Speaker 1: Before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to let
Speaker 1: you know about Morbidology Plus, our premium subscription available through
Speaker 1: Apple Subscriptions. When you join Morbidology Plus, you'll get completely
Speaker 1: ad free episodes, so you can immerse yourself in these
Speaker 1: stories without interruption. Plus subscribers also get early access to
Speaker 1: new episodes before anybody else, and exclusive bonus episodes of
Speaker 1: Morbidology Plus that aren't on the regular podcast platforms. If
Speaker 1: you love diving deep into true crime and want to
Speaker 1: support the show while getting that extra content, please check
Speaker 1: out Morbidology Plus in your Apple Podcasts app Well, let's
Speaker 1: get into today's case.
Speaker 2: It was a very difficult investigation. Any time that any
Speaker 2: of us have to investigate prosecute cases that involved the
Speaker 2: abuse or death of an innocent child, it all hits
Speaker 2: us in the heart.
Speaker 1: Talked into the rolling hills and farmland to be eastern
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania lies the small village of Kempton. It's close to
Speaker 1: the base of the Blue Mountain Range, a place where
Speaker 1: winding roads cut through pastures and forests. Kempton was settled
Speaker 1: in the eighteenth century, primarily by the Pennsylvania Dutch. These
Speaker 1: settlers established farms mills and small churches. By the May
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, it had a post office, general store and
Speaker 1: was becoming a small but active farming community. The arrival
Speaker 1: of the railroad helped to shape the village's early economy.
Speaker 1: Even today, Kempton has kept its unique charm, but it
Speaker 1: has a surprisingly active cultural life for such a rural village.
Speaker 1: There's the Wannamaker Kempton and Southern Railroad Hawk Mountain Sanctuary,
Speaker 1: and it has a thriving folk festival culture. Life for
Speaker 1: the residents is quiet and peaceful, but that was all
Speaker 1: shattered one day in September of two thy nineteen, a
Speaker 1: nine one one call came into police reporting something so
Speaker 1: horrific that it sounded like a scene from a horror mood.
Speaker 1: Two children were unresponsive, found hanging from the rafters of
Speaker 1: a basement. Lisa Snyder was a single mother raising three
Speaker 1: children in a modest white home on a dead end route.
Speaker 1: Her eldest Owen, was seventeen years old. Then there was
Speaker 1: eight year old Connor and his little sister, four year
Speaker 1: old Brinley. Connor and Brinley weren't just siblings. They were
Speaker 1: best friends, even at that age where older brothers often
Speaker 1: want distance from their younger sisters. They were said to
Speaker 1: be inseparable. Wherever Connor was, Brinley was always close behind.
Speaker 1: At school, their bond was well known. Connor was a
Speaker 1: student at Greenwich len Hartsville Elementary School and Brindley had
Speaker 1: just started her second year of pre K at the
Speaker 1: Early Learning Community. Teachers described them both as warm and joyful.
Speaker 1: They were the kind of kids who made an impression
Speaker 1: not because they were loud or roidy, but because they
Speaker 1: carried something gentle with them. Doctor Christian tem Chyden, the
Speaker 1: district superintendent, would later speak of Connor with deep affection.
Speaker 1: He remembered how he often earned rewards in school, and
Speaker 1: instead of picking a toy or prize for himself, he
Speaker 1: would always choose something he could bring home to his
Speaker 1: sister Brindley. He recalled, he spoke lovingly of his sister Brindley.
Speaker 1: That small act said everything about the kind of boy
Speaker 1: that Connor was. Connor had recently discovered the dog Man
Speaker 1: book series and had taken to it with a contagious enthusiasm.
Speaker 1: He could often have been found giggling during reading workshops
Speaker 1: at school. His teacher recalled how his laughter was infectious
Speaker 1: kind of sound that started small and then spread through
Speaker 1: the class. But reading was in Connor's only passion. He
Speaker 1: had a curious mind, especially when it came to science.
Speaker 1: He was deeply fascinated by rocks and minerals and loved
Speaker 1: to bring his latest finds to show his teacher. He
Speaker 1: was a dancer as well, and had mastered the flaws dance,
Speaker 1: the kind that requires fast hips and flailing arms. He
Speaker 1: wasn't shy about showing it off at any chance he got.
Speaker 1: He danced because it made people smile. Brindley was just
Speaker 1: four years old, but she was beginning to blossom in
Speaker 1: her own way. Kindergarten had opened up a world of
Speaker 1: possibility for her, and she loved it. Like so many
Speaker 1: little girls her age, she enjoyed the movie Frozen and
Speaker 1: dressed up as Elsa or Anna any chance she got.
Speaker 1: She had the kind of imagination that turns a living
Speaker 1: room into a castle, a blanket into a royal cape,
Speaker 1: and her big brother into a trusted sidekick. It was
Speaker 1: just after four thirty pm on the twenty third of
Speaker 1: September twenty nineteen when the nine one one call came in.
Speaker 1: The voice on the other end of the line was frantic.
Speaker 1: It was Lisa Snyder. She told the dispatcher that she
Speaker 1: had just found her two youngest children, eight year old
Speaker 1: Connor and four year old Brinley, hanging in the basement
Speaker 1: of their home. Lisa said they were suspended by a
Speaker 1: single dog leash, a plastic covered chain that had been
Speaker 1: looped over a support beam. The chain stretched across the room,
Speaker 1: with one end around Connor's neck and the other around Brinley's.
