Hey, Elaine Smiloff – Where Is Kristin Snyder?

Elaine Smiloff
MK10ART’s painting of Elaine Smiloff. Miller’s Landing where Kristin Snyder’s truck was found is in the background.

MK10ART created another excellent painting, this time of Elaine Smiloff, the woman who supposedly drove Kristin Snyder away from her final ESP intensive and to her home in Anchorage.

Kristin was never seen again.  Elaine was the last known person to see Kristin alive.

A kayak was stolen from Miller’s Landing and Kristin’s Toyota Tacoma pickup truck was found nearby but no sign of Kristin or the kayak.

Kristin had been ejected from ESP [Nxivm] classes because she was claiming to be pregnant with Keith Raniere’s child.

I spoke to Elaine Smiloff on numerous occasions. Then she stopped talking to me.  I don’t know if she had a hand in the disappearance of Kristin Snyder.

I do know she told me, when she called me first, in August 2017, that she had to get it off her chest and tell somebody – a secret she had harbored for some 15 years – that Kristin had been claiming to be pregnant with Keith Raniere’s child.

It was Elaine who was the very first person to break the wall of silence on what Kristin was claiming.

Others knew it, but nobody told it – until Elaine confessed that to me.

Was Kristin Snyder pregnant with Keith Raniere’s child? Maybe we will never know. Maybe it does not matter. What matters is that Keith could have impregnated her and she might not have been willing to have an abortion and the criminal might have had a hand in her disappearance.

To my mind, Elaine’s confession to me was the single most significant new discovery in 17 years since Kristin disappeared.

Kristin Snyder was claiming she was pregnant. Nobody told that to the Snyder family. Nobody told that to the police. Nobody put that in print.

Nobody reported that until I did in 2017.

Imagine not telling that to the family or police.

Heidi Clifford said she withheld this vital piece of information from police because she was afraid it would point suspicion at her.

 

Besides, she said, at the time she did not think it was true.

In fairness to Heidi, Kristin was claiming a lot of crazy things, like she had caused the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Ed Kinum was counseling Kristin about not being “at cause” for a lot of things she was purportedly blaming herself for causing.

Ed came over to Kristin and Heidi’s house with Esther Chiappone Carlson after an intensive and sat in their outdoor hot tub trying to explain that Kristin was not at cause for various events in the world.

He may have also told her she was not at cause for being pregnant for she was not – he said – pregnant.

Esther said Kristin was just lying, trying to get attention.

They played a great “good cop, bad cop,” duo.

MK10ART – Keith Raniere and co-conspirator Esther Chiappone Carlson. She may wind up with murder charges yet.

The real question is – did Ed and his gal pal, Esther – try to gaslight and possibly drug Kristin Snyder – knowing that it may have been true that Kristin could have been pregnant?

Kristin, we have proven through credit cards and eyewitnesses was in Albany in early January 2002 – within a month of her disappearance. So was Raniere.

We have been told by Kristin Keeffe that Kristin Snyder stormed out of a Keith Raniere forum at Nxivm headquarters.  Something unheard of. Nobody walks out on Keith.  Maybe that was the day he had sex with her.

So now let us return to Elaine Smiloff.

Initially, I thought she was fully innocent.

But her sudden cessation of communications with me – something she did after I actually went up to Alaska, after she promised to meet me, is not a sign of good faith.  She could have told me before I bought a ticket and planned to meet her that she did not want to meet.

Just the opposite, she said she wanted to meet and tell me what she knew.

She may know something more than she is letting on by telephone and was fearful that in person she might just confess the whole truth.

One important thing to keep in mind: At the time Kristin Snyder disappeared, Elaine was facing a felony sex offense charge.

Evidently, she had some sexual contact with an underage girl or girls.  Elaine admitted this to me.  She was arrested a few months before Kristin Snyder disappeared. Elaine needed money to defend herself and she wanted to avoid prison.

Did Esther Chiappone and Keith and Nancy – who knew about the charges – offer to help her for something in return?

Soon after Kristin disappeared, Elaine was able to happily resolve her sex offense case with a good attorney down to a plea deal that spared her prison time.

