THE Midweek Herald spent a night with four mediums at a location where a teenage girl was murdered 12 years ago.

THE Midweek Herald spent a night with four mediums at a location where a teenage girl was murdered 12 years ago.

The group from the Honiton area met at Exwick Lane, Exeter - where 14-year-old Kate Bushell was on Saturday, November 15, 1997.

At round 4.30pm, Kate set off to walk a neighbour's Jack Russell.

Her parents called police when she failed to return and a search located her body in fields next to Exwick Lane at 7.35pm - just 300 yards from her home in Burrator Drive. Her throat had been slashed.

A witness spotted a bloodstained man fleeing from the scene at exactly the time when the girl's father found the body.

The mediums met late in the evening and reporter Angela Brennan went along as an independent witness and recorded their findings.

One medium, a female, said on getting out the car she was overcome with a smell of alcohol or chloroform.

The group first headed down Exwick Lane near to the school. They said they could see a Jack Russell with a brown spot on its head going down the lane and felt it was a place Kate had visited, but not been killed.

But they felt another presence, which they did not think was connected to the murder. One medium, a male, said he felt a man following him around. Another, female, said she also picked up his energy. She said: "He's not of sound mind. He's scruffy, untidy, and when he was alive he had medical issues."

They then moved to the other side of Exwick Lane, near to where Kate used to live in Burrator drive.

The male medium who felt the man following him around said he saw an image of a hooded man come up behind Kate. He said: "I don't think she heard him coming. He just came up behind her, grabbed her, and that was it."

But he didn't know where the man, whom he described as a foot taller than Kate, went to. He felt Kate may have been wearing a gym slip. Another medium agreed that she saw a hood, and described it as a sky blue colour.

He continued that he saw the man with a red bike. He felt that Kate knew him, but he was not from the area. But he could not sense a motive - to which another said she sensed 'because I could.'

The mediums said they were not getting strong readings that night and could only report what they saw. They agreed there was a question of integrity not to grasp at things.

One said: "We have to be careful as families are still living and it could give them false hope. If you don't pick anything up, there's nothing you can do about it."

The group said they may return another time.