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Saturday, February 06, 2010
APD Believes 8-Year-Old Mystery Is Solved
By Jeff Proctor
Copyright © 2010 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
Authorities are investigating whether a prenuptial agreement was the motive behind Ellen Snyder's alleged slaying eight years ago of her husband, who had a "substantial amount of money."
That may have been why she allegedly emptied a .32-caliber semi-automatic pistol into her then-husband, Michael Snyder, in the early morning hours of Jan. 11, 2002, according to police. Her son, Michael Sheffield, who was 17 at the time, heard the eight gunshots and called 911. His mother told him to hang up, because everything was OK.
Sheffield "then discovered his mother had shot and killed his stepfather," according to an arrest warrant affidavit. "They were both in a state of panic, and he didn't know what to do. Sheffield admitted to wrapping his stepfather up in plastic garbage bags and putting him in the garage."
Two days later, Ellen Snyder hired a backhoe to dig a hole in the yard of the family's home in North Albuquerque Acres, Sheffield told police, according to the warrant.
It was a secret Sheffield kept only to himself and his closest friends for more than eight years.
But that secret finally found its way to police this week, causing them to spend days digging outside the Snyders' former home on the 11000 block of Anaheim NE.
On Thursday, they found Michael Snyder's remains.
Ellen Snyder, 50, turned herself in to police Friday afternoon. She is charged with an open count of murder, evidence tampering, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and conspiracy. She was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on a $1 million bond.
Schultz said Sheffield has not been charged in the case, because he has cooperated in the investigation and because he was a juvenile at the time of the killing. The District Attorney's Office will make a final determination on whether to charge Sheffield.
Police consider motive
Detectives have had the murder weapon in their possession since June 2006, according to the warrant.
Ellen Snyder had told a friend that she feared for her safety and borrowed the pistol from him "around the time she was separating from her husband" in early 2002.
Ellen Snyder returned the weapon to the friend a few months later, and he turned it over to police in 2006 after reading a Journal story on cold case detectives' investigation of Michael Snyder's disappearance, the warrant states.
Police Chief Ray Schultz said authorities are still trying to piece together Ellen Snyder's precise motive for the alleged killing.
"There have been a lot of rumors surrounding the specifics of this case over the years," he said. "Those include some pretty substantial sums of money Mr. Snyder had and a prenuptial agreement that was in place. We're looking into all of that."
Michael Snyder's mother reported her son missing in May 2002, a month after Ellen Snyder had filed for divorce. Ellen Snyder called authorities in October 2003 to say that she had spoken with her husband and that he was fine.
Ellen Snyder again called police after the newspaper article appeared in March 2006, according to the warrant. The article stated that Michael Snyder had last been seen after arguing with his wife in an Arizona restaurant in January 2002.
"We didn't have a fight in Phoenix," she told detectives. "I don't know where that came from because he left on Jan. 11, 2002. We did have a disagreement which was pretty heated on Jan. 10, 2002, and that is when I confronted him about the affair with ...." She names someone she says was Snyder's male lover.
Ellen Snyder went on to tell detectives that her former husband "had looked at land in places like St. Croix, Grand Caymen Island and the U.S. Virgin Islands," the warrant states.
Break in the case
In early 2006, APD cold case detectives began looking into Snyder's death after family members contacted them and said he was still missing. Detectives noticed that there had been no credit card activity, no contact with law enforcement — not even a traffic ticket — and he missed his father's funeral in 2005.
"We have been working this case actively for more than four years," Schultz said in an interview Friday. "Every 12 to 18 months, we would do a full review, including a visit to the Anaheim NE residence."
Police became more suspicious after receiving a phone call after the newspaper article from a resident who lived on Anaheim NE. The neighbor told detectives she had seen "Ellen and her son digging in the backyard of the house," the warrant states.
"We worked in concert with the FBI, and we did bring cadaver-sniffing dogs to the location," Schultz said. "The dogs did show some interest, but not enough for a positive hit. We believe that is because of the depth at which the body was buried and because we weren't looking in exactly the right location."
But detectives kept working the case, and, on Jan. 25, they caught a break.
One of Sheffield's friends came forward and told detectives what Sheffield had told him about his stepfather's death.
Two days later, the friend met with Sheffield and, in a recorded conversation, asked Sheffield: "What should I do? The police have contacted me regarding this case," according to the warrant.
"Tell them you don't know anything," Sheffield told his friend, according to the warrant. "Oh, I know how to handle myself. I'll just tell them he just left us, he just left us."
But on Jan. 28, another of Sheffield's friends came forward and told detectives the same story, according to the warrant. So detectives interviewed Sheffield again, on Jan. 29.
At first Sheffield said "he just woke up one day and his stepfather was gone," according to the warrant. But when detectives confronted him with what they already knew, Sheffield told them about the shooting and burial.
Suspect remarried
On Thursday, police recovered Snyder's remains from an 8-foot-deep hole beside the garage at a home in the 11000 block of Anaheim NE. Snyder's body had been wrapped in a waterproof tarp, and the hole had been disguised as an abandoned construction pit.
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.
Neighbors said Ellen Snyder was friendly but largely kept to herself, rarely socializing with other residents in the Four Hills neighborhood where she has been residing with her son.
Ellen Snyder and her son moved into the one-story wood-frame house in the 12500 block of Elyse Place SE in 2004 or 2005, said a neighbor who asked not to be identified. She moved to Portales about three years ago, returning to Albuquerque and the Four Hills home about a year ago, the neighbor said.
After Ellen Snyder divorced Michael, she married again and became Ellen C de Baca. That marriage ended in divorce in 2006.
Journal Staff Writer Olivier Uyttebrouck contributed to this report.
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