Sylvia Browne, one of the world’s most popular psychics, is under fire from fans and detractors alike for telling the family of Amanda Berry, who was recently found alive after 10 years in captivity in a Cleveland, Ohio home, that the girl was dead and buried.
The Guardian is reporting that Browne appeared on the Montel Williams show in 2004 where she told Louwana Miller, the mother of Amanda Berry, that her missing daughter was “in heaven and on the other side.”
“She’s not alive, honey,” Browne told Miller on the show, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Your daughter’s not the kind who wouldn’t call.”
She claimed Amanda’s last words were “goodbye, mom, I love you”.
Miller broke down in tears on the show and admitted later that she believed “98 percent” of what Browne told her that day.
A year later, she would die of heart failure.
Now that Amanda Berry and two other women were found alive after a decade of living in captivity inside the home of 52 year-old Ariel Castro, many are now pointing the finger at Browne, saying her erroneous prediction led to Miller’s death.
Browne’s Facebook page is filled with angry messages. “I remember you on Montel Williams telling the family of Amanda Berry she was dead,” one person wrote. “What do you have to say for yourself? What a horrible horrible thing to say to a family holding on to nothing but hope and faith.”
Another asks: “Can you admit that you’re a hack now?”
Sadly, this isn’t Browne’s first flub. She told the parents of missing child Shawn Hornbeck that he was buried between two boulders. He was found alive in 2007 after four years of captivity.
At the time, her publicist told CNN that “she cannot possibly be 100% correct in each and every one of her predictions. She has, during a career of over 50 years, helped literally tens of thousands of people.”
One can only imagine how many more mistakes she made in her long career that no one ever hears about.
Thus far, Browne has refused all media requests for comment on the Berry case.
Click here for more stories about psychics who get it wrong when trying to solve crimes.
