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Louwana Miller sits on her daughter Amanda "Mandy" Berry's bed in September 2003.

(Brynne Shaw, The Plain Dealer)

For 19 months, Louwana Miller refused to give up hope that her missing daughter might still be alive.

Not anymore.

Desperate for any clue as to Amanda Berry’s whereabouts, and tired of unanswered questions from authorities, Miller turned to a psychic on Montel Williams’ nationally syndicated television show.

The psychic said what the FBI, police and Miller hadn’t.

“She’s not alive, honey,” Sylvia Browne told her matter-of-factly. “Your daughter’s not the kind who wouldn’t call.”

With those blunt words, Browne persuaded Miller to accept a grim probability that has become more likely with each passing day.

Miller went back to the West Side home where she had been keeping Amanda’s things in careful order and cleaned up. She gave away her daughter’s computer and took down her pictures. “I’m not even buying my baby a Christmas present this year,” she said.

Miller said she returned devastated from the show, taped this month in New York.

“I lost it,” she said.

Miller said she believes “98 percent” in Browne.

“Please don’t misunderstand me. I still don’t want to believe it. I want to have hope but, after a year and a half, what else is there?” Miller said. “It seems like the God-honest truth. My daughter would always call home.”

The FBI and police put less faith in Browne’s powers, saying they still will consider Berry alive and missing until her body or evidence is found to prove otherwise, officials said.

Amanda disappeared April 21, 2003, a day before her 17th birthday.

She left work at Burger King at West 110th Street and Lorain Avenue, about a 10-minute walk from home. The 5-foot-4, 110-pound, brown-eyed teen phoned her sister en route to say she had a ride home.

At Miller’s request, FBI agents investigating Amanda’s disappearance met with Miller after the show to discuss Browne’s other psychic views on the case, special agent Kelly Liberti said.

Browne said she envisioned Amanda’s jacket in a Dumpster with “DNA on it.”

Liberti and Cleveland police spokesman Lt. Wayne Drummond said their law-enforcement agencies listen to all information from all sources, but do not employ or seek the assistance of psychics.

This story was originally published in The Plain Dealer on Nov. 18, 2004. It was written by Stephen Hudak.