'I'm a psychic detective. And I helped solve the murder of six-year-old Kiesha Abrahams.'

The following post is an edited extract from Debbie Malone’s new book, ‘Clues From Beyond’.

Twenty-four years ago my life was changed forever. After experiencing six near-death experiences through illness and a miscarriage in 1992, I began to see dead people. I did see them as a child but I had managed to find a way to shut them out. Unfortunately, after the miscarriage, I had no control over the visions that I received on a nightly basis.

The visions I saw were terrifying. I saw people being shot, stabbed, strangled, bashed, raped and set alight. The night became a time of fear, not a time of peace. I was frightened to go to sleep because these nightly events seemed to go on forever.

I began to question what I had done to deserve what I was going through. I tried everything to make the nightmares go away. The more fearful I became, the worse the visions were.

Eventually, I began to understand and realise that I had gone through a spiritual awakening. Instead of fearing my abilities, I began to embrace them and learn how to harness them to help those in the spirit world.

Debbie Malone on the latest episode of No Filter

The life that I live now is nothing like I could have ever imagined. I have always been a creative and artistic person and my chosen vocation was graphic designer and photographer, not psychic medium.

To be honest, I would never have chosen my current line of work. I was not someone who would go and see psychics and I always lived with the motto of ‘what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you’.

It seems that the spirit world had other ideas.

This type of work comes with a huge responsibility and I take what I do very seriously. I feel that I must have been given this ability for a reason, and if I can help one person then my life’s purpose is worthwhile.

I wish to point out that as a psychic medium I do not solve cases. I am an investigative resource who can be utilised by police to pick up information
that may provide new lines of inquiry in an unsolved crime.

I understand that not everyone will be accepting of what I do. It is not my business what others think of me. I am not here to change people’s belief systems. However, I would like to open their minds to the possibility that life exists beyond the grave and give victims of crime a voice.

I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to meet and assist many talented police officers, who dedicate their lives to work on cold cases involving the missing and the murdered.

I have been able to connect with the victims of many crimes to pass on clues and information.

This journey has been extremely challenging, stressful, dangerous, trying and testing. I am a psychic witness who hears the screams and experiences the pain, the fear, the terror and suffering of the victims while tuning in to each case. I hear and see what they experience during their time of death.

I can experience a crime through the victim’s eyes, those of the murderer or as a silent witness watching as if I am actually at the crime scene.

I have been able to tune in to the victims by holding locks of their hair, bloody clothing, watches, jewellery, shoes and photographs to make a connection. At times this can be quite a confronting experience because every item contains the energy of the victim.

Through this type of contact I am privy to the life that the victim lived before, during and after their death. I see visions of them, hear their words, see them as if they were still alive. I see signs and symbols, smell their perfume or that of vegetation where they are located.

I can see the murderer’s face and have worked with police artists to create ‘comfits’ and ‘identikits’ to identify the perpetrators I see.

At times this work has been a soul-searching experience that has made me question why I do what I do.

I have worked with police officers throughout Australia. Some have been open to my assistance while others have been very sceptical and negative. What has been most interesting is that some of the most sceptical officers have become believers and great friends.

The murder case of six-year-old Kiesha Abrahams

At 10.03 am on Sunday, 1 August 2010 Kristi Abrahams rang the police emergency number to report that her daughter Kiesha was missing. When Kristi woke up that morning, she noticed that her front door was open. Then she discovered Kiesha was gone.

Kristi told the switchboard operator that her daughter was six years old, she was in her pyjamas and she had blonde hair and blue eyes.

Police were immediately dispatched to the family’s home, an apartment in the western Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt. Kristi lived there with her partner Robert Smith and her two daughters, Kiesha and three-year-old Breeana.

My first interactions with Kiesha

In 2010, I had a client book in for a reading. Unbeknown to me, the woman was a relative of a missing little girl named Kiesha Abrahams. (To protect my client’s privacy, I have changed her name — I will call her Sharon.)

During the reading Sharon gave me a hot pink bucket hat with a picture of Dora the Explorer printed on the outside and the name ‘Kiesha’ written in black marker on the inside. I was also given a number of photographs to read.

From the moment I held the hat, I could feel the presence of a cheeky little girl energetically running around my room.The saddest part of doing this reading was that I could feel the energy of the little girl and I could see her in the room with us, which indicated that she was no longer alive.

One of the photographs was of Kiesha as a small child and she looked healthy and happy. I asked Sharon about the picture and she said it was taken when Kiesha was in foster care.

Sharon was a loving relative of Keisha’s who showed grave concerns for her safety. She hoped that by visiting me, she and other family members would be able to find out what happened to Kiesha after her disappearance.

