COVINGTON — A woman who claims her psychic powers led searchers to the body of an Alabama man on the riverbank here last month filed a lawsuit Thursday in Kenton County Circuit Court against the man's family to claim the $10,000 reward they posted.

        Bonnie Campaniello said she is entitled to the reward money because Lon Dowdle's family and friends acted on her information to find the 26-year-old man's body.

        Ms. Campaniello said she dreamed about a missing man's body the night Mr. Dowdle disappeared. Three days later, she said, she called Covington police saying she believed his body was on the riverbank behind the Hampton Inn. Three days after that, she said, she called the family's tip line to prompt them again to search in that area.

        “They found him exactly where I sent them,” said Ms. Campaniello, 42, who ais a Covington computer store co-owner. “That family took their son home. I fulfilled what they issued. Now it's only business. It's pretty cut and dried.”

        After Mr. Dowdle vanished behind a Waffle House after a night of bar-hopping in Covington and Cincinnati on April 4, his family offered the reward for details of his whereabouts.

        An autopsy found he accidentally drowned, and a coroner's report showed he was drunk and had used cocaine before his death. Police have said they found no evidence of foul play and closed the case.

        The suit alleges breach of contract and asks a judge to order the family to pay Ms. Campaniello the $10,000 reward. Reached in Alabama late Thursday night, Mr. Dowdle's father, Walter Dowdle, denied her claims, saying they weren't true. He said his son's friends discovered him after being encouraged by police to repeatedly comb the riverbanks.

        “I think she's looking at this as a opportunity ,” he said. “We would be more than glad to pay it if there was some truth to it. But there's not.” After his youngest son disappeared, Walter Dowdle and other relatives and friends came to Covington and mounted an exhaustive, six-day search for him. The wealthy Alexander City, Ala., family set up a command center of sorts at the Covington Holiday Inn, hired private investigators and consulted with psychics to find him. Many local residents also joined the search.

        But Ms. Campaniello said she believes one reason why she hasn't been given the reward is because the lead Covington police detective on the case, Richard Webster, recently told her when she called him to inquire about the reward that her tip was not acted on.

        “He said I was "a fraud with a good guess,'” she recalled. “He told me to "check my tea leaves to see if I saw myself getting the reward.' I was offended.”

        Detective Webster could not be reached Thursday for comment.

        Ms. Campaniello's attorney, Rick Sommer, said Walter Dowdle has not responded to requests for the reward, including two certified letters. “There's probably going to be some people who think this is nothing more than revictimizing the family,” Mr. Sommer said of the lawsuit. “I'm sorry, but this is not about the unfortunate death of their son. This is about making a promise for information and then not making good on that.”

        Walter Dowdle said the family had been out of town when those letters arrived and the family's attorney just responded to the letters this week.

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