thank you for watching. melvin. thank you for watching. melvin. thank you for watching. melvin. thank you for watching. ♪ ♪ ♪ that is what she did. small problems. as a busy mom, and a business executive. but as your career was on the rise. her marriage was on the rocks. sydney >> i still wanted this

marriage to work, i did not give up. >> soon he was gone, vanished without a word or a trace. >> he left the young daughter behind. he left the house. >> was this a husband who did not want to be found? or could this be something else. >> detectives are not an undercover operation. that would lead to a long -- >> hard to say ready for that? i know that it has to happen. >> disappearance in the desert. could it be the perfect crime. i can only imagine what would be like to keep that. welcome to dateline. i'm lester holt. for eight years it was a mystery, a husband who had simply vanished. on the surface it didn't make sense.

he had a wife, a lucrative job, a daughter he loved. but investigators were told he also had a secret. so was he missing or was he hiding? that question would lead detectives to a dark discovery because someone else had a secret to. here's josh michael it's. >> there is an old saying, that two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. we never talked about what happened, or why it happened. every marriage has its secrets. and this one was no different. but what if the secret becomes bigger than you. >> it was just solving the problem. there were two people who had been unlucky and loved the first time around. back then she was alan sheffield, an early 30s, divorced with a young child. and looking for someone to share that next chapter of her life. and then, quite literally, in walked mike snider.

>> i said hi mike, how are you. doing >> it was the fall of 91. auto mechanic, mike snider, was visiting a friend at the car dealership where she worked. he was corresponding about the -- redhead who greeted him with a big hello. >> he remembered why was. but he got back to work and called back over to find out why was. >> turned out they had worked together years before, this, time the quick encounter led to a fixed up by mutual friends. >> opposites attracted. the quite an introverted life hit off with the talkative and outgoing allen. >> he left flowers on my car, we'd go out to dinner, he was

nice to my son. >> that was important to you? >> it was very important, absolutely. >> he was a skilled mechanic regarded as one of the very best in albuquerque. >> he probably works at least six days a week. he was usually the first one there the last one out. >> they've side there worked alongside mike for a decade, at his jeep dealership. >> if you owned a jeep, and it was an older jeep, my could fix it. he had a wealth of experience with cheap product. >> that wealth of experience earned mike -- were you happy for success? >> there is a proud thing to say that mike snider's my boyfriend. >> analysts making a name for itself too. she was the automotive service advisor at a neighboring viewership. >> no one really knew about carson at the way you did? >> that's right, it irritated

me to know and. >> she knew a lot, not just about cars, but how to make the customer happy. they called her problem solver. >> what can i do to fix the problem make away? i want to do is take care of the customer. >> this problem solver was a rising start work. and as for her personal life she was running on all cylinders. >> six week after we started dating i got the diamond airings for christmas. so it was all very fast. >> so fast that after only a few months of dating ellen and her eight-year-old son, michael, moved in with mike.

>> did he seem like he was happy? >> he did seem like he was happy. >> mike had no children of his own, now he is filling the void and young michael's life. like sister terry. >> he treated him almost like his old son. they shared a lot of the same interest. they would think or in the garage together. >> but it wasn't long until ellen said she noticed that mike's affection wasn't all she wished for. >> i'm all happy that we are going to have valentine's day together, we are in love and he doesn't come home. you decide who's gonna go out with his friends. >> on valentine's day? >> on valentine's day. he could not understand what i was upset. >> let's face it. not every guy makes a big deal out of valentine's day. and so ellen chalked up to simply mike not being the most sensitive man. >> for you said? >> i'm not sure if that is the right word for it. i think was a little confused at the time. >> confused or not. they stand together.

but if years later they are married. and then ellen became pregnant. they began to build a 4000 square foot house in an upscale subdivision and the foothills of albuquerque send -- >> that house was our dream house. >> it was ready just in time for the baby. only mike wasn't ready. he wanted to stay at work. the day ellen was giving birth. >> so i call those boss and i said, well, i'm in the hospital having a baby. >> and i said yeah. >> do you think you can send him? >> once again, maybe not the most sensitive husband. but mike loved that baby girl. they named her elizabeth. >> she was the joy of my brother's life. he just thought the world of that child. >> they would come back the dealership and mike would give her balloons, candy, soda. just, you know, give us time to her. everything else stopped. >> behind closed doors, mike and allen's marriage was starting to unravel.

allen said mike seemed jealous of her success at work. >> once i was promoted to service manager, basically, became hurtful and he was standoffish. >> ellen says that from the time elisabeth was conceived, mike had moved out of the bedroom. permanently. >> we never slept together again. >> so my canal and began living to separate lives in that dream home with their children. but still, they stay together. >> i still wanted this marriage to work. i didn't want to give up. >> that is, until she learned about that secret. the big secret. that would ultimately tear this family apart. >> i found out after christmas and everything was done that i will tell him what i knew. >> dateline returns after the break. ave to answer the door. oof! that was fast. ♪♪ mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season.

