For some time, Frank Report has been investigating the disappearance of Kristin Snyder, who was ejected from a Nxivm class in Anchorage Alaska on February 6, 2003, allegedly driven home by a Nxivm member, and then never seen again.
She was ejected from class, sources have said, because she was claiming that Nxivm leader Keith Alan Raniere had gotten her pregnant. At the time, students were told that Raniere was a celibate.
The teachers and coaches of that particular intensive in Anchorage – even those who had sex with Raniere in the past – all maintained the fiction that Raniere was celibate – and that, therefore, Kristin was lying or nuts or seeking attention when she said she was pregnant with his child.
Then they threw her out of class – bringing in a woman member of Nxivm [Elaine Smiloff] to drive her home.
Kristin was never heard from or seen again. But a day later her pickup truck – which somehow was moved from the parking lot outside the classroom at the Westmark Hotel – Kristin did not drive it home – was found some two and a half hours’ drive away – in Seward Alaska, with a purported suicide note which ended with “no need to search for my body”.
There are many suspicious aspects of this disappearance that should have been investigated at the time, but police were quickly led to believe, thanks to the intensive course leaders – Ed Kinum and Esther Chiappone Carlson – that Kristin Snyder had a psychotic breakdown in class and that the suicide note showed her instability. They also added that Kristin left the class on her own volition, not bothering to mention that she was upset by the fact that the leader of Nxivm had gotten her pregnant.
Unfortunately, Kristin’s spouse, Heidi Clifford, who was also in the class, dared not contradict Nxivm leaders and did not give police full disclosure. She failed to tell them that Kristin claimed to be pregnant with Raniere’s child and, consequently, police had little to go on that would tend to lead them to an investigation into anything other than suicide.
Heidi admitted she could have told them more but was worried that she might become a suspect in Kristin’s murder.
Kristin’s sister, Kim Snyder, recently called for law enforcement to interrogate the eight women and one man who might know more about what really happened to her sister. [See Kim Snyder Calls on Law Enforcement to Interrogate Chiappone, Cowell, Abney, Salzman, Russell, Smiloff, Keeffe, Irek and Kinum – at Once!]
Now, in response to that article, in our comments section, we hear from someone who claims to know something about Ed Kinum, the man actually led the training in Anchorage, assisted by Esther Chiappone Carlson.
The following is what our unknown and unnamed source has to say about Ed Kinum, who was one of the last to see Kristin Snyder alive.
‘Old Acquaintance” writes:
Ed Kinum told me years ago he knew nothing about what happened to Kristin. He was not trusted by Keith and the inner circle to know the truth because he is a Christian. He holds firm to his values. He was let go as a trainer even though he is an awesome speaker because the NXIVM tech he was teaching didn’t work for his issues and weight problem, and Lauren Salzman needed a job after college. He has been interviewed by the FBI already according to his family. He is a great Chiropractor but totally drank the cool-aid. He started to see the light when his NXIVM 9 friends left the cult, but has been quiet to protect himself from their legal machine. If he knows anything, it’s because he dated Esther for several years, or you could say she used him for several years to drive her kids, get free Chiropractic care, and be her all-around-gopher. He was too kind to admit it. I doubt she gave away her secrets. The inner-circle all used him but cut him out of the truth.
***
This is an interesting theory. That the women may know something but they deliberately withheld it from Ed because he was a Christian and virtuous. Keith did not trust him.
Per this theory, Ed has remained silent for 17 years – because he is afraid of the Nxivm legal terrorism machine, funded by Clare and Sara Bronfman.
It may be true. One thing I will say in Ed’s defense is that, according to Heidi Clifford’s and others’ recollection, Ed was at least willing to consider letting Kristin go to the hospital because of her distressingly erratic behavior. It was Esther that put her foot down and insisted that Kristin should not be allowed to go to the hospital and instead be removed from class and taken home.
