I wrote about two curious moments I spotted in the Kindred Spirits season four premiere and wondered if anyone else had noticed them. Guess who did? One of the show’s stars: Amy Bruni!
Well, she didn’t notice the two curious moments, but somehow she spotted my post on Twitter about them.
What’s cool about that is I have my site set up where published posts auto-Tweet. It’s not like I tagged her or Adam or anything hoping they’d spot it. Needless to say, I did a double take when I saw her Tweets in my Mentions notifications.
Then when I realized, yep, it was in fact her, I was all: “Amy Bruni weighed in on something I wrote? WHOA! Sweet!”
She addressed both incidents I questioned, which, to recap, were:
- The story about the psychic’s visit to the Farrar School.
- The school not being as isolated as they said it was.
Here’s what she had to say about each.
The Psychic
Let me help – a psychic really did just stop in. We didn’t focus a ton on the story, but she did encourage them to explore the paranormal side of things. Believe they’re still in contact. I think her name was Jackie? (This was in July so my memory may be wrong.)
— Amy Bruni (@amybruni) January 5, 2020
First off, I can certainly relate to time wreaking havoc on memory. However, this Tweet yielded fruitful info in many ways.
For one thing, knowing whether or not a psychic just stopped in versus was invited mattered.
According to the school’s caretaker, the owners hadn’t noticed paranormal activity when they’d bought the place. Why would there have been a need to call in a psychic then? I’m glad to know that wasn’t the case. One mystery solved.
But I still wanted to know more about the just stopping by part –and after doing so, encouraging the owners to open up the school to the paranormal.
And, most importantly, why did they listen to the psychic? Who was she? What were her credentials? Why would anyone take her unsolicited advice?
Why I am harping on that? Because anyone can call themselves a psychic. Many do and many are frauds. (Not all, but there’s way more cases of debunked psychics than there are proving any are genuine.)
What was special about this one that her advice factored into why a place should be opened up for paranormal investigations?
The Trust
I trusted Amy’s memory and Googled “Farrar School Iowa Psychic Jackie.”
Bingo!
I found a post on Fringe Paranormal about Iowa’s Farrar Schoolhouse that mentions a psychic:
Psychic medium Jacqui Carpenter also spent time at the school. She stated that for nearly 20 years she would drive by the school regularly on her way home and often witnessed the figure of a little girl standing by a window, waving. This recurring activity was what originally drew Carpenter to the school.
Next I Googled “Psychic Medium Jacqui Carpenter.”
Again, Bingo!
But this time it was a sad bingo –and one that means I’ll likely never know why the Olivers felt they should take her unsolicited advice.
R.I.P.
I found an entry on IA Gen Web Project with an obituary for Jacqueline “Jacqui” Sue (Clark) Carpenter (1955-2014):
From Bacon Funeral Home & Crematory obituary, Nevada and Maxwell, Story County, Iowa:
Jacqueline “Jacqui” Sue Carpenter, 58, of Maxwell, Iowa died Friday, June 13, 2014 at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines.
Jacqui was born July 14, 1955 in East Saint Louis, Illinois, the daughter of Orval Donald and Yvonne Marie (Weckman) Clark. Jacqui was united in marriage to Dwight “Greg” Carpenter on February 19, 1992 in Reno, Nevada. She was a homemaker who enjoyed genealogy, reading, writing, fishing, and produced several documentaries. She was a Celebrated Psychic Medium, an author, a Life Coach and Spiritualist…..
Memorial services will be 1:00 PM Wednesday, June 18th, at the Farrar School. A time of fellowship will follow the service.
The Isolation
Car was probably crew coming back w/dinner. If you look at a satellite map, it’s clear how remote school is. We also radio our crew if we hear a sound that we think could have been them. There’s only 6 of them, it’s not a huge group. Hope that helps!
— Amy Bruni (@amybruni) January 5, 2020
Yep, this helped too, but once again raised more questions.
And, just to clarify what this was all about…during one scene where they’re investigating in a classroom, there’s a window behind Amy. At one point a car drives by. Between that, and a flyover of the school at the beginning of the episode, it was apparent the school wasn’t quite as isolated as kept being stressed during the episode.
Make no mistake, it’s rural and remote for sure. Just not the desolate kind of remote where it’s the only building around for miles.
Anyway, soon after the headlights pass is when Adam says, “Did you hear that? I mean, that was outside.”
Amy’s thinking it was the crew, but now I have new questions based on that info: does that mean if they didn’t radio, it wasn’t part of the crew coming back with food? Or were they just unaware the crew had returned?
The Conjuring?
Or is this a case of a little creative editing and producing to conjure a more exciting viewing experience?
Not judging. After all, it’s TV. We know this happens. It’d be more refreshing if rather than denying or defending one day someone owned up to it. (But I’m not gonna hold my breath for that day to come.
Either way, I appreciate Amy taking the time to respond. I respect that. And I was shocked by where her answers led me when I dug further. What about you?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.