Estelle Roberts (1889 to 1970) was born in Kensington, London,
and was regarded as one of the most versatile mediums of her day.
In the 1950s Estelle was greatly instrumental in the legal recognition of Spiritualism by the British Government, by conducting a convincing demonstration of mediumship inside the House of Commons itself. It was these very demonstrations, presented during a visit to the Houses of Parliament, that gained the practice of mediumshp a new-found respect and convinced the MPs to legalise Spiritualism across the country.
A summary of the life and mediumship of Estelle Roberts can be found HERE
Extract from The Pioneer Journal, Vol.6 No.5 - October 2019 (pp 170-172)
Below, Estelle becomes involved in a real-life murder inquiry published in “Psychic News”, January 1st, 1938:
Mona Tinsley Tells How She Was MurderedThe Mediumship Of Estelle Roberts Helped In Solution Of The Crime
THE psychic powers of Estelle Roberts played an important part in the solution of the Mona Tinsley murder. For this crime against the tenyear-old Newark schoolgirl, Frederick Nodder was executed this week.
Mona Tinsley, a happy, healthy intelligent child, went to school, as usual, on January 5, almost a year ago. She left the school at 4 p.m. that day and her parents never saw her alive again.
In March, Nodder, who had lodged with the Tinsleys, was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude for her abduction.
On June 6th, the body of the girl was found in the River Idle, which flows not very far away from Nodder’s home at Hayton Smeeth, Retford.
MEDICAL TESTIMONY
Medical evidence, given at his trial for murder a few weeks ago, proved that she died by strangulation by ligature and that the girl was killed before her body was put into the water.
Unofficially, Estelle Roberts was consulted by the authorities and the information received through her mediumship proved of tremendous value. Her interest in the case started soon after the child was reported missing.
A well-known author asked the medium if it were not possible for something to be done to allay the despairing uncertainty in the minds of the parents. Reports were current that the child was still alive. The medium knew that Mona Tinsley had passed on, for the child had clairvoyantly appeared to her three days after she was reported missing.
Being opposed to capital punishment, Estelle Roberts did not want to use her mediumship for the purpose of causing a man to be hanged. But there were other considerations impressed upon her.
She was told it was only right that the false hope of the girl still being alive should be shattered, not only for the sake of her parents, but, more important still, because it was retarding the progress and peace of the little child who had been so tragically hurled into the spirit world.
Mona Tinsley, herself, would not let the medium rest. Again and again, the child’s face came to her vision, appealing to Estelle Roberts in her terrible distress, begging that the medium should do everything within her power to alleviate the spirit’s anguish and suffering. At that time, the child’s body had not yet been found.
Mona first appeared to the medium three or four days after she was reported missing, when the B.B.C. broadcast a police message concerning her disappearance. Estelle Roberts then told members of her family and friends that Mona had been outraged and strangled. She was sure of these facts because the spirit girl told them to her.
Then the medium asked the authorities to send her a personal article belonging to the child. A little, silk party frock was sent and this provided an even stronger means of contact with the spirit child.
Mona appeared again, still referred to the strangling, and Mrs. Roberts could see that the effect of the terrible ordeal was still in her mind. The spirit child was hysterical and sometimes incoherent. Her story became a little muddled and had to be sifted. It was obvious that the child was unable to differentiate between all that she had experienced during her last hours on earth and her spirit awakening.
SPIRIT INFORMATION
Mona told the medium that she had been taken to another house some distance from her own—at that time there was no report to this effect in circulation—and she had travelled quite a long way in something on wheels. This was subsequently proved to refer to the omnibus journey she made with Nodder to his home. She also gave details of the clothing she wore and referred to some water pipes—a reference that could not be understood.
She said her body had been put into a sack, or something of a similar nature. Then, with the help of the medium’s spirit guide, Mona tried in her childish way to tell where her body could be found.
She gave Estelle Roberts a mental picture of her body being taken away from the second house, past a row of trees to a little bridge over some water.
It was taken over the bridge, along a little muddy lane, through fields, and then her body was thrown over into the water. She continued by talking about cartwheels and carts, saying that this route passed by a church, that the lane had a high hedge on one side and opened on to fields on the other side. She also referred to a public house or a brewery in the immediate vicinity.
SCENE OF THE MURDER
In February, Estelle Roberts decided to go to Newark to try to confirm the spirit evidence as given to her. With some friends she arrived at Newark at mid-day, journeyed to Hayton Smeeth and visited the house where Nodder lived, mentioned by Mona.
This was an ordinary small dwelling-house, with a living room and kitchen and small gardens at the front and back. All the furniture and effects had been removed some weeks previously and the rooms had been thoroughly cleaned. From the medium’s point of view, these alterations made conditions more difficult, for they affected the vibrations.
The official who accompanied the medium asked in which room the child had slept. Although there were three bedrooms, the main one being in the front, Estelle Roberts immediately went to one at the back of the house. Mona had told her that she had slept n this back room, in the only bed in the house. The official confirmed that these facts were correct.
On looking over this room, Mrs. Roberts was able to understand Mona Tinsley’s reference to water pipes. There was only one cupboard in this bedroom and this contained a cylindrical water tank and pipes, which she was sure had been explored by the child. This fact must have registered itself in Mona’s mind and was one of the things she clearly remembered after her passing.
In order once again to test the accuracy of her spirit information, the official asked Estelle Roberts by which door Nodder and Mona Tinsley had entered and left the house. The medium immediately went to the back door. This, the official said, was the only one ever used, the front one being kept permanently locked.
AT NODDER’S HOUSE
When the psychic added that the child had partaken of various meals in the house and had spent much of her time in the front living room, these facts were also accepted as being correct.
The medium was sure that Mona was strangled in that front room because she experienced an over-powering condition of horror in one particular corner.
With Mona leading her, Estelle Roberts went to the back door, up the back garden, scrambled through a thick hedge, walked across two muddy fields and came to a church. That was the church that Mona had told her about.
As advised by the spirit child, she kept to the left of it, along a muddy lane, where immediately in front of her she found the little bridge over a canal. This muddy lane, which was bordered by trees, had been churned up by farm cartwheels after a season of heavy rains.
THE ROUTE TAKEN
“Over this bridge the lane continued,” says Estelle Roberts. “On one side of it there was a high hedge, and on the other some fields. It then branched off into some fields, but I regret that here it was impossible to walk. Our party tried very hard to cross these fields, but they were absolutely impassable.
“I have subsequently proved that the route across these fields led to the River Idle, in which the body was found. By this time I realised and stated that Mona’s body was in the water, as I went over the little bridge, which was rather steep, I saw a small public house at the back of the road which, for a short way, ran parallel with this lane.”
This was, of course, the public house mentioned by Mona. Neither the medium nor any member of her party had ever been to Hayton Smeeth before. Yet they easily recognised the surroundings from the description given to Estelle Roberts by the spirit girl.