Sarah Pensell was a spiritualist living in Toronto. She was a member of the Toronto Paranormal Society.
Appearance
Elementary, My Dear Murdoch
Pensell conducted a seance attended by Arthur Conan Doyle and William Murdoch. During the seance, Pensell fraudulently "channeled" a young woman who wanted to tell Murdoch that she had recently been murdered and was buried in a shallow grave. Murdoch was troubled that Pensell seemed to know things about his relationship with his now dead fiancée, Liza. At Murdoch's request, Pensell later conducted a private seance at which Liza told Murdoch to let her go and move on with his life.
Pensell worked with a young man named Lisgar Gall who would assist with researching the guests of her seances and with creating "spooky" effects during the events.
To assist Murdoch, Pensell conducted a false seance to trick Conrad Hunt into confessing to the murders of the Winston and of Fredrick Waters. Afterward, Pensell told Murdoch that Liza had left her message and would not be returning.
Bad Medicine
Some time later, Pensell came to Station House Four to report to Murdoch that she had been having visions of a hooded, reaper-like figure murdering people. In fact, the previous evening, Dr. Francis Grout had been murdered by just such a figure. Pensell also told Murdoch that she had seen Murdoch himself being killed by this reaper.
Pensell agreed to be placed in the Greyson Institute where Dr. Grout had worked. She would observe the goings on and try to determine if the murderer was a patient or member of staff. She was eagerly admitted to the institute by Dr. Burrit Greyson who wanted to study her unique mind.
While inside, Pensell was able to help Murdoch eliminate certain suspects and eventually ferret out the killer, Richard Binney. Pensell's vision of Murdoch's death almost became fact when Murdoch was struck by a crossbow bolt fired by Binney. He survived, however, and Binney was arrested for his crimes.
Pensell was impressed by her experiences at the institute and decided to go to Prague to study and allow herself to be studied at another facility. She wanted to understand the gift or curse of her psychic abilities .
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