Mother accused of hanging children, 8 and 6, showed no emotion in texts to friend: 'They're not gonna make it'
ALBANY, PENNSYLVANIA: New details have emerged in the shocking case of the Pennsylvania mother accused of hanging her two children, with text messages she sent to a friend as her children lay dying in the hospital displaying a shocking lack of emotion.
MEAWW previously reported that Lisa Rachelle Snyder, 36, had called 911 on September 23 last year and told the dispatcher that she had discovered her children -- Conner Snyder, 8, and Brinley L. Snyder, 6 -- hanging and unresponsive in the basement of their Albany Township home.
When first responders arrived at the scene, they found the children hanging three feet apart from the opposite ends of a dog leash that was wrapped around the main support beam in the basement. Two chairs were also found tipped on the floor on either side of the victims.
The children were in full cardiac arrest as they were flown to a nearby hospital, and while they were briefly revived en route, they were taken off life support three days later and declared dead 14 minutes apart.
The Morning Call has now 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."
Snyder was arrested for their deaths after detectives discovered during their investigation that in the days before they were found hanging, she searched the internet for information about "hanging yourself," "how long to die" from carbon monoxide, and the Investigation Discovery true-crime television series 'Almost Got Away With It.'
The 36-year-old had told the dispatcher that she suspected Conner had killed himself and his younger sister because of depression over bullying and had "made threats of doing this, but didn’t want to go alone."
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.
The mother has also been accused of having sex with her dog, a five-month-old pit bull and husky mix, in the weeks before her childrens' murders. Court documents state she had sent sexually explicit pictures of herself having oral sex with the dog to an unknown man named 'Daddy.'
Snyder has been charged with first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, endangering the welfare of children, animal cruelty, and sexual intercourse with a dog in connection to the case.
She is currently being held at the Berks County Jail without bail, with the District Attorney's office said to be determining whether to seek the death penalty for the 36-year-old.