Sometimes you spend years with a person, and you are still unaware of his thoughts and intentions. That’s what happened to this poor old woman Roberta Snider who was killed by his own husband, Philip Snider, after spending 53 years with him. Why and How she has killed, let’s find out.
Roberta Snider And Philip Snider Bio
In January 1948, Roberta Lee Snider was born. For about 53 years, she had been married to Philip Snider. Philip Snider worked as a carpenter and is now enjoying his retired life.
Philip managed to tell his family that his 70 years old wife had cancer, and it was her last wish to visit Graceland in Tennessee once before she left the world.
Roberta was an Elvis Presley fan and wanted to visit Elvis’s actual home. So as a loyal husband, he must fulfill her dream. So, on January 4, 2018, Philip Snider called his friend and told him that he was driving down to Graceland in Hartville, Ohio.
Roberta Death News
On January 8, Philip called Roberta’s family members to share the news of Roberta’s death and told them that she choked on her phlegm as they went near to their destination.
He further told them that he signaled an ambulance for help as they were in the parking lot there. He then said that the ambulance took Roberta while Philip returned back.
Philip’s story was not accepted by Roberta’s brother, so he decided to involve the police. On January 9, he requested the police to look into his sister’s death. As the police investigated, new information was revealed, and it was cleared to police that Roberta was murdered, but her remains were never found.
Who Was The Killer?
When police asked Philip about his wife’s body, he claimed he returned home after Roberta’s cremation. However, the policemen could not find evidence that an EMS vehicle picked up Roberta’s body or a Jane Doe.
The police further investigated him and watched surveillance footage where he claimed that they stayed. The surveillance footage revealed Philip alone, without his wife, Roberta.
When asked about this, Philip again changed his story. He emphasized that Roberta died someplace between Columbus, Ohio, and Cincinnati, Ohio.
Philip stated that he covered his wife’s body in garbage bags, put her in the pickup truck, and drove to Graceland, where he dumped Roberta’s body in the Tennessee River.
The search team could not find Roberta’s body near the river area or any other proof of body dumping. In August 2018, Philip was taken to the hospital after he had tried to take his own life.
During his stay at the hospital, the police performed a detailed search at his Hartville residence, which showed some troubling clues.
In the basement of the house, the police found a plastic box with a bloody shirt. The shirt was identified as Roberta’s, and DNA tests further confirmed that.
Furthermore, surveillance footage from the gas station in Wooster, Ohio, where Philip stopped briefly during the trip, displayed no signs of Roberta with him.
When the police investigated Philip, he again changed his story, and he claimed that Roberta died at home, after which he put her body in the vehicle and drove to Tennessee. He then dropped her body in the river on the way because it was his wife’s last wish to be with nature after her death.
Undercover Police Officer
The police were confirmed that Philips somehow related to Roberta’s death, but they couldn’t arrest him without finding the body first. So, they make a new plan to record the confession of Philip.
The police officers assigned this task to an undercover police officer, Joan Bauer, a 50-year-old Hartville police officer. She took the assignment. She transformed herself into “Missy” by wearing simple plain sweatshirts and doing no makeup and started talking to Philips over coffee at Burger King, which he visited regularly.
Meeting Of Philip With Missy
“Missy” and Philip started meeting daily for coffee. Through their conversations, Philip discovered that she was caring for her dying mother. According to the reports, “Missy” pretended that she had a complicated relationship with her mother and had wished she would die.
After meeting and talking for a few weeks, the undercover police officer, Missy, gained Philip’s trust, and Philip started liking her and proposed to her.
According to Joan Bauer’s interviews, she said,
“I was shocked,” she admitted. “Because he made it very clear that I was a younger friend, and I had made a lot of statements that I was not looking for anything either. That whole romantic side, I never gave that. And honestly, I don’t think that he even took it there. I honestly think that his whole proposing idea was actually because, in the state of Ohio, you can’t make a spouse testify against another spouse.”
Revealing The Truth
Missy told him that she wanted to get rid of her mother, and on that point, Philip suggested Missy kill her mother. Then he started discussing the “fake scenario,” which was actually the story of his crime scene.
He told her that on January 2, he and Roberta had a fight and, when she slept on a love seat in the living room, He placed a shop cloth over her head and hit her doubly with a two-pound stick hammer.
He then tied a plastic bag over her head and wrapped her whole body in a plastic bag before putting it inside a Rubbermaid container.
After doing this, Philip packed it into the truck and other containers carrying her blood-stained sweatshirt and other evidence, including the hammer, blood-stained pillows, and a lamp. Then he drove the truck between Hartville and Memphis, where he disposed of the evidence and his wife’s body at various locations.
Philip Arrest
He was arrested on April 20 based on the confession the undercover Missy recorded and declared criminal to murder and charges in the death of Snider. In August 2018, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
He agreed to help the police to find the remains of his wife’s body, and by following his directions, the police found the body in a dumpster in Bullitt County, Kentucky.
According to the authorities, the police did not find the motive behind the murder, and Philip never shared it with anyone, even with the undercover Missy. According to the undercover police officer, killing his wife is like ending all problems for Philip.