She still had to register as a sex offender and up until this year, she was on the sex offender registry for Alaska. But she did not go to prison.

In between her arrest and the final disposition of her sex offense case, Elaine handled the picking up and purported dropping off of Kristin Snyder, who was never seen again.

Elaine supposedly picked up Kristin at the Westmark Hotel and took her to her home on Glen Kerry Rd in Anchorage. 

Elaine pulled into the driveway with Kristin, she said, and let her out – to go into the house alone – and never be seen again. That’s Elaine’s story at least.

At the time, Elaine lived with a much older husband. She later moved with him to the remote, sparsely populated Adack Island on the Bearing Sea.

 

She was harbormaster, did fishing for salmon and hunted seals and became one of the tiny city’s council members. The population of Adack is about 200 people.

If Kristin Snyder was an outdoors woman, Elaine was it in spades. Kristin had to learn it. And did it as a hobby.

Elaine could live off the land. She imbibed this from her earliest youth as an Aleutian.  Her family ate whale blubber for generations and braved the Arctic temperatures as easily as you and I might a mild summer day.

As strong and fit as Kristin Snyder was at her peak, Elaine – who could lift and wrestle down 150-pound salmon then club them over the head and then with her knife gut them and filet them, could have subdued a rebellious Kristin in a minute if she so chose.

That may be why she was chosen to handle Kristin.

This is a woman who could get in a canoe or kayak with her spear and harpoon a live seal. Pull him to shore and gut him for seal blubber – in almost less time than it takes to tell.

Image result for harpooning a seal for blubber
Her family had done it for years.

Does Elaine Smiloff know anything?

Probably.

She might know who was responsible for “disappearing” Kristin Snyder.

There are two things that are disturbing about Elaine’s story:

One:  If her story is true, she dropped off a clearly unstable woman – alone – at her home and left her there – alone.

Heidi claims that Esther told her that Elaine was going to stay with Kristin until she, Heidi, got home.

Elaine didn’t stay, she says.

We do not know if Esther told the opposite to Elaine. Esther, who is a known liar, might have told Elaine not to stay [perhaps Esther had other visitors planned] and then told Heidi that Elaine was going to stay.

But then again, we do not even know if Elaine even took Kristin home. She may have brought her somewhere else.  Maybe to the last place she was to draw breath.

Kristin Snyder was last seen on Feb. 6, 2003, leaving a Nxivm class with Nxivm student and sex offender Elaine Smiloff – who was carrying out orders of Nxivm leader Esther Chiappone Carlson.

It is not in dispute that Kristin was deeply disturbed.

Elaine told me she was convinced and haunted by it for years – that Kristin, in her unstable condition, could not have driven from Anchorage to Seward on the night of February 6, 2002 – a three-hour drive.

“She was in no condition to drive,” Elaine said.

So why was she left alone?

Or was she left alone?

Keith Raniere about the time Kristin Snyder disappeared

Keith had a powerful motive to have her disappear – if she was pregnant – and anybody who knows about Keith Raniere who can doubt he would not be conscience-stricken to see someone die for his “beliefs or for theirs” is indeed as naive as say Clicky Nine or Jimmy Del Negro.

If Kristin was pregnant – or if Keith believed she was, and not just saying it but possibly pregnant because he did have unprotected sex with her [if he did] – Keith would have no qualms about making her disappear, if she refused to have an abortion.

We have already learned from Lauren Salzman that just a few months before Kristin disappeared that she, her mother, Keith and others conspired to force-feed and secretly drop drugs in the food of a disruptive student – and held her captive too.

Why wouldn’t they do that to Kristin?

The second thing that is disturbing about Elaine is that being the last known person to see Kristin Snyder alive, the police were naturally interested in interviewing her – but they did not interview her alone, according to Elaine.

Elaine, who was already indicted for sex abuse, and awaiting trial, was in no position to get into more trouble.

For some inexplicable reason, police agreed to interview Elaine, according to Elaine, with Esther Chiappone present.

With the dangerous and intimidating Esther in the interview room with police, Elaine claims she did not dare mention that Kristin was claiming she was pregnant.

The result was that Elaine, like Esther and Heidi Clifford, failed to give police the single most important piece of information that could have turned the case around from a hasty suicide investigation – without a body – to a possible conspiracy to commit murder.