Speaker 1: Beneath them, two small chairs had been tipped over, as
Speaker 1: if they'd each climbed onto them before stepping off. Lisa's
Speaker 1: voice trembled as she explained she had tried to left Brinley,
Speaker 1: who wedg just forty pounds, but claimed that she was
Speaker 1: frozen with panic and unable to do anything more. She
Speaker 1: said she'd always feared that something like this might happen. Connor,
Speaker 1: she told the dispatcher, had been bullied at school, he
Speaker 1: had made suicidal months before, and in her words, he
Speaker 1: didn't want to go alone. Now, she said, they were
Speaker 1: both hanging from the rafters in the basement. Paramedic Eric
Speaker 1: bob and Moyer was the first to arrive at the
Speaker 1: Snyder home. The nine one one operator had instructed Lisa
Speaker 1: to wait for help outside, but when Eric pulled up
Speaker 1: to the house, nobody was there. The front yard was
Speaker 1: still and the house was quiet. Eric knocked on the
Speaker 1: front door. Lisa eventually opened. She seemed anxious, nervous, even,
Speaker 1: but not visibly distraught. She wasn't crying. She must have
Speaker 1: been in a state of shock. He thought she was
Speaker 1: on her cell phone, distracted, talking to somebody. When Eric
Speaker 1: asked whether anybody else was inside the house, she didn't answer.
Speaker 1: Without waiting for a response, Eric stepped past her and
Speaker 1: made his way inside. He followed an arrow stairwell down
Speaker 1: to the basement. To the right. He saw nothing, but
Speaker 1: when he turned left, the scene that met him would
Speaker 1: stay with him forever. Two small children suspended in mid air, motionless,
Speaker 1: each hanging by a loop of a dog chain. It
Speaker 1: was the kind of thing that nobody, not even a
Speaker 1: season paramedic, is ever fully prepared to see. Two little
Speaker 1: chairs had toppled over just beneath them. Eric moved quickly.
Speaker 1: He felt their skin. It was still warm. He unclasped
Speaker 1: the chain around Brindley's neck and brought her down first. Connor,
Speaker 1: who was heavier, couldn't be lowered alone. By then another
Speaker 1: paramedic had arrived, and together they carefully removed him and
Speaker 1: laid him on the floor. Both children were unresponsive. CPR
Speaker 1: began immediately as they fought to see of the children.
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania State Trooper Jeremy Hummel arrived outside. He finally says,
Speaker 1: standing calmly in the front yard, they're in the basement,
Speaker 1: she said, simply. She didn't rush towards the commotion, She
Speaker 1: didn't follow them inside. She didn't ask for updates. Instead,
Speaker 1: she stood back. Soon after, a medical helicopter was dispatched.
Speaker 1: Time was critical now. Trooper Hummel helped carry the stretchers
Speaker 1: containing Connor and Brinley out of the basement, through the
Speaker 1: house and into the waiting helicopter. They were then flown
Speaker 1: to Lehigh Valley Hospital Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township, where
Speaker 1: doctors and nurses immediately took over life saving efforts. Miraculously,
Speaker 1: both children had been revived while in the air, but
Speaker 1: when they arrived at the hospital, it quickly became clear
Speaker 1: that they weren't out of the woods. Doctors then delivered
Speaker 1: the news that no parent ever wants to hear. Both
Speaker 1: Connor and Brindley were brain dead. In medical terms, brain
Speaker 1: death means that all activity in the brain, including the
Speaker 1: brain stem, has stopped permanently. Unlike a coma, brain death
Speaker 1: is legally and medically considered death. There's no possibility of recovery.
Speaker 1: Machines might keep the heartbeating for a while, but the
Speaker 1: person is essentially gone. The children were placed on live support.
Speaker 1: Lisa meanwhile began texting her friends. She wrote, I can't
Speaker 1: cry any more and I'm completely numb. My life has
Speaker 1: been ripped to shreds and it's never going to get better.
Speaker 1: For three days, Connor and Brinley remained in the hospital,
Speaker 1: their bodies bating only with the help of the machines.
Speaker 1: Those who knew them held on to hope, even as
Speaker 1: doctors offered none. Then on the third day, Lisa sent
Speaker 1: another message, They're pulling the plug. There was nothing more
Speaker 1: that could be done. Connor and Brinley passed away on
Speaker 1: the twenty sixth of September two thousand nineteen, just fourteen
Speaker 1: minutes apart. They'd been together in life, and they went
Speaker 1: together in death. That evening, Lisa changed her Facebook profile photo.
Speaker 1: The image bore a quote in bold letters, words scar
Speaker 1: rumors destroy Billy's kill. To anyone on the outside looking in,
Speaker 1: it painted a tragic picture to young children driven to
Speaker 1: a suicide, packed by the cruelty of others, but not
Speaker 1: everybody was convinced. In the days following Connor and Brindley's deaths,
Speaker 1: the great stricken image Lisa Snyder projected was that of
Speaker 1: a devastated mother who had just lost her entire world.
