In the Lost Women of Nxivm, [now available to be viewed at this link https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/lost-women-of-nxivm/] a handwriting expert made a comparison of Kristin Snyder’s purported suicide note with a Valentine’s Day greeting card Kristin sent her spouse, Heidi Clifford.
There was a not lot of writing to analyze since the greeting card message was short.
Comparing these two notes – the handwriting expert, Beth Chrisman, could not tell for certain if they were written by the same person. She noted that the “I” in the two letters were decidedly different.
***
Recently, I had leaked to me the Executive Success Programs [Nxivm] file for Kristin Snyder.
I published the roster of students of Kristin’s first intensive yesterday. That roster came from the sign-in sheets.
I received this email today from a reader named Rich.
“Frank, I just thought of this. The handwriting analysis that didn’t match up [in the Lost Women of Nxivm]. I can’t check right now, but does the suicide note match with her signature on the sign-in sheet????
Brilliant question and one I should have thought of myself.
Let’s look at the documents to be compared.
The sign-in sheets in which I believe Kristin Snyder signed in.
And below is the purported suicide note with Snyder’s alleged signature.
Let’s look at these a little more closely and in propinquity.
Sign in #1
Suicide Note:
Sign in #2
Finally, here is the first-name-only signature of Kristin Snyder on the Valentine card.
Were these written by the same person? We can be fairly certain Kristin wrote the Valentine Day card and the sign-ins. We do not know if she wrote the suicide note.
Of course, someone writing a suicide note – if it was not under duress – might have an unsteady hand or write differently.
What do readers think?
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
[…] or not Kristin Snyder actually wrote the suicide note found in her truck was further pursued in a December 9th, 2019 piece by Frank that revealed new exemplars of Snyder’s […]
Do you have the sign in sheet from the Intensive in February that Kristin disappeared from?
dirt
It’s a load of crap there is only an item or two from Kristin’s hand? Clearly her family would have kept anything she personally wrote, ESPECIALLY prior to the internet full swing
Also Frank, what did the handwriting person say when the suicide notes were compared to Heidi Clifford’s? Remember, statistically the prime suspect in a disappearance/murder is the partner.
It is also quite curious that again ACCORDING to Heidi, it was Kris who sucked Heidi into Nxivm, so why is it Heidi was at the very first intensive Kris attended??????? What came first, the chicken or the egg??? Who was really into NXIVM?
It is also interesting per you per ID channel interview with Heidi, she claims this was the first time she had spoken about the incident publicly, yet she spoke to various news sources in the years after Kris went missing? That’s an odd thing to say when it can so easily be proved false.
Also Heidi claims to have been afraid for 16 years, yet fails to give a single reason why she was afraid.
When exactly did Heidi Clifford join NXIVM AND when did she leave?? Clearly if my wife was suicidal and had a psychotic break at a seminar, I wouldn’t be waving goodbye to her while she was escorted from the premises! Or allow another person to take my suicidal wife home while I continue getting my money’s worth at the seminar!
Wake up Frank! Your desire to take down NXIVM has drastically veered from investigative journalism into the National Enquirer! You have the opportunity to put away a murderess, do not let your hatred of KR cloud common sense!
To Dirt – You seem pretty certain about this. To me, this is a case that has lots of unanswered questions. I’m curious what your experience has been with NXIVM and Frank Report?
Was there any other writing in the pad?
Were those the pads from the hotel room? Used by nxivm?
One new point I’d like to make. Keith was into suicide. He is an expert. He would have known how to write a note or notes that deflected blame from him. The first suicide note was not positive about NXIVM. As somebody said below, the second note is ridiculous.
Why was Kristin taking the class if the note was correct, and she thought NXIVM was doing these horrible things to her? The classes weren’t cheap and she even brought loved ones to the classs with her. She just happened to be thinking the horrible things in the note AT THE SAME TIME she thought she had just become pregnant from Vanguard himself?
The notes accomplished something. There was no heat on NXIVM for Kristin’s disappearance.
It does look like three seperate paragraphs although when writing an “i” then “n” it it consistent as the dot always goes on to write the “n” in a sort of continuous fashion and even the exclamation mark dot shows similar pattern.
However, one thing is for sure the paper is thin as I can read parts of the front via the back. If a journal was available theoretically the handwritting could be traced through the paper?
You might also want to try looking for invisible pen that may have been used for tracing.
