FAIRBANKS -- A Department of Transportation worker claims the advice of a psychic more than 3,000 miles away led him to the likely remains of a missing Wasilla woman.

Alaska State Troopers have confirmed that a vehicle found off the road near Mile 90 Steese Highway Friday is the 1998 Ford Explorer registered to 68-year-old Carolyn "Sue" Tyrrell.

Authorities believe the body found near the crash is that of Tyrrell, though the medical examiner will not be able to confirm the person's identity until today at the earliest.

On July 4, Tyrrell told a friend she was going up to Fairbanks. Surveillance tape showed her buying gas in Fox and shopping at the Airport Way Fred Meyer later in the day, but a monthlong search turned up no trace of her until Friday.

Travis Capps said he and other DOT employees who work in Circle, near a mine owned by the Tyrrell family, regularly searched on ATVs for the Wasilla grandmother without success.

"All of us were looking," he said. "Our hearts just went out to the family."

Though he says he has always been skeptical of psychics, he figured it wouldn't hurt to ask for advice from self-professed clairvoyant Katherine Marie Jones, who lives near his mother's house outside Sacramento, Calif.

Through her business, Katherine Jones Consulting, Jones offers to analyze the next year of a person's life and answer whatever questions they might have -- for $200 per hour. On her Web site, she also offers help finding missing persons for free or reward consideration, though she said few law enforcement agencies have contacted her.

Jones said her father was always rather intuitive and her grandfather was a dowser. When she was 10, she became curious about psychic abilities after seeing a book on fortune telling. After a successful experiment with playing cards, she and her family became convinced of her ability.

"I don't want to get too religious, but God is everywhere," she said.

Jones described how last Wednesday she wrote down Tyrrell's name on a piece of paper, said simply, "Lord, if they can find this person please let me help," and spent about 30 minutes concentrating on the images that came to her. She told Capps the missing woman had already passed on and that she would be found down an east-facing slope near a boat launch, facing the opposite direction of where she was going.

Jones also described seeing an eagle, which was mostly symbolic. The crash site is about 17 miles from Eagle Summit.

Jones claims to have a success rate of more than 85 percent.

Capps wrote down the information, though when he tried to tell Alaska State Troopers about what led him to the crash scene, they didn't take him seriously. "They kind of looked at me like I was weird," he said. "I showed them a note and they kind of blew it off."

Trooper Sgt. Rick Roberts remained skeptical of Capps' claim. He said he was only aware that a DOT worker found the crash site while driving past it on the Steese.

Capps conceded that some of the things Jones told him were a little off. For example, she told him Tyrrell's body might be miles from her vehicle, while the body was recovered only about 50 feet away. However, he's convinced the psychic's advice led him to the crash site, and without consulting her, Tyrrell might never been found and her family might never have found closure.

"It's kind of creepy," Capps said. "It sure made me think differently about these things."

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