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[music playing] there is no cure. on the outside, you'd look at our marriage. it was this great marriage, great family, the prognosis can range from magical disease to paralysis, even death. mike was put on injection treatments to slow the

progression of the disease. ellen gave him the shots. >> it was my place, i was his wife, i was to take care of him. as time went on mike's were colleagues like chuck white noticed a physically weaker mike. >> he was just kind of struggling to make it through the day. we weren't told about what actually he had, what was going on. but he was not coming into work as often, where every day. >> he could not work at the level he expected of himself, mike went on disability. >> it was starting to face it and try to understand how's life was going to be with him. >> which only added more stressed to his marriage. >> i'm sure my brother was going through unquote-able emotional turmoil about his condition.

>> maybe that was the reason mike began waking up well enough in the middle of the night to vent his anger. >> he was yelling, and demeaning, and calling names. tell me how worthless i was. he didn't want to necessarily have the big fights and front of elizabeth. so he would wake me up at one or two in the morning. >> and yell at you? >> and yell at me. >> of course, she was careful not to tell her colleagues about this. islands was bossed a bunch of men. she feared that she showed a

chunk of her emotional armor she would never again be effective. >> they see you are emotional that becomes the focus. they talk about the woman thing. >> right. >> but she did say allow that now that michael was sick she'd be there for him. as she promised. through the good times and the bad. >> she has to see him through this. she says what kind of why put i be? >> and sickness and in health. >> she wasn't going to leave him. >> but allen says he had no problem leaving her. in fact, michael spending more and more time away from allen

and his family. >> he was going back and forth between albuquerque and phoenix. that is where g pell was continuing his education classes and auto mechanics. >> he still wanted to go to training. because i'm going to training all along through his work. >> but a two-day trip became three days. and for days. then a week. allen was becoming increasingly suspicious of exactly what mike was doing on those long trips away from his family, and from her. >> i felt hurt, betrayed, that had gone along all this time as the good wife for his m. s..

>> then, one night, mike was in the shower and his cell phone was sitting there on the table next to allen. curiosity, she says, got the better of her. she picked up his phone and opened it. >> solutions of the messages. >> i listen to the messages. >> >> what a shock that was. one message in particular from a man she never heard mike mention. someone named, dave symonds. a man allen believes was the reason mike was spending so much time in phoenix. >> he would talk about how satisfied he was with their sexual contact. he would be explicit as to what each had done to each other. >> so there really wasn't any question? >> there was no question. no.

none. >> it was january 11th 2002. allen says i like some nights before mike walker for the nightly screaming match. this one was around two or three in the morning. ellen, who had never directly confronted mic about anything, now told him she knew all about the affair michaels having with dave symonds. the man from phoenix will have those explicit voice messages on myself phone. >> there was, allen says, a heated argument. then mike left the next morning. at the jeep dealership for mike worked, colleagues knew only that he had been out sick for a while. >> we didn't know if it was cancer or he had come back or not come back. we had no idea. >> this is like losing the star player? >> pretty much, yes. >> but mike's toolbox was still at work. worth around $40,000. so everyone assumed he would return.

that is, until ellen broke the news about mike leaving town. >> i asked him how mike was doing. >> she said mike was in phoenix, or in arizona. he's living in arizona. >> it was also puzzling to mike 's family because they could understand why mike wasn't talking to allen. but why wasn't he talking to them? their calls went straight to voice mail. >> we knew that he was not doing well. and we knew that he was thinking about leaving island. so we were very concerned as to why we haven't heard from him. >> was everything as it seemed? was mike really in phoenix? if so, what was he doing there? >> coming up. >> house hearing room was that he went to the caribbean. just disappeared. >> where was mike. the mystery deepens, and suspicions begin. >> i believe he fell victim of foul play. >> when dateline continues.

perhaps the loneliest place on josh makowitz (voice over): perhaps the loneliest place on earth is in the middle of a bad marriage, which was exactly where ellen snyder found herself. earth is in the middle of a

bad. marriage, which was exactly where ellen snyder found herself. but in the early morning hours of january 11th, 2002, that came to an end. she had confronted her husband, mike snider. for her knowledge of her love affair with another man. and, in a raiche, mike left his home and his family. and disappeared. >> it was so calm in the house. it had been a very long lonely time. to be married and that loneliness was gone. >> but what disappeared along with mike was ellen's second marriage and she says she fought so hard to safe. but now, it had failed, just like her first. on the plus size, she said, mike was no longer there to torment her. to belittle her, and to shouted her. >> who's waking up in the middle the night to you.

