5th search finds two cellphones
Investigation continues at home where 2 kids, ages 8 and 4, were found hanged
After searching the Albany Township home where a young boy and girl were found hanged in their basement, state police recently returned to find two more cellphones, a search warrant made public Thursday shows.
Police haven’t said if either of the phones was used by Lisa Snyder to make the 911 call on Sept. 23 when she found her children Conner Snyder, 8, and Brinley Snyder, 4, hanging from a plastic coated wire on a ceiling beam, two overturned chairs nearby. They died three days later at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest. Autopsy results are pending.
“It is believed by this investigator that Lisa Snyder is still in possession” of a second cellphone, a search warrant issued Oct. 4 and released Thursday read.
Troopers said the 911 call did not come from the first phone they seized from Snyder’s home on the day the children were found.
In an interview with Snyder’s only other child, a 17-yearold son, troopers were surprised to learn Snyder had multiple phones, the latest warrant notes. Asked if the finding meant that Snyder had failed to turn over the additional cellphones earlier, Berks County District Attorney John Adams said only: “Normally, people only have one cellphone, and now we have three.”
Snyder hasn’t commented on the deaths and could not be reached Thursday. Police have not identified Conner and Brinley’s father. Several of Snyder’s friends and relatives told The Morning Call he was not involved in the children’s lives.
Police have served five warrants on the home at 2442 Route 143 near Kempton: Sept. 23, 24 and 27, and Oct. 2 and 4, releasing the first four to the public on Monday and the last one on Thursday. They all list either “criminal homicide” or “criminal attempt homicide” as the violation underlying the warrant. However, Adams said that’s procedural and does not mean the case is a homicide.
Police haven’t determined that, and the Lehigh County coroner’s office has not ruled on the cause or manner of death.
The Sept. 23 warrant states that investigators seized a cellphone. In the first four warrants, they also seized the wire the children were found hanging from, the chairs, two iPads, a laptop computer and an Xbox gaming console.
One warrant, on Oct. 2, was specifically for a dog — a black husky-pit bull mix weighing 50 pounds — that still has not been found. Investigators said weighing the dog would help in reconstructing what happened, but they would not say why.
The Snyder family was known to county officials, the state Department of Human Services confirmed. Berks County Children and Youth Services has not returned calls about its involvement with the family.
“Assessment and ongoing case management services were previously provided to the family of Conner and Brinley Snyder through Berks County Children and Youth Services,” Erin James, a DHS spokeswoman, said Wednesday. She declined to elaborate or provide dates.
Conner was in third grade at Greenwich-Lenhartsville Elementary School, where he was loved by many, the superintendent said in a statement to The Morning Call this week.
“The Kutztown Area School District community mourns the sudden death of Conner Snyder,” Superintendent Christian Temchatin said. “Conner was a beloved member of the Greenwich Elementary School family who enjoyed his peers and teachers.
“He is dearly missed and is fondly remembered for the smile he brought to all who knew him,” the statement reads.