Heinecker penned “The Reluctant Psychic,” a fictionalized account of her life as a psychic.

While her abilities have become well-known, Heinecker doesn’t flaunt them. The missing dog case was the first and only time she has gone to the police. She usually waits for people to find her.

“I’m not arrogant enough to think that I’m always right,” she said. “Why would I stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong?”

Rockingham ghosts?

That Heinecker is a psychic is not exactly a secret in Reidsville. Blame Moore for that.

She’s introduced Heinecker and her husband, Bob Wickless, to all her friends. And, of course, the topic eventually comes up.

“Some of my friends who have met her have called her to come help them,” Moore said.

Heinecker has spent the past year getting settled in her new home, but she’s also been busy on other projects. She partnered with Athena Varounis, a friend and retired FBI agent who lives in Pennsylvania, on the recently released book “Franklin County Ghosts.”

Varounis researched historic locations in Franklin County, Pa., telling Heinecker nothing about what she learned.
Then she took Heinecker to those sites and let her go to work sensing the people that lived there and the events that occurred. Heinecker’s visions always matched what Varounis learned in her research.

The two are working on a similar book about Rockingham County. “Our plan is to solicit paranormal phenomena in Rockingham County,” Varounis said.

A book about the history of Reidsville, featuring longtime veterinarian Fred Coates, is also in the works.

Helping to solve crimes is still Heinecker’s focus. She and Varounis have formed a consulting agency to connect her with police agencies and others interested in psychic help.

Despite her track record, she knows there are people who are skeptical.

“You can believe me or not,” she tells her detractors. “All I can tell you is what I’m feeling and seeing.”

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com