>> that's right. >> just when the kids now. >> just mean the kids. >> ellen said she tried to reach him, but couldn't. neither could mike's family. who wasn't returning their calls either. mike sister, tarrant. >> to mother calls you are a couple of weeks. and you're thinking, is a mess is getting -- >> well, who were concerned. >> terry said she knew that mike was planning on leaving ellen soon. the whole family knew that much, or assumed it. but he wasn't supposed to leave everyone. >> who would never have done that to us. he would release given her, you know, like i don't want to be contacted. please give me my space. but i am okay. >> at work, mechanic -- . notice his boss ellen seemed more relaxed. as of a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. >> she seemed happier. >> she seemed more content, more at ease. >> and, unbeknownst to allen. her collapsing marriage was the topic of office gossip. >> she didn't want anyone to

know was going on in her life. >> can talk about a marriage? >> yep. >> what they said was, what? >> well they said mike was a hothead. >> mike had reputation at work for having a hot temper. for being intimidating. mechanic, dave siler, worked with him for a decade. >> there was a lot of tension, you could just feel it from him. a lot of people were very careful around him, what they said, but they did. >> because mike's fuse could blow. and when it did you didn't want to be around. >> he would lock at dispatchers and service advisers and the dispatcher would be crying. >> so did not commit a big surprise when ellen announced that mike had left or. >> practice stuff and moved to phoenix. >> probably ended up living in

phoenix. that marriage must be over. >> the rumors spread through the albuquerque auto business quicker than the latest -- >> micah left town. money out of the house, took all these things, and just disappeared. and then later on i was hearing rumors that he was gay, adam a lover, went to the caribbean. >> you know the source these rumors was? >> no. everyone heard it was just pathologic throughout the dealerships. >> did you believe it? >> disappearing was one thing, but being gay, no. >> several months passed with no word from mike. now his side of the family was so concerned they decided to go to the police. >> i knew, at some point, we had to move on. we had to, not just hope that he was out there.

we had to it least explore other options. >> down with the albuquerque police station, sister terry filed a missing persons report. she had a feeling that something had happened to her brother. it was one thing to leave -- but when another two and contact with the daughter mike loved. >> i know my brother, mike steadfast in his love for his daughter, she was just joy my brother's life. i believe he felt that about her. i really did not have concrete explanation besides that is just how i felt. that was my gut. >> terry was not too pleased with the response that officer gave her. >> the officer that took my report said -- was a little arrogant. said he's a grown adult that he can come and go as he pleases. so, really, at that time he didn't even -- >> the police are censured making this seem like you were -- >> mike snider's name was entered into a national mrs. person database. but there wasn't much else the police could do, or frankly, would do.

the former albuquerque police chilly -- it is not against the law to be a missing person, unless there is suspicious circumstances. >> and she shouts was right and saying that mike was totally within his rights to walk out and cut off ties with everyone in his life. the people he loved, the people he no longer loved. so, the investigation was limited to that of a missing person. winter 2002 turned to spring no one heard from mike snider. his expensive mechanics tools laid unused at work. ellen, now a single mom, filed for divorce. she was awarded the house, the money and their joint account, and sole custody of their daughter elizabeth. >> when your daughter, mike's daughter, would say to you were study what would you say? >> i didn't know. that he left because he was mad at mommy. >> here after mike left her, allen says she can longer afford that hope they brought

together. now that she only had her salary. so she sold the house and she and her kids, michael, elizabeth move to a much smaller one. it was fall 2003, when ellen received a follow-up call from the albuquerque police department. the investigator wanted to know if she had spoken with mike. >> you say what? >> i say they don't consider him. he is right where he wants to be. that he left me, with his boyfriend, and i haven't heard from him since. >> police seem to find it

understandable that, perhaps, and i didn't really care much about mike's whereabouts at that point. >> they never asked me any more questions. >> never showed up at your house? >> no. >> whatever suspicions might side with family may have had, police didn't share them. so, with a few computer keystrokes, and without the family's knowledge or any further investigation, mike snider's name was literally wiped out of the national missing persons database. ellen had said, he was not missing. back then, that was good enough for the police. >> there should have been, obviously, a little bit more investigation other than just the word of ellen snyder. >> all this time the you thought there looking when they weren't looking for metal. >> they weren't looking for a metal. >> they line returns after the break. ♪ mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season.

