There are two very different versions of the story about what happened inside Lisa Snyder’s Albany Township home on Sept 23, 2019.
The version that Berks County prosecutors believe in is that on that afternoon Snyder, in a callous and violent act, hanged two of her children. They say Snyder wrapped a dog lead around the necks of 8-year-old Connor and 4-year-old Brinley and then wrapped that lead around a support beam in the basement of her home in the 2400 block or Route 143.
They contend she left her children hanging there as life slowly left their bodies. Each died in a nearby hospital three days later.
The story that the 41-year-old Snyder has told ever since her first, frantic 9-1-1 call on that day is that Connor was responsible for his and his sister’s deaths.
She claims that Connor was depressed, that he was suicidal after facing vicious bullying at school. She said he wanted to die but was too scared to do it alone. So he convinced his little sister to join him, rigging up and using the dog lead that would take their lives himself.
In Berks County Court on Monday, the process of deciding which version is true began to play out nearly five years after the children’s deaths as a bench trial for Snyder began in front of Judge M. Theresa Johnson.
The trial began with opening arguments.
In Snyder’s defense, attorney Dennis Charles took a two-pronged approach. He told Johnson that it will be up to the prosecution to prove their theory that Snyder has been lying about her son’s depression and suicidal thoughts. He said they would have to prove that he was unable to set up and execute the suicide himself.
And if they do meet that bar, he said, he is prepared to argue that his client was insane and suffering from disassociation at the time of the murders.
“She has no recollection what she did,” he said, adding that, if she did kill her children, she was unable to know it was wrong.
Charles said Snyder has a long history of mental illness stemming all the way back to when she was sexually abused by a family member from the ages of 5 to 7.
She has suffered identity and abandonment issues, her attorney said. She has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic features, borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Charles said Snyder has sought treatment for her mental struggles but never received the help she needed. That includes after she first starting having suicidal and homicidal thoughts about Connor when he was just 3 years old
“You have a history of a person who has severe mental illness,” Charles said.
Charles said that if Snyder did kill her children, she should be found “sick” instead of “bad.” He said that if his client is found guilty he will ask that she been sent for treatment to “get help for the first time in her life.”
Berks County district attorney’s office supervising attorney Meg McCallum, who is leading the prosecution, used much of her opening to counter the first part of the defense’s strategy.
She said the prosecution would call a series of witnesses who would counter Snyder’s claim that her son was depressed and suicidal. Instead, they would describe a young boy who was happy and loved his little sister deeply.
Connor didn’t show any signs of depression even just an hour or so before his death, McCallum said, turning to wave and smile at his friends as he got off the bus in front of his house. McCallum said reports of Connor being bullied aren’t true.
The prosecution will also attack the defense’s proposition that Connor could have rigged up the suicide. McCallum said witnesses would testify that the young boy had physical limitations that would make it nearly impossible for him to drag kitchen chairs down the steep basement stairs, to stand on the chairs and to wrap and secure a dog lead around a support beam on the ceiling.
“It just does not make sense that Connor could have done this,” McCallum said.
The prosecution called four first responders who were among the first to reach the scene after Snyder’s 9-1-1 call, as well as about a half-dozen Kutztown School District employees who worked with Connor.
The trial will continue Tuesday morning.
Snyder is facing two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of endangering the welfare of children and one count of tampering with evidence.
Berks prosecutors have said they will seek either a life sentence or the death penalty in this case.
Source: Berkshire mont
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