State and federal authorities are investigating an online company that pledges to help people find their eternal love, Michigan’s attorney general said Tuesday.
Search warrants were executed at two homes in northern Michigan’s Leelanau County where Twin Flames Universe is based, Attorney General Dana Nessel said.
Twin Flames, which is operated by Jeff and Shaleia Divine, has been the subject of unflattering documentaries on Netflix and Amazon Prime. It offers to help people find a lifelong romantic partner — a “twin flame” — through a “spiritual journey.”
Nessel said there are allegations that Twin Flames exerts “coercive control” over its members across the U.S. through illegal acts.
She didn’t disclose what investigators were seeking with search warrants. The Associated Press sent a message seeking comment through the Twin Flames website, but it was not immediately answered.
Twin Flames has a variety of products, from a $9.99 Kindle book to the $8,888 “everything package,” with access to hundreds of hours of videos, guided meditation and other lessons.
In March, Twin Flames posted a statement defending its mission.
“We take seriously recent allegations implying we wield inappropriate control over our community members. After a careful review of both media coverage and recent productions, we are saddened that so much effort has gone into taking swipes at an organization and community founded on love and mutual respect,” Twin Flames said.
Nessel encouraged people to contact her office if they want to share information about Twin Flames.
On Sunday, June 29, 2025, outside of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a gunman started a brush fire and then shot and killed two firefighters and injured a third who were responding to the blaze. According to the Kootenai County sheriff’s office, the gunman killed himself before he could be apprehended.
When the name of the suspect — Wess Roley — was released, the internet began doing what it has done for some time when there is a widely reported tragedy — attempting to independently determine the perpetrator’s family history and their political beliefs.
It never takes long. Posts on social media, including Reddit, Facebook and X quickly appeared showing Roley’s mother and stepfather, Heather Lynn Cuchiara and Tony Cuchiara, posing in front of the White House wearing “Make America Great Again” hats — the two appeared to support U.S. President Donald Trump.
https://www.facebook.com/feministnews.us/posts/pfbid0GjAaqnBCswifq8mX32sFfzpG4bGXKvN8TNXJFGdKjzz4Tok49yG9arGVYujUcrzCl
Snopes readers wrote in asking if the photo was real. We reached out to a lawyer serving as the spokesperson for Roley’s family to ask for comment on the story and to verify the photo, but had not heard back at the time of writing.
In most cases, individuals in situations like this delete their social media accounts quickly after the news breaks. Indeed, that happened here — while Snopes was attempting to verify the post, personal accounts of Heather and Tony Cuchiara were set to private or deleted.
We did not find the photo on the accounts we were able to access before they were deleted. As such, we were unable to directly verify that the post was authentic, since its origin, if real, must have been a now-deleted social media account.
What is certain, however, is that the woman in the White House photo is Heather Cuchiara.
A deleted Instagram account under the handle “heather_and_tony_” matched the name “Heather Lynn Cuchiara” and contained a recent post with a caption celebrating the 20th birthday of someone named “Wess,” which was the age announced by the sheriff’s office. On that account, Snopes found a tattoo on the inside of Heather Cuchiara’s right forearm that was also visible in the White House photo. The ink appeared to read “Love Dad.”
(Snopes illustration / Instagram page heather_and_tony_)
The fact that those small details were exactly correct essentially guaranteed that the photo was not AI-generated, since AI tools struggle to depict fine details. And while Snopes couldn’t definitively rule out that the image was photoshopped, a careful look for any signs of digital editing didn’t reveal anything suspicious.
Although we can’t definitively conclude that the MAGA hat photo is authentic and unmanipulated without direct confirmation from Heather or Tony Cuchiara, there is no evidence that the photo was faked or edited.
