Pennsylvania woman who hanged her two children and had sex with family pit bull faces execution
A Pennsylvania woman, accused of having sex with her pet pit bull, faces execution if convicted of fatally hanging her two young children. Prosecutors are seeking capital murder charges for Lisa Snyder over the deaths of her son Conner, 8, and daughter Brinley, 4, at her Berks County residence in September 2019. In a March arraignment, aggravating factors were put before the court including the number of victims, their age, and the fact that the children were killed in tandem with another felony of Snyder’s alleged sexual intercourse with her family’s dog.
A judge is yet to decide whether Snyder, who was charged with her children’s murders in December 2019, should face the additional counts. She initially claimed Conner had killed his sister and then hanged himself. Snyder claimed her son had expressed suicidal thoughts and complained about being bullied, but told her he didn't want to die alone. The alleged killer said she later found her children hanging from the dog leash draped over a beam, with two upturned chairs underneath.
Conner and Brinley were rushed to a nearby hospital, but were taken off life support three days later. The Morning Call published text messages which Snyder sent to her friend Maigan Sandt, 27, where the mother seemingly showed no emotion even as her children lay on the brink of death.
"The doctor herself told us to prepare for the worst and for a doctor to say that you know it's pretty bad," one text read. "Can't cry anymore I'm completely numb my life has been ripped him [sic] to shreds and it's never going to get better."
She went on to say that she was not getting her hopes up and that doctors would be "pulling the plug" on her children soon. "They are not going to make it," she told Sandt. "They need to run a few more tests simply for the investigation. After that, my babies will be going to heaven to live with Jesus."
However, Sandt admitted that she had a nagging suspicion Snyder was responsible after her bizarre text messages. "I never expected this to happen but when I saw the news and realized it was her, I had that gut feeling because it just all seemed impossible for Conner to do," she said.
Prosecutor Margaret McCollum had also rebuffed Snyders’ version of events at a previous hearing. "Conner was incapable of doing this to himself. He was incapable of doing this to his sister," she told the court.
McCollum asserted that a child of Conner's age wouldn't have the dexterity to tie the complex knots used to kill him and his sister, added to the fact that Snyder had bought the dog leash used in their deaths just the day before. And as reported by The Morning Call, police discovered that Conner was happy at school and had many friends. In fact, teachers dismissed his mother's claims that he was bullied. It emerged that Snyder, several weeks before her children's deaths, shared a live video of herself engaging in sexual intercourse with the family dog. "He’s eating my p**** daddy," she wrote, in an apparent reference to her pet. "He keeps moving every time the flash goes off."
Police also revealed how she sent a photo of a "black and white dog performing oral sex" to "daddy" just hours later. According to the Morning Call, detectives uncovered the alleged bestiality while investigating Conner and Brinley's deaths. Snyder's next court appearance is slated for a procedural hearing on June 29.