Nearly 10 years after a Florida teen vanished in the middle of the night, detectives turn to psychics for help

By Amanda Musa, CNN

Patrick Reeder’s 15-year-old daughter, Sophie, has been missing for just over nine years. Since then, the case has gone cold and there have been few developments, he said.

Desperate for answers, Reeder is depending on detectives investigating his daughter’s disappearance to crack the case.

But their latest investigative tool is not exactly what he had in mind.

“I just don’t get it,” Reeder told CNN. “A psychic?”

Since the teen vanished in the middle of the night after leaving her Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home, Sophie’s case has garnered national attention and was featured on NBC’s “Dateline: Missing in America” podcast last year. Sophie’s story was also the subject of a 2021 episode of “In Pursuit with John Walsh.”

With her disappearance still a mystery despite the national spotlight, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department has taken the rare step of consulting two psychic profilers, according to a department spokesperson.

“Traditionally, FLPD does not consult anyone outside of law enforcement on ongoing criminal cases,” the spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “However, in Sophie’s case, our department is willing to try new and unique approaches for any chance at uncovering new information regarding her disappearance.”

The unorthodox approach raises questions for the Reeder family about police’s investigative strategy. Kirsten Milhorn, Reeder’s sister, told CNN the move is “a misallocation of resources.”

While there is no solid evidence that psychics can solve crimes, some law enforcement agencies use them when traditional leads run dry.

“Not everyone is going to be open to a psychic medium,” said Alejandra Taborn, one of the psychic profilers working on Sophie’s case. “But what I have found is even if they’re not, what else do you have to lose?”

What happened to Sophie?

Before she disappeared, Sophie was a great kid with an artistic “flair,” Reeder said, but she did deal with “some family issues” growing up.

“She’s very interesting, very deep,” Reeder said of his daughter, who also loved learning about the world, hair and makeup, religion and how things worked.

He never imagined she would vanish from his life on the night of May 19, 2017. Reeder said he spotted Sophie moseying around the house on her phone, so he told her to go to bed.

“It turns out she didn’t go to bed,” Reeder said. “She left.”

Surveillance video from a home in her neighborhood, Citrus Isle, shows the teen walking on the sidewalk around 11:30 p.m. In a separate surveillance video, Sophie is seen walking along Davie Boulevard – a major road not far from her home – just after 2 a.m.

Her brown, curly hair pulled back into space buns, Sophie is seemingly alone on the desolate street, wearing headphones. At the time of her disappearance, the teen was about five feet tall and weighed approximately 100 pounds.

Records from Sophie’s phone and Google account indicate her last known location was an apartment complex less than two miles from her house, according to a 2017 police affidavit and application for a search warrant filed in the case.

The complex was home to a then-37-year-old convicted felon named Leonard Jennings, who Fort Lauderdale police say is a “person of interest,” not a suspect, in Sophie’s case.

“FLPD believes Sophie had contact with [Jennings] on the night of her disappearance,” a police spokesperson told CNN.

The affidavit shows the last phone call Sophie made was to Jennings’ phone number at 3:07 a.m. that night, right as she arrived at the apartment complex.

After that call ended, Sophie’s phone continued to ping from that location until 9:13 a.m., according to police records. The phone then stopped connecting to the cellular network, possibly turned off or disabled, the affidavit said.

What happened next has remained a persistent mystery.

Consulting the supernatural

Now, nearly a decade later, the department has taken a step — consulting psychics — that a police spokesperson admits is unusual and has raised the eyebrows of Sophie’s loved ones. But Taborn, a Tampa-based psychic profiler and medium who assists law enforcement on cold cases, said she diligently carries out her job, including in Sophie’s case, despite what others may think.

“This work is really important to me,” Taborn told CNN. “It, like, lights my soul on fire.”

Detectives first consulted Taborn earlier this summer, which involved a 90-minute virtual, introductory meeting, she said, noting she was paid by police.

“Any specific details and impressions that come through — that’s how that consult goes,” Taborn told CNN.