I closed my eyes and held onto the hot pink bucket hat to see if I could fill in the missing pieces. Kiesha began to give me images of what her life was like while she was alive. As a mother of three, what I saw was quite distressing. The images and feelings I picked up from this tiny little girl were something I couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

I was shown images of violence towards her. She showed me that she was always in trouble with her mother and that her mother and stepfather would burn her on the arms and legs with their cigarettes as punishment. She told me that she always wore a hat because her mother pulled her by the hair and she had big clumps of hair missing from her head. I could see that she had bruises on most parts of her body at one time or another.

I also saw that Kiesha wasn’t fed properly. She showed me that she was often bought takeaway food such as McDonald’s and given packets of potato chips, tiny teddies and other junk food to keep her quiet.

I asked Sharon if she could confirm the images that I was seeing. She said that she worried about the way the little girl was treated. Sharon had her own small children and she said that she liked to have Kiesha over to her home so that she could play with her own kids and be able to be a normal child.

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The last time that she had seen Kiesha alive, Sharon said, was approximately two weeks before the girl was reported as missing. She said that Kiesha had been at one of her children’s birthday party. She said that at the time Kiesha had clumps of hair missing, which she thought was distressing.

Sharon asked me if I thought Kiesha was dead or alive. The answer was very heartbreaking. The news that Kiesha was in spirit is not something anyone would want to hear.

She asked what I thought had happened to Kiesha. This was another hard question to answer.

We decided to focus on what had happened to the little girl and where she could be found. I asked Kiesha to tell me where she was. She showed me that she was in bushland and that she was near water. The water was like that of a small creek and I felt that it was in an area of western Sydney. I grew up in Blacktown and I felt that it was west of there. The area was in the proximity of Mount Druitt, St Mary’s or possibly Penrith.

I knew that it was not far from power lines — I could see electrical towers in the distance and I could smell dirt. I could also smell eucalyptus trees, which also confirmed that she was in bushland. She showed me that there were dirt tracks near where she was buried and that BMX bike and motor-cross riders rode their bikes past.

I felt that she was confined in a large sports bag or a suitcase and I was picking up severe head injuries.

Mamamia True Crime: We discuss the murder of Sallie-Anne Huckstepp. Post continues after audio.

The reading drew to a close and I asked Sharon if I could borrow Kiesha’s hat and a photograph of her. I wanted to tune in further to see if I could pick up any more information over the next couple of days. Sharon agreed and we organised to keep in touch.

That night while driving home, I felt that I had a new little friend in the car and began to realise just how connected Kiesha and I had become. To be honest, experiencing the pain and suffering of such a little child is extremely hard to cope with.

The sense of loss really affects you. I could never even begin to imagine what it would be like to hurt or witness the assault on a child in any form.
The anguish would multiply tenfold if it was a member of your own family.

I found it horrific that Kiesha’s mother and stepfather were responsible for what subsequently caused her death. It was so difficult to fathom what was going on in the minds of Kristi Abrahams and Robert Smith when they killed this tiny fragile little girl.

Settling down to go to sleep that night, I knew I wasn’t alone. I could feel Kiesha’s energy with me. I told her that I would do all I could to try and help her so that she could go to heaven and be up among the angels. I told her that she was going to be safe and that she didn’t have to suffer anymore.

First contact with police

I rang Sharon and shared with her the information I had about Kiesha. I told her what Kiesha did at my office and what she showed me overnight in my dreams. Sharon said that another family member would like to speak with me too and she asked if I would talk with some police officers about the information I had picked up.

They asked me if I would be interested in speaking with a detective they called ‘Detective Matt’. I never work on a missing person’s or murder case unless asked to by a police officer working on the case. So I was not sure about getting involved in Kiesha’s case until officially being asked.

A short time later I received a phone call from Roger Mayer from the NSWPF Dog Unit. He asked if I was picking up anything to do with the case and if I was, if I would pass on to him any psychic information that I had picked up. Roger and his colleague Dave Cole were both working on Kiesha’s case and I told them about the information I had received.

Roger was booked in to do a search with his dog Jeff and he asked if I would be interested in coming with him. I said that I was more than willing to go up to assist. I explained that over the previous few weeks I had Kiesha’s spirit with me constantly.

It was also suggested that I go to Mount Druitt with Dave and do a search for Kiesha.

I told Dave that I felt that Kiesha’s parents were the perpetrators and that the little girl was deceased. I told him that I felt that Kiesha’s body may have been placed in a sports duffle bag or suitcase.

I passed on other relevant information from my visions, including about the bike trail and power lines, and I described the type of vegetation and area that I felt was connected to the case. I could see bike riders passing by the area and that there were mounds of dirt that had been positioned to make jumps and ramps. Kiesha constantly showed me the image of someone riding a bike, and I just couldn’t get it out of my head.

It seemed very important for her to show me this image. I could smell fire and wondered if something had been burned or whether there had been a bushfire in the area. I felt that Kiesha’s grave site was either in water or close to water, as I could smell muddy water and dampness when I tuned in
to her.