Instead, everyone made it out that she was crazy.  They “gaslighted” her even to the police so that they would rush to the conclusion that she committed suicide.

But they all withheld the vital information that she claimed she was pregnant with the leader of the group that arranged for her care on the day she disappeared.

It is mind-boggling that this crucial information was suppressed for 15 years.

For those who argue that Keith would have never allowed a suicide note that blamed his teachings, I offer this rebuttal:

Knowing how his tricky mind works – it could be argued as a brilliant decoy, he would have been proud of.

What better way to deflect from murder then creating a false suicide note blaming the murderer for causing suicide?

It is diabolically brilliant and in the tradition of Raniere’s style of risk-taking.

It may not be the case, of course, but it is just like Keith to throw something like that out there. And follow it up a year later with “Kristin faked her own death to escape her drug-running past. She is still alive and let’s hire investigators to find her”.

It is especially Raniere-like when you consider the possibility that he may have used drugs to create her chaotic condition which made it so easy to believe she did commit suicide.

Add to that, that nobody – including Elaine – dare mentioned that she was claiming she was pregnant.

They talk about the perfect murder and this might be it.

And they talk about how three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.

That may work against Keith in the end. If there were conspirators – and if she was murdered there has to be – one of them will crack, one of them will tell on the others.

That one may be Elaine Smiloff.

She may be wholly innocent of murder, or of helping push the suicide of a young woman who had done nobody any wrong, but I would be surprised if Elaine does not know more than she is telling.

I still wonder, why she revealed to me what she did, then invited me to come to Alaska – then, when I got there – completely disappeared?

The Plea Deal Bus. It may not be a big bus – but it promises to be a happy bus. Or said another way, those who fail to get on it, if they could have, may spend many years regretting that decision.

 

 

 

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Frank Parlato

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  • I bet the killer/ killers think the commenters on here are a bunch of clueless morons. I wonder at night when they hear a loud noise outside if they think its the FBI’s coming to raid the house? Damn Heidi, when you found out your wifey was playing house with Keithy poo, were you mad or naw?

  • Re The Suicide Note and Raniere:

    I just reread this article, and the suicide note “deflection” angle Frank makes a lot of sense.

    ********
    The only fact I know for certain regarding Kristen Snyder’s disappearance is that all parties involved/connected are lying about what they know.

    Which character in the Kristen Snyder story has not lied?

    I wonder if Frank can name one person?

    It’s this one fact that I personally find infuriating and deeply disturbing. All the parties involved are liars.

    • If they’re not lying, they’re too chicken-spit to talk. Kristin Snyder aside, some of the people involved have a lot to be sorry for. Bad choices and good intent don’t change the negative impact on others. How they appear to be so empty inside and morally void, is saddening.

      At the least, give your account of what transpired with Kristin. For example, I’m confident Ed Kinnum didn’t kill Kristin. But, remaining silent and protecting the guilty is a terrible act that only gets worse with each passing day he remains silent. His silence is speaking more for his character and beliefs than decades of his (apparently) false righteousness.

      Who are you, Ed???

      • I can’t think of anyone who didn’t at least lie by omission, to law enforcement – and if the investigators asked a question along the lines of “is there anything else we should know?” then that would make failing to tell them about things like Snyder’s pregnancy claims an active lie. Almost all the rest of those with direct involvement in the case at least lied to one another; we’d have to make a list and go through it too see if we could even find someone among the major players who didn’t.

        To me that tells a lot about those who were involved in NXIVM, at least those who went further than just the initial course. NXIVM obviously did not really emphasize the point in the so-called mission statement that “Inner honesty and integrity are the highest human values.”

        And, yeah, I think it’s time to hold Ed Kinum to account – at least to finally tell everything he knows.

    • Herein lies why I feel for Kristin. Honestly, she never had a chance. I would never want to walk a day in the Snyder’s shoes or those infamous fuzzy purple slippers. I bet there never was any purple slippers. Kristin seems more practical and would have probably worn a slipper like her daddy wore. Too bad Toni Natalie couldn’t help.

