Gina Hutchinson died around 11 PM on October 11, 2002. I am investigating her death, almost 17 years after the fact.
I have her diary – courtesy of her sister, Heidi. It gives some clues – particularly about what she describes as “the Keith problem.” [Later we will get into her diary in more detail].
I also have the police reports of her death and I recently obtained her autopsy – thanks again to Heidi – who gave permission to Ulster County to release it.
Ulster County – where Woodstock is – and where Gina’s body was found – is mainly rural with the Catskill mountain range running through it.
I have been to the place where her body was found – even taking the route she would have most likely driven from the motel she stayed at in Clifton Park – to the long – long – winding road up to the remote Buddhist monastery grounds not far from rural Woodstock, New York.
I was amazed that a suicidal woman would make such a drive – even one she had made many times before – planning the whole time for a suicide – up the winding narrow road – up the hill.
I have interviewed various people who knew Gina and others who knew Keith – including three women who were around Keith – at different times – when he supposedly “learned” the news that Gina was dead.
Frankly, there are some inconsistencies in their reports – since he seemed to have acted surprise at least twice at different times. Of course, in asking people to recall things years after the fact, there is the possibility that memories fade and recollections can be wrong.
Heidi tells a story that at the hotel where Gina last stayed – Coco’s Motel – the clerk told her that four exceedingly slender women came to visit Gina [who was also exceedingly slender] – two nights before she died. They came to her room and went inside.
One seemed older than the others.
Also – and suspiciously – Heidi says that Gina switched rooms the next day and took a room with a hot tub. I asked Heidi if Gina had any special fondness for hot tubs. She said no, not particularly.
Toni Natalie had once told me that when she was with Keith and they traveled, Keith always insisted that she arrange for a room with a hot tub. He would not stay in a room without a hot tub.
It is also known that in Keith’s so-called library on 8 Hale Drive, there was a hot tub on the second floor – it was one of the central features of the fairly small townhouse. [In fact, it almost fell through the floor after Raniere was arrested.]
Keith loved hot tubs. Gina was reportedly not so fond of hot tubs. Did Keith visit Gina on the night before her death?
There is another peculiarity about Gina even staying at a motel in Clifton Park. At the time, her home was just a few miles away. She lived with her elderly aunt, Mary Ketz [now deceased]. Gina did not need to rent a room in a motel just to have a place to sleep.
Gina lived at 261 Lapp Road in Clifton Park with her aunt Mary Ketz.
Maybe she needed privacy.
Was it to arrange for her death, or was it to meet with Keith or others of Nxivm?
Which brings us to another question – was Gina regularly meeting Keith – secretly during this time?
We know she was not pregnant at the time of her death. The autopsy tells us that.
We also believe she was [statutorilyy] raped as a teen, perhaps as young as 14 years old by Raniere – based on Heidi’s account of catching him leaving Gina’s bedroom. [and other evidence, including hearsay reports of her relationship with Keith that were told to me by women Gina purportedly told].
Heidi HutchinsonHeidi said [read her account here] “He had sex with her, became her mentor, had her quit school to be tutored by him, and claimed she was born to be his ‘consort’ and achieve enlightenment as a Buddhist goddess through him.”
We also suspect Keith raped other teenage girls and at least one pre-teenage girl [Rhiannon- at age 12].
Rhiannon was 12 and still wearing braces when Keith started raping her.
Gina was likely in Clifton Park the night before she died. Police found the motel key in her pocket. Which immediately raises the question – why did she take the Clifton Park motel key with her to Woodstock? Was she planning to come back?
It is not known if she left any possessions behind in her motel room and the police report is silent on this. Her car was found on the side of the road about 500 feet or so from where the body was found.
Police Decided at Once That Gina Committed Suicide
They did not investigate this death with the thought that there might be foul play.
I asked a crime scene investigator if police knew then what we know now about Keith Raniere would the investigation have gone differently.
She thought yes.
If she had been investigating – and had she known that Keith Raniere likely raped Gina as a child – even though it was almost two decades earlier – and that he was still possibly involved in her life [he, a cult leader], she might have suspected that Keith had a hand in her death.
She would have treated it – on that basis alone – as worthy to be investigated as possibly something other than suicide.