Speaker 1: But behind the scenes, investigators were beginning to question the
Speaker 1: versions of events that she had given. Lisa agreed to
Speaker 1: come to the police station voluntarily. Detectives were still entertaining
Speaker 1: the possibility that this could have been a suicide. If
Speaker 1: other children had contributed to that bullying, there was a
Speaker 1: chance that charges could be filed. They needed to understand
Speaker 1: what Connor had been going through. In the interview room,
Speaker 1: Lisa spoke openly. She told detectives that Connor had been
Speaker 1: relentlessly bullied at school because of his weight. She said
Speaker 1: that he had lost twenty five pounds since the school
Speaker 1: year began, and said that he had been starving himself.
Speaker 1: Lisa also said that her son had a speech delay,
Speaker 1: in developmental challenges, things that had made him a target.
Speaker 1: She explained he's a little slower to grasp things, and
Speaker 1: kids make fun of him because he was fat. She
Speaker 1: went on to say that Connor once told her I
Speaker 1: would have killed myself already, but I'm scared to go
Speaker 1: by myself. She claimed that he hated school and told
Speaker 1: her that every day. She said he had been having
Speaker 1: mood swings, especially around Brimley. Lisa believed that he may
Speaker 1: have been a bit jealous of his little sister. She
Speaker 1: told detectives that on the afternoon of September twenty third,
Speaker 1: Connor had come home from school and asked if he
Speaker 1: could build a fort in the basement, something she said
Speaker 1: he loved doing. He wanted to use household items, including
Speaker 1: a couple of dining chairs and a dog leash. He
Speaker 1: loves building for shorts, that's his thing, she said. Lisa
Speaker 1: claimed that Connor had dragged the chairs into the basement,
Speaker 1: stopping midway to rest and grab a drink. Then, she
Speaker 1: said he invited Brinley to come and play with him.
Speaker 1: Lisa was putting away laundry and then stepped outside for
Speaker 1: a cigarette. She told the detective she was only gone
Speaker 1: for about ten minutes when she came back inside to
Speaker 1: ask the kids what they wanted for dinner, she found
Speaker 1: them hanging from the beam. She told them she had
Speaker 1: tried to lift Brinley, but she couldn't. Her anxiety spike,
Speaker 1: she said, caused her to sweat heavily and feel weak.
Speaker 1: She even claimed she tried to lift Conner, who weighed
Speaker 1: around one hundred and fifty pounds, but said that it
Speaker 1: was impossible, so she ran upstairs and called nine one one.
Speaker 1: Detectives listened closely to her story. On the surface, it
Speaker 1: hid all the right emotional notes, her mother desperate to
Speaker 1: see if her children, overwhelmed by anxiety, caught in a
Speaker 1: living nightmare, But something about it didn't sit right. Almost
Speaker 1: immediately they had their doubts. District Attorney John Adams would
Speaker 1: later reflect on that first interview. He stated, I would
Speaker 1: agree that we all may think that a mother of
Speaker 1: children who have found hanging would make every effort possible
Speaker 1: to save them. Lisa's story painted herself as helpless, but
Speaker 1: for detectives it raised a different kind of alarm. As
Speaker 1: they looked closer, more problems began to emerge. Connor, it
Speaker 1: turned out, had a physical disability that would have made
Speaker 1: it nearly impossible for him to do what Lisa was suggesting,
Speaker 1: he had very poor dexterity, the kind of fine motor
Speaker 1: issues that would have made it difficult for him to
Speaker 1: manipulate the clasp of a dog leash. Not only that,
Speaker 1: but the leeha had been looked over the beam with
Speaker 1: an equal length on either side, a level of position
Speaker 1: that didn't match Connor's known abilities. Lisa had told detectives
Speaker 1: that Connor was depressed, that he was bullied, that he
Speaker 1: didn't want to live any more, and that he didn't
Speaker 1: want to die alone. She had even sent out a
Speaker 1: group text to her family before the incident, asking them
Speaker 1: to show Connor love. But when detectives reached out to
Speaker 1: those same family members, they heard something very different. Owen,
Speaker 1: Connor's older brother said he had never seen any signs
Speaker 1: that his brother was depressed. He didn't remember Connor complaining
Speaker 1: about bullying. Their cousin, Kimberly Watson said the same. In fact,
Speaker 1: when she received Lisa's text message, she was concerned enough
Speaker 1: to go and pick Connor up from school herself. She recollected,
Speaker 1: I said, are you happy I picked you up? And
Speaker 1: he said yeah, but I do like riding the bus.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of friends. On the bus to Kimberlin,
Speaker 1: Connor hadn't seemed to upset at all. He hadn't mentioned
Speaker 1: being bullied, He didn't make any dark comments. He was
Speaker 1: just his usual self, chatty, cheerful, and full of energy.
Speaker 1: The school had also reported no signs of trouble. Connor
Speaker 1: had friends and he was engaged. His teachers described him
Speaker 1: as happy and friendly and noted if there were any
Speaker 1: concerns about depression or suicidal thoughts, they hadn't seen them.
Speaker 1: There was something else that stood out to detectives. Lisa
Speaker 1: claimed that Connor and Brindley often played in the basement,
Speaker 1: but when they spoke with Owen, he said they didn't.
