Lisa Snyder said that the kids killed themselves because her son was being picked on at school and wanted to end his life. But talks with police and her own internet searches revealed a much darker truth.
In 2019, two young children were found hanging in the basement of their Pennsylvania home. Their mother was found guilty of killing them.
Snyder was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, endangering the safety of a child, and tampering with evidence in connection with the deaths of his 8-year-old son Conner and 4-year-old daughter Brinley.
When first rescuers got there, both of the kids were having a complete cardiac arrest. They were able to save their lives, but they died three days later in the hospital.
Snyder said that she found the kids swinging from a safety beam from opposite ends of a dog lead that was covered in plastic. According to District Attorney John Adams, she told cops that her son was being bullied at school and wanted to kill himself. She said the children had killed themselves.
Snyder reportedly told police that Conner told her the day of the deaths that he wanted to “play forts” with his little sister in the basement, which was something he often did. He planned to bring two chairs and the cable down with him. But people who saw the kids said they almost never played in the basement.
Police looked at CCTV footage from his school bus and talked to witnesses. They found no proof of bullying. The child had never told anyone about his worries and was generally a happy kid. In general, Adams said, “eight-year-olds don’t commit suicide, so of course we had questions.” Snyder was arrested at that time.
As proof, an occupational therapist said that Conner would have found it “extremely difficult” to wrap the wire around the beam or even use the clasp by himself because he was so bad at fine motor skills that he could barely tie his own shoelaces.
Snyder also looked up “carbon monoxide in a car, how long to die”; “best episodes of ‘Almost Got Away With It'”; “hanging yourself”; and “does a hybrid car produce carbon monoxide.” It has information on how to kill yourself, and she went to the “Lost All Hope” website to see the “Short drop/simple suspension” page, which shows how to hang someone.
Police said she also bought the metal dog wire from a nearby Walmart the day before the kids were found hanging from it.
A counsellor at Snyder’s trial said she didn’t see any signs of sadness in Conner. However, Snyder’s mother said the boy told her he didn’t want to live anymore and asked what heaven was like. She also said she told the child’s mother and her prayer group about her worries. When it came to the Google searches, the defence lawyers said that the websites could also have information about how to stop suicide.
Her mental health was also a part of the trial. A psychiatrist for the defence said she might have been psychotic at the time of the killings, but the prosecutors said she was perfectly capable of discerning right from wrong.
WFMZ says that she only showed feeling twice during the trial. The first time was when her older son Owen called her by her first name instead of ‘Mom’. He told the judge that he no longer thinks of her as his mother, which made her cry.
The judge will decide her fate in October.