When Edmondson was invited to join an exclusive "sorority," she was happy to — until she found herself in a DOS "initiation ceremony." As she told The New York Times, she and other women thought they were going to get a small tattoo. Instead, they were forced into a branding ceremony, where they had to hold each other down as each was branded with a symbol. "I wept the whole time," she told The New York Times. "I disassociated out of my body."
Edmondson broke free of the group in 2017, after being branded. She and her husband, Anthony Ames (another member), decided to leave and recorded a final conversation between Ames and Lauren Salzman, in which she tried to placate him.
After leaving, Edmondson also filed criminal complaints, including one against Danielle Roberts, a doctor and NXIVM follower who reportedly performed the branding. Although she and other ex-members kept trying to get agencies and law enforcement to look into NXIVM, their pleas were repeatedly denied, mostly until after the NYT exposé.