Disturbing new details from a 911 recording have emerged after two Pennsylvania children were found hanging in the basement of their home.
Lisa R. Snyder found her two children—Conner Snyder, 8, and his sister, Brinley L. Snyder, 4—unresponsive and hanging by a dog leash in the basement of their Albany Township home on Sept. 23, according to Reading Eagle.
According to the report, the two children were airlifted to a nearby hospital and were revived on their way there, but died three days later after they were removed from life support. The circumstances surrounding their deaths remains under investigation.
A 911 recording has revealed that the children’s mother had reportedly told a 911 dispatcher that her son Conner had threatened to suicide before and that he was a victim of bullying.
“She mentioned that the 8-year-old has been bullied and has made threats of doing this, but didn’t want to go alone,” the 911 dispatcher told an emergency responder in a call obtained by CrimeOnline.
“It sounds like he may be the aggressor of the situation. At this time, it should just be the mother and the two children on the scene.”
The call was made from Berks County 911 dispatches to emergency responders at the scene on Sept. 23 around 4:33 p.m., around the same time when the children were found.
When reached by TribLive on Oct. 16 for comment, the mother told the outlet: “At this point, I am not ready to make any public comments.”
After her children died, Lisa changed her Facebook profile on Sept. 26 with a photo and the message “Words scar, rumors destroy, bullies kill,” the outlet reported.
Berks County District Attorney John Adams told the outlet he would not comment on the recording.
Both children were receiving general protective services from welfare officials, but it is unclear why, according to WPVI.
State police obtained six different warrants to search the home for evidence, according to Reading Eagle. They have seized three cellphones from Lisa Snyder after learning from her only other child, a 17-year-old son, that she had multiple phones, reported The Morning Call.
Police have seized two iPads, a laptop computer, and an X-box gaming console.
“The 8-year-old victim is known to play video games and view various internet websites utilizing the X-Box gaming console,” one warrant viewed by the outlet states.
They have also seized the dog leash, made out of wire with a plastic coating, as well as wooden chairs that were found overturned near the children in the basement.
According to an affidavit, the children were found hanging from opposite ends of a plastic-coated wire dog lead that was wrapped around the main support beam of the ceiling of the basement, with each end of the lead wrapped around their necks, the Reading Eagle reported.
Police also issued a warrant on Oct. 2 for a dog, a 50-pound black husky-pit bull mix. Lisa had told police in an interview that the dog had been given away, but she used to keep it attached to a wire lead with a plastic coating outside the residence, reported the outlet. The dog has yet to be found.
“By determining the dogs (sic) actual weight and sized (sic) utilizing a scale will assist in the criminal investigation,” Pennsylvania State Police wrote in the warrant application, obtained by WFMZ in Allentown. “All of this is important to the criminal investigation and reconstruction of the events surrounding this incident.”
Anyone with information about the case should call the district attorney’s office at 610-478-6000 or the state police at 610-562-6885.
If you are in an emergency in the United States or Canada, please call 911. You can phone the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1 800 273 8255. Youth can call the Kids Help Phone on 1800 668 6868.
In the United Kingdom, people can call Samaritans at 116 123, Papyrus at 0800 068 41 41, or Childline at 0800 1111.
In Australia, the suicide prevention telephone hotline at Lifeline is 13 11 14. You can also visit the Lifeline website at lifeline.org.au. Youth can contact the Kids Helpline by phoning 1800 551 800 or visiting headspace.org.au/yarn-safe
If you are in an emergency in India, call Befrienders India – National Association at +91 33 2474 4704.