I received further visions of where Kiesha was and I realised that she was buried and not in water because she showed me images of being under dirt and debris. Once again I could smell fire. I wondered if Kiesha was set on fire or was the smell connected to Kiesha in some other way?

I looked at maps online to get a better sense of the locations I was drawn to so that I could give the co-ordinates to Roger and Dave for their searches. I was looking for trail bike tracks, power lines, water and bush.

Roger did do a search at the Abrahams’ property. He said that Jeff did react in the garage area and he felt very strongly that Kiesha’s remains had been present in that location. He confirmed that the area was full of rubbish and rolled-up carpet, which told me that I was on the right track.

Roger noticed that there was an expensive lock on the garage door, but there wasn’t anything of value inside. He said that this made him suspicious that the family had tried to hide something in the garage.

I rang Detective Matt and passed on the information that I had picked up concerning Kiesha’s case. I also spoke to the detective inspector heading the case about what I had picked up while holding the hat.

On the Friday of that week, Dave and I were planning to do a search with his dog Oscar around the Abrahams’ property and in some bushland areas that I had pinpointed, but we were still waiting for approval. Then we were told that it would be postponed and would probably happen the following week.

When the search was postponed, Roger Mayer and Dave Cole invited me to the NSW Police Dog Unit at Menai to watch the dog accreditation day. When I arrived around 11 am, I was quite nervous about how I would be received by the other officers, but my fears were laid to rest when I was introduced
to other members of the squad — they were warm and very open to me.

Watching the dogs go through accreditation for their various tasks was incredible.

After Kiesha’s disappearance, Kristi Abrahams and Robert Smith moved out of their apartment and into a motel. They told police they had done so because of the ongoing media attention. Once their unit was empty, the police methodically searched it for any vital clues that could help with their investigation. Investigating officers seized Kiesha’s mattress, bedding and carpet for testing.

The laboratory reports picked up traces of Kiesha’s blood throughout the unit. On the wooden frame of Kiesha’s bed, teeth marks were found.

A few days later the couple returned to the apartment. The police had installed a recording device during the search and were listening. The first thing they heard Kristi say was, ‘They’ve taken her mattress — they’ll only find her piss and shit on it.’

For a mother who was supposedly mourning her missing child, these were cold and heartless words.

The arrests

In December 2010, police used undercover officers to befriend the couple and to gain the couple’s confidence. On the night of 21 April 2011, unaware that they were being monitored and recorded, Kristi and Robert met the two undercover officers at a hotel in Sydney and they disclosed information about Kiesha that was crucial to the case.

It gave the undercover agents enough to arrest the couple. However, before they could arrest them, they needed to find out where Kiesha’s body had been buried so that she could be laid to rest. Fortunately, Kristi and Robert were eager to prove to them that they were telling them the truth about what happened to Kiesha. That night they agreed to take the officers with them to the burial site.

The next night, on the 22 April, which would have been Kiesha’s seventh birthday, Kristi and Robert led the undercover agents to the shallow grave. When they left the lonely bush grave where they had dumped Kiesha’s body, they were met by Detectives Russell Oxford and Andrew Marks. They were arrested and taken to Mount Druitt Police Station, where they were formally charged with the child’s murder.

The court found that Kiesha had suffered years of physical abuse at the hands of her mother. Kristi Abrahams was found guilty of murder and interfering with a corpse, and was sentenced to 22 years and six months, with a minimum non-parole period of 16 years. Kiesha’s stepfather Robert Smith was charged with manslaughter on the grounds of ‘gross criminal negligence’ and was sentenced to a maximum of 16 years in gaol with a 12-year non-parole period.

After Kiesha’s body was found, many of the psychic visions I had seen were confirmed. Kiesha was found to have head injuries and her teeth were broken due to her mother assaulting her. Kiesha had been subjected to prolonged physical abuse in the months prior to her death.

Kiesha’s body was kept in the house in a suitcase for over a week before being disposed of. Robert Smith rode around the local area on his bicycle to find a suitable place to dump Keisha’s body. Kiesha’s body was found in a place that was close to water and from where power lines were visible.

Robert had buried Kiesha in a shallow grave, which is why I could see and smell dirt. He poured petrol onto Kiesha’s remains and set fire to them. This is why I kept picking up the smell of something burning, which I thought could have been a bushfire.

I could see from my visions that Kiesha’s mother and stepfather were the murderers.

This case was very difficult to work on. As a mother it was hard to even comprehend how another mother could mistreat her own child in the way that Kristi did.

It made me question my work right to the very core of my being. The positive to this case was that even though a beautiful little angel was taken from this life so early, justice was done.

Every time I see a butterfly or see the colour purple I remember what a brave and courageous little angel Kiesha was. I take these signs as a message that she is now safe and well in the spirit world. I hope that Keisha knows and understands how many lives she touched in the small time that she was on this earth.

The book 'Clues From Beyond: True Crime Stories from Australia's #1 Psychic Detective' by Debbie Malone is now available for purchase. RRP $29.99.