Hesitated to Report Her ‘Vision,’ Says Body Finder

A Burbank woman who had a “vision” of where a slain nurse’s body had been dumped testified in court Friday that she hesitated before telling police because she feared that officers might think her insane.

Unable to put the death scene out of her mind and concerned that police had ignored her lead, Etta Louise Smith, 39, said she drove with her two young children and a niece to a remote canyon area she had seen in her premonition. There, the family found the woman’s body.

“When I saw the shoes, I said, ‘Oh, my God, those are white nurse’s shoes. It’s got to be her,’ ” Smith testified in Van Nuys Superior Court.

Smith is suing Los Angeles police, charging that they falsely arrested her as the murder suspect the day after what she called her “psychic experience” led investigators to the body of Melanie L. Uribe, 31, who had been raped and beaten to death.

Smith was jailed for four days but released after detectives uncovered no evidence linking her to the Dec. 15, 1980, crime, according to testimony in the trial. Three men with no known connection to Smith eventually were convicted of the murder and are serving time in state prison.

Smith told the jury that she had previously experienced minor psychic visions and feelings of deja vu, but had never before had a premonition about a crime. Testifying calmly and lucidly, she said she tried to fight off the vision before deciding to go to the scene.

‘I’ve Got to Know’

Smith said she recalled thinking, “I don’t understand why I’m feeling this. I’ve got to know if I’m right. It might not make any sense, but I’ve got to know.”

Smith, the mother of three, is seeking unspecified damages from the City of Los Angeles for what she termed the “humiliating” experience of four days in jail, said her attorney, James E. Blatt. Smith maintains that police lacked probable cause to arrest her.

But Assistant City Atty. Michael K. Fox told the jury in opening statements this week that officers investigating the murder found Smith’s story “suspicious” and “bizarre,” giving them sufficient cause to arrest her.

Smith testified Friday that she heard a radio news report about the missing nurse Dec. 17, while she was at work at Lockheed Corp. in Burbank. When the news report mentioned that police were conducting a house-to-house search, Smith said, the canyon scene immediately flashed into her head.

“Mentally, somewhere, something registered and said, ‘She’s not in a house,’ ” Smith testified. “I saw an area . . . a canyon . . . on a curve in the road . . . going up the canyon on the right-hand side . . . near a dirt path on a hill.”

Driving home from work, Smith, who then lived in Pacoima, said she debated whether to go to police, fearing that officers “might think I was a little off my rocker.” But, she said, she decided that it was her civic duty to report the experience.

After meeting with a detective, Smith said, she went home, collected two of her children and a niece and drove to the location in Lopez Canyon, above Lake View Terrace.

The family drove around the canyon for about 30 minutes before Smith’s 8-year-old daughter suddenly spotted something, Smith said.

After confirming that the object was a body, the frightened group raced back to their van, she said.

“My poor children, I think I ran over them trying to get back to the van,” she said. “They were running, but they didn’t outrun me.”

Police Led to Scene

Minutes later, the group flagged down a police car and led officers back to the scene.

Smith was taken in for questioning that night, Dec. 17, and was placed under arrest early the next morning, after a polygraph examiner determined that she had given some deceptive answers, police testified.

She was released Dec. 21, after one of the suspects confessed to police and implicated the two others, police said. Police were led to the first suspect by an informant, who said the man had bragged about the killing to neighbors.

In police reports of the incident, detectives expressed skepticism about Smith’s psychic vision and speculated that she may have learned about the killing through neighborhood gossip.

Smith will resume testifying Monday, and will be cross-examined by Fox. The trial, in the courtroom of Judge Joel Rudof, is expected to conclude next week.