Ed acquiesced, which confirms to a degree what the commenter above said – that Ed was a wimp when it came to Esther.
Esther, at the time, was a young and beautiful blonde and Ed was kind of pudgy and lacking in manliness. [He was like all the males that were Nxivm members – a beta male.] And evidently he was quite henpecked or “pussy-whipped” by Esther.
And Esther was taking her orders from Nancy Salzman who, in turn, took orders from Keith Raniere.
Maybe Ed was their useful idiot. It’s hard to say.
If Ed has really been interviewed by the FBI, that may be a good thing. Maybe he told them the truth. And maybe they are on the case now.
I hope so.
What is not known – and I tend to doubt it – is whether the FBI has spoken with Esther Chiappone. I’m pretty sure she would refuse to talk to them. And the FBI can’t force her to sit down with them and interview.
She can, of course, be subpoenaed before a grand jury. Even then, she can refuse to testify on constitutional grounds and likely would do just that as she remains one of the staunchest and truest believers in her master Keith Raniere.
She may also have participated in such crimes as would put her and him away for life.
So let’s put it out there – among our various theories about Kristin Snyder – that if the official story is not true – if she did not commit suicide by somehow getting her pickup truck and driving to Seward and drowning herself deliberately in the cold waters of Resurrection Bay [after stealing a kayak] – that possibly Ed Kinum, though the “leader” of the class from which Kristin disappeared – may have had nothing to do with her disappearance – other than neglect and lack of insight as to what was really going on with both Kristin and the other women of Nxivm assigned to manager her.
We recall that Ed tried to give Kristin Snyder an Exploration of Meaning Nxivm therapy session when Kristin was lying face down on the floor. Ed actually lied down on the floor with her, face down and, in that odd posture, gave Kristin her EM – for more than an hour.
And again, when Esther and Ed went to Heidi and Kristin’s home a few days before she disappeared, and they were in the hot tub together, it was Ed who tried to explain “being at cause” to Kristin, who then thought she was responsible for grave and tragic things that were happening in the world that were, in reality, far beyond her control.
Ed tried to explain that the Nxivm term “being at cause” was limited in scope, limited by what people are normally understood to be able to do and be at fault for doing. His teachings then, which most would agree are true, contradicted what Raniere often taught, that people by their bad thinking can cause catastrophes or markets to crash.
Raniere blamed Nancy Salzman for 9-11. And Barbara Bouchey for tumbles in the world’s commodities markets for example.
And Raniere might have persuaded Kristin Snyder that she was “at cause” for things she certainly was not at cause for – and all of it might have been tied to their managing her quite possibly true claim that she was pregnant with Keith’s child.
It was Ed who told Kristin that she was not to blame, for instance, for the Columbia Space Shuttle’s implosion. And that might have contradicted Keith’s message to her – possibly through Nancy Salzman or Esther Chiappone that she was responsible. {And how could she rectify it?]
Maybe Ed is a good guy, just a little weak in the knees. Or maybe he was part of it all. Or part of some of it.
We have a theory now that he was just a useful idiot. Let’s keep digging.
Stay tuned.
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
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I know Ed and vouch 100% that he is a man of honor. He is VERY Christian, and would not harm a soul, ever.
I was actually a bit rattled when I saw fingers pointed at him. He’s a great guy.
Kinum was working as a minion of the Luciferian Raniere – not acting as a Christian.
He basically was involved in leaving a woman in need of medical care to die, so as to keep the money flowing, and protect his ego and reputation.
Like Judas, he’s still hiding in the garden, clutching his 30 pieces of silver.
Using other people, and aliases, in a rear-guard action to try to protect his image, is just further moral cowardice and spiritual corruption.
Until or unless Kinum comes forth and tells the truth about what happened, and allows the grieving family final closure, he’s no Christian, and not really even a man.
I’m sure Kinum’s pastor would tell him to take the same course of action, if he’s involved in any kind of true Christian church.