This would have changed the way the autopsy was done and, of course, changed the way police investigated the death scene.
For instance, in the autopsy, there is no mention if there was gunshot residue on Gina’s finger – from her pulling the trigger.
When a gun goes off, a cloud of fine particles covers the hands of the shooter – leaving behind a bit of the rare element antimony on the hands. Forensic labs can examine skin swabs and clothing with an electron microscope to look for tiny gunpowder particles.
This apparently was not done.
The gun that killed Gina was a 20 gauge pump-action shotgun – and a single shell was fired from it.
If Gina really pulled the trigger, a test would have proven it. That test was not done apparently.
They assumed she pulled the trigger.
If the police had known that a cult leader and sex trafficker, Keith Raniere, had some influence on Gina – [a strong and long influence] they would have likely had Dr. Walter Dobushak – who did the autopsy – up in Ulster County – do some additional testing.
He would have likely tested her hands and fingers to see if Gina pulled the trigger.
Gina Hutchinson
Police might have also tested Keith’s hands – although I personally doubt he pulled any trigger – he would have had someone else do that for him.
It May Have Been a Hybrid — Suicide and Murder
Keith was not likely there. Maybe no one was with Gina when she died. But he may have talked her into it. He had enormous control of the women he abused as we have seen.
Toni Natalie likes to call herself “Patient Zero” – but, in reality, Gina preceded Toni by more than a decade.
There is no doubt that Keith, who likely raped Gina when she was 14 or 15, then promised to marry her, then proceeded to have sex with some of her other teenage girlfriends [it was a horrible moment when Gina discovered that – according to two sources around at the time] – had a gripping and destructive influence on Gina – throughout her teenage and adult life.
She was A Goddess Keith Said
Her sister tells the story of how Keith persuaded Gina that she was a Buddhist goddess reincarnated on earth to be his consort in life. [He was, therefore, I assume, telling her that he was a Buddhist god or perhaps the Buddha himself reincarnated to save the world].
Gina seems to have believed this [at least some of the time]. It is likely no coincidence that her body was found at a Buddhist monastery – and with a Buddha medallion in her pocket.
She was found in the woods in a lonely place by a small pond – on the grounds of the Buddhist monastery.
Gina’s body was found by the side of a pond [upper middle of picture] on the expansive mountainside grounds of the KTD Tibetan Buddhist Monastery. Her car was parked on the road above the pond – which was downhill about 500 feet from the road and about 30 -40 feet lower in elevation.
The pond is about 175 feet by 200 feet.
The irony is this – Keith told Gina for years that she was the Buddhist goddess Shyama [Green] Tara. And that she would attain nirvana and be able to help others more fully – only after she died. She would have to shed her corporeal body in order to attain her true godhood.
Shyama Tara
She must make this sacrifice to be the mother of all humanity.
He would say when. But he made suicide seem a dignified thing to this teenage girl and reinforced it often throughout her life. She was 33 when she died.
Sometimes, he would send her images of suicide for her to look at and comment on. He would take her to movies with destructive death scenes or themes of suicide.
He would wax destructive on the virtue of suicide – using his now infamous teachings from his Rational Inquiry module on suicide -– posing the question – “Is suicide always wrong? When could it be the right thing to do?” [Just like in his Human Experiment Module 9 – he asks – “Is sex with children wrong if the child enjoys it? or if they come from a country where parents have sex with their children as part of the culture” {I have yet to identify such a country}]
He Was a Devious Monster
It may have been sport – he needn’t have had a serious reason – to encourage Gina to commit suicide. He may have wanted to experience the joy of getting a woman to commit suicide simply because he told her to do it.
To have sex with her the night before – and then using his power of hypnosis and suggestion – to get her to commit suicide.
He won by having the most joy.
Keith Alan Raniere [pre Vanguard] in the 1990s. He later coined a saying he taught to his followers – “He who has the most joy wins.”
Whether he encouraged Gina to commit suicide was never investigated. It may not have been illegal to talk someone into suicide then.
Maybe it ought to be and a woman recently was convicted for texting her boyfriend repeatedly, encouraging him to kill himself. After he did as instructed – she was charged and convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
The case is being appealed to the US Supreme Court – on the constitutional grounds of free speech.
