Conflicting Reports Over Whether Kristin Snyder Broke Into a Shed to Steal Suicide Kayak

There are conflicting reports about the kayak that Kristin Snyder purportedly stole to paddle out to Resurrection Bay in Seward, Alaska in February 2003.

For one, there is a conflict over whether the kayak was inside a shed or not.

The Alaska State Police report:

On the morning of 2-8 -03, the Millers of Millers Landing resort discovered a storage shed containing kayak and gear had been broken into and an old kayak was missing. The storage shed was close to where Snyder’s vehicle was located.

The Charley Project profiles “cold case” missing people, but does not investigate. Their description is sans shed. It was in the yard. They also describe the condition of the kayak.

A white wood and fiberglass kayak was found to be missing from the yard of Millers Landing when Snyder’s car was discovered. The kayak is handmade, has no rudder, is not outfitted for flotation, and had not been in the water for fifteen years. Officials at the resort noted that it would sink if tipped.

The police report the kayak was stolen from a shed.

The Charley Project says the kayak was taken from the yard, but not used in years.

Where the Google aerial map reads "Beach" is just north on the road from where Kristin Snyder's pickup truck was left. The word "House" signifies an area about where the shed is. The kayak, if not taken from the shed but taken from the yard, would have been just south of the shed. The Millers' home is where the word "Halibut" is. In addition to Miller's Landing, the Millers own and operate a food stand where they cook fresh halibut and other fish from the waters.

Kristin Snyder’s pickup truck was parked approximately where the beach house rental is. 

Kristin’s spouse Heidi Clifford also said it was in a shed.

Within a week of Kristin’s disappearance, Heidi announced her memorial service.

February 13, 2003, Heidi wrote:

Her truck was found 2 hours south of Anchorage Alaska on the shores of Resurrection Bay in Seward. A kayak had been taken from the shed next to the truck and it is presumed that she paddled out into the darkness. Her body has not been found….

MIller’s Landing on Resurrection Bay

I interviewed Mike and Sherry Miller, owners of Miller’s Landing.

Mike and Sherry lived on the shores of Resurrection Bay since the 1950s. A part of that interview was seen in the film, The Lost Women of Nxivm.

The “suicide note” seems to blame Nxivm for her suicide.

A suicide note found in Kristin Snyder's truck. I

Heidi Clifford

The Lost Women of Nxivm,

The Millers are Interviewed

The red vehicle is where Kristin Snyder's pickup truck was found.

The red vehicle is where Kristin Snyder’s pickup truck was found.

Resurrection Bay.

Mike and Sherry Miller at their Hungry Halibut  eatery adjacent to Millers Landing.

My interview with the Millers took place 16.5 years after the disappearance.

But Mike and Sherry Miller seemed precise in their recall.

Mike Miller told me there was no shed when the kayak went missing. He ought to know. He built the shed.

He said the missing kayak was out in the yard.

Mike explained he noticed the kayak was missing because there was no snow cover where the kayak was laying.

He might not have noticed a missing kayak in February had snow not been broken by a patch of grass in the shape of a kayak.

How did the shed get into the police report?

Next, we come to conflicting reports of the kayak’s seaworthiness.

Mike Miller described the kayak in detail. He knew the woman who gave it to him and his wife as a gift.

Sherry Miller said she used the kayak often.

Far from not being seaworthy, or that it had been out of water for 15 years, Sherry used it the previous summer and for several summers.

She and Mike agreed, the kayak was seaworthy.

It did not have normal flotation. Mike said if it tipped, it would not sink.

“It would periscope,” he said.

The end would tip above water.

The kayak, like Snyder, was never found. Neither was the paddle, which floats.

Mike and Sherry Miller don’t think Snyder committed suicide.

There were dozens of searchers. A Coast Guard cutter. Helicopters. Civil Air Patrol; police and firemen and dozens of Kristin’s friends, all trained in search and rescue, as members of the Nordic Ski Patrol, all searching, combing every beach, every shed, every cabin, in the woods, flying and floating over the water.

Sherry Miller believes that Kristin Snyder did not steal her kayak and commit suicide.

Sherry Miller believes Kristin Snyder did not steal her kayak and commit suicide.

The story goes that Esther Carlson ejected Kristin Snyder from a Nxivm intensive in Anchorage.

We don’t know who removed Kristin’s truck from the parking lot next to the hotel. Elaine Smiloff supposedly drove her hoime

Heidi Clifford says she did not take the pickup truck from the parking lot. She had to get a ride home, she said.

Police found Kristin’s pickup in Seward, Alaska, in front of Miller’s Landing, near the shores of Resurrection Bay.

A “suicide note” was in the truck, along with a separate note that contained the words “No need to search for my body.”

We do not know if Kristin wrote the notes. 

Keith Raniere claimed six years later that he had people killed for his beliefs.

Raniere said he had people killed.

Kristin Snyder with her dog.

Is Kristin alive, was she murdered or is the official story true?

We know they searched for her body. We know she had survival skills.

Heidi Clifford announced Kristin’s memorial service on February 13, 2003. She wrote:

It is incredibly sad to announce that our friend Kris is presumed dead. Kris was reported missing the night of February 6, 2003….

“Over the previous week, Kris had a rapid decline into mental illness. In her delusions of guilt, she believed she was responsible for many of the world’s problems and that she needed to kill herself so that humanity could persist into the future.

“She was an avid kayaker… she was working on the telemark turns in the mountains. Kris enjoyed her volunteer work with the Anchorage Nordic ski patrol, performing in learning search and rescue skills, avalanche skills and wilderness emergency care…

Kristin had the skills to take the kayak – which was seaworthy – and use it to cross the bay. From there, she could have gone anywhere. But did she ever go to Resurrection Bay? Or did only her pickup truck make it?

Resurrection bay

Kristin Snyder's truck was found at Miller's Landing - there was plenty of country for a Nordic skier to take off in.

The location where Kristin Snyder supposedly launched a stolen kayak to go out in frigid waters and commit suicide, a story that the family does not believe.

MK10ART’s chilling painting of Kristin Snyder on Resurrection Bay