Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mom Who Hanged Her Kids with Dog Leash Learns Punishment

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Lisa Snyder has been sentenced for the murders of her two children, Conner and Brinley Snyder. The children, ages 8 and 4, were found hanging from a beam in the basement of their home in Albany Township, Pennsylvania in September 2019. Snyder had tried to blame Conner for the deaths. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Berks County District Attorney John Adams about the horrific case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:John Adams  https://www.facebook.com/BerksDA/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A mother learns her punishment for murdering her two young children by hanging them with a dog leash. The DA is here to talk about this horrific crime, the children whose lives were taken, the sentence, and Lisa Snyder's claims at her trial. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. The case of Connor Snyder and his younger sister,

Brinley Snyder, is absolutely horrific. Connor was just eight years old and in the third grade back in 2019. He loved building forts and playing video games. Brinley was four and was in pre-K. Her obituary said she loved the movie Frozen and, of course, her favorite characters, Elsa and Anna. A lot of little girls love that movie and those characters. But all of that came to an end in September of 2019 when the children were murdered. A judge found during a bench trial last month that Connor and Brinley's mother, Lisa Snyder, the person in the world who should have been their greatest protector, took their lives. I'll have more on what the judge said at sentencing

later, and you're also going to hear from Berks County DA John Adams in a little bit. In September of 2019, the DA says Lisa Snyder hanged her two children from a beam in the basement of her home in Albany Township, Pennsylvania, with a cable dog lead. Albany Township is about 80 miles northeast of Philadelphia. An affidavit said that nothing seemed to be amiss with Connor, who Lisa claimed was suicidal because he had been bullied at school. Troopers obtained video footage from Victim 2's school bus security cameras. At approximately 1549 hours, Victim 2 is observed on the school bus security cameras getting off the school bus security cameras at approximately 1549 hours. Victim two is observed on the school bus security cameras, getting off the school bus and running up to his residence. Victim two showed

no signs of distress. The defendant explained that when victim two got home from school, he wanted to play on his iPad, but changed his mind that he wanted to play on his laptop, but could not find the charger. He came down from his room when he could not find his charger and asked victim one if she wanted to go downstairs to build a fort. He loves building forts. That's his thing. The defendant stated they play downstairs in the basement all the time. Victim two asked if he could take the kitchen chairs down and defendant related that she told him only if he takes them down himself and brings them back up. She was asked if he wanted to take anything else down and she stated,

yes, he asked if he could use the dog lead I had on the table. I just bought it today, meaning 9-23 of 2019. She was asked what he did with the dog lead and she stated, that's what they were hanging from. Defendant indicated that she got the dog lead and she stated that's what they were hanging from. Defendant indicated that she got the dog lead that day, 9-23 of 2019, at the Hamburg Walmart and that she did the online pickup around 9-30 hours. She placed the order for the dog lead online the day before. Another witness in the home, though, said the children never played in the basement. They always played in a bedroom or in the living room. And police said they found no evidence to support the bullying claim. During Snyder's trial last month, her attorneys argued two things.

First, that she didn't kill Connor and Brinley. And second, if she did, she was so mentally ill that she had to have been insane at the time. Snyder's lawyers had also claimed that Connor may have been suicidal and that he may have hanged not only himself, but Brinley as well. Prosecution experts said that simply wasn't possible. Connor and Brinley's older brother, Owen Snyder, had testified at trial about how loved Connor was

and said that he was not suicidal or bullied. Now, this was a bench trial, so President Judge Teresa Johnson decided the case, not a jury. And she didn't buy any of the defense arguments and found Snyder guilty of murdering Connor and Brinley within an hour or so of getting the case. Police had also said that Lisa Snyder had searched online for information about suicide, death by hanging, and how to kill someone, and also for episodes of a documentary entitled I Almost Got Away With It.

At sentencing, Owen Snyder called his mother a monster and said he no longer considered her his mother. Lisa Snyder will spend the rest of her life in prison for the murders of her children, Connor and Brinley. I wanted to see if there were any red flags that stood out with Snyder. So I looked her up on truthfinder.com. Truthfinder is one of the world's largest public record search services. I searched for Lisa Snyder just to see what I could find. When I searched her name, her name and addresses in Pennsylvania appeared along with the murder charges that she faced. Snyder's past addresses also appeared along with her relatives and her age of 41.

Truthfinder will also show you the names and addresses of sex offenders who live in your neighborhood. And that's a really great thing, especially if you have kids. Right now, I have a great deal for you. You can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash LC Crime Fix and start accessing information about almost anyone. I want to bring in John Adams. He is the district attorney in Berks County. His office prosecuted this case. Thanks so much for coming on. This is such a horrible case. First of all, I want to know why it took so long to work its way through the courts. This happened in 2019. It took five years to get to

trial. That is a good point. It did take a long time. There were a number of factors that were involved in why this case took a very lengthy road through the court system. The first reason was that the original judge who was assigned to this case, Paul Yatron, passed away. And that resulted in the case being reassigned to Judge Teresa Johnson, who is our president judge. There were a number of pretrial issues and motions that were filed. There was quite a few psychiatric and psychological examinations of the defendant also, which took its time to work its way through the court system. But the fact that we unfortunately lost Judge Yatrin during the pendency of this case put a huge roadblock up and resulted in this case being continued for, quite frankly, years. Another factor was the fact that initially it was a death

