NXIVM leader Keith Raniere had child with woman who helped bring down sex cult, proving he lied about never sleeping with members
The infamous 'self-help' group NXIVM was actually a sex cult in disguise whose secrets were guarded by loyal followers. The cult had been accused of sex slavery, money laundering and also torturing women.
The illegal activities of the group and its leader Keith Raniere were well hidden as there were severe repercussions for anyone who dared to talk. A chilling new documentary released by Investigation Discovery, titled 'The Lost Women of NXIVM', investigates the mysterious disappearance of four women who were in his inner circle, and the possible links to Raniere.
It also features the first on-camera interview of one of its former and most loyal members, Kristin Keeffe. Raniere was known to sleep with the women in his inner circle. He would treat them as sex slaves, a fact that he continued to deny throughout the time he headed the cult. Keeffe even got pregnant with Raniere and had a child, whom she had to keep a secret as Raniere prohibited women from getting pregnant.
In the documentary, Keeffe speaks about keeping her child safe and discloses some of the cult's biggest secrets. The fact that Keeffe got pregnant was proof that Raniere was having sex with his inner circle. Keeffe did not know that she had conceived until she was 8 months pregnant, and she believes that it is one of the reasons that allowed her and her son to survive.
Keeffe spent 16 years with NXIVM and had known Raniere for at least 24. She was also its primary whistleblower. She had access to many documents that showed the illegal activities of the cult from unpaid taxes to major cover ups. "I found paperwork and I didn't want to work there anymore because I thought this is totally unethical," Keeffe said. "This is fraud. We can't do this: They're embezzling money, the taxes aren't being paid."
She decided to go to Homeland Security with the information she had but they were already aware of it and told her to back off or she would get killed.
Upon realizing that Raniere was a psychopath who was "deliberately trying to destroy people", Keeffe decided to leave the cult she had once so loyally served. The documentary is led by investigative journalist Frank Parlato, who had helped Keeffe when she had escaped from the cult and gone into hiding.
"I left my house with nothing but my pocketbook, and I took a taxi to the police station — and while I was at the police station, the NXIVM attorneys found out and… called there and said: 'We know she’s there'," Keeffe shared in the documentary. "And I said: 'That’s it. I can never go back.' I knew they would put millions of dollars into finding me, grabbing me, doing whatever they could to take my son. I knew that when I walked into that police station, in Keith’s mind, that was nuclear war. No one had ever done anything like that to him before. I knew I was being hunted like an animal," she recalled.
Before she escaped, Keeffe had been sent to investigate the disappearance of one of the missing women, Kristin Snyder, a former member who had died by an 'apparent suicide'. Snyder's community in Anchorage, Alaska, who had found no evidence of any suicide except a note, were bewildered at the lack of clues and the fact that Snyder's body was never recovered.
With people starting to ask many questions, Raniere sent Keeffe to look into the case and Snyder's disappearance. Keeffe found that many facts in the case did not add up and she too began to question what exactly had happened to Snyder. She went on to add that the official story regarding Snyder was 'not real'.
Keeffe has been monumental in bringing down of the NXIVM cult though the journey has been anything but easy. "Initially, everyone was against me. All the people that were against NXIVM were against me, and all the people that were in NXIVM or that knew about my departure were against me. And here I was coming with all this evidence and information (but) no one would help me."