This last suggestion needs some thought as it will compromise the note. Connery as Bond once use a pencil to softly colour a hotel note pad that had been previously written on and this uncovered the text indentations from a note beneath it so it may open up new avenues (possibly). There might be better techniques for this now.
Fair play to, I assume, Karen for providing hair samples and even keeping them to then end up being an additional bladder cancer sufferer. I hope that every women who was a member of this group, if they too have old hair samples, gets those samples tested regardless of what side you are on.
There are lots of differences, when you look at how the different specific lettering marks were formed, but most of all, Kristin’s capital K and the capital I vary between the different samples, the card, the sign-in sheets, versus the last two “suicide” notes. Her card to Heidi and even her sign-in lettering appear to match, both in slant and in how the distinct letters were made. Now, “K” would be her lifelong first initial and probably one of her most consistently formed letters. The sign-in sheets do not appear as signatures but just as simply printing her name “on a form.”
Kristin made her capital K distinctively and with personality, frankly of outgoingness, rather flamboyant lettering, with a kind of freeness and easy “enthusiasm.” The “K” capitalized in the “suicide” note shows none of these characteristics and was not written with that “flow,” and instead the “K” shows the writing implement NOT flowing from a smooth hand. Rather, that K shows a hand that lifts off of the page, as if the writer made the 3 lines of the K separately, as three lines broken up by 3 strokes rather than one, connected stroke, wherein the pen or pencil doesn’t raise from the paper in 3 strokes but is written all at once, as one letter without breaks or strokes.
I see a smooth and flowing hand from the Valentine card writer, who writes faster and doesn’t tend to break up one, singular letter formation into a series of lines, which is more like printing, is slower to produce and is more disjointed. Being fairly ambidextrous, though I use the left hand to write, to sew and to use a knife, I see handwriting perhaps a bit differently, having adopted a more right- hand slant during the eighth grade ( deliberately) and have analyzed handwriting before, for various reasons, throughout the years.
I have to say that Kristin’s card to Heidi shows her genuine writing “type” the most and to me, is very different than the suicide note’s type of script. Kristin wrote the card to Heidi with a flowing hand, slanted a right hander’s most frequent way, though lefties can slant letters to the right, too. It is just more unusual for lefties to slant to the right, because of how left handers hold a pen or pencil.
So Kristin’s letter formations in that valentine depict a sure, steady hand, written much like a “cheerful” righthander would tend to write. The suicide note lettering looks more straight up and down, and NOaT using a right hand slant, and it took more strokes off and on of the page, i.e., what I would call choppier writing. Most people don’t tend to change their slant, either, from a right slanting style to straight up and down lettering.
If anything the suicide script seems to indicate a more left-slant being printed by a hand trying to write more straight up-and-down. Plus, each word written is spaced more widely from the subsequent word than is shown in Kristin’s valentine writing style. I do find this difference significant and rather unusual, inconsistent.
The valentine writing depicts an outgoing and forward-thinking, kind of spontaneous person. All of that personality is absent from the suicide note, which has script that does not flow but is disjointed, with the writing implement going on and off of the paper, making the letters choppy, formed of different, unconnected shadings of the lettering. Please excuse me if I am repetitive; a LOT is going on at home right at the moment.
You might have read that right-slanting handwriting is said to depict qualities of optimism and an outgoing nature and not necessarily a quieter person’s style of printing or writing, which tends not to slant to the right as much and could be made up of more straight up and down letter formations, while a left-slant can often appear in the handwriting from lefties. The left slant is said to be indicative of someone more introverted, but that’s theoretical.
But I see such different characteristics in the writing on the valentine versus that suicide note. The card shows flowing writing, not choppy or separated letter shapes, with breaks which happen when one actually uses distinctly different strokes to make one letter, as opposed to the more flowing, conjoined letter formations on the valentine.
The space between words doesn’t match in the “suicide” note and on the valentine, either. The valentine shows a typical distance between each word. The note left in the truck shows a distinctly bigger space BETWEEN each word, plus that choppiness of letter formations. It does not show a flowing, smoother script at all.
But Kristin’s circumstances could have changed her handwriting. I don’t know how much, though. The final “no need to look…” message has always looked different to me than the suicidal note itself. While it resembles the “suicide” note to some extent, that last phrase, even more so, it does not look at all like Kristin’s script to me. Really it seem like that last notation was not made simultaneously with the “suicide” scripting, at all. It looks like a p.s.,an additional postscript, to me.
