PA - Conner, 8, & Brinley Snyder, 4, found hung, later died, Kempton, 23 Sept 2019 *Arrest*

[Seattle1]

What about the toys?

Allegations the children's toys being sold but no confirmation -- (probably sm).

 

[katydid23]

I don't know that there is even a hint of another party yet in the public domain.
I read reports of mothers doing terrible things to children all the time.
Motherhood does not confer beatification...
It's not the way it's meant to be , I know but there's nothing so strange as folks...
But the story has not yet unfolded...

Oh, I understand completely how cruel and coldblooded some mothers can be. I have seen too many cases of it here. Little Zahra comes to mind. And the baby boy that was thrown into a bonfire, while still alive, by his mother and her girlfriend.
And the car full of malnourished adoptees that were driven off an ocean cliff...Disgusting as it gets.

But this case just doesn't seem like her work---and I am probably wrong. Just saying it feels more like something a teen would do. JMO

 

[mjp1228]

Also, sorry for more than the 2 cents. We had a local boy hang himself from a tree. I volunteered for the ambulance. I was not on call. I remember thinking, I might have collapsed if it was on my run. It NEVER occurred to me that I would have to respond to this kind of event. I just thought I would be racing people to the hospital or helping accident victims. These are rare occurrences and I would never assume how anyone would handle it IMOO. I recently had a student EMT find such a victim and I worry for him so much to process this as the first one on the scene. It is traumatizing beyond words..

You are definitely right about it being beyond words. I haven’t found the right ones after 6 1/2 years. I hope someone encourages him to talk to a counselor - even if he only goes once.

 

[SuziQ]

I've gone back to the first page to read each posts now, but I felt the need to reply to your question which is an excellent one.

There wouldn't be any need to find the dog because all the experts have to do is suspend the dog chain, and add weights to the end of it to know how many pounds it could hold or the stress pressure before breaking.

So knowing the pounds the dog weighed isn't necessary to find out that answer which makes it even more puzzling. Imo. It has to be for other unknown reasons since they know already it was strong enough to hold the weight of 2 children.

Is LE thinking this chain was bought to hang the children, and the chain supposedly used for the dog was another chain?

As an animal lover it's heartbreaking to know any dog is being restricted by a chain outside in the weather. Plus the stress of the chain rubbing back, and forth can cause open wounds I would think.

Another thing I find puzzling is when LE said these children were known to LE, iirc. Who were they being protected from, and why? Tia.

Again this may have already been asked, and answered since I'm trying to catch up on all posts.

Jmhoo

possibly the chain has a new and not weathered appearance. Moo, I don't think there was ever a dog.

 

[gitana1]

Bullying can be horrible in school when no one stops it. I have seen bullies of all ages. You can be bullied for your looks, for your clothes, for your social skills, for your sports skills, for your family's situation, for the amount of money you have or don't have. You can be bullied for your academic skills, whether you have difficulty or are very bright. You can be bullied for your book bag, for your shoes. You can be bullied for the way you speak, for the lunch you bring to school. And then you finally go home, and you can be bullied on the cell and on the computer. Constant bullying. When you have a strong school administration that supports it's teachers 100%, you can shut it down. Many teachers are reprimanded or written up for doing their best to stop it unfortunately. So I do believe an eight year old can be horribly horribly bullied. We have seen online suicides of schoolchildren. We have so many school shootings, some IMO from bullying. So many very young people today are light years ahead of us when we were their age due to the Internet. The days when parents were allowed to be an active part of their children's school during the school day are over for the most part. And unfortunately, a parent can do their best but they cannot help their children stay innocent like before IMOO.

That’s true but I just can’t see an 8 year old knowing how to do something this complex. And then seeing what happened to his sister and then still doing it to himself. Because I guarantee she didn’t kick the chair out from under herself.

This is complex. The length of the chain would’ve had to be precisely measured to different lengths accounting for double tying it around rafters, the varying heights of the kids and the distance from their necks to the rafters as they stand on chairs, and to the difference in length when the little one’s chair got kicked out from her to before when she was standing on the chair.

Otherwise the hanging wouldn’t work when the boy climbed up.

I just don’t people this complicated mess was thought up by an 8-9 year old child. No matter how sophisticated kids are today. It doesn’t make sense to me.

 

[gitana1]

But the police are wondering it's weight for some reason?

Is it possible because that may determine what type of chain she needed? Maybe she claimed she had an X pound dog so she needed a certain chain but maybe her surviving child said their dog was tiny?

 

[gitana1]

I can guarantee you that is your first instinct.

Of course. Especially if those are your own babies. It’s ridiculous that she just let them swing in the wind like that. Any real mom would be desperate to cut them down and try to breathe life into them.

 

[gitana1]

Oh, I understand completely how cruel and coldblooded some mothers can be. I have seen too many cases of it here. Little Zahra comes to mind. And the baby boy that was thrown into a bonfire, while still alive, by his mother and her girlfriend.
And the car full of malnourished adoptees that were driven off an ocean cliff...Disgusting as it gets.

But this case just doesn't seem like her work---and I am probably wrong. Just saying it feels more like something a teen would do. JMO

Yes I might agree except wasn't the kid not home? And the mother didn’t cut her kids down. Unless the reports were wrong about how the kids were found by EMS? Maybe that’s how MOM found them?

 

[TTF14]

Is it possible because that may determine what type of chain she needed? Maybe she claimed she had an X pound dog so she needed a certain chain but maybe her surviving child said their dog was tiny?