Speaker 1: The basement, he said, just wasn't a place where the
Speaker 1: children spent any time. None of this added up to
Speaker 1: a suicide, at least not the kind that Lisa was describing.
Speaker 1: Detectives were beginning to look at Lisa with fresh eyes,
Speaker 1: and as they turned their focus towards her, her behavior,
Speaker 1: her history, her digital footprint, what they found was deeply unsettling.
Speaker 1: The investigation was picking up momentum while Lisa Snyder continued
Speaker 1: to present herself as a grieving mother, posting sad messages
Speaker 1: on Facebook and changing her profile photo to anti billying
Speaker 1: Slogan's detectives were beginning to unravel a much darker history.
Speaker 1: At the time of their deaths, both Connor and his
Speaker 1: older brother Owen were already known to Child Protective Services.
Speaker 1: This wasn't the first time that there had been serious
Speaker 1: concerns about Lisa Snyder's ability to care for her children.
Speaker 1: In fact, it wasn't even close. Back in twenty and fourteen,
Speaker 1: when Connor was just two years old, both boys were
Speaker 1: removed from Lisa's custody. Lisa had confessed to harboring violent thoughts.
Speaker 1: She told detectives that she had placed cords and bottle
Speaker 1: caps in Connor's crib, things a toddler could easily choke on,
Speaker 1: and that it was no accident. She admitted that she
Speaker 1: hoped her two year old son wouldn't survive the night.
Speaker 1: But the disturbing thoughts went back even further. When Owen
Speaker 1: was still a baby, Lisa had spoken to her car
Speaker 1: Jessica Widlick, about something that chilled her to the core.
Speaker 1: Lisa felt abandoned by Owen's father and told Jessica that
Speaker 1: if she ever decided to end her life. She would
Speaker 1: take Owen with her. She said she would put him
Speaker 1: in a car and drive straight into a lake. Despite
Speaker 1: these deeply troubling confessions, after six months in a mental
Speaker 1: health facility, Lisa was granted Costaday again. The boys came
Speaker 1: back home and the next year Brindley was born. Not
Speaker 1: years later, one of those boys was dead, so was
Speaker 1: his little sister, and suspicion was growing that Lisa had
Speaker 1: finally acted on those dark thoughts. Detectives served to search
Speaker 1: warrant at the family's home. They removed several boxes of
Speaker 1: evidence from inside, including the dog lash the children had
Speaker 1: been found hanging from, and the two chairs that had
Speaker 1: been knocked over nearby. But they weren't just looking at
Speaker 1: physical evidence. They were also focused on digital clues. Lisa
Speaker 1: had claimed that Connor was bing bullied on mine. If
Speaker 1: that was true, they needed to see those messages. Investigators
Speaker 1: collected two iPads, a laptop, and an xbox. If there
Speaker 1: was any sign he was planning something, if he had
Speaker 1: confided in somebody they wanted to know. Lisa also handed
Speaker 1: over her cell phone, but soon detectives discovered something she
Speaker 1: hadn't told them. Lisa had a second phone. Her seventeen
Speaker 1: year old son, Owen told detectives about it, she hadn't
Speaker 1: turned it over during the investigation. That alone raised red flags.
Speaker 1: The black Huskie pit bull that the family owned, the
Speaker 1: dog whose leash was used in the hangings, it's no
Speaker 1: longer in the home. Lisa had given him away. Investigators
Speaker 1: had assumed the chain had been the dogs, but now
Speaker 1: the dog was gone, along with a crucial part of
Speaker 1: the context to run that chain. For detectives, it was
Speaker 1: looking more and more like a carefully constructed story was
Speaker 1: beginning to fall upon art. Three out of four US
Speaker 1: homes have toxic chemicals looking in their tap water. Even
Speaker 1: crystal clear water can harbor devastating contaminants, causing fatigue, hormone disruption,
Speaker 1: cognitive decline, even cancer. Standard fridge filters barely scratch the surface,
Speaker 1: and bottled water it's loaded with microplastics. Enter aquatruy the
Speaker 1: game change in countertop water purefire. That's rewriting the rules,
Speaker 1: tested and certified to eliminate eighty four contaminants including chlorine, lead,
Speaker 1: forever chemicals, and microplastics. Aquatrus patented four stage revers as
Speaker 1: Mosus system delivers what ordinary filters can't. Truly pure, healthy
Speaker 1: water that you can trust, No plumbing required, no installation hassles,
Speaker 1: just plug in and poor. The proof speaks of volumes.
Speaker 1: They've been featured in Business Insider and Popular Science and
Speaker 1: chrowned best countertop water filter by Good Housekeeping. An incredible
Speaker 1: ninety eight percent of customers confirm their water it's cleaner, safer,
Speaker 1: and healthier. Are you ready to transform your water head
Speaker 1: to aquatrude dot com now and use promo code more
Speaker 1: Biology for twenty percent off your purefire backed by a
Speaker 1: thirty day best tasting water guarantee. Because pure water shouldn't
Speaker 1: be a gamble, Aquatrue aqua tru dot com promo code Morbidrology.
Speaker 1: While detectives worked behind the scenes, life in the small
Speaker 1: village of Kempden was at a standstill. On October twelfth,
Speaker 1: the community gathered at the Kempton Community Center for what
Speaker 1: should have been a celebration. It would have been Connor's
Speaker 1: ninth birthday, but instead of a party, it was a memorial.
