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The Mystery of Kristin Snyder and NXIVM
What happened to Kristin Snyder?
In February 2003, Kristin Snyder disappeared. Did she commit suicide? Was she a victim of an accident? Or did she run and hide from Keith Raniere and the dangerous members of the NXIVM cult?
When Kristin Snyder attended a NXIVM Executive Success Program class in Anchorage and repeatedly blurted out that she was pregnant with Keith Raniere’s child, NXIVM officials dragged her out of the class, and she was never seen again.
This is the story about NXIVM and the disappearance of Kristin Snyder.
Keith Raniere was born in 1960. He possessed extreme self-confidence from an early age and felt he was superior to everyone else. Even at age thirteen, young girls flocked to him, craving his attention. Raniere had the perfect personality to become a cult leader.
Keith Raniere and Nacy Salzman, a former psychiatric nurse and consultant, created the business Executive Success Programs in 1998. They described Executive Success Programs as a “self-help multi-level marketing company.” The company offered a range of techniques through classes and seminars aimed at self-improvement. It was based in Albany, New York. A few years after they launched Executive Success Programs, Raniere and Salzman rebranded the company with the name NXIVM.
In its brochures, NXIVM described itself as “a community guided by humanitarian principles that seek to empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human.” Over the next several years, 16,000 people enrolled in NXIVM courses. Most enrolled in its Executive Success Program, a series of workshops designed to “actualize the human potential.” These courses cost up to $7,500 each. NXIVM offered its Executive Success Program in several U.S. states, including Alaska.
NXIVM was not a self-sustaining business, at least not at the level Raniere craved. Instead of patiently growing the company from the ground up, Raniere sought to bring in wealthy investors. In 2002, Raniere and Salzman recruited Sara and Clare Bronfman, heirs to the multibillion-dollar…