And any true friends of Kinum’s would support him in doing the right thing, not excuse his unrepentant falling in with evil.
If there’s real Satanism at work in our world, it’s not the juvenile types looking to get a reaction by dressing in black and dragging around statues of Baphomet, but those who carry water for the Great Deceiver by posing as people of faith while only serving their own egos, and resorting to ends-justify-the-means rationalizations for actions that harm others.
“so as to keep the money flowing, and protect his ego and reputation.”
I don’t think so. I’d say it was more like keeping his mouth shut because he was trained to shut up and follow the great Vanguard. And consequently, being too much of a puss to step up and do what was right.
“Until or unless Kinum comes forth and tells the truth about what happened, and allows the grieving family final closure, he’s no Christian, and not really even a man. I’m sure Kinum’s pastor would tell him to take the same course of action”
Agree
I believe what ‘Old Acquaintance’ typed. From the very first time I heard about what happened to Kristin, the #1 thing that did not make sense to me was that Ed Kinum was involved. There was never anything shady when it came to Ed, and NXIVM would never include him in something nefarious.
Keith liked having people like Ed around because they gave him credibility. Ed gave Keith credibility in the business community, healthcare / alternative healthcare community, and especially, the Christian community. Keith was already doling out information on a need-to-know basis. Keeping a lily-white Ed in the dark was no big deal.
Nutjob, it sounds like you may have some closer or even personal knowledge of Kinum, so I’m curious about your perspective.
There’s the old saying that you can’t cheat an honest man (though modern research shows there are some caveats to that). While it’s well understood that people get lured into high control groups or cults without understanding what they are really about, I have trouble imagining that Kinum got as far as leading intensives without having bought into at least some of the dark side of Raniere’s teachings and practices. The way the intensive was run, seems to have been rather hardcore and uncompassionate, and in violation of health worker standards of care – which was a backdrop to whatever happened to Snyder.
Did Kinum lead modules about sex with young people, or other morally and ethically dubious things, at the level he was working at? Are you really so certain he was “lily-white”?
p.s. This is a reminder, I wish that we had a summary somewhere of the “modules” or whatever of the lower levels of intensives, and workshops, in order to better understand just how NXIVM was indoctrinating people.
They never really taught that it was ok to have sex with young people. They just posed the questions to make you question your beliefs. This was how most of the different modules were structured. Lead you to question your beliefs through group questions, and then small group discussions. Kinda like “Is suicide bad?” When you’d answer yes, they’d ask “But what if Hitler had committed suicide when he was young?” Or, “Is murder bad?” Yes. “Well, what if somebody murdered Hitler before he came to power?” All of the modules didn’t push the limits like these. Some were more straight forward.
The teachers really believed in what they were teaching, and thought NXIVM was great. The inner circle were the ones who did sometimes get introduced to shady things with Keith. Most of the shady things were a deep dive into the ground-work he lay with the modules. Or sex in the name of helping. Ed never would have been deep in the inner circle. Maybe Esther was and Ed rode her coattails.
During this seminar, if Ed was being told by Nancy and Esther that Kristin was looking for attention and not to give it to her, it would have been a gamechanger for him to step up and go against this idea. It may have saved Kristin’s life. It also would have made Ed look bad in the eyes of NXIVM leadership. He made the wrong decision. It’s anything but surprising that he did. If he was somebody who had it in him to stand up and be a think-for-yourself force, he would have already been chased away from being in any kind of leadership role.
Nutjob,
I appreciate your perspective. Anytime a bit more has been revealed about the content of the NXIVM modules, I have become more convinced that the students were victims of a scam. The coaches are to some degree responsible for perpetuating it. Some have argued that the coaches were as duped by Raniere as the students.