  • There is a Ben Stevenson….Heidi writes that Kristen and Ben were in the Westmark parking lot talking.

    Heidi also writes that Kristen slapped a phone out of David’s hand. I think this is the same David that “Shelly” says she came into the class to announce its Davids birthday with her 2 children. If Kristin was being disruptive in class this would also in my opinion be a disruption. So here’s my thoughts…Clifford has her Alzheimer’s mom, her psycho pregnant lesbian wifey running all over the place and spending money for these idiotic classes. Esther is probably like WTF I thought Queefy was mine….You got Ed Kinnum and her mind fucking Kristin while “doing laundry” sure uh huh….Probably dropping a little more powerful than Doo Doo balls in Kristin’s pizza with Silloff as the muscle to move seals. “watch my pizza while I take a leak”, yeah even though I plan to kill my self in my fuzzy purple slippers im hungry, lets eat .Can we say Roofies. Oh and let me not leave this out, not that it matters because we have the perfect crime here. Heidi writes on Feb 7th 9:30 am “Kenny Powers and Heidi Clifford went down to class to meet with Esther before Kenny and I had to go to the police dept. search party” Ester laughed stating Kris was really manipulating all of us. She had really felt that Kris was playing all of us for everything. Big search Big efforts just as Kris wanted it. Esther expressed displeasure that I was opting for going into the search vs. coming to class. (choosing class) she felt Kris was fine and had not harmed Kenny”.

    • Clifford is writing in 3rd person? Disconnected from reality much? You write that Clifford writes, her and Kenny went together to speak to Esther, yet tells Clifford Kenny is not harmed. Harmed? What are Heidi and Esther really up to and what is the concern of Kenny Powers being harmed on this 7th day of feb, 2003?

  • Craig Medred, an Alaskan journalist and blogger, wrote a June 3, 2018, article “Untold Story” about Kristin’s disappearance. He was apparently able to get interviews with some of Kristin’s “friends”–
    He says in “Untold Story”: ““Alaska friends of Snyder – none of whom wanted to talk about the case on-the-record out of consideration for Snyder’s former partner, Heidi Clifford….”

    I saw that, and thought Whaaat??? why wouldn’t a friend of Kristin’s want to tell the truth –in deference to her spouse ?? I wonder who Kim or Frank would think these unnamed friends are that Medred talked to?

    He makes a second reference to the mysterious “friends” later in his article–
    He wrote–“Anchorage friends who asked not to be identified for this article said the NXIVM training broke Snyder and never put her together again. They are convinced she committed suicide and dismiss the idea she was murder”.

    Research showed that Medred’s wife was in a design business as partners with Wende Irick–a longtime NXIVM coach and allegedly the woman who introduced Kristin to NXIVM (according to previous Frank Report article) .
    Is Irick one of the “friends” who has information but won’t go on record?

        • Nutjob

          The question is who would win in a fight between…
          Nina Cowell vs Elaine Smiloff

          The odds:
          Elaine Smiloff -225 favorite
          Nina Cowell +150 underdog

          I think Cowell knows the most dirt besides Esther and Nancy Salzman. Cowell got paid lavishly compared to the likes of Jim Del Negro or the 60 year old ballerina, Kathy Russel.

      • Peaches,

        LMAO

        I read your comment and thought, “who are those people?”

        Then within 3 seconds, I remembered Kenny Powers is from one of the greatest shows of all time Eastbound & Down.

        If anyone hasn’t watched it, it’s kind of like a King Pin meets Bad Santa, but better than either movie.

        Peaches did you happen to like the 2 seasons of Vice Principals?

        • Nice Guy, once again you crack me up. I have no idea about Eastbound and down, Ill have to google it. Kenny Powers said to Frank on The Lost Women of Nxivm that he was “grooming” Kristin for the Nordic Ski Patrol. The fact that he used the word “Groomed” with a nervous laugh got me wondering about this guy.

    • “Former partner”? That is odd wording to refer to Heidi, even though Kristin is presumed dead. “Former partner“ implies a break-up, not a death/disappearance.

  • It wasn’t Elaine who ‘disappeared’ Kristin Snyder.

    The story about Elaine wrestling a 150 pound salmon is just Frank being a blowhard, while trying to create a murderer out of whole cloth.

