Janet Ossebaard

Janet Ossebaard (1966 - ca. 16 November 2023) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker, photographer, writer, crop circle researcher, and conspiracy theorist. She became known for her writing about crop circles, and later for her 2020 documentary Fall of the Cabal, which supported the QAnon conspiracy theory and contained misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early life Janet Ossebaard was born in Deventer in 1966. She grew up in Bathmen in Overijssel, and studied English Language and Literature at the University of Groningen. After her studies, Ossebaard founded her own company which provided communication training. Ossebaard was also active as a freelance coach and trainer and completed training as a naturopathic therapist. In addition, she managed an online store where she sold crop circle paraphernalia.

Conspiracy theories Crop circles In 1994, Ossebaard came across a crop circle near the village of Witten, close to Assen in the province of Drenthe.

Sociologist J.M. Wright characterizes Ossebaard's "The Fall of the Cabal" as a general introduction to the "QAnon religion". Another ethnological study of QAnon followers confirms the influence and formative effect of Ossebaard's documentary on this community. Ossebaard's documentary has been described as liturgical material within the overall QAnon conspiracy theory.

Ossebaard had been a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory since 2017 and is seen as a key figure in the spread of QAnon ideology in the Low Countries during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to criminologist Fiore Geelhoed, Ossebaard's conspiracy theories are characterized by a combination of "QAnon ideology regarding child abuse with ideas about the influence of aliens on Earth and damage caused by chemtrails, vaccines and 5G masts".

During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, Ossebaard came back into the public eye. The series "The Fall of the Cabal", which until 2020 had only heen shown in small venues and on DVD, was subsequently uploaded on YouTube. Shortly thereafter, she published a four-part sequel, in which, among other things, a connection was made between the Cabal conspiracy, 5G, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, national controversy arose surrounding Ossebaard when she openly fantasized about carrying out an attack on then-Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a podcast with rapper Lange Frans. Death Ossebaard had been missing for several weeks since November 16, 2023, and on December 22 she was found dead in her camper in Sweden. According to the police in Lund, she had taken her own life, presumably on the day of her disappearance.

Following Ossebaard's death, her partner Cyntha Koeter stated that Ossebaard suffered from anxiety and depression and had taken an overdose of medication. In response to conspiracy theorists who expressed doubts about Ossebaard's death, Koeter explicitly emphasized that Ossebaard had not been beamed up by a UFO, was not being hidden by Q, murdered by the Cabal or Koeter herself, nor that Ossebaard had secretly started a new life.