Speaker 1: Sixty people formed a semicircle in the open field behind
Speaker 1: the center, clutching bright helium balloons on a table stood
Speaker 1: framed photographs of Connor and Brinley smiling at a swimming pool,
Speaker 1: running through a playground posing in their pictures. There was
Speaker 1: also artwork, one of Connor's paintings, a colorful bouquet of
Speaker 1: flowers in a vase. On either side of the painting
Speaker 1: were two certificates confirming what the children had done in
Speaker 1: death donated their organs. The certificate read through the combassionate
Speaker 1: decision to help others through organ tissue or cornya donation
Speaker 1: Connor and Brindley who provided hope to the men, women
Speaker 1: and children who are in need of a life saving
Speaker 1: or life enhancing transplant. When the balloons were relayed, somebody
Speaker 1: called out catch them, Connor as the sky filled with color.
Speaker 1: Then quietly and mournfully, the group sang Happy Birthday. Connor
Speaker 1: and Brindley's older brother, Owen was there, but Lisa wasn't.
Speaker 1: Though she had steed away from the public vigil, she
Speaker 1: was present online. On Facebook, she posted frequently about her grief.
Speaker 1: One post read, every day it gets harder. I miss
Speaker 1: you both so much. I just want to hold you,
Speaker 1: kiss you. All I do is cry. I love you
Speaker 1: both with all my heart. I just want you back.
Speaker 1: But in private detectives were beginning to believe that Lisa
Speaker 1: wasn't being honest, and for District Attorney John Adams, the
Speaker 1: idea that an eight year old boy could orchestrate a
Speaker 1: murder suicide was difficult to swallow. He stated, eight year olds,
Speaker 1: generally that I am aware of, don't commit suicide. So
Speaker 1: of course we had questions. What happened in that basement
Speaker 1: was still almost impossible to comprehend. People in Camden couldn't
Speaker 1: stop talking about it. At the local bar, longtime bartender
Speaker 1: Carolyn Folk said, it's such a horrible tragedy. It was
Speaker 1: so shocking. Hailey Dunkelberger, a freshman nearby Kutztown University, echoed
Speaker 1: the unease spreading throughout the town. People are upset. I
Speaker 1: don't really think everyone knows how to cope with this.
Speaker 1: This is a small community. For whatever happens, I want justice,
Speaker 1: and soon justice would come. On the second of December
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Lisa Snyder was arrested. She was charged with
Speaker 1: two counts of first and third degree murder, as well
Speaker 1: as two felony counts of endangering the welfare of children.
Speaker 1: For many in the community of Camden, the arrest didn't
Speaker 1: come as a surprise. Whispers had started almost as soon
Speaker 1: as the news had broken. Pop wore suspicious of Lisa's story,
Speaker 1: and now investigators were confirming what so many had feared.
Speaker 1: There was no evidence that Connor had been bullied. Detectives
Speaker 1: had gone through everything his Skilled records, online accounts, even
Speaker 1: his Xbox. They spoke with teachers and classmates. Everybody said
Speaker 1: the same thing. Connor was a well liked boy. He
Speaker 1: had friends, He was kind, He wasn't isolated or depressed.
Speaker 1: Lisa had claimed he came home from s S Girl
Speaker 1: that day feeling down, But when detectives reviewed surveillance footage
Speaker 1: from the Skill bus, they saw something different. Connor appeared happy, playful,
Speaker 1: even he was rough housing with another boy, the very
Speaker 1: boy Lisa had accused of bullying him. The pieces weren't
Speaker 1: adding up, and then came something even more disturbing. In
Speaker 1: the days leading up to the children's deaths, Lisa had
Speaker 1: been searching the Internet. She searched for carbon monoxide in
Speaker 1: a car? How Long to Die? I almost got away
Speaker 1: with the best episodes hanging Yourself? Does a hybrid car
Speaker 1: produce carbon monoxide while idling? She even visited an instructional
Speaker 1: website that explained how to carry out a hanging using
Speaker 1: a short drop. This was the same hanging method used
Speaker 1: to kill Connor and Brinley, and on the very same
Speaker 1: day that Connor and Brindley died, Lisa had purchased the
Speaker 1: dog leash that would later be used in their deaths.
Speaker 1: It had a weight limit of two hundred and fifty pounds,
Speaker 1: far beyond what their fifty pound dog would have required.
Speaker 1: But the investigation didn't stop there. When detectives looked deeper
Speaker 1: into Lisa's digital footprint, they discovered something truly depraved. In
Speaker 1: her Facebook messenger history, Lisa had been sending sexually explicit messages.
Speaker 1: She had engaged in sex acts with the family dog,
Speaker 1: and had taken photographs and sent those images to another person.
Speaker 1: Lisa Snyder was now facing additional charges felony, animal abuse
Speaker 1: and related defenses. Investigators also interviewed Lisa's cousin, who painted
Speaker 1: a grim picture of Lisa's mental state. She said that
Speaker 1: Lisa had become depressed and that she was unable to
Speaker 1: get out of bed, and, most alarmingly, she said that
Speaker 1: Lisa told her she didn't care about her kids anymore.
