The Story of NILJ: How a Retired Cop and a Reluctant Medium Joined Forces

​The Story of NILJ
 
In 2014, I was finally starting to feel more confident in my intuitive abilities. It had been a couple years since I suddenly started hearing and seeing spirits of those on the other side. My awakening was NOT something I planned, nor was it something I studied. In a nutshell, I didn’t go looking for them—they simply found me.
 
After going public about my evolution from skeptic to believer (due to my late in life mediumship experiences), a colleague from my days at A&E TV Network days reached out to me. She’d heard about my heightened sixth sense and asked if I would consider helping find her best friend’s husband. He’d gone missing in New York. She also mentioned that a retired NYPD detective had volunteered to help, too. I agreed to do what I could from my home in Flagstaff, AZ, but I wasn’t the least bit sure I’d be helpful. Most of my prior mediumship experiences had been with children who had passed on. Many of whom were victims of sexual predators (like me).
 
Shockingly, I almost immediately heard from the man in spirit. It was crushing to know that he was no longer in his body, but I felt hopeful that I’d be able to help shed light on why he went missing. Shortly after channeling details about the missing man, Detective Pucci and I spoke on the phone. Much to my surprise, Mark said he was open to intuitive information, just like he’d be open to other types of tips and eye-witness accounts shared during an investigation. He also said that he had worked with other mediums in the past.
 
A few weeks later, we met in person at a diner in New York City. I was there on business for Mod Mom Furniture, so it worked out perfectly. As we opened our respective note-filled folders, we were stunned to see just how much matched, even though Mark hadn’t disclosed details with me.
 
Back in Flagstaff—while I stood in the kitchen washing dishes—I received unexpected, channeled messages for Mark. They were beyond urgent—his life was at stake. I called him immediately, having no idea that he was on his way a location where he suspected the missing man’s remains might be. The location matched what I was being shown psychically as well. I was being shown symbols, flashes of images, and I heard that if he didn’t protect himself, he would be in grave danger.
 
In a recent interview with Emmy award-winning journalist Bonnie Stevens, Mark said this about that fateful day:

“Mark says her psychic ability “literally” saved his life when she warned him that he was putting himself in “mortal danger” with individuals connected to an investigation. Clues she was able to provide him helped him recognize the scene where danger lurked and the individual who had intended to harm him. “Without any doubt, if Kiersten hadn’t advised me of the message she had received, and the specific details it contained, I believe the outcome of that afternoon could have been very different.”

Det. Pucci says Hathcock’s involvement often leads to a unique take on an ongoing investigation. “What Kiersten’s abilities bring to the table is oftentimes a focused message, which may cause a re-examination or re-evaluation of current evidence, a fresh perspective or nuance you may have overlooked before or may also initiate the creation of a new direction entirely to explore.”

After the case of the missing man in New York wrapped up, I channeled that Mark and I would be working together under a much bigger umbrella down the road, but neither of us knew how or when.

We continued to work on cases together but it wasn’t until 2021 when Mark called me up out of the blue one day to ask me a question: “It’s time, isn’t it?” I was covered in chills from head to toe, intuitively knowing what he meant. He said he was ready to start a nonprofit organization and I was the first person he called. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the time was right. Funny enough, one of the kids in spirit had just told me that I had more to write in my memoir. I had no idea what that meant until Mark called me. The next week, I landed a book deal. Divine timing is real, that’s for sure.

We’d both been individually (and collectively) volunteering our time working cases, we could only do so much. We both work full-time jobs —Mark as a private detective and me as Chief Marketing Officer at Moonshot, author, and entrepreneurship mentor—so our time is limited. We knew that if we were able to start a nonprofit that funded the cases for families, we could help more families by expanding our network of detectives and resources.

Today, I’m still currently working full-time while volunteering with NILJ as co-founder, head of marketing and board secretary, and whenever possible, I volunteer as a medium on cases.

Sometimes I look at case details to see what I can pick up on intuitively, but most of the time those on the other side simply come to me. Case in point: I was recently visited by a teenager who was killed decades ago. She came to me because we (via NILJ) had been working on other cases involving the same killer; however, no one had connected her death to him yet. She told me that she, too, was a victim—that she’d been raped and murdered when she was just fifteen years old. The ball is rolling on her case and we’re hopeful we’ll be able to prove that she was indeed one of his victims. To know that she has a voice long after her death means so much to all of us at NILJ.

I’m forever grateful to those on the other side who trust me with their stories, and I’m incredibly grateful that 10 years ago, Mark Pucci took a chance on a highly intuitive furniture company founder. :)

So, there you have it. The unexpected meeting of a retired cop and a reluctant medium saved us both in different ways. Our small team is busy building the organization while working cases across the country. Here’s a look at a few case recent summaries: https://nilj.org/case-summaries.

While I detailed a bit of this story in my memoir Little Voices, this is the first time I’ve shared the journey in full. Of course, there are details I can’t make public; but I can say this: there are true angels on earth (like Detective Mark Pucci and Detective Bill Simon) who would rather spend their retirement helping others than sit on a beach somewhere. Fred Rogers would say they are the epitome of the helpers.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
― Fred Rogers

To learn more about NILJ, go to nilj.org.