Berks County mom convicted of murdering her 2 young children in 2019
Lisa Snyder has been found guilty of murdering her two children in their Berks County home back in 2019. Photo: Berks County District Attorneys Office
ALBANY TOWNSHIP, Pa. - Lisa Snyder, the mother charged in the 2019 hanging deaths of her two children in the basement of their home in Berks County has been found guilty, officials say.
Snyder was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Conner Snyder, 8, and Brinley Snyder, 4, during a non-jury trial.
A Berks County judge delivered the guilty verdict in court Tuesday afternoon, five years after the gruesome killings.
On September 23, 2019, the two young victims were found hanging approximately three feet apart from a single wired cable with plastic coating in the basement of their Albany Township home after Snyder called 911,
Snyder was interviewed twice by authorities before she was taken into police custody and arraigned in Hamburg.
Authorities linked the mother to the children’s deaths after discovering internet searches for suicide and crime shortly before they were found.
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Officials say Snyder claimed her son Conner was bullied and was suicidal. Snyder's teen son, who lived in the house, as well as other witnesses, refuted the claim that Conner was bullied and said he never mentioned being suicidal, according to investigators.
Authorities previously reported that the two children had been removed from the family’s home in 2014 by Children and Youth Services (CYS). They were returned in February 2015 and Children Protective Services had been involved with the family until Nov. 2015.
When it comes to filing to seek the death penalty, back in 2020, prosecutors said the crimes meet the threshold of aggravating factors required in Pennsylvania for a capital case.
"The decision to seek the death penalty was not made lightly, but we decided there was overwhelming evidence of the aggravating factors," District Attorney John T. Adams said.