“I agree completely with your analysis, Shivani, with a few minor thoughts. Other than the first sentence, the main body of the note was written by one person. The printed signature was done by someone else and the second page [“No need to search for my body”] was done by an entirely different person.
I think that every one of the ones who went back to New York probably had their hand in this. Looking at the sign-in sheets, there is one of the ones who returned to New York whose printed signature has the same shape to the T in Kristin’s supposed printed signature. As Shivani says, your printing doesn’t really change and the printed signature on the suicide note does not match Kristin’s printing. Good analysis, Shivani!
In response to Retired Inspector, Shivani had these further observations:
By Shivani
Thank you for saying what you did about the final phrase of the note. I have always thought that phrase was tacked on by another hand, too. Sometimes I hesitate to say too much, despite feeling there is so much more to say and so, edit my thoughts. I wrote a long comment about that final phrase of the note and then decided to leave it be, scrapped the comment after hours of analyzing that phrase, its handwriting itself and the character of the writer behind it.
Retired Inspector, every word you put here synchronizes with my theorizing as well. You have helped me a lot, since I question my ideas repeatedly when trying to learn and understand. So often the comments here help the rest of the commenters and readers to see more and to communicate more effectively. Your comment is especially helpful, to me.
I’ve sat many times using more than one device in order to see and to compare or contrast these handwriting samples that Frank Parlato has published. The small n’s became just about hopeless for gaining insight, but you and I have both seen that “t” letter in more than only Kristin’s known writing samples, written, printed the same way. Whether or not it’s enough to make any conclusions, that stood out about that particular letter.
Trying to get a sense of where Kristin might have died is not easy. I’ve really thought a lot about this and would doubt the Resurrection Bay area as the place of her demise entirely, if it were not for [Name Redacted] living right there. The location of Kristin’s death appears to have been deliberately padded with misdirection to point to the spot where the pickup truck was found. I’ve suspected that Kristin was put to death somewhere closer to her home or to a staff member’s home, closer to the site of the ESP intensive. I think that Kristin died not that long after she was driven away from the Westmark Hotel but could be wrong.
She could have been removed from her and Heidi’s house to make certain that Heidi didn’t come home to find her before Kristin died or before Heidi would be able to complicate any conspirators’ plans. Then Kristin could have been bloodlessly murdered or even shot on some other ESP/”Nexium” individual’s property or behind someone’s closed doors. It is likely that she was made unconscious prior to death, to make killing her easier.
I don’t mean to sound detached or cold when describing any of this but try not to let any of these comments be too emotionally charged. One has to pay close attention and to separate out some of the emotional or subjective feelings or thoughts. Nevertheless this is heartbreaking. When thinking of Kristin and of the ones who have loved her so and who will always love her, one wants to do right by them and not to add to their sorrow.
Meantime MK10ART sent Frank Report a fascinating analysis of Kristin Snyder’s suicide note. She too thinks it was writtne by two or more people.
Looking at what MK10ART analyzed, it is easy to see that there is a marked difference between the first paragraph and the rest of the note.
It is odd. Kristin may very well have written “I attended a course called Executive Success Programs [aka Nexium] based out of Anchorage, AK and Albany, NY – a simple, innocuous and truthful statement, then changed her handwriting for the rest of the note, then spelled her name wrong [or merged the ‘i’ in Kristin with the ‘n’].
But on the other hand, knowing Nxivm, and looking at motive, we cannot rule out the possibility, that she did not write the seemingly psychotic aspect of the note.
Stay tuned.
The name Heidi is spelled exactly the same on the Valentine’s card as it is on the leaked documents. Same for “Kris” both styles are written so clearly by the same hand. Also, Kristens lowercase “a” is consistent with her authentic diary writings. I’m just not sure why the lowercase “a” is written two different ways on the suicide note.
I’d call it indications, at best. Frank, do you not have a forensic handwriting analyst you can at least consult, or are we going to go on and on engaging in speculation that could be totally off base, about things an expert might say are within the norms of individual handwriting variance?
Shivani, I agree there are some important unanswered questions about this case, but I think you may have have gotten a bit too caught up in the drama of the story, and its details – it’s a sort of grand cognitive bias to which humans are prone, and against which we need to check ourselves. It’s what lead, for instance, to people seeing canals on Mars (an optical illusion that telescopes couldn’t see past until about the 1890s) and getting deeply into speculation about what past or present alien civilization created them; and it’s related to the sort of groupthink and in-group narrative that lead even a typically very competent organization like Boeing to produce passenger planes that would fly themselves into the ground .
