Mother charged with murder in deaths of 2 children

KEMPTON: The mother of two young children found hanging in their Pennsylvania home has been charged with their murder.

Medical personnel revived the 8-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl, but they died three days later. An autopsy was inconclusive.

The coroner has said forensic testing is needed before he can rule on the cause and manner of death.

Berks County prosecutors announced Lisa Snyder’s arrest Monday. It’s not known if she’s retained an attorney.

Snyder told authorities that she found her children, Conner and Brinley, in their Albany home on Sept.23.

Prosecutors say more details on the arrest would be announced at a news conference.

Recently, Pennsylvania overhauled its child sexual abuse laws, more than a year after a landmark grand jury report showed the coverup of hundreds of cases of abuse in most of Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses over seven decades.

The central bill signed by Gov. Tom Wolf gives future victims of child sex abuse more time to file lawsuits and ends time limits for police to file criminal charges. The grand jury report spurred many states to change their laws and others to begin similar investigations.

Wolf said the new laws will help repair “faults in our justice system that prevent frightened, abused children from seeking justice when they grow into courageous adults.”

The legislative package was based on recommendations in last year’s report on six of eight dioceses in the state.

Wolf, a Democrat, also signed bills to invalidate secrecy agreements that keep child sexual abuse victims from talking to investigators, and to increase penalties for people who are required to report suspected abuse but fail to do so.

Wolf signed the bills at Muhlenberg High School near Reading, in the home district and high school of Democratic state Rep. Mark Rozzi, a champion of the legislation who has spoken publicly about being raped as a 13-year-old by a Roman Catholic priest.