When Brett was convicted of the murder of Winda Snipes, our family contacted Sylvia Browne to see if there was any
information that she could provide that would be useful in an investigation.
We have finished transcribing the tape that she provided, in 1998, and have included the information on this page. The only
omission is the actual names she provided.
Please take the following with a grain of salt as we do.


Q. "Well I'm not sure if you're familiar with any of this, but do you know of somebody of, like, the name of Winda Snipes?"

A. "No."

Q. "Okay, you haven't heard about it. My brother is a, has been convicted of her murder, and we think he was railroaded,
and not railroaded; we know he didn't do it. But we're having a problem solving it, and he's in the, in their hands now."

A. "Yeah, but somebody by the name W_____ did it."

Q. "W_____?"

A. "Um huh."

Q. "Can you tell me more about it?'

A. "Dark hair, dark eyes, very olive complected, very dark complected, wore a blue stocking cap, by the name of W____ R."

Q. "W_____R, blue stocking cap?"

A. "Uh huh, dark hair, straight dark hair, looks almost Hispanic."

Q. "Do you know how she was killed?"

A. "She keeps pointing to her chest, and her head."

Q. "Right."

A. "Um huh."

Q.(actually a statement) "She was, um, she was stabbed 130 times, her throat was cut, and ah, strangled, and her hands
were cut off. And they're missing."
Q. (again a statement) "And we were at the trial, and we didn't see things that would convict him. We saw a lot of
discrepancies in the evidence."

A. "Yeah, but I think at the last minute they're going to come up with somebody that did."

Q. (statement) "Oh my God, I hope so."

A. "Yeah, but see, I think he knows more than you think he knows, but I think he's afraid to say anything."

Q. "But why?"

A. "Because, I think he feels if he says something, somebody will come after him or his family."

Q. "Is it that deep?"

A. "Oh absolutely."

Q. "Is it satanic at all?"

A. "It's ritualistic, yeah."

Q. "Can you tell me anymore on it?"

A. "Well honey, ritualistic is ritualistic."

Q. "Right, do you know where her hands are, or the murder weapon?"

A. "No, they kept the hands. I mean, there is something really sick about that."

A. "See, what they're going to do is mummify the hands. You remember years ago when we used to hear about shrunken
heads? Well now they do that with hands."

Q. "It's on the Satanic calendar? They, it was, the murder was, she was killed on September 9th."

A. "Yeah, yeah, which is right near the equinox."

Q. (statement) "Well, my brother found the body, and a, they're saying he did it. He called, ah, the police for it when he found
the body. He called 911, and was the one that identified it, but they're convicting him for it now."

A. "Well sure, because they don't have, that he did it too because they don't have anything else to blame it on."

Q. "Where can we find this W______R?"

A. "Well, I would tell the police."

Q. (statement) "We've been told not to talk to the police."

A. "Who told you that?"

Q. (statement) "The lawyer."

A. "Why, you have every right to talk to the police."

Q. (statement) "They won't, they don't want to hear it." "They don't seem interested at all in finding another person. We've
never seen any evidence of it. They never tested, they never did DNA testing, they never, they never did a lot."

A. "You tell, you call the police and say you either you're gonna let me talk to somebody or I'm gonna go to the news. That's
what you gotta be saying. You tell the lawyers the same thing. I'm gonna go to the news."

Q. "Right, okay, what could we possibly say? We just know, that a W______R did this?"

A. "Yeah, and I think, I think, what the problem is that, I think really, I think he really knows a lot about this."

Q."Oh, you think we can get this from Brett?"

A. "Yes." But I think he's terribly afraid for his family."

Q. "Right, well he shouldn't be. He knows we're behind him."

A. "No, no, no, he just knows that he ran into something that was just terribly awful, and he's just afraid."

Q. "Yeah, okay."

A. "But I think if you say to him, who do you know by the name of W_____R? And his eyes get big, then you're gonna know
you hit a cord."

Q. "Okay, yeah, well, we'll have to take it from there then."

A. "But see, I think he's doing this sacrificial thing, in other words, I will be sentenced or what ever to just protect my family."

