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Thursday, February 04, 2010
Ex-Wife's Story Questioned
By Jeff Proctor
Copyright © 2010 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
Michael Snyder's wife called police in 2003, a year after her husband was reported missing to say she had spoken with him and he was fine, authorities said Wednesday.
But investigators aren't so sure about Ellen Snyder's story regarding what happened to her husband. They have always believed he was the victim of foul play.
In fact, Snyder hasn't called anyone or shown up in law enforcement databases — not even for a speeding ticket — since he disappeared. His credit cards haven't been used, and he missed his father's funeral in 2005.
Police on Wednesday continued digging beneath a six-car garage that was built on the west side of the North Albuquerque Acres home Snyder built and lived in with his wife for several years.
Police Chief Ray Schultz said detectives have some solid theories about what happened to Snyder, but he wouldn't elaborate.
The chief did, however, say that whoever killed Snyder hired a backhoe operator to dig a 10-foot-deep hole at the home. And APD spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said police remain confident they will find Snyder's body.
But the job of locating his remains has proven difficult. The garage floor is a solid foot of steel-reinforced concrete. Smashing through it has caused two Bobcats to break down.
Authorities had removed about a quarter of the garage floor by Wednesday evening, Hamby said. From there, they have dug down about nine feet into the earth — and still no body. The dig was suspended Wednesday afternoon and is to continue today.
Police believe they need to keep digging, and digging deep, because detectives have learned that whoever killed and buried Snyder had help from a backhoe operator.
"We are asking that backhoe operator who was at the home in 2002 to dig a hole — or anyone who knows that person — to come forward and call 1-877-SOLV-APD," Hamby said. "We're not saying the backhoe operator had any knowledge of what the hole was for. We actually believe that person was hired to dig the hole under false pretenses."
In January 2002, Snyder, a lifelong Albuquerque resident, walked away from a Phoenix restaurant after arguing with his wife. His mother reported him missing five months later in May 2002.
Ellen Snyder filed for divorce in April 2002, three months after Snyder's disappearance. She has since remarried.
She could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Snyder had left behind a 6-year-old daughter, a six-figure income and the home on Anaheim NE, near Paseo del Norte and Lowell. It was valued at $400,000.
None of it added up for APD's cold case unit.
When detectives first took the case, they went to the Anaheim NE home in search of information on Snyder's whereabouts and have returned in the years since. They have always come up empty-handed.
This week, they got a solid tip from a confidential informant that Snyder's body was buried beneath the garage, which was built by a subsequent homeowner around 2006. The home has had multiple owners, and police aren't sure which one built the garage.
An investment company that is owned by an APD sergeant and his wife are the current owners. They rent the home to a tenant.
At the time he disappeared, Snyder was regarded as one of the best mechanics in the city. He had worked at Casa Chrysler Jeep for more than eight years, had reached the title of master mechanic and was earning more than $100,000 a year.
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