Michelle Carer was sentenced to 15 months in jail in August 2017 for talking her 18-year-old boyfriend via texts to kill himself. The charge was involuntary manslaughter. She was 17 years old at the time of her boyfriend’s death. The judge gave her a 2.5-year sentence. He also sentenced her to five years of probation.
Did Keith Meet Gina at a Motel to Give Her His Final Teachings?
Keith might have gone over to the motel where Gina was staying – replete with a hot tub. He often met women in those days in motels and hotels. It is reported that his trysting place with Sara Bronfman was at swanky hotels.
Reportedly – because he was living in a small townhouse – at 3 Flintlock Lane – with several women at the time – and did not yet have his bachelor pad [library] at 8 Hale Drive at the time – he would have had Gina get a motel room if they wanted to meet privately.
And, of course, he would not have wanted anyone to know of their clandestine meeting [except perhaps a few of his inner circle] if he was hoping to persuade her to kill herself.
So why did she have the motel key with her – a two-hour drive by car – where her body was found – if she was not planning to come back? Could she have been physically assisted in her suicide with something more than subliminal suggestions?
Was she murdered?
The body was found lying on the ground near the pond. The gun tucked under her jacket with the nozzle at the side of her head inside her hoodie. She was wearing all black.
A model – the same height and weight – demonstrates the positioning of the gun. Curiously, the model had a difficult [but not impossible] time reaching the trigger.
The police and the autopsy report concluded Gina killed herself by sticking the barrel of the shotgun inside her mouth and shooting upwards – the buckshot blew into her brain and instantly killed her.
There was a curious oversight – although not surprising given the police were certain it was suicide.
There are a number of pellets in each bullet used for a shotgun.
In a murder or suspicious death – the police and the coroner would look to find every pellet. What killed Gina was a Winchester 20 gauge shotgun shell. That type of shell has 18 pellets inside the shell.
The autopsy report says they found “numerous” pellets in Gina’s brain, and in the scarf she wore on her heard and some were lodged in her hood. Curiously they did not account for all 18 pellets. Instead, they were content to report they found “numerous pellets” without saying exactly how many.
Now here is why this is important.
If they were looking to find every pellet [common in murder investigations], they would have scoured the ground around her body to ensure they found all the pellets.
This would have helped prove that she actually died at the place where the body was found. If some of the pellets went beyond her hood – as seems likely – then some of them should have been recovered on the ground around her. No effort apparently was made to recover any pellets outside the body.
If she was murdered – as implausible as that may sound – finding any missing pellets around her body might have confirmed that she died where her body was found.
Footprints Not Mentioned
Another thing that would have been investigated – and there is no mention of it in the police report – was a search for footprints – Gina’s and others’ footprints which might have indicated whether or not Gina was alone.
It might have also indicated if the body was moved or carried to the location.
Women Rarely Commit Suicide with Shotguns
Women – it has been demonstrated in numerous studies – rarely use guns and even more rarely use shotguns – with a barrel in their mouth – to commit suicide.
In fact, women rarely use guns at all. That is a more masculine method. Women who commit suicide generally use less violent methods, such as drugs and carbon monoxide poisoning, than do men, who more often use violent methods such as guns and hanging.
And when women do use guns – it is usually because they are long-time gun owners. It is rare indeed for a non-gun owning woman to go buy a gun and use it to blow her brains out. It does not mean Gina did not use a gun. It might have even been Keith’s suggestion.
A shotgun could be bought at a department store without any fuss or licensing. Any adult could buy one. But her sister says Gina never owned a gun. She was a pacifist and not a hunter.
Maybe it was a sudden decision to die [perhaps decided the night before] and buying a gun was easier to obtain than poison.
The official story is she put the gun under her jacket and stuck the barrel in her mouth and pulled the trigger.
She was 5’7” and a quite thin 110 pounds. [Indeed they found a pack of gum in her pockets – just like the semi starved DOS women – much later – always carrying gum with them].
Curiously, there was no test made to determine if her arms were long enough to reach the trigger.
Gina Hutchinson did not have a chance in life against the controlling and vicious Keith Alan Raniere who allegedly first raped her when she was 14 or 15. He was 23 or 24 at the time.