Speaker 1: To her the children had become a burden. Lisa had
Speaker 1: also made a disturbing remark to a friend named Jessicas
Speaker 1: sion Empft. She told Jessica that if she were ever arrested,
Speaker 1: she'd likely be released on bale because she had no
Speaker 1: criminal history, but if that happened, she said she would
Speaker 1: kill herself. Following her arrast, Lisa Snyder was denied bale.
Speaker 1: Prosecutors announced that if convicted, they were going to be
Speaker 1: seeking the death penalty. District Attorney John Adams then announced, this.
Speaker 2: Was a very difficult investigation. Any time that any of
Speaker 2: us have to investigate prosecute cases that involved the abuse
Speaker 2: or death of an innocent child, it all hits us
Speaker 2: in the heart.
Speaker 1: As the legal process unfolded, the people of Campden were
Speaker 1: left shaken. At Connor's elementary school, teachers in classmates decided
Speaker 1: to honor his memory and his sisters in the only
Speaker 1: way they could. They began collecting teddy bears. The plan
Speaker 1: was to donate the bears to Lehigh Valley Riley Children's Hospital,
Speaker 1: local fire departments, and other agencies that worked with children.
Speaker 1: Melissa Blatt, one of the teachers, stated, obviously this whole
Speaker 1: situation has just rocked our whole community, our whole school.
Speaker 1: In just two weeks, the school collected more than three thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred Teddy Bears while the community grave. Lisa's attorneys
Speaker 1: announced their legal strategy. They were minding an insanity defense.
Speaker 1: Her legal team claimed that Lisa had a chronic history
Speaker 1: of mental illness, including major depressive disorder with psychotic features,
Speaker 1: anxiety effective disorder, and postpartum depression. At the time of
Speaker 1: the murders, they argued, Lisa was suffering from a severe
Speaker 1: and recurring form of depression, borderline personality disorder, and symptoms
Speaker 1: consistent with post traumatic stress disorder and disassociative identity disorder.
Speaker 1: According to our attorneys, Lisa's distorted thinking convinced her that
Speaker 1: her children were suffering, that they were being emotionally harmed
Speaker 1: or abandoned. They claimed her mental illness created in her
Speaker 1: a twisted desire to protect her children from future pain,
Speaker 1: that she killed them not out of cruelty but delusion.
Speaker 1: But her legal team didn't want the jury to hear
Speaker 1: about everything. They asked the court to sever the animal
Speaker 1: abuse charges to keep the details of her sexual acts
Speaker 1: with the family dog out of the murder trial. They
Speaker 1: argued that it would prejudice the jury and the judge
Speaker 1: a great He ruled that the evidence of bestiality would
Speaker 1: be tried separately. He said he could see no reason
Speaker 1: why a jury needed to hear about the acts unless
Speaker 1: it was to inflame them. Then, in November of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, something unexpected happened. Lisa Snyder in the prosecution
Speaker 1: reached a play agreement. Under the deal, Lisa had played
Speaker 1: no contest but mentally ill, to two counts of third
Speaker 1: degree murder. The plea would carry a sentence of twenty
Speaker 1: to forty years in prison. But when the plea was
Speaker 1: presented to Judge Teresa Johnson, she rejected it. It doesn't
Speaker 1: serve the interests of justice, she said before walking out
Speaker 1: of the courtroom. That meant that the case was now
Speaker 1: proceeding to trial. Lisa Snyder would stand accused of first
Speaker 1: degree murder, the most serious charge possible. District Attorney Adams
Speaker 1: declined to explain why the plea deal had been offered
Speaker 1: in the first place, but in a phone interview, he said,
Speaker 1: we don't contest the fact that she's mentally ill and
Speaker 1: meets the threshold set up under the law. That she
Speaker 1: is mentally ill. Still, in the eyes of the court,
Speaker 1: mental illness didn't erase the reality of what had happened
Speaker 1: in that basement. On the twenty first of September twenty
Speaker 1: and twenty four, Lisa Snyder was led into Burke's County
Speaker 1: court House by two police officers. She took a seat
Speaker 1: beside her defense attorneys. This wasn't going to be a
Speaker 1: trial by jury, Lisa had waived that right. Instead, she
Speaker 1: opted for a bench trial, one in which the judge
Speaker 1: alone would decide her faith. That decision had major consequences.
Speaker 1: It meant that the death penalty was officially off the table.
Speaker 1: If convicted, Lisa Snyder would face life in prison without
Speaker 1: the possibility of parole. Opening statements painted two vastly different
Speaker 1: versions of what had happened on that September day in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nineteen. The prosecution laid out their case plainly.
Speaker 1: Lisa Snyder, they said, had murdered her two youngest children.
Speaker 1: They described a calculated, deliberate act, one that was planned
Speaker 1: in advance, not the result of a mental breakdown. The defense,
Speaker 1: which was led by attorneys Dennis Charles, took a different approach.
Speaker 1: He told the court that the burden rested with the prosecution.
