Mother in hangings seeks help for defense
Lisa R. Snyder says she needs county help to pay for experts
The Albany Township mother charged in the hanging deaths of her son and daughter claimed, June 29, in Berks County Court that she is indigent and needs taxpayer funds to help pay for her defense.
Lisa R. Snyder, 37, who is charged with two counts each of first- and third-degree murder along with related counts in the killings of her two youngest children, appeared before Judge Paul M. Yatron for a status hearing.
Her attorney, Dennis Charles of Allentown, said Snyder couldn’t afford her defense and filed a motion requesting funding for court experts she’ll need for her trial.
Yatron took the motion under advisement.
Yatron granted Charles’ request for additional time to prepare his pretrial motions.
Snyder is next scheduled to appear in court in November for another status hearing.
Assistant District Attorney Meg McCallum said she couldn’t comment on details of the hearing because it was held in-camera, meaning in private.
Charles was unavailable for comment.
Snyder’s son Conner, 8, and daughter Brinley, 4, were found hanging and unresponsive in the basement of their home at 2442 Route 143 on Sept. 23. They were revived on their way to the hospital, but both were pronounced brain dead, taken off life support three days later and died, officials said.
Snyder was arrested Dec. 2 and has been held in the county prison without bail since.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against her, saying the crimes meet the threshold of aggravating factors required in Pennsylvania for a capital case.
The primary aggravating factors are that there were two victims and both were children, District Attorney John T. Adams said.
According to police, court records and testimony at Snyder’s preliminary hearing:
Police and medics were called to the home by Snyder and they found the children hanging from opposite ends of a plastic coated dog lead that had been wrapped around the main support beam of the basement ceiling.
Each end of the lead was wrapped around the victims’ neck. Two chairs were tipped over on the floor on either side of the bodies, which were about 3 feet apart.
When Snyder spoke with first responders she wasn’t crying, and told them that Conner was being bullied at school, appeared stressed when he got off the school bus that day and asked her for the dog lead before going into the basement with his sister.
Other witnesses contradicted her claims that Conner was depressed.
Conner’s occupational therapist said the boy wasn’t physically capable of fastening the dog lead around his own neck, let alone his sister’s.
Internet searches from a number connected to a missing phone of Snyder’s were found for how to hang oneself with a “short drop, single suspension.”
Her online accounts also showed photos of her forcing a dog to perform sex acts on her, so she was also charged with bestiality and cruelty to animals.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against her, saying the crimes meet the threshold of aggravating factors required in Pennsylvania for a capital case.