penalty case. So there was always lengthy proceedings, including the experts and mitigation and various things such as that, that resulted while the case was pending. Eventually, the death penalty was taken off the table by agreement, though. Yeah, the death penalty always adds a layer of complexity, if not layers of complexity to a case, of course. This case, you know, the judge basically said it was the most horrific murder she had ever seen. I mean, these were two little kids and their mother, I mean, should have been protecting them. And instead, everything I've read about it through the affidavit when she was first charged, I mean, this seems like it was meticulously planned, the buying of the dog cable,

the story given to law enforcement. I mean, it's just so horrible to think that these kids got off the bus, came home from school, and that this is what happened to them. And they were on life support for three days before being taken off life support. I mean, this case is so heartbreaking. I just can't even imagine your office, you see the worst of the worst, but having to prosecute this and those poor children, and then obviously the family, especially Owen Snyder, grieving the loss of Brinley and Connor. I think you hit the nail on the head. This case was horrific. It just is. There's really few words that I can think of to describe the trauma that our office had to undergo just to handle this matter. And I think we were all, we were all, we were shocked

by what happened here. This happened in a very rural part of our county. I think everyone, including the initial responders were completely caught off guard. The reaction to and the question what happened here just was never fully answered by the defendant. It was only until the judge reached her verdict that, you know know that question was answered but the just the planning that went into committing such a horrific crime and at trial a lot of things came out about how good these kids were how well they fit, especially the son. And some of his teachers testified and principals testified. And just the loss of life here was just unspeakable and just really makes me pause time and time again and thinking about what happened here. When an innocent child loses its life, it's tough. It's tough on anyone, especially those who are involved in prosecuting

the perpetrator. It's not easy. And this was not easy. You know, that's the thing that I find so upsetting about this case as well, is the fact that, and reading everything about these kids, that they were loved. And, you know, cameras aren't allowed, of course, in the courtroom in Pennsylvania. But you're telling me, you know, the teachers testified about, you know, how loved the kids were, how well they fit in. Lisa Snyder tried to blame Connor for not only taking his own life, but for killing his sister. Your experts, from what I understand in my reading of the news reports, said that that wasn't possible.

He wouldn't have been able to do this. And he wasn't suicidal anyway. And that he wasn't bullied. There wasn't evidence of this. So talk to me, if you would, just about what you've learned about these children, because they are the most important thing here and their memories. I mean, they should still be here. Well, you know, we learned a lot during this case. I mean, we relied a lot on the school and even a part of the family. I will have to say part of the family was very cooperative with us.

So we learned a little a lot about the background of the children here. And that was an integral part of being able to prove what happened because, of course, Lisa Snyder never told us the truth. She was offered the opportunity time and time again. And I think that what makes this more despicable is the fact that she made up so much about her son, that he was bullied, that he was sad, that he was suicidal. That was absurd. And she tried to portray this as his mental health problems, when in fact, it was her mental health problems. Do you think she was mentally ill? Because that was part of their argument. I mean, they tried to say that she, A, that she didn't do it, but then if she did do it, she was possibly insane. I mean, obviously the judge didn't buy these arguments,

but she may still have had some mental health issues. Absolutely. She absolutely had mental health issues, but those mental health issues did not reach the level, I'll use the term level, that she could be found, one, not competent, or two, not guilty by reason of insanity. I am certain that she's mentally ill. But quite frankly, when we look at the number of people who commit what I call crime, and sometimes unspeakable crimes, there's a form of mental illness with many of those. However, that mental illness does not reach the level that she would be not guilty by reason of insanity under the laws of Pennsylvania or I I'm certain, of any other states. However, the defense tried to rely on the fact that she was not guilty by reason of insanity, but the court did not buy that defense and did not find that she was, we use the term NGRI. And I think that was a rock solid finding.

And we had our own, of course, expert who found that not only was did not was not she did not reach the level of not guilty by reason of insanity. However, I'll use this term clearly, as many others who would commit heinous crimes. She was disturbed. Sure. I mean, there are so many people in prison who commit crimes who are not insane that are mentally ill and mentally disturbed. Sure. I mean, there are so many people in prison who commit crimes who are not insane, that are mentally ill and mentally disturbed. That is for certain. This is just such a horrific case. I look at those kids in those photographs, and I just, I can't even imagine. And I'm a mom, so my heart breaks for the children, for Owen Snyder, for the rest of the family members. DA Adams, any final thoughts?

I am hopeful that I never see a case like this again. When two innocent lives are taken by their own mother, it's shocking and it's horrific. And for many of those that are out there, we're trying to protect those children day in and day out from unspeakable things happening to them. It's a tough job. And many times prosecutors, police, social workers, they don't know what goes on behind closed doors. So it's tough. And this is just something that happened that is just, hopefully will never be repeated again. And whenever we see crimes where children are the victims, it's tough. It's very tough for any of us to comprehend.

And we'll keep the fight up and doing our best to prevent incidents like this from ever happening. Thank you so much for being with us, DA John Adams. I appreciate it. Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us, DA John Adams. I appreciate it. Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.