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during that time, he was not in we would call missing persons and they would say someone would get back with us. so i believe, almost in a three year span, we had little to no contact with the police department.

the database. >> it was not 2005. it had been three years since mike snider left his home, his family, his whole life in albuquerque. no one had heard from the master mechanic, not even as little girl who is now nine years old, a third grader. >> that was one big red flag, maybe the leaving when they kept me going. there would be no way that my brother would ever have left his daughter. ever. >> at the dealership of mike had worked for ten years. his name was rarely mentioned in conversation. >> after three or four years of mike being gone, that did not come up too much anymore. >> you knew he was sick, we didn't really know if you will still in the hospital somewhere? or if he had actually just passed away from his illness. >> his tools were no longer lying there unused. helen's son, michael, was using them. it followed in mike shoes and

had become a mechanic as well. and on those rare occasions when allen would come by the shop where mike had once worked his old colleague, side, or would ask. >> have you heard from mike? >> she would say no. >> there just simply no concern for my cantwell just like, no i haven't seen. mike >> it is often said the happiest and saddest of occasions are would bring families together. when my family gather together to mourn the death of mike's father any hope the family had left for mike's return evaporated. >> that definitely was probably the final straw we are all on board that my brother definitely would've shown up for his own father's funeral. >> but allen and her children did show up.

they know kept in touch with mike said the family but it seemed death announcement in the newspaper and came to pay their respects. >> we weren't expecting them. so it was a little strange, kind of caught us off guard, once again we are in a state of mourning. we don't want to create any kind of issues. we certainly we're going to have them escorted out. >> after all, mike's deceased father was a grandfather to elizabeth. and step grandfather to ellen's son, michael. >> we let them come up to the casket. you know, have the bereavement time? all of a sudden we realize that michael was just hysterical. just crying uncontrollably. at that point my sister and i are just looking at each other, poking each other, thinking what? >> michael cried so hysterically that his mother ellen had to escort the 20 -year-old out of the room.

>> where he and your father close? >> not close, per se. he was no closer to my father then he was my mother. so it was a very odd occurrence that we all just didn't know about. >> there is something else that terry members about that day. something that enraged her. >> ellen, at some point, comes up to my sister and asks about my father's will. and wanted to know if there's anything in the will provisioned for his daughter, for mike's daughter. >> she's asking about money? >> and she's asking about money. >> the more she thought about it the more terry had a sinking feeling that elaine knew something about mike's disappearance. >> she certainly wasn't acting like a woman who is trying to find the father of her child. we could not understand why she didn't seem the least bit concerned about her child not having her father. >> it just did not make sense to mike side of the family. they pleaded with police to take a fresh look at the case, and, in the spring of 2005 the albuquerque police agreed. mark wilson, a cold case

detective, was assigned. >> a part of me said, yes, we will look into it. it's been three years, he left a young daughter behind, he left the house. >> the detectives began digging for any information on the missing mechanic. did any record of him exist? >> first, we look into, obviously, the criminal thing. steve had been stopped or maybe there might be a police report on him somewhere. >> there was nothing? >> right, there is nothing. >> we also in the fact that he did somewhere? >> so you call the medical investigators office and he was not there. >> right, he is not there. then i started looking into see if there might be an indication of financial records that might indicate he was working somewhere. there was. once again, we came to a dead end there.

>> what the detective did discover is one curious thing. turns out, mike snider filed state tax returns in 2004 and 2005. years after his disappearance. >> that doesn't sound like a missing person? >> no, it doesn't. >> what that sounds like to me, of top of my head, it's got who doesn't particularly want to be found? >> it suggest the possibility that he might be alive. >> is your brother the kind of person who would know how to or want to, sort of, live off the grid? >> he certainly had the financial means. did he have the know-how. i would think so. i don't know what it takes to live underground's, so to speak, and to be a person of a different, you know, identity. i don't know if he would even have considered something like that. >> could mike snider be hiding, not missing. if so why? from whom? >> coming up, the search for mike from the caribbean -- >> that's where he was with his

simmons. >> to his own backyard. >> the neighbor said she remembered michael and allen digging out behind the garage. >> when dateline continues. -[ groans ] -we're gonna need a minute. do you have any food allergies? -well, my teeth are sensitive to cold. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. that'll be $19.45. oh, i'm just paying for my own salad. right now, we are in a defining moment. people across the country are being denied basic reproductive health care. more than ever, people need planned parenthood. and more than ever, we need you. i can't believe this is the world we live in, where we're losing the freedom to control our own bodies. go online, call this toll-free number, or scan the code on your screen now, with your $19 monthly gift.