More than letter shapes, the “personality” behind the writing styles just doesn’t match that smooth flow of what we are sure was Kristin’s writing. Gotta jam now.
I have an eye for this type of thing.
Not the same person
Kristin never wrote in a spiral binder.
NXIVM didn’t provide spiral binders for their trainings.
Every thing I’ve seen that Kristin has written has been in a three ring binder where you can take the pages in and out.
So what, did she stop at the store on the way to kill herself and say ya know I’m going to start writing in a three ring binder, just once before I commit suicide? People follow their habits.
The suicide note could have been faked in Albany NY by Pam Cafritz. It was well known by many that she was an expert at faking others writing.
The note could have either been FedEx to those who were in on the plot or brought out by Raniere’s right hand goon Kristen Keeffe before Kristin Snyder even went missing.
If you go back to the Rick Ross case. Keeffe was involved in attempting to get Ross on a cruise ship.
Keeffe along with two private investigators attempted to pull a creepy game on Ross.
Keeffe played the daughter of parents who wanted Ross to deprogram her from the NXIVM cult while on a cruise.
So what was going to happen to Rick Ross on that cruise? Why a cruise ship?
Of course Ross smelled something fishy and didn’t go. It was later discovered that the story was all made up.
It goes to show you what Kristen Keeffe was willing to do for her Master-Lover Keith Raniere around the same time Kristin Snyder disappeared.
The samples look similar enough to me to maybe all have been Kris Snyder’s writing — but I’m wondering if the suicide notes weren’t some sort of assignment that Keith and Nancy ET AL meted out to trick students into writing one as an “exercise” —that could later be used in the event of their disappearances?
I do know that Pam Cafritz was training others to imitate handwriting — it was a “talent” she possessed that pleased Keith — starting way back — so the notes could also be good fakes, but again, a training exercise to work through one’s issues.
Heidi – I agree. I’ve also wondered whether it was an exercise and perhaps someone added parts to it. Have you noticed that the first capital E in the suicide note is similar to the capital E in one of Esther Chiappone’s sign ins?
So it is, Pyriel. Wow. I hope someone can spell F-B-I before they start hearing Clare clicks on their phone. Lol.
What about trying to contact students from that class?
Yes. And what about those students contacting Frank? Come on now. Man up. You all have valuable information to share. Silence is selfish.
There’s only one sample of her signature, which is the card. The others are her just printed full name which look pretty much the same. The alleged suicide note is weird because it’s written in both cursive and block letters. The letter ‘a’ is written in different ways on the same page. Very strange.
About that card that Clifford handed to you, Frank. For being 16 years old, that card sure does look a little new don’t you think? Can you tell us what the barcode is on the back of that card if there is one, please. I’d like to see if I can find the artist responsible for creating it.
Thanks
She wrote that suicide note sitting down at a desk. Not in a car.
I would like to see another sample of her writing, but that was written at a desk.
Is there a copy of the other note?
No body, no kayak, no paddles.
People who commit suicide generally don’t disappear after they do the deed.
They WANT to be found to show those who hurt them what they did.
Highly, highly suspicious.
Sharp
That’s gotta be true, Fool Me Not. I saw the note at the Snyder’s home in the notebook — Jonnie and Kim preserved it carefully over the years — and there were no signs of any outdoor elements on the pages of notebook itself.
Especially considering the weather in Anchorage Alaska, it looks to be all written at a desk indoors and never exposed to the out-of-doors unless well-shielded. If she wrote it in the truck, chances are there’d be a smear or wrinkle or tiny drop of mist, I’d guess.
What makes the most sense to me: Kristin wrote the note herself during one of the times she was pulled from class and was worked with one on one. I can almost hear the directions being given from Albany to Alaska.
Writing about suicide was not new for NXIVM students, and the note could easily have been passed off as an exercise. Especially with her mental state.
And if the theory that Nina was set up to take the fall is correct, guess who was following directions from Albany, was working one on one with Kristin, and had Kristin write the note?
It is not slanted or uneven. She wrote that over a desk, like an exercise. I’d bet money on it.
I do think we need more writing samples.
Would a place of employment have any?
Any other writing in the pad?
It may also be that Sign in 1 and 2 are originals, but the signature on the Suicide note looks like someone tried to copy Snyder’s signature on Sign in 2.