I think there are a couple of things important to consider in the big picture, that seem easily lost sight of:
* Snyder was known to be in very bad emotional and mental shape, and even delusional about at least some things, just short of a psychotic breakdown if not actually into one. That she would behave and write erratically, is to be expected, not somehow unusual – if the note were perfectly composed, that could be considered a red flag. And if she had somehow been engaged in an extended ruse, then the note is still her work and something completely different was going on, like her being on the run from drug dealers – let’s not forget that there is another conspiracy theory, with its own evidence including that produced by independent professional investigators paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, that hasn’t really even been aired here.
* Conspirators clever and competent enough to pull off a murder disguised as a suicide that fooled seasoned professional investigators – a rather extraordinary feat – would have been very unlikely to produce a fake suicide note with questionable inconsistencies, and references that implicated them. Keep in mind also that a jury was called to make a determination of whether Snyder could be presumed dead, which they did – they would have looked everything over and likely asked hard questions, and may even have been presented with expert opinions such as regarding handwriting, but that pivotal aspect of the case has not been reported on.
I’ve always thought the note looked like the two paragraphs were written at somewhat different times – which is not necessarily surprising. As an example, the first could have been done if Snyder sat down when she stopped for gas and perhaps some food, and the second in the her truck with her notebook awkwardly propped.
I agree MK art, retired inspector and especially Shivani. I was scanning all the sign in sheets to see if there was someone else that wrote like the second half of the suicide note. I didnt see anything conclusive.
I wonder did you all notice that Esther Chiappone name is written differently on the separate dates of the sign in sheets. Also Ed Kinums name get scribbled out and is rewritten. The scribbled version looks alot like Esthers sign in.
The lowercase A’s are also inconsistent. They are written two different ways.
Toni Natalie help us find these answers.
Like any good criminal gang, NXIVM had its own Master Forger.
Pamela Pimp Cafritz who also procured women and girls for the Vanguard.
Also consider the Ds in Kristin’s alleged signature.
In one signature, the D is written as a line down and then a half-circle next to it.
In another signature, the D is written as a tight rainbow (also looks like a tall lowercase n).
I think Kristin’s real signature has the line Ds instead of the rainbow Ds.
Keith and his entourage portrayed themselves and presented a public persona that was the total opposite of who they actually were.
Keith was a genius: he barely graduated from college.
Keith was celibate: he is a sex addict.
Keith was a humanitarian: he murdered people.
Keith was ethical: he is a pathological liar.
Keith was a gentle soft-spoken man: he paddled women until it really hurt.
Do we see a pattern?
Kristen drowned in water: look in the ground
Based on that alone, I believe that we should be looking in the complete opposite direction of Resurrection Bay and probably in a remote wilderness area and difficult to reach. These people are the same ones that made Pam Cafritz’s body disappear 5 years ago!
Another option might be someone’s personal property as a burial site. Maybe law enforcement can follow up with a search on the property in Alaska of anyone associated with Nxivm
The truck was planted to throw off searchers.
Frank, do you have access to attendance sheets for the following four days after Kristin’s disappearance?
Are names missing other than Kristin, Heidi and her Mom?
The woman that drove Kristin home, who called her to be the driver? How was she associated with Nxivm? Was she a coach in the Intensive? Was she a friend of Esther? Was her life changed in any way like [Name Redacted]?
The woman that drove Kristin away from the intensive was Eliane Smiloff – she was a Nxivm member.
Could she be “the rat”?
Assuming she’s even telling the truth about that – when she failed to do what Clifford had been told would happen, and didn’t stay with with Snyder at the house. I think there’s a significant likelihood that Snyder protested she was in good enough shape to drive – I think we’ve probably all seen people do that – and Smiloff decided it was just one less thing she had to bother with, but then realized she couldn’t admit to having so completely dropped the ball once Snyder went missing.
Is she the same Elaine Smiloff who was convicted and required to register as a sex offender just a couple of weeks later?
Yes she was convicted at one time for a sex offense. However I am not sure if it happened before or after the time she drove Kristin Snyder home. It was, I think it is fair to say within a short period of time before or after.
Elaine Smiloff needs to be investigated further. Was she interviewed by the police?
Do we know the details of her sex conviction?
Who enrolled Elaine into Nxivm and what was their relationship?
Elaine said she was interviewed by the police WITH Esther present the entire time. Because of this, Elaine said, she did not dare tell the police that Kristin claimed that she was pregnant.
A poster going by “Dirt” revealed that, and here is the record I found – her conviction came the month after the intensive:
Alaska Convictions
Court Docket Number: 3PA-02-2524 Court: DISTRICT COURT PALMER
Conviction Date: 03/20/2003 Offense Date: 08/21/2002
Statute: AS11.41.438(A)(2) Description: Attempted Sexual Abuse of Minor 3
Most of her court records are under the name Elaine Apperson, though the sex abuse case is the only criminal one that shows up.
The above case, 3PA-02-02524CR, was filed on 12/03/2002 and so would have been active during the NXIVM intensive in question.
She was charged with a parole violation in the case on 03/18/2005