Hoopla in Hardin

The population of nearby Hardin, Texas, probably doubled yesterday afternoon.  It was easily the most excitement in Hardin since Hurricane Ike.

Acting on a tip, literally dozens of officers from every law-enforcement agency imaginable descended on a small farmhouse in search of a mass grave full of dismembered bodies.  They were probably outnumbered by representatives of every news agency that could find Hardin on a map. 

Rumors had over 30 bodies, including children, found on the property.  The story was picked up by local network affiliates and the AP.  It became the lead story all over the world on all the US outlets,  the BBC and Sky News. For all I know, it could have been the lead on Xinhua and Al Jazeera, too.

They all stood around for a couple of hours while a search warrant was obtained, swapping the latest rumors and interviewing each other.  Finally, once the paperwork was in order, authorities went in to discover that there was nothing there.  The whole thing was a hoax.

Liberty county sheriff's captain Rex Evans said the tipster's knowledge of the premises and a precise description of the home led authorities to give her more credibility than they otherwise would have. Authorities took the tip from a self-proclaimed psychic seriously because the caller had details about the inside of the house that only someone who had seen it could have known.

Satisfied there was nothing to the caller's tip, authorities were turning their attention to the caller, a woman who telephoned Monday night and again Tuesday. Officials have a name and a phone number, Evans said, but it was not immediately known whether either was valid. One law enforcement source said the so-called psychic lives in the Texas Panhandle and was using an Austin telephone number.

"We are going to continue our investigation and find out how this individual had this information in the first place," Evans said, adding that the caller may face criminal proceedings.

The owner of the property, truck driver Joe Bankson, told Houston's KHOU-TV that his daughter lived at the house and there was blood on the porch from when her boyfriend cut himself after getting drunk. "It took me all day to clean the inside of the house. I'm not sure I got it  all."

Bankson said he was clueless as to why anyone may have called the police to his house. "I haven't killed anybody," he told the Houston Chronicle in a separate interview. "And I have a lot of friends, but I haven't helped anybody bury any bodies."