A Pennsylvania mother who allegedly had sex with a pit bull before hanging her two children by a dog leash has appeared at her murder trial with a new, more streamlined look.
Lisa Snyder, 41, appeared much slimmer than in her September 2019 mugshot when she appeared in court in Reading on Friday.
The judges trying her were shown the silver dog leash she is accused of using to choke her eight-year-old son Conner and four-year-old daughter Brinley five years ago.
Snyder stood impassively as two police officers in blue plastic gloves presented the macabre pre-trial display.
A skinny Lisa Snyder, 41, faces charges of first-degree murder, child endangerment and tampering with evidence in the deaths of her two sons in September 2019.
She denies murder and has suggested that Conner, who was being bullied at school, killed himself to escape the torment, while he also killed his sister because he did not want to die alone.
Snyder was also initially investigated over claims that she had sex with her pet pit bull shortly before the murders, but police dropped that investigation while the murder investigation continued.
The trial began Monday and the court heard how Snyder had used his phone to Google “How to Hang Yourself” and look up a show called “Almost Got Away With It” days before Conner and Brinley died.
A further bloody twist came when the tall wooden kitchen chairs from which Conner and Brinley had been hanged were brought into court.
Snyder stood by as his lawyers insisted the evidence against him is all conjecture.
Snyder’s children were taken off life support and died three days after being found in the home in Albany Township, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Snyder blamed her son for killing his sister and then himself, claiming he was suicidal due to bullying.
Snyder allegedly searched the Internet in the weeks, days and hours leading up to the children’s deaths for “the best ways to commit suicide and how to get away with murder.”
During this week’s testimony, the wooden kitchen high chairs involved in the incident that led to the deaths of the two children were brought into the courtroom directly in front of Snyder. She is pictured here in 2023.
Brinley, 4, and Conner, 8, were found hanging from opposite ends of the same dog leash in the basement of their Pennsylvania home.
Both children suffered cardiac arrest when they were found by authorities, but were able to be resuscitated. The children died in hospital a few days later.
Snyder’s defense outlined in its argument how the suicide instruction website could also be connected to suicide prevention information.
Fingerprints were found on the chairs, and one is said to belong to Conner.
Snyder, who made the initial 911 call, had told police her son was being bullied and had been threatening to take his own life, but authorities were immediately suspicious of her suicide claim and said they found no evidence to support it.
The boy showed no outward signs of distress in school bus security video recorded that day, and an occupational therapist later said he was not physically capable of causing that kind of harm to himself or his little sister.
Snyder also admitted to going to a store to buy a dog leash the day the children were found hanging from it, authorities said.
Snyder later called for help, saying he couldn’t get them down from where they were hanging because he was suffering from extreme anxiety.
Both young men were rushed to a nearby hospital, where they died after being taken off life support three days later.
A coroner said both boys were killed by hanging and ruled the deaths homicides.
A much older Snyder is seen during an earlier court hearing in 2020.
Police have discovered that Snyder’s Google searches were related to suicide by hanging. He is pictured during his first arrest in December 2019.
“I don’t think I can stand here, or anyone can, to explain the horrific loss of the lives of two innocent children. I think there’s no need for an explanation,” Adams, the prosecutor, told reporters when Snyder was charged in December 2019, more than two months after the killings.
The defense had planned an insanity defense, citing a “chronic history of serious mental disorders.”
His attorney has said Snyder suffered from severe depression, borderline personality disorder, dissociative disorder and other mental illnesses at the time of the killings.
Prosecutors have indicated they are pushing for Snyder to receive the death penalty, but she faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.
It will be the judge, not the jury, who must make that decision.