However, looking closely, the Ds, R, and S do match comparing the Suicide note to Sign in 2.
The Ds, R, and S do not match comparing the Suicide Note to Sign in 2 (what I meant to write).
What I find particularly odd about the note is the writer claims to be in a mental state that, if real, would be completely debilitating. It seems unlikely to me that anyone in such a state would write a semi-formal farewell note. The language is cult-gobblygook. And I doubt the source of it was Kristen herself.
Re: cult ”goobky gook”: the sentence “I didn’t know I was already dead” chills me to the bone bc I used to hear that phrase from Gina and one of her cult friends — I talked about this with Jim O’dato in 2010 — back in 1999/2000 someone stalking me and my ex-husband online was using the same phrase “anonymously” in a chat room — “Doesn’t know she’s already dead.”
I agree with the notation about Kris misspelling her own name. That’s odd no matter what stress was at play. Unless someone (under coercion or not) wanted to offer a clue, or make it look like a fake.
Is it possible one note is real and the second a fake to fit someone’s agenda? Or the fake note writer — who misspelled Kris’ name — didn’t know about the first note or Kris’ disappearance.
I agree that Nina may have been set up to take the fall — at least to make Kris’ mental breakdown look like anything but a result of someone in Albany’s actions.
It’s very interesting that Clare Bronfman knew or was told that Kris was pregnant with Keith’s child. Remember, Keith’s child was to be the AVATAR, until his successor shifted to be not his son but a Virgin successor. That could have been justification for Clare to pay for the search when Kristin Keeffe went to Anchorage to “investigate” and for the hiring of the investigators.
Keith’s prized AVATAR baby was used to manipulate girls into having sex with him, why not other reasons as well?
Or Clare may have proposed that pregnancy as a motive for Kris’ disappearance and need to, justification to spend millions to find her.
HER NAME IS MISSPELLED on the ‘suicide note’, it says ‘KRISTN’. How many times does anyone misspell their own name? Never. On both sign in sheets, she forms the ‘I’ from the top of the ‘T’, something which is completely missing from the ‘suicide note’. In fact, in the ‘suicide note’, the top of the ‘T’ is directly connected to the ‘N’ and the ‘I’ was omitted.
I noticed the same thing. While you are all analyzing the signatures and handwriting’s take note to the different ink pens being used. It might be another clue
The sign in sheets and the suicide note are the same. Her valentines day card is completely different. Could have been the intention of expressing love that made it different.
I am no expert but notice the following differences.
1. In Sign in #1 & 2 the K is slanted to the right, straight up and down in the suicide note.
2. The upper right side of the k is a straight line in sign in 1 & 2, but is a curved line in the suicide note.
3. The R in sign in 1 & 2 is slanted to the right and is complete, while in the suicide note it is straight up and not complete.
4. The i in sign in 1 & 2 is slanted to the right, typical of her printing, in the Suicide note it is straight up and down, not typical of her style.
5. The T is interesting, in both sign in’s it is slanted to the right and the top of the T is either straight or slanted to the right. In the Suicide note the top of the T is slanted to the left. Not typical of her style at all.
6. The S in her last name in both sign in 1 & 2 are very similar, the S in the Suicide note is completely different and more slanted to the left.
7. It looks like the D is completely messed up in the Suicide note, hard to tell if it is a D.
8. The E is completely different in the Suicide note. The upper bar on the E does not connect in sign in 1 & 2, but not only does it connect, it crosses over the top of the E.
There is more but for now that is enough to get you noticing details. It is the little details the matter. In my opinion the Suicide Note was done by someone with a more vertical style of printing, and in spots looked like they tried to copy Kristin’s sign in from the second sign in and didn’t do a very good job. Nothing explains the difference in slope of the letters to the right in sign in 1 & 2 verses the straight up and down style in the Suicide Note. Stress would not cause that to change. Not an expert, just my opinion.
Wasn’t Pam Cafritz known for being good at plagiarizing other people’s signatures? Could she have participated in this?
I had the same thought. Maybe that is why Kristin Keefe was sent to Alaska. Bring the letter and place it in the truck found two days after the disappearance of Kristen Snyder. That would give them enough time to plant the letter.
Eerie possible similarity: it looked like some items may have been placed in Gina’s car that weren’t recorded on police records, anyway.
