How One Woman Uses Astrology to Solve Crimes

In early March 2017, the astrologer Kirsty McIntosh was contacted by a woman whose niece had been missing for more than six months. The family was at their wit’s end, looking for clues wherever they might find them.

21-year-old Jessica Runions had gone missing in Missouri the previous fall. It was now Spring, and the police still didn’t have any leads to her whereabouts. Her aunt was hoping that Kirsty could help find her, somehow.

And, as it turned out, she could.

The Astrology of a Crime

Though it may seem odd to reach out to an astrologer for help in a missing person case, these kinds of requests are not unusual for Kirsty. That’s because, more than 20 years ago, she began to practice what is known as forensic astrology – or, the practice of using astrology to solve crimes. 

The first step Kirsty takes in any case is the creation of what is known as a Last Seen Chart. She does this by using the exact time, date, and place the person was last seen, or where a crime was committed.

When analyzed using an ancient branch of astrology called horary astrology, the Last Seen Chart can give a clear picture of the unfolding of events that occurred the night in question. It can also provide clues into the characteristics of the suspect and the victim, both physical and psychological.

But, most importantly, this methodology translates really well to mapping. By using a specific technique, the Last Seen Chart can provide specific locations to search… which is exactly what happened in the case of Jessica Runions.

The Disappearance of Jessica Runions

Jessica Runions disappeared on September 8, 2016. She was last seen at  11:30pm, leaving a party a friend’s house in Grandview MO Missouri.

Using this information, Kirsty erected her Last Seen Chart, which revealed very detailed circumstances surrounding that night.

At the moment of Jessica’s disappearance, the ascendant (or rising sign) was in Gemini. In horary astrology, the ascendant represents the body – the physical self – of the person who is missing. Because Gemini is ruled by Mercury, Kirsty looked to that planet as the physical representation of Jessica in the chart.

Read this now: Here’s How to Read Your Horoscope THE RIGHT WAY

At 11:30pm on September 8, 2016, Mercury was in the fifth house, aka the house of pleasure, in Virgo. This immediately made sense, as Jessica’s aunt had revealed that she was last seen at a party. Using the strict rules of horary astrology, the co-ruler of the ascendant is always the moon… so the next step was to locate the moon.

At the moment of Jessica’s disappearance, the moon was in the seventh house, in Sagittarius. The seventh house is the house of partnership – which also encompasses enemies. The moon was also conjunct Mars, the planet of passion, which can be a very destructive energy.

Having worked on cases like this for the better part of two decades, Kirsty was filled with dread when she saw that, at the time of Jessica’s disappearance, Pluto, the planet of power, was in the eighth house… the house of sex – and death. 

Sadly, the statistics in these cases are grim, and the large majority of people who are abducted are killed within three hours of their disappearance. Curious as to where Jessica’s body might be found, Kirsty looked to Saturn.
Saturn rules the eighth house, and its placement in any Last Seen Chart can provide important information regarding the missing person’s body. Kirsty saw that it was conjunct the seventh house, which did not bode well. It was next to Mars, the moon… and the perpetrator.

Who Did It?

In horary astrology, the perpetrator is always shown by the seventh cusp. In Jessica’s Last Seen Chart, the seventh cusp was in Sagittarius, ruler of Jupiter. Using this framework, Jupiter represented the person who caused Jessica’s disappearance.

Mercury, Jessica’s ruler, and Jupiter, the ruler of the perpetrator, were closely conjunct in the fifth house. This suggested that the perp was right next to her, her friend. Their placement in the fifth house reinforced that they were at the party with Jessica.

The Gemini ascendant shows that the vehicle was important, too, as Mercury rules transport. Remembering that Mars was in the house of partnership opposite the ascendant, Kirsty began to believe that Jessica was killed by a friend in her car, not long after they left the party.

These suspicions were emboldened when Jessica’s family shared that she was last seen giving her boyfriend’s longtime friend, Kylr Yust, a ride home.

Following the Signs

Halfway through working on this case, Kirsty learned that Jessica was not the only young girl from Grandview, Missouri who had vanished without a trace.

Nearly a decade before Jessica’s disappearance, a young girl named Kara Kopetsky went missing. She was last seen on May 4, 2007 at 5:30pm. Kirsty’s heart sank when she learned that, at the time of her disappearance, Kara was dating Kylr Just – the very same person who left the party with Jessica on the night of her disappearance.

Upon learning this information, Kirsty could not erect Kara’s Last Seen Chart fast enough. Her ascendant was at 12 degrees Libra. Because Libra is ruled by Venus, Kirsty was able to see that Kara would be represented by the planet of love and beauty in this chart.

That is when it occurred to Kirsty: In Jessica’s Last Seen Chart, the closest aspect to the ascendant was an exact trine to Venus … at 12 degrees Libra.

Whenever she sees repetitions like this, Kirsty knows something big is brewing.  

So she decided to erect Jessica’s birth chart. To her amazement, Jessica’s natal chart had 12 degrees Gemini on the ascendant and all of the house cusps were the same as Kara’s Last Seen Chart.

Not only that –the moon, in both of the charts, was in Sagittarius. The moon moves quickly through the zodiac, and this was a rare and unusual overlap.  

Although these girls did not even know each other, Kirsty became convinced they would be found together.

Do you believe in guardian angels? Find yours today with this tarot reading!

Finding the Girls

Now we have come to the most important – and most complicated – step in this type of astrology: the practice of converting the information in the Last Seen Chart onto a map.  

First things first: look to the location of the ruler (the planet that represents Jessica) by house and sign. Mercury was located at 24 degrees, in the fifth house, in Virgo.

Using the first sign of the zodiac, Aries, as our 0 degree starting point, we can calculate that Virgo is at 150 degrees. So, add that to the fact that, at the moment of her disappearance, Mercury sat on 24 degrees of Virgo, we can calculate that one place we’d need to look was 174 degrees from Jessica’s last seen location.

This is is the exact location where Jessica’s 2012 black Chevy Equinox was found, burned and abandoned, just a few days after her disappearance. 

Because that first mapping point was already in play, Kirsty looked to the location of the ascendant in Jessica’s chart for my next map point. Using the starting point of 12 degrees Gemini, she suggested that the Runions family look at 72 degrees from Jessica’s Last Seen location, and 12 miles out. These coordinates led straight to a lake that had been on their radar. The family searched the lake, to no avail. The next search area that Kirsty suggested was 12 degrees of Libra, or 192 degrees from the Last Seen location. Kirsty suggested that they start at the closest point and work their way out.

They did not need to, though.

While the family was organizing this leg of the search, two mushroom pickers found the remains of two people. The location of the bodies was exactly on the line of Venus at 12 degrees, or 192 degrees from the Last Seen location.

The remains were later identified as belonging to Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions.

Ongoing Investigation

On Monday, June 18, 2018, Kylr Yust was arraigned in the Cass County Circuit Court in Missouri. He has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abandonment of a corpse in the deaths of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions.

He has pleaded not guilty and is still awaiting trial, which has been scheduled for November 2019.