US report of 30 bodies that snowballed into global media story turns out to be of no substance whatsoever

Police in Texas are investigating a woman who claimed to be a psychic after she sparked an ultimately fruitless hunt for a mass grave of dismembered bodies.

Local officers and FBI agents raided a rural farmhouse in Hardin, north-east of Houston, after receiving the report that it held up to 30 bodies, including children.

After finding nothing, police gave up the search – but not before "a source" had told CBS news that "a lot" of dismembered children's bodies had indeed been found at the scene, sparking a global news story.

Liberty county judge Craig McNair, the county's top elected official, said the sheriff's office had received two calls from the person. The first came on Monday, directing officers to an address in Hardin, but after officers found nothing the same caller told police on Tuesday that they had the wrong house.

Officers approached the scene of the second tip-off on Tuesday morning and said there was blood on a back door and a foul odour coming from the house, leading to the search warrant.

"We have to take tips like this very seriously," McNair said.

However the Houston Chronicle has since reported that the calls had come from a woman who claimed to have psychic powers, prompting questions over why police responded so vigorously.

The FBI were summoned and officers scrambled to the home on Tuesday, but not before a source apparently told CBS the bodies had already been found. Local television station KPRC was given the same information and the story was promptly followed up by news agencies AFP and Reuters.

Before long the news that 30 bodies had been uncovered in a mass grave was leading BBC and Sky News channels in the UK and across the world. The Guardian contributed its own version.

Liberty county sheriff's captain Rex Evans said authorities took the tip seriously in part because the caller had details about the inside of the house that only someone who had seen it could have known.

He said authorities were working to track her down. They had a name and number.

Asked if he thought the tip was a hoax, Evans said only that police found no bodies or anything to indicate a murder. "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 Houston Chronicle has reported that police are investigating whether the woman had a grudge against the owners of the house.

"There's no validity to the report," another law enforcement source told the newspaper. "There's nothing that matches what the psychic said."

McNair said the owners of the home were long-haul truck drivers and there had apparently been an attempted suicide there that may explain the blood on the door.

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 [the blood] all," Bankson said.

Bankson, 44, 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."