posted by Andrea Lankford
*Update: I wrote this blog in January 2019 for the purpose of warning law enforcement and families of the missing about this sham. Since then, more journalists/writers have debunked Dr. Vass’s claims. I’ve included links to those articles, along with responses from Vass and his believers at the end of my article. Thanks for reading, Andrea
Dr. Arpad Vass has all the right credentials. The PhD in Forensic Anthropology. The expert testimony for the prosecution in a high profile murder case. The association with the revered Dr. William Bass at the famous University of Tennessee's Body Farm. An inspiring Ted Talk.
When our loved ones disappear, we'll try anything to find them. So when a famous forensic anthropologist claims he can locate your son or daughter using his or her mother's fingernail clippings, there seems to be little reason to doubt him.
Unfortunately Dr. Arpad Vass is selling nothing but false hope.
“Take head law enforcement agencies and families of the missing. Hiring Arpad Vass and his latest invention is akin to hiring a dowser. ”
An abstract from the patent for Vass’ grave detecting machine. Otherwise known as the INQUISITOR.
According to the patent application, Dr. Vass’s INQUISITOR has two L-shaped antenna that cooperate as it is “channelling” electromagnetic waves. This sounds suspiciously like a high-tech divining rod. The full patent makes more references to "divining" rods and during the Casey Anthony trial in 2011, Dr. Vass admitted to dowsing for graves as a hobby. What? I thought dowsing was a goofy thing people did in the olden days. When I think of divining rods, I envision a man in depression era clothes, walking across a drought-battered field with two twigs, hoping to discover water or oil.
A dowser or “water witcher”
A website marketing Vass' services, www.ForensicRecoveryServices.org, makes some extraordinary claims. Apparently, he and his device can locate your "great, great, great grandfather's grave" amongst "20,000 gravestones" using your fingernail clippings.
If the tragedy behind these cases wasn’t so real, and the cost of hiring Vass wasn’t so expensive, Dr. Vass’s intention to dowse for your loved one’s grave would be quaint.
Wow. Arpad Vass can find my great, great, GREAT grandfather’s grave using my DNA from fingernail clippings!
With 85% accuracy!
The INQUISITOR does not work.
I've seen no evidence to prove other wise. I've reviewed 27 cases Vass worked and I can’t find a single one where the INQUISITOR detected an actual missing person or their remains. I know of one missing hiker case in which Vass and his device walked within feet of the remains and totally missed it. We know this because the missing person was found by accident many months later, well outside the area detected by Vass and his INQUISITOR.
Unbelievably, some law enforcement agencies are falling for the junk science behind the device. In Virginia, one Chief described Vass’ device as "a bloodhound on steroids."
Here’s one way the scam works: the device detects a hit. Soil “samples” or “bone fragments” are collected and “sent to a lab,” yet, there’s never any mention of the lab results and the missing person’s body is not found. This is a common theme whenever the INQUISITOR is used. Vass detects one or more “hits” with his machine, the area is searched, sometimes soil samples are sent to a lab, the media does a story, and then….crickets. The case remains unsolved.
On other cases, cooperating cadaver dog handlers “confirm” a hit made by the INQUISITOR. The explanation for why no human remains are found is that the person’s DNA is in the soil (or in the concrete), proving their body was once there, but only Dr. Vass’s machine and the conspiring dog handlers can detect this.
I’m a former search and rescue park ranger with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of Tennessee. Perhaps a lady park ranger’s opinion doesn’t account for much when it comes to forensic applications of quantum theory and the unique electromagnetic signature of familial DNA. So I hired Dr. Monti Miller, director of Forensic DNA Experts to conduct an independent and objective analysis.
Dr. Miller reviewed the patent, the claims made on www.ForensicRecoveryServices.org, and several cases Vass is known to have worked . Miller has a PhD in Biochemistry and a total of 20 years experience in DNA and forensics. In a six-page report, he thoroughly debunked the INQUISITOR’s ability to locate dead family members using your fingernail clippings. (Even if Vass’ claim was possible, extracting unique identifying DNA from fingernail clippings is a tricky business according to Miller. For example, DNA from other individuals may be under your fingernails.)
Miller finds the claims made on www.ForensicRecoveryServices.org to be “scientifically absurd.” Every scientist understands a theory must undergo “proper proof” and Vass has failed to present a peer-reviewed test of his new device. In short, Dr. Miller believes the INQUISITOR is a “hoax.”
According to this International Skeptics Forum, Arpad Vass was offered James Randi’s Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge.
Desperation is a powerful emotion. Families will try anything to find their loved one. Sadly, there are people who take advantage.
Sources at the UT Forensic Anthropology Center say Vass is no longer associated with their department. I communicated with one PhD who specializes in LIDAR. She used the word “predatory” to describe Vass’ Grave Detection enterprise.
To date, I can find no scientific studies to back up Vass' claims but that hasn’t stopped him from charging $300/hr, plus expenses and a retainer, for his services.
During his testimony for the Casey Anthony trial, Vass states that he is paid to think outside the box. For him, “there is no box.” I’m all for creative thinking and innovation. But testing unproven technology should not be funded by money donated to grieving families of missing people.
Vass’ invention has wasted the time and resources of law enforcement by leading them to dig up ground where there is no evidence. Volunteer searchers are risking life and injury searching areas of low probability. Future prosecutions could be tainted by the weak findings of a flawed expert.
Take head law enforcement agencies and families of the missing. Hiring Arpad Vass and his latest invention is akin to hiring a dowser. This former SAR park ranger says your money would be better spent elsewhere.
The folks with Forensic Recovery Services have “no alternative but to charge fees upfront” so get that GoFundMe set up!
*Update: Reactions to Vass and his device since my blog was published.
The Skeptics:
Science journalist Rene Ebersole’s article: He Trains Cops in Witching to Help Find Corpses. Experts Are Alarmed
Techdirt writer Tim Cushing reacts to Ebersole’s reporting: Cops Are Being ‘Trained’ To Use Literal Witchcraft To Find Dead Bodies
Skeptical Science: Scam Alert: The Human Remains Detector
Center for Inquiry: Dowsing for Corpses
Tim Cushing response to Vass’s critique of Ebersole: Instructor Who Teaches Cops to Dowse for Dead Bodies Issues Hearty Defense of Corpse Witching
The Believers:
Vass calls Ebersole “intellectually dishonest” and claims he is a Brilliant Scientist and Inventor who has become a target by people bent on destroying his good name.
Podcast hosted by Dr. Jones as a “resource for LE officers”: Death is in the Air: An interview with expert forensic anthropologist and inventor, Dr. Arpad Vass
Forensic Magazine: The Quantum Oscillator and “Adding Scat to the Missing Person’s Forensic Toolbox”
An Anonymous victim-blaming website with an insane attempt to discredit my debunking of Vass: “former park ranger Andrea Rene Lankford who has no damn clue as to the science behind what Dr. Arpad Vass does..”
Podcast featuring Cold Case Consultants of America hosted by Crawlspace Media/Missing Maura Murray. (I’m the “one woman” mentioned.)
©Andrea Lankford