Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27873114-20160430130448/@comment-28288412-20160521135022

I believe RT has referenced Salem and Cinder being two separate characters, Cinder referring to Salem as 'her' when speaking with Ozpin and both with this reference and Qrow referring to 'her' work (also Salem) at the end of the volume 3 finale, which shows that Salem has existed at the same time and likely before Cinder disproving the theory.