    If Elaine had killed Kristin, she SURE AS FUCK wouldn’t have contacted Frank in 2017 to implicate herself in a MURDER that could see her locked up in prison for life.

    Heidi Clifford is the one person who’s shown she’s a sociopath. She lied to police about the pregnancy to protect herself from being a possible suspect.

    Heidi also threatened to trash Kristin’s belongings.

    Heidi also sold Kristin’s truck and used the money to pay NXIVM’s ‘bill’ after Kristin was dead, which tells me that she didn’t want any creditors hanging around asking questions about Kristin. That’s what a guilty party would do.

    The person who killed Kristin had an intimate knowledge of both Kristin and kayaking — and would have known Kristin’s connection to the place where she allegedly paddled out from. Heidi fits that bill.

    Frank refuses to go with the “Heidi” angle though.

    Why?

    …Cuz he’s hell bent on pinning this whole thing on NXIVM and Keith. It’s called tunnel vision.

    If a video of Kristin’s murder turned up (and showed that it wasn’t Keith or NXIVM responsible), Frank would likely ‘disappear’ the video.

    Why?

    …Cuz he doesn’t want anybody else blamed except Keith. LOL.

    Heidi was likely jealous of the new man who was boning Kristin.

    Heidi was likely jealous that Keith was giving Kristin a stiff boner, something that Heidi could never offer Kristin.

    Heidi was obviously the ‘man’ in their relationship but she was not endowed with male equipment, which she likely resented.

    Kristin likely enjoyed Keith’s penis and Heidi probably resented that.

    Heidi also likely didn’t wanna help raise a baby sired by Keith.

    Heidi was likely an emotional wreck by the news of Kristin’s pregnancy.

    Also… If Keith had orchestrated Kristin’s death then he’d never allow a forged suicide note to paint NXIVM in a negative light. Keith would NEVER allow NXIVM to be publicly disrespected like that.

    Therefore.. If the suicide note could not have been forged by NXIVM —- then NXIVM could not have been involved in her murder. Therefore, it must have been somebody outside of NXIVM.

    Therefore, Heidi Clifford is a great suspect. 🙂

    Frank’s hatred for Keith is blinding him to the truth.

    If Heidi had a hand in Kristin’s death then it makes perfect sense to forge a suicide note blaming NXIVM. That points the finger away from Heidi.

    But sadly, Frank’s just too ‘invested’ in the NXIVM angle of this story.

    He’ll never truly look at Satan incarnate (Heidi Clifford).

    • I don’t think Heidi Clifford killed Kristin. And I doubt that Elaine did either. I do think that Elaine may know more than she is telling. If I learned, Bangkok, that the true cause of Kristin’s death pointed away from Keith, I would report it immediately. I want the truth to prevail here, whatever it is.

    • FI, You can find the documents online as to how much time and effort were put into the search and I’m telling you right now Kenny was of little help. Kenny tossed the buck over to a Scarborough. Report says Scarborough led the areas where to search. On the 3rd day only 3.5 hours are documented in the area south of Resurrection Bay along a desolate place where underground tunnels are left from an old fort.

  • When one looks at the cast of lying screwballs surrounding Kristen Snyder at the time of her disappearance, it’s like who wasn’t involved in her disappearance?

    All of the parties present are culpable or guilty of not acting like responsible adults in regards to Kristen Snyder’s life. Everyone was to busy with their intensives and lectures to help Kristen?

    The NXIVM classes on ETHICAL and metaphysical living were more important than human life.

    Let that sink in…

  • Didn’t Heidi Clifford also rather recently come across a receipt for a Pizza that was ordered and possibly shared with Elaine, who had agreed to stay with Kristin not only drop her off? If I remember rightly? Pizza mighta been spiked, while we’re speculating.

    • I don’t know how you can compare the 3. Vermeer and Rembrandt actually made their oil paints to match their subjects. MKs water colors probably purchased at Kmart or the dollar tree may last for a little while but will fade in time, unlike Vermeer and Rembrandt. MK’s pencil sketch is like a high school art assignment I give to my students. Visual artist? Give me a break.

