Sons Of Light Seek HENRI LEMARCHAND'S BODY

submitted by William Posey IV

Linn: Ever since I reported on the strange doings of Jean "Henri" Lemarchand, the man that would not die (see: Henri Lemarchand's Fate Worse Than Death, November, 1996, vol.3, Issue #11), I have wondered whatever became of the "corpse" that Calvin Danvers' father buried. For at the time of his burial, Lemarchand, though poisoned and decapitated, was said still to be alive. Danvers' father never told him where he buried the cabinet, and since 1986, its location has been a mystery. But perhaps the truth behind Lemarchand's inability to die will yet be known.

     The impetus for a search began in September of 1997, when Zoar resident and self-proclaimed psychic and remote viewer, Bernard Mulligan, attempted to use his abilities to psychically dig for the body. He was invited to a special meeting of the Town of Lindon Historical Society to try to prove his claim. About twenty witnesses were in attendance as the middle-aged science-fiction writer put himself into a deep trance and began to sway on his heels.

     Slowly he raised his arms, and was said to have looked like an opera singer about to begin an aria. But instead of beautiful music, Mulligan only uttered one sentence, "In the other house." Then his trance ended.

     For a few moments, the room was silent except for the hum of fluorescent lights. Then the group members argued over the meaning of Mulligan's words. It was eventually decided that he must have been referring to an old foundation still intact some hundred yards west of the abandoned Lemarchand house. The foundation dates back to the very early 1800's, but the church that once stood there had burned into ash in 1819. And, under Mulligan's direction, the group proposed a dig.

     The September 19 dig went smoothly, and a cabinet was found four feet under soft earth. Unfortunately, the Historical Society was nonplussed. First of all, the cabinet did not show signs of ten years' aging under the earth, and it was decided that it had to have been buried within the past year. Second, the cabinet was not locked, and indeed had no locking mechanism whatsoever. Calvin Danvers' father's diary expressly notes that the cabinet was locked. Finally, the cabinet was empty. Mulligan posited the idea that the body may have been snatched, and that the grave-robbers slipped a new cabinet in the grave in place of the old one. The Society didn't find that too likely, and branded Mulligan a hoaxer.

     But another team may be getting closer to Lemarchand's body, and may in fact already possess it. That group is the Sons of Light, headed by Damiano Antonio Palmonetti, and working with another supposedly psychically gifted individual, Nathaniel Crouch.

     Palmonetti explains that the Sons of Light have a very high stake in finding Lemarchand's body. "We need to find out if the story is true, and---if it is true---how Lemarchand was able to live so long. We highly doubt that magicks were involved, but the fact that Lemarchand sought out a supposed member of the Milieu d'Or makes us wonder. It is our belief that this magickal organization went extinct several hundred years ago, and yet here we have a story that claims contact with the Milieu in the early nineteenth century. If this is true, it increases the odds that the Sons of Light's parent organization is still in operation. And this we cannot allow."

     Nathaniel Crouch is a young, bearded, intense-looking man from Irish Grove. Crouch, whom the Sons of Light hope will lead them to the body of Henri Lemarchand, claims that his psychic powers first manifested in 1988, when he was a senior in high school. Since that time he has purportedly learned skills in hypnotism, remote viewing, ESP and even astral travel. Crouch has also been the subject of controlled tests run by the parapsychology department at Georg von Podebrad College, the results of which are expected to be published later this year.

     As to the failed attempts by rival Bernard Mulligan, Crouch says, "The man is a phony, and a complete disgrace to the field of psychical inquiry. When he does get something right, it's usually through luck. The Lindon Historical Society ought to be ashamed that they used his services."

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Remote Viewer and psychic, Nathaniel Crouch.
     Palmonetti contacted Crouch in November of 1997. For the next few months, when he had the time, Crouch practiced remote viewing, sometimes under self-hypnosis, to try to find the lost cabinet. In addition, he spent several non-consecutive days on the abandoned Lemarchand property looking for psychic residue left by the former inhabitants. Having done this, he felt that the body was not to be found on Lemarchand property. Still he continued his psychic search.

     Then, on April 5, 1998, he gave the Sons of Light a place to dig. Over the next few days, Crouch repeated his experiments, and came up with the same location every time. Finally, on April 9, the dig began.

     The spot Crouch had visualized while remote viewing was about a mile north of Lindon, in a wood adjacent to an alfalfa field. The group followed a low-lying stone wall along the edge of the woods about a half-mile away from county road R4. There they turned left into the woods. Five minutes later they were digging in a clearing dominated by a giant cottonwood tree. What they found was better than the Lindon Historical Society had unearthed, but left an eerie puzzle.

     The cabinet was there, complete with the requisite lock. But the lock had been smashed apart, leaving no one surprised to find the huge pine cabinet empty. Never the less, the Sons of Light still believe that Crouch was correct and that the body had been inside recently. The possibility that someone may have gotten to the spot before them hadn't been considered and the dig team failed to note any signs of recent disturbance before they began their work.

     Some Lindon townsfolk believe the Sons of Light got there earlier, after Crouch had made his original guess, and dug the body up secretly. Some members of the Sons of Light themselves feel Crouch himself dug up the body, even before he made his predictions known to anyone. Palmonetti does not agree with that sentiment, however.

     "Why would Mr. Crouch steal a corpse?" asks the director of the Sons of Light. "Where's he going to keep it? Do you think he'd try to sell it? Ridiculous!" Palmonetti also says that Crouch will continue working on this project. In fact, the Sons of Light are retaining the cabinet in their possession so that it may be used by Crouch in generating psychic impressions of the grave robber.





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