Published in the Spring 2009 ATransC NewsJournal
Denise Snyder-Papier wrote: “My son, Jerome, was killed by a hit-and-run driver on September 17, 2003. It has been my goal to remain in communication with Jerome and learn as much as possible about the world he lives in. Throughout the past five years, Jerome has clearly made himself known in many ways and I always feel so blessed to receive his contacts.
“Jerome’s birthday is May 20, 1977. The past three years I have been diligently searching for a 1977 penny. I asked my husband to keep his eye out for one as well.
“On August 16, 2008 I held a seminar on grief, launching my book, The Answer Lies Within — A Journey Through Loss. The day before the seminar, I asked my son, Denny, to keep his eye out for a 1977 penny. He looked in his change bucket and the first penny he picked up was a 1977! I asked him to bring it to the seminar as I felt it was a sign from Jerome. While on the drive to the seminar, he told his girlfriend he forgot to bring the penny. She had some change in her car and the first penny she picked up was a 1977!”
The seminar that Denise was participating in with other speakers had been put together to help others discover how they could effectively confront personal challenges and transcend any situation with hope and courage. AA-EVP member, Margaret Downey, happened to be an attendee at the seminar and heard Denise speak.
During her presentation, Margaret heard a voice in her ear telling her to record. She had completely forgotten that she had brought her Sony B26 recorder with her, but now she quickly pulled it out, clicked record and whispered into the recorder that those wishing to speak would have three minutes. Denise was still speaking during this time. At the end of the time, Margaret turned the recorder off and put it back in her pocket.
A little later, Denise mentioned during her presentation that she visits her son’s grave and that the visits help her. She said she found it interesting that, when she was at the grave site, she usually thought of Jerome as a child; her baby. Margaret immediately thought of an ITC picture from one of her water experiments, that she had been carrying a copy of on her phone. She had always felt that she would one day run into the mother of the child whose picture she carried. The same voice that told her to record told her to show the picture to Denise.
Margaret nervously approached Denise during the lunch break. ITC is difficult to explain quickly and usually way over the top of most people’s “boggle” point. Somehow she did it, and when Denise saw the picture, she immediately said it was Jerome. She was positive and she told Margaret that she would send her a picture of Jerome as a child when she returned home.
When Margaret arrived home that evening, she noticed that her husband had emptied his pocket change on the dining table. She looked at it and there was a 1977 penny. Margaret picked it up so she could mail it to Denise. Next, she listened to her recording. There were several EVP and it seemed that Jerome was commenting to his mother when she was silent during her talk. Two of the messages received were, “I hope you can hear me talking,” and “Mom, I’m here.”
If one were to believe in coincidences, this had certainly been a series of pretty big ones, but even Margaret was startled when Denise sent the baby picture of Jerome.
Margaret shared the two pictures with a person doing a documentary on ITC and he sent it to the lab in Italy, Il Laboratorio, for comparison. Paolo Presi later responded with the English translation of Daniele Gullà’s analysis of Jerome’s photo and ITC picture. He wrote, “In spite of the poor quality and some facial morphological features hidden in the unknown face, the ITC results are compatible with the known face. In particular, some facial generic morphological resemblances (height of forehead, distance between eyes) are found. The resemblance of the right ear of ITC face with the one of known face is remarkable. The morphological ear feature is normally considered, for identification of a person, of equivalent value as that of fingerprints…”
