A Pennsylvania woman, aged 41, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of her two young children. Lisa Snyder of Kempton, Pennsylvania, was ordered by Berks County Court of Common Pleas Judge M. Theresa Johnson to serve two consecutive life sentences in a state correctional facility. The sentence comes five years after Snyder used a dog leash to hang her children, 8-year-old Connor and 4-year-old Brinley, from a beam in their basement.
The verdict followed a seven-day bench trial in September, where Snyder was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. In addition to the murder charges, she was also convicted of endangering the welfare of a child and tampering with physical evidence. For these lesser charges, she received an additional sentence of 8 1/2 to 17 years.
Authorities revealed that Snyder had intentionally killed her children and attempted to stage the scene to make it appear as if her son had murdered his younger sister before taking his own life. On September 23, 2019, Snyder had called 911 to her Albany Township home, where paramedics found the children hanging from a beam above two overturned chairs.
Paramedics who responded to the scene testified that Snyder seemed “very anxious” and “very nervous.” The children were airlifted to a hospital and put on life support, but tragically, they succumbed to their injuries three days later.
Snyder later claimed that her son had expressed a desire to die by suicide due to bullying and fear of dying alone. However, this claim was contradicted by multiple witnesses who stated that the boy always appeared happy and would never have harmed himself or his sister.
In the week following the children’s deaths, Snyder texted a friend stating that she needed “two strong drinks.” The friend testified that during their drinking session, Snyder confessed that she expected to be arrested. She also admitted to using her son’s Google profile to conduct internet searches about suicide.
Investigators revealed that Snyder had searched for hanging methods and had ordered the dog leash used in the murders a day before the children’s deaths. She had also searched for information on suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning and watched episodes of the true crime series “I Almost Got Away With It.” A plea deal that would have allowed Snyder to plead no contest but mentally ill to charges of third-degree murder was rejected by a judge last year.