Since 2025, the department has consulted two psychics in Sophie’s case, according to police. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department told CNN one psychic was paid $1,500 for a 90-day consulting period.

“Detectives are actively evaluating the information provided and determining if there’s anything that may assist the investigation,” the spokesperson added, declining to provide more details about what was discussed in the meeting.

Detectives spoke with another psychic who first reached out to Sophie’s family before detectives followed up with them, police said, adding the psychic had offered services for free. The conversation prompted an investigation of a canal.

“We immediately began conducting an extensive search in the canal and surrounding area,” the police spokesperson said, not revealing the location. “Unfortunately, this search yielded no results.”

While skeptical, Reeder and Milhorn remain open to the process, even as doubts swirl.

“If that’s something that actually bears fruit, and yeah, I’ll jump on it,” Reeder said. “But instead of that, there’s a lot of other things they could do, you know, like a larger reward” than the $25,000 currently offered.

Can psychics solve crimes?

Skeptics say such psychic profilers do more harm than good by wasting police resources and exploiting grieving families. Among them is Benjamin Radford, a research fellow and investigator with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a nonprofit organization that evaluates paranormal and fringe-science claims from a scientific viewpoint.

“Typically, what happens in these cases is that there’ll be a missing persons case, and psychics, or self-proclaimed psychics, will sort of come out of the woodwork and offer information,” Radford told CNN.

But based on his own investigations over 20 years, the track record of psychics finding missing persons is near zero, Radford said.

Still, Taborn believes her work can give law enforcement and families more information.

“Police are very intuitive themselves,” said Taborn, who has developed a training program she said enables law enforcement to identify and strengthen their intuition.

Following a consultation, Taborn’s process follows three steps, which she notes have not yet taken place in Sophie’s case.

First, while wearing gloves, Taborn touches evidence or something connected to the case or the missing person — watching for signs or impressions, she said.

Then, Taborn said, she meets with the victim’s family and assesses any information that comes through that may be relevant.

This step is unique to the family and could sometimes include specific details. “Anywhere from names, how they look, how they carry themselves,” Taborn said.

The third step, Taborn said, involves going into the field with investigators and reading the energy of the environment.

While Radford said his goal is to hold psychics accountable, he doesn’t believe they are all just out for profit.

“In my research, most of the people who claim to be psychics are sincere,” Radford said. “Usually they’re doing it because they sincerely want to help. Because there’s a missing person and it tugs at your heartstrings.”

Living with unresolved grief

Coping with the unknown has not always been easy for Reeder.

For many years after his daughter disappeared, any sense of normalcy vanished, too.

“I couldn’t sleep in the bed,” Reeder said. “I had to sleep on the couch, near the door, for like a couple years, just waiting for her to come home.”

For loved ones of missing persons, that’s not an unusual response to have, according to Dr. Dara DeLeon, a clinical psychologist based in Asheville, North Carolina, and a board member of “Sophie’s Light,” a nonprofit founded by Milhorn with the goal of developing an online safety curriculum for schools and children.

The grief Sophie’s family has experienced is similar to post-traumatic stress, DeLeon notes, and feeling unheard or betrayed by law enforcement can only compound those emotions.

Reeder said he has experienced that feeling of betrayal firsthand.

“We tried so many times to get involved,” he said, “and the detectives at Fort Lauderdale Police Department keep on shutting us down.”

In response to a CNN request for comment, a police spokesperson said, “We are sad to hear this feedback from the family.”

While the Reeder family continues to wait for answers — from psychics or elsewhere — Sophie’s father has begun to make peace with the agonizing situation that has now prompted authorities to seek clarity from the beyond.

“I believe things happen for a reason,” Reeder said. “You get put in situations and it builds you stronger for other things to help other people.”

Anyone with information related to the disappearance of Sophie Reeder should call 954-828-6677 or email SophieTips@fortlauderdale.gov. Any credible information that leads to Sophie’s recovery may be eligible for a reward of up to $25,000.

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