The discovery of a skeleton sheds light on a Maine psychic, and a father continues his search

Laurencia Bourget, a psychic from Westbrook, stands in front of the shuttered bowling alley in Jay, where she found skeletal remains while searching for a missing woman. The remains were found to be an unidentified man. Sean Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Laurencia Bourget laughed when asked if she faced skepticism after telling people she was psychic.

“All the time,” she said. “It bothered me and I just didn’t participate. But now I am more confident. I’ve seen so much.”

For two decades, Bourget worked with Richard Moreau to help find answers about his daughter Kimberly, who was 17 in 1986 when she left her home in Jay and never returned.

On Saturday, Oct. 19, after hearing a voice in her head about bowling, Bourget called Moreau and said there was a place she wanted to check out.

About 40 feet behind the abandoned Tri-Town Bowling Center, Jay Bourget found something. A winter jacket with something like a stick sticking out of it.

It was a bone.

Hours later, after local police officers and Maine State Police detectives examined the scene, they determined that the skeleton behind the bowling alley belonged to a man. It wasn’t Kimberly Moreau.

“I was horrified that it wasn’t her,” Bourget said. “But I’m always learning, so even though I was focused on this case, it was clearly someone trying to tell me something.”

Bourget’s discovery surprised the local police and sparked a debate about the practice of psychics assisting the police. While there is no scientific evidence that psychics can solve crimes or assist in police investigations, there are other examples, including in Maine, where psychics have provided information that seems too close to mere coincidence.

Richard Moreau is shown in 2016 as he recounts his ten-year search for his missing daughter, Kimberly. Press-Visnyk file photo

Richard Moreau, now 82, said he was glad for Bourget’s help, not necessarily because he is a true believer, but because he has taken a relentless approach to finding Kimberly.

“Are they all correct? No,” Moreau said in a phone interview last week. “But on the other hand, we’re not going to deny anyone the opportunity to provide some information for further action. I’ll continue to do that until the day I die.”

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Bourget, 60, grew up in Old Town but has lived in Westbrook for the past few years. She owns a cleaning business and was a paralegal and stay-at-home mom before that.

She said she had always been intuitive, but her visions became more vivid as she got older. She took a class in so-called “remote viewing,” which is essentially intense visualization. It is also sometimes called extrasensory perception or ESP.

According to her, when she allows herself to fall into a deep meditative state, images arise in her mind. But the images are not always clear.

Although she wants to help others, Moreau’s case was her first.

Bourget said she remembers driving through rural Oxford County years ago and seeing the smiling face of Kimberly Moreau on utility poles. Moreau left with the girl on the night of May 10, 1986. They met up with two men in their 20s. Moreau came home briefly, but only to tell her older sister she was going for a ride.

She never returned.

Richard Moreau had gravestones for his daughter, Kimberly, who disappeared in 1986.

In 2004, Bourget approached Richard with an offer to help.

Until then, the father had watched the case turn icy. He was ready to accept any help.

“I’ve seen many, many psychics over the years,” Moreau said. “I can tell you this: If they really believe they’re trying to help you, the first thing they’ll say is, ‘We don’t need the money.’

Bourget never asked for payment. She spent hours in the fields and woods all over western Maine without success.

A couple of years ago, Bourget said, she heard mentions of bowling. Then this year, when she was watching a show about psychic investigations, she heard it again. It was like a message, she said.

The closest bowling alley to Moreau was at Jay’s, but it closed years ago and had a “No Trespassing” sign.

It it took her less than 10 minutes to search behind the building before she discovered the remains of an unidentified man.

Laurentia Bourget searches a wooded area in Jay Sand, Oct. 27. Sean Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

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Jay Police Chief Joseph Sage and Sgt. Brandon Kelly did not respond to multiple messages seeking information for this story. However, Kelly told a local TV station last week that receiving the information from the psychic that led to the discovery was a surprise and a first for him.

“It was great what happened. It’s just not something we normally rely on,” he said.

Maine State Police spokeswoman Shannon Moss said detectives don’t often use tips from psychics, but they do happen. She recalled the case of Amy Saint Laurent, a young woman who was beaten and then shot in Portland’s Old Port in 2001.

“Detectives are looking into any tips they receive from the public,” Moss said.

The detective on the case, Joe Loughlin, has spoken openly about seeking a psychic for the case. He even wrote a book about it.

Her name was Vicki Monroe, and she still works as a psychicalthough not often in cases of missing persons. The Saint Laurent case was her first.

Monroe said she saw a vision of Saint Laurent and knew the name of the suspect, whose identity has not been released. Next, she saw an image of a farm where Saint Laurent’s body was revealed to have been buried in a shallow grave.

Monroe said skepticism is built into the work.

“I’m not trying to convince people,” she said in an interview. “I can only share what I have seen and heard since I was 4 years old. And some find confirmation of this.”

Another case in Maine, in 1971, involved information shared by a psychic.

Police investigating the disappearance of 11-year-old Barbara Ann Ripley were sent sketches of a house and barn by an old man who said he saw where she might be.

The girl wasn’t found until ten years later, but police looked at the sketches and found them to be a perfect match to the location in North Yarmouth.

The man who sent them, Elmer Dougherty, had died years ago and could not be questioned.

In an article published in Psychology Today this spring, California State University professor Matthew Sharps wrote that families often want to turn to the supernatural when other attempts to find answers fail.

Sharps said that while “it’s impossible to demonstrate that true premonitions can’t exist” because you can’t prove a negative, he cautioned against placing too much weight on them.

“During stressful times, such as those associated with tragic crimes, the ability to predict this future can be very comforting, but such predictions have not proven to be reliable,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, we may be able to explain many premonitions in purely psychological, non-prophetic terms.”

However, it is not clear how Bourget knew there would be remnants behind the old bowling alley. Was it just a coincidence?

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Bourget said police did not question her about how she ended up searching the place. And since then she has not been called.

This is the first time she has discovered human remains. They were taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta, but no identification has been made and the cause of death has not been released.

Richard Moreau, who was with Bourget at the scene, said he was briefly hopeful, but he knows not to worry too much.

“The disappointments are too heavy,” he said. “So you’re protecting yourself.”

Kimberly Moreau has been the subject of many official police searches in recent years, including a large-scale search in 2015 of property belonging to one of the two men she was with that night. Nothing found.

Moreau said he’s grateful the discovery will give another family answers, but he also wants closure for his own.

“Thirty-eight years is a long time,” he said. “It hurts. It consumes you. But I don’t feel like I have any other choice, so I’m going to do what I have to do and hopefully we’ll get results.”

At this point, Moreau said he doesn’t care if anyone is charged or convicted in connection with his daughter’s death. Although the police have not classified the case as a murder, they suspect foul play.

Moreau just wants to give Kimberly a proper burial in a plot at Holy Cross Cemetery in Livermore Falls. Her tombstone is already there. So is his.

In the meantime, Bourget said she will continue to work with Moreau for as long as he wants, for free. Bourget said she thinks it’s healthy to be a skeptic and doesn’t begrudge people who don’t believe her.

“There are people who want to rely more on detectives, and I understand that,” she said. “But I love doing this job.”