But the depraved antics of Raniere aside, consider– 1.) What did (would) the students expect to receive based on promotional materials? 2.) What was the actual content of the modules? (Were they likely to produce the results promised, if such results were even measurable?),
3.) What did the students pay for each course and was the price set according to a pyramid scheme? How did the price compare to educational offerings in the larger marketplace, e.g. community colleges, universities, continuing education programs, even legitimate self-improvement seminars?
There’s an additional question to consider– Assuming any coach actually believed he or she was contributing to a valid “executive coaching” enterprise (whatever the heck that would be), at what point did he or she suspect that the courses were used to recruit people for Raniere’s kool aid project?
However, I’m very skeptical that the coaches could not have known that the underlying claim about the seminars being for “executive training” was fraudulent. Therefore, the last question, in my option, is moot, at least in most cases.
The coaches, themselves, have been very reluctant to speak about the NXIVM curriculum in any real detail and defend it. I would invite any of the former coaches who read this comment to respond, taking into account the above questions. Better yet, why not respond to this and other criticism with a full article?
From course #1, everything was framed as “Great breakthroughs are coming!” Everyone would be looking for these, and make a big deal about it when some progress was made. Due to this framing, coaches and students were searching for this. Well, what you look for hard enough, you will find. The coaches started as students. Most probably had “great” breakthroughs. They start getting promoted (because ESP/NXIVM needed free labor in the form of coaches), and they began preaching the same things. In other words, people thought they were improving their lives, but it was mostly minor progress that was being made. They were learning Keith’s mostly unoriginal material, but were constantly being bombarded with “ISN’T THIS AWESOME!”. Not to be discounted, were the bullshit claims about Keith that gave instant credibility to the scam – the most valuable/damaging being that he was in the Guiness Book of World Records for highest IQ.
Another big thing that was always going on in the background got referenced in Lauren’s testimony multiple times. If somebody ever called bullshit, asked too many questions, or wasn’t happy about how something was going down, it was that person’s fault/problem/ISSUE. In other words, conform and let us do what we want to do or else IT’S YOUR ISSUE. And people were constantly getting run out of ESP/NXIVM for asking too many questions or calling bullshit. When this would happen, leadership would flippantly say “they were a (fill in the blank with shifter, leveler, suppressive, etc etc)”. This was another way to force people to conform so they didn’t get labeled and chased off. It was also a way for Keith to only keep people close to him that he could run over.
Thank you, Nutjob, for the response, below. I now see another reason for the high fees: It’s natural for one to want an investment to pan out. Many people would be predisposed to seeing small improvements as great leaps of learning.
Jesus cares about actions. To save his soul Ed needs to act and provide support in solving this murder. The family deserve to know what happened. Jesus is not just about beliefs but also action. Act and save your soul. Do good. You have now the opportunity.
Inquiring minds want to know, who left the intensive between 4pm and 7pm on that faithful day that Kristin went missing. For how long, and when or did he, she, or they return. As the primary teacher of the group, Kinum would know that information. He only had to keep track of 18 people. With 2 leaders and 7 coaches there, someone should have noticed if anyone left, or returned late from a break. Best to get your story straight now than to wait for someone else to speak up. No matter what Ed Kinum, all will be revealed at the Great White Throne. You can’t hide.
Come on, how do you except Ed to see 18 students with Esther Chiapone’s labia suffocating his fat face?
Raniere was able to bring in lots of useful idiots to NXIVM.
Johnson was able to bring lots of useful idiots to Amway.
You were able to bring a lots of stupid comments to this website.
By the way Scotty, how many people did you recruit into Nxivm….I mean Amway?
Several. What’s your point?
Kinum at least knows the details of what happened in the intensive: how Snyder was behaving, and what she was claiming. As a nominal health care practitioner who probably often dealt to some extent with clients’ psycho-social issues, he should have some insight, and ought to at least be forthcoming about what he does know and did witness.
As a co-leader of the intensive, and apparently a paramour of the other, more connected, leader, he must certainly have some insight into the directions coming down from NXIVM headquarters, about how to handle Snyder.