Speaker 1: If they could not definitively prove that Lisa had killed
Speaker 1: her children, then she must be found not guilty. But
Speaker 1: if they could, he said, the court must still consider
Speaker 1: her mental illness. Charles said to the judge, she has
Speaker 1: no recollection of what she did. You have a history
Speaker 1: of a person who has severe mental illness. He described
Speaker 1: how Lisa had been sexually abused by a family member
Speaker 1: between the ages of five and seven. Why that trauma
Speaker 1: had followed her into adulthood, where she struggled with identity
Speaker 1: and abandonment. He said she had been diagnosed with bipolar
Speaker 1: disorder with psychotic features, borderline personality disorder, and post traumatic
Speaker 1: stress disorder. Lisa, he said, had tried to get help,
Speaker 1: but the system had failed her. He revealed to the
Speaker 1: judge that Lisa had been having suicidal and homicidal thoughts
Speaker 1: about con her since he was just two years old.
Speaker 1: And then the testimony began. The court heard from the
Speaker 1: first responders. Paramedics described the horrifying scene in the basement.
Speaker 1: The lifeless bodies of two children suspended from a dog chain.
Speaker 1: The chairs they had allegedly stood on were shown to
Speaker 1: the judge. It quickly became clear how implausible it was
Speaker 1: that an eight year old could have orchestrated what had happened.
Speaker 1: The prosecution then turned to Lisa's Internet search history. The
Speaker 1: judge was shown the disturbing phrases she had typed into
Speaker 1: Google just days before the murders. She had visited a
Speaker 1: website detailing how to commit suicide by hanging. She had
Speaker 1: looked up whether hybrid cars produced carbon monoxide while idling.
Speaker 1: She had watched episodes If I Almost Got Away with It.
Speaker 1: School officials testified next. One by one. They painted a
Speaker 1: picture of a young boy who loved school, a boy
Speaker 1: who was cheerful, outgoing, and well liked by his classmates.
Speaker 1: He wasn't bullied, he wasn't depressed, He was thriving. An
Speaker 1: occupational therapist was brought in to address another crucial detail,
Speaker 1: physical capability. Could an eight year old boy rarely have
Speaker 1: manipulated a heavy judy dog leash, placed it over a
Speaker 1: basement support beam, lifted his four year old sister onto
Speaker 1: a chair, and executed a double hanging. The therapist said, no,
Speaker 1: it wasn't physically plausible for a child Connor's age and
Speaker 1: size and with his physical disabilities. But perhaps the most
Speaker 1: impactful testimony came from someone who knew Connor and Brintley best,
Speaker 1: their older brother Owen. Owen took the stand with a
Speaker 1: quiet composure. He referred to Lisa by her full name
Speaker 1: and explained, I just don't see her as my mother anymore.
Speaker 1: Owen denied any suggestion that Connor was suicidal or depressed.
Speaker 1: He told the court he was a happy, go lucky kid,
Speaker 1: always wanted to be doing something. He was always playing
Speaker 1: with his little sister. He wasn't the only one who
Speaker 1: said this. Family members testified that Connor had never mentioned billying.
Speaker 1: When asked about it, he didn't even seem to understand
Speaker 1: the question. Lisa's cousin, Jessica, described Connor as happy, playful,
Speaker 1: and full of life, but she also spoke about Lisa's struggles.
Speaker 1: She told the court that Lisa had frequent depressive episodes.
Speaker 1: There were entire days sometimes longer, or she wouldn't get
Speaker 1: out of bed. Her ability to parent was inconsistent and
Speaker 1: often severely impaired. Finally, the prosecution played Lisa's NW one
Speaker 1: one call, the moment she claimed to have discovered her
Speaker 1: children hanging in the basement. They followed that with footage
Speaker 1: from her police interrogation. At one point, detectives asked her,
Speaker 1: point blank, did you have something to do with your
Speaker 1: children's deaths? Lisa responded no, I swear to God, I
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with this. They were my world.
Speaker 1: I have no purpose now. After the prosecution rested its case,
Speaker 1: Lisa Snyder's defense attorney, Dennis Charles, made a bold move.
Speaker 1: He requested an immediate acquittal. He argued that the prosecution's
Speaker 1: case was based on speculation, not fact, that their version
Speaker 1: of events rested on Internet searches and circumstantial evidence on
Speaker 1: what might have happened, not what did happen. All you
Speaker 1: have is conjecture, he told the court. Charles pointed to
Speaker 1: Lisa's search history not as a blueprint for murder, but
Speaker 1: as evidence of suicidal thoughts. He insisted that if Lisa
Speaker 1: had killed her children, it was the result of severe
Speaker 1: mental illness. She was, he said, incapable of understanding right
Speaker 1: from wrong. But the judge denied the motion and the
Speaker 1: trial moved forward. The defense then called Lisa's mother, Eileen Myers,
Speaker 1: to the witness stand. Eileen offered a version of events.
Speaker 1: The contract predicted what teachers, classmates, and relatives had said.