Q. (statement) "Right, that's Brett."

A. "Um hum."

Q. "He's a good kid."  "Where does this W_____R come from?" "Does he live around here?"

A. "Yeah, yeah, he's a transient. He's with a in, he's with a group of people that do this kind of thing."

Q. "You wouldn't know the name of the group would ya?"

A. "Ah...they call themselves ah...The Gateway."

Q. "The Gateway."

A. "Uh huh."

Q. "Yup, The Gateway sounds familiar, well, we've been a, trying to figure out a little bit about it. We have somebody from
Shatter the Darkness Organization that tracks cult activity."

A. "Uh huh."

Q. "Who believes it was a cult activity."

A. "Uh huh, oh I do too, that's why I said it was ritualistic. Ritualistic means a cult."

Q. (statement) "Yeah, it's a, Akron's a hot bed of cult activity." We've also heard that she was cooperating with the police as a
nark."

A. "That...well I think that, well I don't think she was doing that much." "No, I don't think she's...not to be mean...but she really
wasn't that smart enough to do that. And unfortunately your brother...and see this is what we call that somebody being at the
wrong place at the wrong time."

Q. (statement) "Oh, absolutely."

A. "Um huh...and see...you think you're doing a good job by calling the police and then the next thing you know, then, that
you're blamed for it. You know the stupid thing about it is...if he committed the murder, he wouldn't call somebody on it." " I
mean for Gods sake if, God forbid I would ever kill anybody...but I certainly wouldn't stand around and call the police."

Q. (statement) "And walk around and talk to them."

A. "Well no."

Q (statement) "That's Brett...he's just a good hearted guy."

A. "Well no, he never even thought that anything would be unjust. But see, I hate to say this but, I don't think the justice
system is just anymore."

Q. "That's correct but, that's why we don't like to talk to the police."

A. "Ya, but you see, you can't hurt, I wouldn't let the lawyers keep you from the police. I wouldn't let them do that. See
because they don't, you don't want them to tie you up. They can't do that, this is still a free country."

Q. "Well, I think they're just trying to protect, well at first, trying to protect Brett, and then now..."

A. "Well they're not protecting anything, because if they had protected him he wouldn't be where he is."

Q. (statement) "Right, somethings' gotta be done; I hope we can do it."

A. "You, you'll be able to pull it off."

Q. "Do you think so?"

A. "Yeah."

Q. "You predict Brett getting out then?"

A. "Yeah, what I'm saying is though, I would tell them, I'm gonna go to every news. I'm gonna go to every place I can find."

Q. (statement) "Yeah, we gotta start rattling some cages."

A.  "You bet."

Q. (statement) "We think that the jury has already decided to give him the death penalty, so there's nothing he can lose, the
sentencing is the 18th."

A. "Yeah, but you see... There's a lot of people that have been getting this sentence and then they get out, because the case
has been opened up because they don't have anything to prove..."  "But like you said, there was no DNA, there was no, ah
fabric, there was no nothing."

Q. (statement) "It was pretty shoddy investigation work actually. There was no police work what so ever. The bureau of
criminal investigations said they didn't do it because it was not pertinent to the case."

A. "Oh see...isn't that crazy. That's just stupid."

Q. "Well that makes us not want to talk to the police about it. But this W____R, was there ever a cab involved in it?"

A. "Yeah..."

Q. " Can you tell me... I don't know... A time, anything?"

A. "What do you mean as far as a cab?"

Q. "Well, did he take a cab?"

A. "Who, this W____R?"

A. "No he took a truck. A white, ah...long bed Chevrolet truck."

Q. "Like a pick up?"

A. "Um hum. And then there's a F___ also somebody involved. A F___."

Q. "Are they friends or something?"

A. "I think they all know each other."

Q. "Are they in a cult?"

A. "That's what I said honey. The Gate...it's called The Gateway."

Q. "And they did it for those reasons?"

A. "Yeah."

A. "There's  a D___, but I'm telling you look for this F____, or ask Brett about that."

Q. "Okay, you don't have a last name on that?

A. "No. This is ritualistic, because this has been happening everywhere, and like you say, there's all kinds of hotbeds.
Missouri is a hotbed, and Ohio's a hotbed, and California's a hotbed, they're springing up all over."  "Alright...God Bless. Bye
,Bye dear."
Comments by Sylvia Browne