Gina Hutchinson was 14 or 15 when the course of her life brought her into the orbit of Keith Raniere.
Of course, she might have used a twig if her arms were not long enough to pull the trigger.
But we don’t know because the police never measured her arms to determine if they were long enough to pull the trigger while the barrel was inserted two inches inside her mouth.
We are also uncertain – there seems to be no mention in the autopsy or police report – of whether she was standing or lying down when she purportedly pulled the trigger. The angle of the head would have been different standing or lying down. This was never examined.
One thing the autopsy seemed to have determined is that – based on her injuries – the barrel of the gun was inside her mouth when the trigger was pulled. It was also ascertained that she did not have drugs in her system – other than ibuprofen.
But in the world of Raniere – as evidenced by so many women doing so many crazy things – she did not need drugs to harm herself.
Another troubling thing is that someone called the police to report Gina was missing – it is not entirely clear from the reports who this was – but this person claimed Gina was depressed about the recent passing of her mother. That she was chronically depressed.
Her depression may have been chronic – as is the case of many Raniere women. He promised them joy and gave them depression. But claiming the mother died recently is curious. Her mother did not die recently – she had died about two years earlier.
Gina had done many things in between. She had traveled to India – and lived in California. She was making a documentary. She was not seen as someone who had no reason to live and so depressed about her mother dying that she did not want to live.
Raniere and His Harem
A group ceremony involving the eight first line slaves and Raniere was planned just before Raniere was arrested. All of these women were expected not to have sex with any other man the rest of their lives.
Raniere for years kept a harem. He demanded that all of them be monogamous with him while he could have sex with any and all.
No one owned his penis – his harem women taught newcomers into the harem. {But he owned their vaginas.]
He told his women that if they strayed and were touched by another man – especially by that man’s semen – it would destroy the perfection of their sublime and spiritual relationship.
Once the DNA – he said – of another man – via his semen – entered or even touched the body – it would irrevocably change the woman – and potentially the course of history. [It might even kill him, he said.]
Raniere believed or said he believed that once his own sacred semen touched a woman – that she became his forevermore.
Camila Fernandez started having sex with Keith Raniere when she was 15 in 2005 [or possibly younger.] The sickening texts [read in court] between Keith and Cami – when she was in her 20s – show the extraordinary and it seems insane jealousy he had because she had sex with another man.
We have read the despair and lunacy Keith had toward Camila Fernandez [she often thought of suicide she admitted in her texts] because Cami had slept with Robbie Chiappone and Keith found out about it and harassed her for years. He lamented about how she had destroyed everything he had hoped for, dashed his dreams and probably destroyed the advancement of human civilization for the next 10,000 years.
Keith often spoke of his own death – and the agony he said he felt because his virgin Camila had consumed another man’s semen.
His whole future, he said, was ruined and he might die without leaving the impress of his DNA on the world.
Cami became alarmingly depressed over her terrible mistake and tried to rectify it by trying to find him an [underage] virgin to replace herself.
Gina Had a Boyfriend
It is reported that Gina slept with another young man after Keith. She had not remained a total slave to Raniere. She even defied him over the years by leaving him for periods of time and going on with her own life. She was far from a perfect harem member.
When Keith first found out she had had sex with another, he went berserk – just like with Cami, sources told me.
She had been a virgin when she was raped by Keith. And when she found someone closer to her own age and had sex with him, Keith freaked out and punished her – for years.
He said she had ruined everything – forever [just like he later did with Cami]. And all his hopes for a better, nobler civilization were dashed by her one act.
All was lost.
His DNA would now become extinct for the future – for he could not have a child with her.
The most noble, ethical man, the highest intellect, the greatest thinker, the most compassionate man ever – greater than the Buddha or Christ – his DNA would die out – he told Gina – because she could not have his avatar baby – and, thus, he would have no successor.
He continued on that theme with her for years [like he did with Cami]. When she asked him how she could atone – he said there is but one way – to become Shyama Tara – and shed the mortal coil – sources told me he said to the victim.
To end this present and highly flawed life – and ascend to the goddess and await rebirth – was the only way out.
Sometimes, she believed him and other times she sought to escape him and his madness.