And as a chiropractor, he’s an inveterate Koolaid drinker, and a dupe for ineffective pseudo-science, from the get-go.
It’s difficult to prosecute a case when no one talks.
The only reason they talked about Raniere was he stupidly videotaped himself having sex with a 15 year old girl.
All the NXians will plead ignorance, especially the most guilty.
“I see nothing. I know nothing.”
Everyone at the February and the November intensives should be interviewed, under oath — Without NXIVM folks present (Duh). (Side bar–Why on earth would the police let Esther be present at someone else’s interview? I was interviewed once by the FBI about a totally benign matter and it was scary. The FBI doesn’t interview you with your bestie friends present, nor should any police officer.
I get that Kinum was afraid to say anything, because he was afraid of being a victim of the “torture by litigation” NXIVM inflicts on its perceived critics– NXIVM folks are consummate experts at working the (legal) system to hurt people to punish them for disagreeing, defying or not kowtowing to them. That Kinum was intimidated and afraid of being hurt by NXIVM was a human response, but not “the right response”, and in fact it’s an immoral one. It means he is part of the wall of silence and is helping the truth stay hidden.
What kind of miserable human beings, anyway, were those 20 ESPians at the February 2003 intensive (20 people in the room per the signing sheet) , that NOT ONE stepped forward to help Kristin. Its amazing, not one had a kernel of kindness in their soul. I find it repulsive that some of them then attended her Memorial, but couldn’t help her when it meant something, ie the day she was ejected, eg Wende Irick .
As a health professional, how could Kinum allow an apparently ill woman in distress to be ejected from a self-improvement seminar because she was distressed and seemingly ill ? Do Chiropractors take the Hippocratic Oath? “Do no harm”?? Did he wonder why she chose to lie on the floor? He had a professional obligation to help Kristin which he ignored, and is apparently still ignoring –by just “not remembering” “anything”? He was complicit in hurting Kristin by allowing Kristin to be tossed out and not taken to a hospital. Did he know the driver Elaine Smiloff –the sex offender they entrusted Kristin to?
Why would Kristin drive all the way to Seward to kill herself with some complicated middle of the night scenario where she dragged an old kayak that just happened to not have floatation in it across a rocky beach in purple slippers with rocks to drown herself —( and it would be hard just to walk on the beach at Milers Landing in fluffy slippers) when she could have just driven off any of the many curves on the Seward Highway between Anchorage and Seward, and ended her life very quickly and a lot less painfully in a car crash Byu the way, its pretty hard to drown yourself. I started to drown one time (by accident). –I can tell you your back body kicks into gear and tries to save you very very hard. You’d need a pretty elaborate system of weights etc affixed to your body–which she would have had to have made, hooked up, and fit in her kayak all the while getting into a kayak into the Bay in the middle of the night in fluffy slippers , launching from a rocky beach in winter? Just not a credible story.
All the ESPians should be interviewed. What about “the judge” Sid Billingslea who was at the 1st intensive with Kristin? Doesn’t she have a professional obligation to be forthcoming with facts and observations that might help elucidate the truth, notwithstanding she was Carmen Guiterrez’s girlfriend who was the onetime Gen Counsel for NXIVM, and advisor on the Ross litigation, (who later helped run the Dept of Corrections in Alaska ) )? Has the judge been interviewed?
Ignorance is Bliss!
Not a useful idiot but a willing player! Righteous self serving man. If he is such a devout Christian, he should have taken Kristen to a hospital! If he is a real Christian, he would not espouse the lies if Keith the renunciate.
How many hypocritical traits does Ed possess?
Ed was in Nxivm for many many years, longer than Barbara Bouchey. What exactly motivated Ed to leave??
His Christian values had not gotten in the way for about 15 years!
Now the heat has been turned on and Ed is running scared!
Are you saying your bedtime prayers Ed?