Son testifies against Lisa Snyder, who is accused of killing his two siblings

Owen Snyder was calm and collected.

As he sat on the witness stand in Berks County District Court on Tuesday morning, the 22-year-old answered the questions posed to him bluntly.

He talked about his little brother and sister who died in 2019. And he talked about his mother, Lisa Snyder, the woman accused of killing them.

He did this without emotion and with a firm attitude.

This was even the case when his mother's lawyer – who was sitting a few feet away in a yellow prison sweatshirt and handcuffs and leg irons – asked him why he called her Lisa instead of Mom.

“I just don't see her as my mother anymore,” he said, a remark that elicited audible sobs from Lisa Snyder.

Lisa Snyder is on trial for the murder of two of her children – 8-year-old Connor and 4-year-old Brinley – in September 2019. The children were found hanged in the basement of Snyder's Albany Township home and both died three days later.

Snyder, 41, claims Connor, who suffered from depression, was responsible for his and his sister's deaths. Since her first 911 call that day, she has claimed he was the one who attached the dog leash that suffocated her life to a support beam and the one who persuaded his sister to follow him.

Testifying on behalf of the prosecution before Berks County Court Chief Judge M. Theresa Johnson on the second day of the trial, Snyder's surviving child made it clear that he did not believe his mother's story.

Owen Snyder said his little brother was not suicidal, suggesting that his mother's claims that he was bullied at school were untrue.

“He was a carefree child,” he said. “He always wanted to do something. He was always playing with his little sister.”

The picture he painted of his brother was similar to one shared by Kutztown School District staff on the first day of the trial Monday. Those staff members – a teacher, a counselor, a bus driver and therapists – said Connor was a happy child who showed no signs of depression or suicidal thoughts.

That's why, Owen Snyder said, it was a shock to him when his mother told him about a month before Connor's death that the child had struggled with bullying. Owen Snyder said he asked his little brother about his mother's claims and Connor seemed confused.

According to Owen, Connor said he loved school, bus rides and playing with his friends.

“He was always the boy that everyone loved,” Owen Snyder said.

Owen Snyder said he had a close relationship with his younger siblings, especially Connor. His brother was always happy to see Owen when he came home from his afternoon job and often wanted to play video games with him on his XBox.

For this reason, Owen Snyder believes that if Connor had been suffering from depression, he would have told him.

He also said he believed his younger brother had physical disabilities that would have made preparing for his and his sister's execution difficult, if not impossible.

During defense cross-examination, Owen Snyder was questioned at length about his mother's mental state. Defense attorneys have stated that they are taking a two-pronged approach to the case: arguing that Lisa Snyder did not kill her children or, if she did, that she did so when she was insane and unable to distinguish between right and wrong.

Snyder largely avoided questions about his mother's mental health, saying he had only vague knowledge of her problems, including an incident in 2014 when she released him and Connor from their mother's care after admitting she had thought about killing the boys.

The only moment during his testimony when the witness showed any emotion was when he was asked about his mother's claim that she saw him touching Connor inappropriately.

He was upset by the question, initially refusing to answer it, but then confirmed that he had spoken to his mother about it. He firmly refuted her claim, saying it was completely untrue.

Another key witness called by prosecutors on Tuesday was Jessica Waidelich, Lisa Snyder's cousin and self-proclaimed best friend.

Like Owen Snyder, Waidelich said Lisa Snyder's claims that Connor was bullied did not appear to be true. She said she spoke to Connor and he did not understand why she was concerned.

Waidelich also spoke about Lisa Snyder's mental health. She said depression affected her ability as a mother and she often refused to leave her bed.

She recalled the 2014 incident that led to the Berks County Department of Children and Youth Services temporarily taking the children away from Snyder. She had violent thoughts toward her children, she said, including placing bottle caps and string in 2-year-old Connor's bed in the hopes he would suffocate in his sleep.

Waidelich also testified that when Owen's mother was a baby, she talked about committing a murder-suicide with him because she felt his biological father had abandoned him. Snyder floated the idea that if she ever decided to commit suicide, she would take her son in the car and drive him into a lake.

The trial is scheduled to continue on Wednesday morning.

Snyder is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of child endangerment and one count of tampering with evidence.

Berks prosecutors have said they will seek life imprisonment or the death penalty in the case.

Originally published: September 17, 2024 at 5:16 pm