I'm guessing it was probably *20* years ago, or more. The dabbling in witchcraft, I mean. When she said that on the show in 1999, she was referring to something that had happened much earlier.
Also, a lot of us have "dabbled" in something for a while when we were young and then gotten out of it when we realized it was dumb. It's not like COD was saying she was in favor of witchcraft!
Good point, that would make her early teens when this happened. People are counting backwards from now, not backwards from 99.