A torn picture of me, Gina and my ex-husband was under the visor on the passenger side. It fell out on my lap after we picked up the car and I pulled the visor down. I’ll never forget how shocked I was at that. Gina was never jealous or anything far as I knew that would have prompted her to leave that for me to find. I’ve always believed someone else put that picture there either before or after her “suicide” to shock and blame me somehow. It was effective in shock value but I know it was a red herring in meaning. Something to psyche me out of looking into the possibility of accomplices or murder. Ironically, I see it as so oddly contrived it points to an accomplice or a cover-up, diversion for the police, anyone who might suspect NXIVM, or any of Gina’s NX handlers experimenting on her while pretending to be her friend.
Interesting. Cover-up. Diversion, Plan-B, Making it complicated. Setting up a defense. And a bonus of scaring people into silence.
Yeah. Also, she may have used block letters when signing in places, but the card is clearly her actual handwriting. If the suicide note was written by someone in NXIVM, they would only have her sign-in sheets to use, right? But I mean, come on. Misspelled her own name? I don’t think so…
There are obvious differences between the card sample and the purported suicide note– for example, in the suicide note, the writing shifts between cursive and printing. Also, the capital “I” in the note looks nothing like the capital “I” in the card.
Perhaps stress, even changes in visual acuity–depending on the conditions under which one writes–can account for these things.
But the content of the note’s message seems concocted to me. It’s difficult to believe these thoughts come from the same person who was voicing her indignation at the conference just hours earlier.
The no need too search for my body note is ridiculous.
Suicide letter is not her handwriting.. look at lower case “a” in letter. This writer uses two different types of a
On the card the letter a is consistent throughout
Who cares about signatures, compare her diary writing to the suicide note. Signature is 2 words. You need more letters to compare.
It would be interesting to compare the suicide note to the ESP coaches who were there. That signature of Kristin on the suicide note is nothing like her card message. The “K’ and R’s are completely different.
Looks like Allison Mack’s handwriting to me. Especially the special lower case a’s the looped E’s the double crossed t’s, the let’s that slightly turn upwards at the end, the running together letters , the capitol I as well as the swooped lower part of the s’s.
She doesn’t dot the I in her name. On any of the samples.
I dunno Frank. Sign in 1 doesn’t match Sign in 2.
Sign in 2 does match the suicide note. But look at the R, I, and the N. These are different between Sign in 1 and Sign in 2.
Are we sure Kristin Snyder was around for Sign in 2?
The signatures on the sign in sheets are from her first intensive, in Nov. 2002. We cannot know for certain she signed them but it seems likely she did. She disappeared from her second intensive and I am in the process of getting those sign in sheets.
That probably just shows how signatures vary under different circumstances – and how hard it is for laypeople to analyze them.
A quick search of the literature shows that experts recognize that signatures can vary widely due to a variety of factors, and use the term “dynamic” in reference to the phenomenon:
Dynamic signatures: A review of dynamic feature variation and forensic methodology
“The state of the art summarizes available knowledge, meant to assist the forensic practitioner in cases presenting extraordinary writing conditions. The studied parameters include hardware-related issues, aging and the influence of time, as well as physical and mental states of the writer. Some parameters, such as drug and alcohol abuse or medication, have very strong effects on handwriting and signature dynamics. ”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30241096
Also, modern research shows that lack of sleep can have as much effect as drug or alcohol use – and thus presumably possible “very strong effects on handwriting.”
The letter I is most telling that the suicide note is not authored by Snyder
There are examples of ou that do look similar.
We need another sample.
I wonder if she signed in. And lack of dotted i’s are suspect. But the samples are inconsistent.
But with no body, no oar, no kayak, I find suicide unbelievable.
Frank–
She doesn’t dot her “i’s” on the signatures.
I am wondering if someone signed in for her….the letters on the sign- ins are more aggressive, more slanted, and less flowing than the card.
I will print these out and inspect closer.
Do you have proof she signed in? Lack of dotted i’s are suspect.
I don’t have absolute proof she signed in. It does seem that each person at the intensive signed in since it seems to me that the handwriting is different from student to student.
Attention!
I would like to point out that Frank’s investigation and gathering of information as well as circumstantial evidence can be used in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the Snyder family members against Nxivm officials.
The card has a script signature, while the sign-ins – and the suicide note – have printed names, in capital letters nonetheless. It’s apples and oranges to begin with.