(Though how, of course, is another matter...)

Debate rages as medium finds body in lake

John Hooper in Rome
Thursday September 15, 2005
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1570136,00.html" target="new" >The Guardian</a>

In a country where plaster Madonnas weep blood, it is only to be expected that the supernatural should be on everyone's minds. But even miracle-hardened Italians have been taken aback by the affair of the medium and the body in the lake.

The body of Chiara Beriffi, who disappeared three years ago, was found in her car in Lake Como in precisely the area indicated by a medium, Maria Rosa Busi, who had been approached for help by Ms Beriffi's parents in March. A police source said it was a "million to one chance" that the vehicle would be found in the area marked by the medium.
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Since Sunday, when volunteer divers found the car, the case has been debated on radio, television and in magazines. Divers initially balked at the venture because the spot identified by Ms Busi was 500ft from shore. Detectives were yesterday trying to work out how the four-wheel drive came to be so far from the lakeside.

On Tuesday the dead woman's father, Francesco Beriffi, watched as the dark red vehicle was hauled 400ft from the bottom of the lake by a ship-borne crane. "I hesitate to believe in voices from beyond", he said. "But I really cannot be sceptical."

Critics, however, accused Ms Busi of working out the spot from known information. On Tuesday the medium broke off a heated exchange with an interviewer in a live television show.

Investigations are continuing into whether Ms Beriffi, 30, who suffered from depression, took her own life or drove off the road accidentally on the rainy winter night when she vanished. An autopsy on her body was due to be carried out last night or today.