HOCUS POCUS IV

HOCUS POCUS IV

A LOOK INTO THE CLAIMS OF ED DAMES

A classic UFO Watchdog article (c) by Royce Myers, III

"I would never lie to the American public."

-- Ed Dames during a June 14, 1999 Coast To Coast AM radio program

NOTHING SACRED

It's June 28, 2000, just a little after 9:PM. On a street in the small community of Coquille, Oregon, 15-year-old Leah Freeman is walking home after visiting a friend. Leah never made it home.

Leah's shoes are found near a roadside a few weeks later. Her body is eventually discovered in the nearby woods. No one has been arrested in this case to date, the Coquille, Oregon community mourns the loss of a child, the local police department struggles to find a suspect in the case and Leah's mother lives day to day hoping for answers about her daughter's death which the Coquille Police Department has attributed to "homicidal violence." the death of Leah Freeman (pictured left) has left a community with a memory that no community should have to experience.

Enter August 8, 2000 when, on nationally syndicated late night program Coast To Coast AM, self proclaimed remote viewer Edward A. Dames states he was requested by the Coquille Police Department to assist in the Leah Freeman case.

Dames, under the guise of his so-called Project Goldeneye, lists the Coquille Police Department as the "requesting agency" on his website. Dames stated that his company entered the case on July 15, 2000 and had determined that Leah Freeman was dead, that he knew the cause of death, the murderer's place of employment and other details about the case. Dames later described the suspect as a white male adult with a "unique work environment."

Dames' revelation could be seen as nothing more than an educated guess considering that Leah Freeman's shoes were found on a roadside after the teen was missing and before Dames claimed to have entered the case. One needs not be psychic to draw conclusions based on logic. UFOWATCHDOG.COM contacted the Coquille, Oregon Police Department about Dames' alleged involvement in this case.

Police Chief Michael Reaves stated, "Our department didn't hire, nor officially request assistance from Dames or his company. An investigator working with us, on his own, did contact Dames via email. The investigator did tell us, at one point, Dames contacted him with results.....but the results were far from accurate and the investigator didn't bring it up again, until Dames started making public statements about our case."

UFOWATCHDOG.COM contacted Dames and asked about Chief Reaves' statement. Dames replied with the the following e-mail:

----- Original Message -----
From: <EdDames@psispymaster.com>
To: <ufowatchdog@earthlink.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2000 5:31 PM
Subject: Re: Leah Freeman

Get your facts straight before you go "bow wow," Doggie. The so-called 'investigator' was the principal (Coquille Police Dept.) officer assigned to the case, and the one who pleaded with us to assist -- and we obliged. Reaves is just covering his ass. So, try to control those premature canine ejaculations of yours; when we nail Leah's murderer, you'll be just another crow-eatin dog.

Dames was asked why he chose to respond in such a hostile and unprofessional manner, to which he replied:

----- Original Message -----
From: <EdDames@psispymaster.com>
To: <ufowatchdog@earthlink.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2000 7:38 PM
Subject: Fwd: Every Dog has its day

By the way, Mr. UFO Junkyard Dog, nobody 'hires' us to do public service (Operation Goldeneye)work -- its all performed on a volunteer basis, and rewards are not accepted. Having devolved to a mongrel form, (by choice, it would seem), you could best serve humanity scurrying back in yer hole. You're just wasting precious oxygen, up here. Heel, boy -- or get a job.

On Coast To Coast AM, Dames continued to state that he and his team had uncovered more and more information about the murder. Dames went so far as to state that the murderer was employed by a Tumalo, Oregon company Hap Taylor & Sons. Dames even put the name of the company on his website. UFOWATCHDOG.COM contacted Hap Taylor & Sons and a representative for the company was absolutely shocked by the allegation. I later spoke with another representative of the company who assured me that she would be contacting Dames about his "unfounded accusation." Dames' website now only lists, "Leah Freeman's murderer is employed by a construction firm located in Tumalo, Oregon." All reference to Hap Taylor & Sons has since been removed from Dames' website.

During one Coast To Coast AM appearance, Dames stated, "We've promised the little girl's mother...that we will identify the killer." Dames also stated, "Leah's mother has been contacting me...In this case we've promised the little girl's mother we will find the killer."

UFOWATCHDOG.COM contacted Leah Freeman's mother, Corey Courtright. After talking with Courtright about the case itself, she was asked about Dames' involvement in her daughter's case. Courtright said she had heard about Dames and that he "was some sort of remote viewer or something." She also stated that she had sent an e-mail to Dames after hearing about his alleged involvement in the case, but she never received a response from Dames.