Hmmmm, great theory.

 

[MassGuy]

I don’t think mommy’s Facebook is still up, but I’d love to see it. I think there’s three plausible motives here, or a mixture of them.

The kids were somehow in the way (Like Diane Downs).

Some sort of financial motivation.

Attention seeking. This would go beyond any effort to sell the “bullying” scenario, which would be in her interest to push as a way to misdirect the investigation (something equivalent to Munchausen).

 

[TTF14]

I don’t think mommy’s Facebook is still up, but I’d love to see it. I think there’s three plausible motives here, or a mixture of them.

The kids were somehow in the way (Like Diane Downs).

Some sort of financial motivation.

Attention seeking. This would go beyond any effort to sell the “bullying” scenario, which would be in her interest to push as a way to misdirect the investigation (something equivalent to Munchausen).

4. Batshit crazy caregiver?

 

[1&2&3]

Something is really wrong and suspicious in this story. There is a surviving adult son who lived in the house who can most likely answer any and all questions LE needs answers to.

IIRC, this son has a proven alibi that he was at work. So, that should clear him.

To suspect the eight year old did this, he would need a ladder to climb up to the rafters to wrap the cord. An old house like this one probably has a low basement ceiling, still requiring a ladder for this little guy. Was a ladder found in the basement?

 

[MassGuy]

Something is really wrong and suspicious in this story. There is a surviving adult son who lived in the house who can most likely answer any and all questions LE needs answers to.

IIRC, this son has a proven alibi that he was at work. So, that should clear him.

To suspect the eight year old did this, he would need a ladder to climb up to the rafters to wrap the cord. An old house like this one probably has a low basement ceiling, still requiring a ladder for this little guy. Was a ladder found in the basement?

Chairs were found, which may have been sufficient. Regardless, there is way more wrong with the story than simply the kids’ ability to pull this off.

 

[Kittybunny]

Oh, I understand completely how cruel and coldblooded some mothers can be. I have seen too many cases of it here. Little Zahra comes to mind. And the baby boy that was thrown into a bonfire, while still alive, by his mother and her girlfriend.
And the car full of malnourished adoptees that were driven off an ocean cliff...Disgusting as it gets.

But this case just doesn't seem like her work---and I am probably wrong. Just saying it feels more like something a teen would do. JMO

It is very odd way for a mother to kill her children, agree, but as of now it seems the older teen brother has a solid alibi - he was at work.

 

[Seattle1]

Family of 2 kids who died after being found unconscious in Pa. home were known to CYS

Oct 8, 2019

The family of two children who mysteriously died in Berks County last month had received services from Children and Youth Services, according to child advocate Cathleen Palm.

Brother and sister Conner Snyder, 8, and Brinley Snyder, 4, died Sept. 26 at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, three days after paramedics were called to their family’s home in the 2400 block of Route 143, in Albany Township, about 10 miles west of Allentown.

[...]

A spokesperson from the state Department of Human Services confirmed to Cathleen Palm, founder of the Center for Children’s Justice, that assessment and ongoing case management services were provided to Connor and Brinley Snyder through Berks County Children and Youth Services. The Center regularly engages in tracking and researching child fatalities in its work to prevent child abuse and protect children.

The Department of Human Services did not explain what services exactly were provided.

Deaths of children in Pennsylvania are required to be reviewed by two county-based “child death review” teams. The “Act 33” county review is done first and only in cases of suspected child abuse.

 

[Seattle1]

Mom blames bullying after hanged children die, but police still want their dog: Latest on tragic Pa. case

From the timeline at link above:

Oct. 8: Investigators are looking for clues in a video game console and other electronics, and they are hoping to find a dog that used to belong to the children’s mother, the (Allentown) Morning Call reports. The dog, they say, was given away. “Determining the dog’s actual weight and size utilizing a scale will assist in the criminal investigation,” a warrant states

Oct. 12: Loved ones recognized Conner Snyder’s 9th birthday with a gathering and balloon release, the Morning Call reported. The children were organ donors, the paper said.

Oct. 16: The boy’s school is mourning his loss, the Reading Eagle reports. Kutztown School District Superintendent Christian Temchatin told the paper that “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.”
^^bbm

Hmmmm .... referencing the warrant in Oct 8 entry, first time I've seen the words "criminal investigation."

Reports mourning Conner's death, and reception for his birthday by his elementary school just don't and project bullying to me. Children don't fake their emotions, and this child appears to have had friends and liked by his peers and teachers.

MOO

 

[Wild Rose]

It might have been online bullying.

 

[gitana1]

Chairs were found, which may have been sufficient. Regardless, there is way more wrong with the story than simply the kids’ ability to pull this off.

The chairs wouldn’t be enough to tie the chain around the rafters though. Would they? Because how high were the rafters from the floor?

 

[Seattle1]

Police serve new search warrant, turn up more phones at Berks home where children were found hanged

Oct 10, 2019

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.

[...]

“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-year-old 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, 27, 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.

[...]

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.

 

[gitana1]

It might have been online bullying.

Even so...it seems way too complex for an 8 year old to think up and carry out. And where’s the dog? Why did mom not reveal all the phones she had? Why did she leave her precious babies hanging like that from the rafters instead of immediately rushing to cut them down? There was still a bit of life in them when the paramedics cut them down which means there would’ve been even more had she not just waited for emergency services to arrive and had actually done what ANY innocent human who has the physical ability to move, and to think normally, would’ve done.