LEBANON, Pa. -- Lebanon County detectives thought they knew who killed Mark Arnold in 1993, but they didn't know where to find the perpetrator.

Jan Helen McGee told them the killer was at a beach, probably Ocean City, Md., or Rehoboth Beach, Del. Detective Paul Zechman called the police departments there and, sure enough, they found suspect Robert Wise living in Mr. Arnold's stolen car at a shopping mall near Rehoboth.

Mr. Wise is serving a life sentence in state prison for the murder.

As a result of her help in finding the killer, Ms. McGee, who said she had had psychic abilities since childhood, was featured on The Learning Channel program "Psychic Witness" on Thursday.

District Attorney Deirdre Eshleman said she was not sure she believes in psychics, but that she couldn't dispute the results.

"To my mind, any help we can get is good, no matter how bizarre," Ms. Eshleman said.

Liza Douglass, associate producer of "Psychic Witness" for New Dominion Pictures, said the story was perfect for one of its episodes because "[Mr.] Zechman felt her help and insight pointed him in the right direction."

Ms. McGee said she had worked with many local police departments, but had tried to keep her psychic abilities private. She teaches piano and voice at Marty's Music in Annville and has taught drama, music and speech at the Harrisburg Academy, Harrisburg Area Community College and the Milton Hershey School.

"I'm really apprehensive," Ms. McGee said in an interview before her television appearance. "A lot of people are fearful or angry at psychics. But do you think angels and prophets died off after the Bible was written? Prophetic things have always been spoken of."

She said she was going public now because she wants to teach police officers how to use psychics properly and avoid scams. She never seeks money for her insights, she said.

On the night that Mr. Arnold, 61, was shot to death in the small building he occupied in South Lebanon, Ms. McGee had a nightmare about the murder, she said. The next morning, she read about it in the newspaper.

She said she knew details of the case which surprised investigators, such as that Mr. Arnold had a collection of black rotary phones in his home.

Police were skeptical. They should be, Ms. McGee said.

"There are more scams than good advice," she said. "Usually the good ones are quiet."

She called herself "a piece of the puzzle" who thinks differently. She has always been psychic, she said. As a toddler, she could sense where her mother was. She has warned friends to visit elderly relatives shortly before their deaths, and she told her students at the community college's Lebanon campus to leave the building just before fire destroyed it.

She said she could no more prove her psychic abilities than someone can prove love.

According to Ms. Eshleman, who prosecuted the case, Mr. Zechman didn't admit to her for several years that Ms. McGee had pointed him in the right direction. He told her only that "an anonymous source" had helped.