Courtright was asked about Dames' radio broadcast, to which she stated, "I don't know how he came around." When asked if Dames had been in contact with her, Courtright stated, "I have never spoken with Ed Dames. No, Never." When asked about Dames making any sort of promise to her, Coutright responded by saying, "When I see things like where he's made a personal promise to me, and I'm thinking 'Now wait a minute, I've never spoken to this guy.' I don't know what he's talking about. No, I've never spoke to him. I don't know why he thinks he's made a promise to me. I mean, I don't get it. It's strange."

For Corey Courtright, she lives day to day, hoping and praying that the answers to the mystery that is her daughter's death will be found, that some form of justice will be taken and that something resembling closure is near.

stephaniecondon This is not the first time Dames has claimed to have had information on a missing teen. On October 30, 1998, 16-year-old Stephanie Condon (pictured left) disappeared while babysitting at a relative's house. No one has seen Stephanie, no one has heard from her and the police have no leads in this case. But Dames seems to think he knows everything about the case.

Inviting himself into the case, Dames started sending out letters to the police agency investigating the disappearance claiming to know the exact location of the missing teen. In a letter dated November 19, 1998 and addressed to the primary detective, Joe Perkins, Dames states that he has contacted the victim's mother, informed her of the results of a week long remote viewing work, and states that the missing teen is "located in a campground" that is "off I-5, 12 miles east of Grants Pass."

Dames further alleges that the abductor is "a male possibly in his 20s" and that the abductor "is an employee, or seasonal employee, at that location." Dames then invites himself further into the case by stating, "I plan upon personally traveling to your area of operations for face-to-face discussions with you." In a follow-up message, Dames then changes the location of the missing teen stating, "We are currently closing in on the child's location. Our current fix (high confidence factor) places both abductor and child in the vicinity of Glide. I plan upon conducting an on-site aerial recon of that area, next week." Detective Joe Perkins of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office was asked to comment on Dames' involvement in the case and the results of his alleged remote viewing information.

Detective Perkins stated, "Mr.Dames was not approached by our office. He did provide unsolicited correspondence to our office regarding the investigation. Our office did not reply to him." This would be a way of stating that Dames' information had absolutely no value to their investigation.

In spite of the police ignoring Dames, he persisted in sending letters alleging that his company's remote viewing sessions had uncovered more information about the case. In a letter dated November 26, 1998, Dames stated:

1) Our best current cut places Stephanie (and her abductor's residence) within a kilometer or two of Whistler Bend County Park (along the Umqua, between Winchester and Glide).

2) Her abductor appears to be presently employed as a route driver, possibly with UPS, within Douglas County. On the night if Stephanie's abduction, he was wearing a uniform and had a parcel in his hands (although, he may have been driving a POV, at the time).

3) The remainder of our TRV work will focus upon obtaining a physical description of the child's proximate and immediate location, augmented with on-site ground and aerial photography, if necessary.

In a letter dated November 28, 1998, Dames sends the police yet more information about the location of the missing teen, stating her "circumstances and physical-mental condition" are "nothing short of dire." Then in a letter dated November 29, 1998, Dames states that his team has now been engaged in "non-stop efforts" in locating the missing teen. Dames describes the abductor as "a lone male" and that the abductor "appears to work in the meat cutting trade."

Dames again lists two locations that the alleged abductor is working at. Dames keeps inviting himself into the investigation by stating, "In the event you are unsuccessful in quickly recovering this child via your own means, methods, and resources, I will travel to your area of operations for face-to-face discussions with you, and to engage in on-site ground and aerial field work..." In Dames' letters to the police in the Condon case, he had forwarded copies to the Governor of Oregon, the FBI, Oregon's State Attorney General, the Oregon State Police, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Dames also has a link to the NCMEC website on his Project Goldeneye page. Is Dames attempting to establish that his organization is associated with NCMEC?

UFOWATCHDOG.COM contacted NCMEC. Tina Schartz, Public Affairs Manager for NCMEC was asked if Dames had any affiliation with her organization. Schwartz stated in an e-mail, "Thank you for forwarding the information on Mr. Dames. I forwarded it around to our directors of case management, public affairs, case analysis, and our COO and no one is familiar with Mr. Dames or his company."

Schwartz continued stating, "As I mentioned on the phone, Mr. Dames has no connection with NCMEC. We do not work with or endorse the work of psychics in missing child cases. Below is a general statement on this issue:

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of over 55,000 missing children since its establishment in 1984. Our toll-free, 24-hour hotline accepts information from all callers, but over the course of our 16-year history, we have no evidence of any cases of missing children having been successfully resolved in direct response to information provided by a psychic."

And as is apparent from the tragic cases of Leah Freeman and Stephanie Condon, Dames' alleged remote viewing capabilities have not aided in finding Stephanie's location or the killer of Leah Freeman. If law enforcement officials had access to a tool as powerful as one that could locate missing teens or solve murder cases, they would be the first in line to use it no matter how controversial it may be...

PART V