      • Kelly Brown,

        Watercolors take an incredibly steady hand and receive no respect from pedestrians such as yourself. You are most definitely not an artist. Perhaps you are a Phys Ed teacher who migrated to the art room.

  • Previous articles on this website indicate some of the Espians who attended one or both of the Anchorage intensives with Kristin in 2002-03 were lawyers–who specialized in criminal defense work. Who was her attorney? It should be in the records. Perhaps Elaine, who was also an ESP member, got her lawyer for her sex offender case through her ESP connections; , or her attorney was one of the attorneys who attended one of the intensives, like S. Billingslea, or her defense was provided courtesy of Salzman/ Raniere. … Anchorage is a very small town. ESP members in 2002-03 must have known each other. Elaine was vulnerable. ESP blackmailed / exploited vulnerable people . That might give Elaine motive for showing up on a dime to transport Kristin away when Esther called., and do other tasks for Raniere and company.

  • Quite possibly the conspiracy is ongoing. Perhaps Elaine’s strings are still being pulled by someone formerly a part of NXIVM.

    Two possible scenarios: 1) Elaine spoke to someone about your planned meeting, and that person or persons convinced her to cut off all contact with you. 2) Your computer or phone security is compromised and someone got to Elaine before the meeting. By “got to” I don’t mean anything violent necessarily happened. Maybe someone just warned her away from you.

    The history of the case, as you lay it out here, would support the idea that Elaine is habitually receptive to taking the lead from other people.

  • Good questions here. Except isn’t it somewhat pointless to speculate until we know what ground was covered in the evidence and testimony reviewed by the jury that voted unanimously for the finding of presumptive death in Snyder’s case?

    Nonetheless, everything the NXians like Smiloff said is open to question, unless there’s airtight corroboration or concrete evidence.

    I’d also question whether Smiloff actually drove Snyder home; it’s possible Snyder insisted she could do so herself, and Smiloff figured that was one less thing to bother with.

    And it still seems implausible to me that anyone from NXIVM would have written a note with such derogatory references as “brainwashing” in it. That points suspicion at what NXIVM did, if anything; and would have been damning had Snyder’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, as it seems in hindsight they should have.

    Also, if there are still questions left after reviewing the jury findings, I think the Snyders should at least hire a real heavy-hitting Anchorage attorney and have him start by making some noise about possibly filing a lawsuit against parties who might be implicated in what happened to Snyder, to see if that might flush out some people willing to tell what they know in order to absolve themselves of civil liability.

    Another route to go would be for a few activists to put some fire under the feet of those who have yet to be forthcoming such as, presumably, Ed Kinum, D.C. of Scotia, N.Y.:

    Speech Plus—The Constitutional Law of Leafleting, Picketing, and Demonstrating
    https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-1/speech-plus-the-constitutional-law-of-leafleting-picketing-and-demonstrating

About the Author

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist.

His work has been cited in hundreds of news outlets, like The New York Times, The Daily Mail, VICE News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News, Oxygen, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, The Sun, The Times of London, CBS Inside Edition, among many others in all five continents.

His work to expose and take down NXIVM is featured in books like “Captive” by Catherine Oxenberg, “Scarred” by Sarah Edmonson, “The Program” by Toni Natalie, and “NXIVM. La Secta Que Sedujo al Poder en México” by Juan Alberto Vasquez.

Parlato has been prominently featured on HBO’s docuseries “The Vow” and was the lead investigator and coordinating producer for Investigation Discovery’s “The Lost Women of NXIVM.” In addition, he was credited in the Starz docuseries 'Seduced' for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.

Parlato appeared on the Nancy Grace Show, Beyond the Headlines with Gretchen Carlson, Dr. Oz, American Greed, Dateline NBC, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, where Parlato conducted the first-ever interview with Keith Raniere after his arrest. This was ironic, as many credit Parlato as one of the primary architects of his arrest and the cratering of the cult he founded.

Parlato is a consulting producer and appears in TNT's The Heiress and the Sex Cult, which premieres on May 22, 2022.

IMDb — Frank Parlato

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Parlato,_Jr.

Contact Frank with tips or for help.
Phone / Text: (305) 783-7083
Email: frankparlato@gmail.com

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