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Wednesday's Final Word
A Pennsylvania woman was found guilty late Tuesday in the hanging deaths of her two children in 2019.
President Judge M. Theresa Johnson reject the defense efforts to have Lisa Snyder found guilty by reason of insanity and found Snyder guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of endangering the welfare of children and one count of tampering with evidence, the Reading Eagle reported.
Snyder, 41, was facing a bench trial for the murders of Conner Snyder, 8, and Brinley Snyder, 4, who were found hanging in the basement of their Berks County home on September 23, 2019, as CrimeOnline reported. They died at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest Hospital three days later.
Snyder had called 911 claiming that she found the children hanging from a wired cable and said at the time that her son was bullied and suicidal. But Snyder’s older son and other witnesses said they never heard of Connor being bullied or suicidal. Snyder was ultimately arrested after investigators found internet searches on her phone relating to suicide and murder.
Prosecutors said Snyder had planned to kill Conner for some time and in fact, had her children temporarily taken from her in 2014 because of her thoughts to kill the boy, the Eagle reported.
On the day in 2019, prosecutors said, she put a plan into place, but had not intended to kill the little girl, whom she adored. But Brinley unexpectedly came into the room while she was hanging Conner, and Snyder made the decision to kill the little girl because she was a witness, procecutors said.
Brinley watched from a corner, urinating on herself, while her mother set up another chair and the dog lead she’d purchased just to kill Conner to also kill her daughter, prosecutors said.
“Because she was a witness to the murder of her brother, Conner,” Berks County Assistant District Attorney K. Kenneth Brown said.
Snyder will be sentenced on October 17. Prosecutors, who had considered seeking the death penalty, have said they will instead seek a life sentence.