Witness Accounts of Keith’s Reaction to Gina’s Death
It is reported by three witnesses who were there at different times – when Keith supposedly got news of Gina’s death – that he acted surprised. He said if only he had been more in Gina’s life, he might have saved her.
He acted sad. One said a tear came to his eye. Maybe he was genuinely surprised – at least one of the times.
He said he had not seen Gina in years.
Yet, was that true?
She rented a room – it is said – with a hot tub the night before she died. And Keith loved hot tubs – not Gina.
Was She Murdered?
For Keith to murder Gina, he might have had to have a motive. Was she threatening him? Threatening to reveal his rape of her years earlier?
Keith was just in the process of reeling in the Bronfman sisters – which would change his life – from one where his women had to earn money for him – to one where he could – if he played it right – have all the wealth he needed – regardless if ESP [Nxivm] made money or not.
Clare [l] and Sara Bronfman – during the early days with Keith Raniere. They are on stage lauding his greatness.
He did not need Toni Natalie to steal for him. Or Barbara Bouchey to lend him money. He did not need to live within Pam Cafritz’s $20,000 per month allowance. With the Bronfmans, he could do everything he wanted – when he wanted.
And they were being reeled in at the time of Gina’s death. Slowly indoctrinated into the Keith is God or nearly-a -god attitude they would soon adopt.
They had not given the big money yet – but they were being worked – and worked hard – by Nancy Salzman and Keith – and if Gina was getting in the way – that would have been a motive for murder for a man like Keith, I believe.
Did he go to Woodstock with her? Highly unlikely. Did any of his harem go there? Possibly.
Did he hire a man or men to do the foul deed?
It is not hard to hire hit-men. It may be unlikely but I don’t think Keith would have had any moral scruples against it.
Six and half years later he told Barbara Bouchey on camera that he had ‘people killed for his beliefs – and for theirs.’
A friend of Toni Natalie – who knew Toni and Keith at the time they were working as partners – told me that Keith often used that line when trying to intimidate others – including him.
Keith Raniere said in his now-infamous video that he has had people killed for his beliefs and for theirs. Was one of those people Gina Hutchinson?
Missing From the Investigation
A lot was not done at the death scene because everyone was certain it was a suicide by a depressed person saddened by the recent death of her mother.
Nothing was mentioned – not a word about Raniere. And why should they – Keith was unknown at the time. He was largely under the radar. The Albany Times Union was just sniffing him out and the damning Forbes article did not come out until a year later.
Raniere makes the cover of Forbes Magazine in October 2003
In October 2002, a 33-year-old woman – who once was a girl allegedly raped by Raniere – who then held her in his orbit until the last day – it seems – of her life –was found dead with a shotgun in her mouth.
The natural thought then was she killed herself.
Today, we don’t know. Sometimes, a grave will open and from it, new evidence may appear.
There may be some still living who might be able to shed light on the matter.
MK10ART’s portrait of the Rat.
An anonymous poster on John Tighe’s defunct blog – Saratoga in Decline – back in 2010 – and calling herself The Rat – [I am pretty sure now that I have identified the Rat] – had a story to tell about the death of Gina Hutchinson.
The Rat wrote [her punctuation and spelling] ” i see my responsibiy in the deaths of {Gina] in the monistary and [Kristin Snyder] in AK. He did not kill, I did for him. I put the idea in thier heads. It was suicide, so it could not be linked to me and keith. But we still encouraged it to happen.
“… I think if someone looks into [Gina] (who was under age) and those other teenagers that worked for CBI they will see that he is a molester. That is what bothers me above all. Murder is one thing, thier lives are over. When you take advantage of girls who work for you and play video games in an emtpy warehouse after hours (Keith knows what I am talking about) that is sick…..
[I have identified a woman who I strongly suspect is the Rat. We have spoken several times about her own victimization and escape from Nxivm. I hope to identify her to readers in the near future after further discussion with her.]
The Rat said in her anonymous post in 2010 that Gina’s death was, in effect, an assisted or an encouraged suicide. She even uses the word “murder.” We will have more on this later.
In the meantime, we have more questions than answers concerning the death of Gina Hutchinson.
Stay tuned…
MK10 ART- Keith Alan Raniere had a fondness for young women.