Speaker 1: She testified that Conner had once told her he no
Speaker 1: longer wanted to live, that he'd asked what heaven was like,
Speaker 1: that he'd wondered if he'd recognize anybody there. It was
Speaker 1: a moment that could have shifted the narrative until cross examination,
Speaker 1: prosecutor Meg McCallum pressed Eileen on her memory. She told
Speaker 1: the court that Eileen had undergone brain surgery in the
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties to remove a tumor. Eileen admitted that she
Speaker 1: still suffered confusion and memory issues as a result. She
Speaker 1: also acknowledged having discussed the trial with Lisa multiple times,
Speaker 1: including details from the police investigation. From there, the case
Speaker 1: returned to Lisa Snyder's mental health. Doctor Dungtran testified for
Speaker 1: the defense. He believed that Lisa's psychological decline stemmed from
Speaker 1: the sexual abuse she allegedly endured as a child. He
Speaker 1: said she had attempted suicide at sixteen and had led
Speaker 1: ratic behavior throughout her life. He diagnosed her with bipolar
Speaker 1: disorder with psychotic fixtures, borderline personality disorder, and post traumatic
Speaker 1: stress disorder. According to doctor Tran, Lisa believed not only
Speaker 1: that Connor was being bullied, but the Brindley had been
Speaker 1: sexually abused as well. He said that these delusions sent
Speaker 1: her into a psychotic break. During cross examination, doctor Tran
Speaker 1: admitted something critical Her mental state at the time of
Speaker 1: the murders was, in his words, all speculation. The prosecution
Speaker 1: rebutted with their own expert, doctor John O'Brien. Doctor O'Brien
Speaker 1: said that Lisa had a history of anxiety and depression,
Speaker 1: but not bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, or borderline
Speaker 1: personality disorder. He said that he had found no signs
Speaker 1: of a psychotic break. He also pointed to a major
Speaker 1: contradiction during his interviews with Lisa. She never once mentioned
Speaker 1: being abused as a child, nor did she ever claim
Speaker 1: that Brinley had been abused. In fact, he said that
Speaker 1: Lisa gave detailed and coherent accounts of what happened on
Speaker 1: the day her children died, hardly the mark of somebody
Speaker 1: experiencing a psychotic episode. He also noted that Lisa scored
Speaker 1: high on personality tests measuring exaggeration and deception. After weeks
Speaker 1: of testimony the trial, due to a close inclosing arguments,
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Macallum told the court, I cannot think of any
Speaker 1: crime more serious than the taking of a four year
Speaker 1: old girl and an eight year old boy. She chose
Speaker 1: to harm her children, and they suffered as they hung
Speaker 1: by their necks, gasping for air. Prosecutor Kenneth Brown added
Speaker 1: a chilling theory, Lisa had only intended on killing Connor.
Speaker 1: She had seen him as a burden, but when Brinley
Speaker 1: came downstairs and witnessed what her mother was doing, Lisa
Speaker 1: had no choice but to kill her as well. He
Speaker 1: described Brinley urinating on herself in fe year as she
Speaker 1: card in the corner of the basement. In their closing,
Speaker 1: the defense doubled down. Charles stated, what they want you
Speaker 1: to do is swallow what they've been feeding to the media.
Speaker 1: But it took Judge Teresa Johnson only an r to
Speaker 1: return with a verdict. She found Lisa Snyder guilty on
Speaker 1: two counts of first degree murder, as well as charges
Speaker 1: of child endangerment and evidence tampering. On the eighteenth of October,
Speaker 1: Lisa Snyder returned to court to be sentenced. Only one
Speaker 1: person stood to deliver a victim impact statement, Connor and
Speaker 1: Brinley's older brother, Owen, he was twenty two. He was
Speaker 1: twenty two years old. Now, he stated, if I could
Speaker 1: turn back time, I would just to hear their voices.
Speaker 1: That day, I didn't just lose my brother and sister,
Speaker 1: I lost my mother as well. Then he turned to
Speaker 1: Lisa and said, since September twenty third, twenty nineteen, I
Speaker 1: don't consider you my mother. I consider you a monster.
Speaker 1: Judge Johnson then sentenced Lisa Snyder to two consecutive life
Speaker 1: sentences without the possibility of parole. They would be followed
Speaker 1: by an additional eight to seventeen years for the remaining charges.
Speaker 1: Lisa showed no emotion before closing the proceedings. The judge
Speaker 1: then addressed her directly. She said, the fact that an
Speaker 1: individual could put their hands on another individual to commit
Speaker 1: a murder makes it so much worse than if you
Speaker 1: stood across the street and fired a gun at them.
Speaker 1: Your only job in life was to protect and care
Speaker 1: for your children. You failed. You robbed them of their futures. Then,
Speaker 1: with the sentence delivered, Lisa Snyder was escorted from the
Speaker 1: courtroom to begin her life sentence behind bars. Well that
Speaker 1: is it for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening, and i'd like to say
Speaker 1: a massive thank you to my new supporter up on Patreon, Stacy.
Speaker 1: I'm just about to record the next bonus episode of
Speaker 1: Morbidology Plus that's exclusive to Patreon supporters. You can join
Speaker 1: the up on patroon for as little as one dollar
Speaker 1: a month and there are absolutely no obligations. You're free
Speaker 1: to cancel your subscription at any point. I upload adfree
Speaker 1: in early release episodes, behind the scenes bonus episodes of
Speaker 1: Morbidology Plus, and I also send out thank you card
Speaker 1: along with some cool Patreon exclusive merch. Remember to check
Speaker 1: us out at morbidology dot com for more information about
Speaker 1: this episode and to read some true crime articles. Until
Speaker 1: next time, take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have
Speaker 1: an amazing week. Sk