SANTA ANA, Calif. — Pam Ragland was watching a TV report about the search for an 11-year-old California boy missing in a rural town miles away when she felt something wasn't right.
Ragland said she began crying and then a haunting vision popped into her head: A young boy lying on his side with his eyes closed.
The boy, Terry Dewayne Smith Jr., wasn't sleeping — and by the time Ragland's visions stopped, she had led detectives to his decomposing body behind his house in the Riverside County community of Menifee.
The remains had been partially buried in a shallow grave under a tree more than 60 miles from Ragland's Orange County home.
Prosecutors on Friday charged the boy's 16-year-old half brother with murder. The teen is due in juvenile court on Monday, and prosecutors have requested a hearing to determine if he should be tried as an adult.
The Associated Press is not naming the suspect because he is a juvenile.
Detectives acknowledged it was a bizarre way to find the boy's body, and they are investigating whether Ragland had anything to do with the death.
Ragland, 50, said she relies on intuition to see things that others don't.
"It was just his recurrent picture that was in my head that never changed," she said. "I was getting a snapshot, but I couldn't understand why he wasn't moving. He had his eyes closed, but I just thought he was sleeping."
Sgt. Lisa McConnell, a Riverside County sheriff's spokesman, confirmed that Ragland called in the tip that led them to the body, but she would not comment further. An investigation to rule out Ragland's possible involvement in the crime was ongoing, McConnell said.
"In terms of any kinds of abilities that she has, I can't confirm that," McConnell said.