Self-proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne built a career making bold predictions on television, particularly as a regular on The Montel Williams Show. However, her most devastating failures involved missing persons cases where grieving families desperately sought answers, only to receive harmful misinformation that derailed searches and caused additional trauma.
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The Shawn Hornbeck Case
Perhaps Browne’s most notorious failure involved 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who disappeared in 2002. Four months after his disappearance, his parents Craig and Pam Akers appeared on The Montel Williams Show seeking guidance.
Browne told the distraught parents that Shawn was dead and provided detailed descriptions of where to find his body. She described the abductor as “dark skinned,” “Hispanic looking” with “dreadlocks.” When asked directly, “Is he still with us?” Browne confirmed their worst fears.
Thankfully, Shawn Hornbeck was found alive and well years later. His alleged abductor, Michael Devlin, was neither Hispanic nor did he have dreadlocks. Most importantly, Shawn was alive—contradicting Browne’s most crucial claim. The Akers family later revealed that the search was diverted based on Browne’s misinformation, costing valuable manhours.
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Opal Joe Jennings
In 1999, Browne told the grandmother of missing child Opal Joe Jennings that the girl wasn’t dead but had been “taken and put into some kind of slavery thing and taken into Japan.” Four years later, the little girl’s remains were found near Fort Worth, Texas. An autopsy revealed she had been killed shortly after vanishing.
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Amanda Berry
Nearly nine years before Amanda Berry’s dramatic escape from captivity, her mother appeared on The Montel Williams Show. When asked about Amanda, Browne coldly stated, “I don’t think I’ll ever see her again… in heaven, on the other side… she’s not alive honey.”
Amanda Berry later escaped after being held captive for approximately 10 years, personally calling into a Cleveland radio show to announce, “I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m here, I’m free now.”
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