Kristin Snyder, an environmental consultant, departed the Executive Success Programs intensive in Anchorage, Alaska on February 6, 2003. She has never been heard from again. She was 35.
The day after Snyder’s disappearance, on February 8, her Toyota Tacoma pickup truck was found parked at Millers Landing, on Lowell Point Road in Seward, Alaska, a campground, fishing, and kayaking resort on Resurrection Bay.
A note inside her car suggested suicide. A kayak was missing from the yard of Millers Landing. Authorities believe Snyder took the kayak out on Resurrection Bay. An extensive three-day search of the bay area failed to find any clues as to her whereabouts.
Her body was never found. She is a presumptive suicide.
Shortly before her disappearance, two witnesses claim she told them that Keith Raniere had gotten her pregnant. She had visited NXIVM headquarters in Albany, where Raniere lived, about a month earlier.
I produced and appeared in a two-hour film for Investigation Discovery entitled The Lost Women of NXIVM, where Snyder’s disappearance was investigated.
Today I received a letter from a man who knew Snyder. It is for those who have read about Snyder a slice of life, perhaps not important, but to some readers, it might be insightful. He had this to say about Kristin and has some hope of bringing justice to bear on those responsible for whatever did happen to her.
By Brian
I recently watched your documentary about the Lost Women of NXIVM and discovered from that what happened to Kristin.
Can you please send the following letter to her sister?
My name is Brian.
I would first like to say how sorry I am to the family and friends of Kristin for their terrible loss, and the circumstances surrounding it. I had lost contact with Kristin for over 20 years, and am just finding out now what happened. I learned about this by watching a documentary about the NXIVM cult called the Vow. I googled the name Keith Raniere, and came across the section about Kristin. I was shocked, horrified, and am currently grieving the loss of the amazingly wonderful warm person that was Kristin.
I met Kristin, her dog, and a few of her friends at a music festival on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska sometime in the late 90’s. I think it was 1998. I immediately liked her and we became friends.
Kristin was interested in getting to know people, and learning about them. She was one of the few people I met that I felt wasn’t judging me in any way.
Kristin Snyder standing by the Tacoma later found at Resurrection Bay with a purported suicide note….
I was working as a Biotechnician studying migratory birds.
I spent three summers (1995-1997) working in remote areas throughout the state. That summer, I decided to work out of Anchorage and explore the music scene by going to different festivals.
I remember running into Kristin at several music festivals that summer. Each time, we got to know each other a little better.
Over the summer, I started to develop feelings for Kristin, but I don’t think I was aware of it, and I never told her. I remember getting an email from Kristin at some point. I will never forget her email. It was some variation of Northern Lights. She told me she was working at a restaurant called the Happy Face in Homer, Alaska.
Kristin Snyder was known to kayak in all kinds of weather….
As the summer wore on into the fall and winter, Kristin was in Girdwood, and I was in Anchorage. I remember meeting her at a restaurant in Anchorage called the Moose’s Tooth.
Kristin and I remained in touch after I moved to San Jose, CA, in pursuit of a music career. Kristin contacted me sometime in 1999 to tell me that she was going to see the band called String Cheese Incident at the Filmore in San Francisco.
She asked me if I would like to go. I picked Kristin and her friends up at the San Jose Airport and brought them to my house. Later, some local friends came to pick her up and drive to San Francisco.
The plan was for us all to meet up later in San Fran.
Kristin Snyder
At that time, I noticed the feelings I had for Kristin coming to the surface. I began to drink to deal with them. I noticed she was with another man. I felt there was no way for me to tell her how I felt and that she was spoken for, so I became drunk by the time I met them in San Francisco.
I ended up acting like a complete jerk, and embarrassing and humiliating Kristin in front of her friends.
Despite how mean I was, Kristin kept giving me opportunity after opportunity to stay around. I couldn’t deal with my feelings and left the hotel everyone was staying at, and slept in my van in a parking garage. I never had contact with Kristin again.
For the last 24 years, there hasn’t been a month that has gone by, where I haven’t been hit by a sense of regret for how I treated Kristin that night. It is only now, as I grieve her loss, that I understand how deeply I loved her.
How can someone love somebody so much after only meeting them and being around them a few times? Kristin was an amazing person. She was the truth. I am so deeply filled with sorrow.
Yet at the same time, I am reminded of the joy she brought to my life and the world.
As my shock and sorrow begins to turn to anger, I wish to help Kristin’s loved ones bring closure and seek justice for what happened to her.
In either way, whether it was murder, suicide, or disappearance, Keith Raniere and the NXIVM cult are responsible for her death.
I would like to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against Raniere and the members of his cult. They will be compelled to testify, and we may finally discover what happened to her.
I am willing to help in any way that I can, whether it be starting a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for an attorney, raising public awareness by starting a foundation about the dangers of cult manipulation in her name, or whatever else I can do to bring justice for Kristin and keep her spirit alive.
