On the evening of December 11, 1978, Elizabeth Piest went to pick up her 15 year old son from a Des Plaines Pharmacy where he worked after school. She waited for her son, who was finishing his work, inside the store. It was Mrs. Piest’s birthday and the family was waiting for Rob to get home before cutting her cake. While waiting, Rob informed her that there was a contractor outside who he was going to speak to about getting a job. The boy had been anxious to find a job paying more money. That was the last time Mrs. Piest would see her son alive. He became one of serial murderer John Wayne Gacy’s thirty-three victims, the majority of which he buried under his home in unincorporated Norwood Park Township, Illinois.
Des Plaines Police Officers strongly suspected that the contractor John Wayne Gacy, who had a previous sodomy conviction, was responsible for the boy’s disappearance, but they needed evidence. After searching the house on December 13, 1978, which resulted in the confiscation of various items—but, unfortunately, not Robert Piest, the use of a psychic was proposed. It was obvious to at least one of the department officers that both the Piest family and the lieutenant leading the investigation, which included a 24 hour surveillance, were at the point of trying any possible means of uncovering information pertinent to the missing youth.
Rolling Meadows, Illinois Psychic Carol Broman was suggested to Lieutenant Joseph R. Kozenczak by an officer whose wife was taking a parapsychology course with her. The decision to utilize Ms. Broman’s talents was not an easy one to make. The lieutenant in charge had never engaged a psychic in an investigation before and the use of such an individual would be the subject of ridicule by many police, media and public audiences. On the other hand, there was really no other alternative at this point in the investigation. It would appease the family in that it was another means of trying to locate their son. The fact that Broman wanted no money or publicity for her work was a determining factor in engaging her talents. The police chief authorized her involvement in the case.
In order to protect her identity and the lieutenant’s credibility the police explained that the information from Broman was from an anonymous caller. “Obviously, all psychically obtained information must be corroborated to the extent that the case can stand entirely on the corroborated evidence. If a question is ever raised as to what led the investigator to the evidence, his standard reply is ‘a reliable confidential informant.’”15
As arranged by the patrol officer, Lieutenant Kozenczak met Ms. Broman at 3:00 a.m., December 17, 1978, in her suburban home. In hopes of gaining information on the whereabouts of Robert Piest, the psychic had requested that the officers bring one or two items that were significant and familiar to the boy. The process Broman was using involved psychometry (“extrasensory perception of the history of an object, including facts of the people and events connected with it, usually through handling the object”).16 Mrs. Piest provided the boy’s camera and radio. Holding it in her hands, Broman found that the camera had more impact than the radio. The psychic’s commentary that morning, spoken mostly in fragments, became all the more interesting and significant as the police learned more about Gacy and his mode of killing.
While the police suspected it, the psychic’s initial comments
confirmed their beliefs:
No, he isn’t alive . . . The boy isn’t alive . . . If you don’t
mind I’d rather not go through how he died . . .I’m getting
sick to my stomach which means there’s a lot of
unpleasantness. Murder is always bad, but sometimes
it’s worse than other times and this time it’s one of those . . .
You’re going to find, when you find this boy, six or seven
others in the same place, the same area . . . It’s very
much like the case in California where the man, a homosexual,
kept the boys and one of them got away and he then dug up
all the boys-17

Considering that at this point during the investigation the police did not really have proof that Gacy was involved in the death of Rob Piest, not to mention multiple deaths, what Broman said seems rather profound. She referred to the Henley Case, which actually took place in Texas, involving a homosexual killer burying bodies underground. The fact that Gacy performed homosexual acts with his victims and buried the majority of them underground in his crawlspace was not yet known at this point. There is also the mention of unpleasantness concerning Rob’s death. The police learned later on that Gacy used the very violent “rope trick,” involving a rope and a type of wooden dowel rod, to strangle most of his victims. By twisting the rod inserted through a knot in the rope the victims would convulse and die.
In addition to the camera and radio, Broman was asked to work with a map of the Chicagoland area including Gacy’s residence. On examining the map she expressed the feeling that there was a large construction site, where equipment was stored, associated with the man:
There’s someplace where they store equipment because it’s
not something that’s being built on. It’s where machinery is
either stored or parked . . . And that’s where they all are . . .
It’s a good size area and there might be a small building
on it or a fence . . . there’s a chain link fence around it . . .
You’ve got a sick man . . . this building, this shed, it’s not large . . .
it’s near water, but there’s yellow pieces of equipment . . . there’s
chain link fencing around it. There’s things covered with
plastic sheeting. . . Not all the boys are from Des Plaines.
There are other suburban areas that they’re missing from . . . 18