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ahh! out here in the mexico desert, the land is dry and fast. they're roads that lead nowhere and mystery psycho unsolved. cold case detective, mark wilson, had been trying to unravel one of those mysteries. the disappearance of albuquerque native, mike snider. >> she could've had a successful job in that country. >> one that would've showed up on your search. >> but there was no trace of him, not anywhere. it was as if the master mechanic had simply vanished. >> there wasn't any indication of anything that would match up to him. >> but mike snider had filed income tax returns in 2004 and 2005.

years after he had disappeared. it was, quite simply, very, very odd. the investigation seemed to stall. detective wilson called the local -- albuquerque journal. asking if they would file a story in the cold case. maybe get the attention and shake up some leads. jeff -- was a reporter with the paper. >> there are finally want to say, publicly, that this may have been a homicide. >> it is no secret that in any homicide investigation the spouse is always the first to be questioned. but before the detective had a chance to reach out to -- she was calling him complaining about that article. >> she said, where did you get this information? she was upset that it portrayed that he was just a innocent man, father, that had disappeared. >> the article didn't implicate you? >> yes it did. >> i read it. that doesn't lay the blame at

your feet? >> yes it does. >> she and michael had a heated discussion and that the next morning, when she woke up, he was gone. and he hadn't taken a vehicle. >> ellen told the detective she was pretty sure that mike had initially moved to phoenix, home of his lover dave symonds. but more recently she believed he moved on to the caribbean. >> she said he is probably on an island somewhere. >> we had looked at nine on st. croix. as far as i knew african he had gone to st. croix. >> that's where he was with dave simmons? >> correct. >> in fact, ellen said she had actually spoken with mike over the years. >> mike had called a couple of times and you heard his voice? >> yes. >> wherever he was, he was not accurate you anymore, but at

least two of you were talking and a non angry way about the kids. >> i think we were still angry. i think i still told him that we are still angry. >> but that he was gone, and it wasn't coming back. >> right. >> mike sister terry hadn't yet learned about mike's relationship with the mustard they've simmons, or about the accusation that her brother was secretly gay. ellen did not share any of that with terry and solve two years after mika disappeared. >> she told other people about it. >> not us. she didn't seem to throw that out to us at first. >> i need that make any sense to you? >> no. i don't play for one minute that my brother is gay. >> that was only one of the

components of allen's story that detective wilson wanted to check out. he says he asked ellen to come down to the police department and meet with them in person. only, she would not. >> she would say, he's not missing. we said that we want to find him and even asked to come in to help us find him. she would not come in. >> so, ellen, and detective wilson never met face to face. she claims she was giving him all the information she had. >> you weren't giving him what he needed he want to meet with you? >> he never said that. >> he says he did. >> he never ever asked me to

come down, ever. >> instead ellen mailed the detective some paperwork that she had founded his desk. a western union money transfer from mike snider to dave symonds and the amount of $200. a u-haul receipt with dave symonds name and number. and a copy of mike's cell phone bill from december 2001, right before he disappeared. which showed a number of phone calls to that same telephone number. >> you gave detective wilson all the documentation you have of dave simmons. >> unfortunately ellen no longer had the vice mail. the one she claims of discovered on mike cell phone. the explicit one from dave symonds. >> the only prove that they had a relationship is the voice mails which you don't have any more. >> well, i think, people if they knew mike would know that he would never send anybody money ever. unless there was some sort of relationship there. >> so michael support in the this guy? >> i never found enough money that he was supporting him, but he was definitely helping him out. >> police tell us that the information did not leave anywhere. the detective did not locate mike in the caribbean i we tried to contact dave symonds

from phoenix, never got a response. but that same albuquerque journal article, the one that is so infuriating to ellen also got her former neighbors talking. about something they had seen. just a few years before. >> they had seen michael and ellen digging out behind the garage. digging a hole. >> when was that? >> around the time that michael went missing. the neighbor said she remembers seeing them out behind the garage with shovels. >> that was pretty intriguing to the detective. it sounded like of viable lead. so in late spring, 2006, with the current homeowners permission detective wilson brought to search dogs and their handlers to the snyders old property. a neighbor showed them where a flowering tree had been planted in 2002. a year after mike disappeared. >> my suspicion was that there was a body under the tree, and they plan to treat that the body. >> the handles of the dog loose in the property. at first, they showed little interest. that is, and so they went under the flowering tree. incredibly, both dogs independently of one another gave their cadaver alert. >> the dog handler said this is an indication, possibly ascent is coming up to the tree.

but she can say that, well, the body could be ten feet down here, 30 in that direction. but if indeed there was a body. >> detective wilson had a new theory. maybe mike snider had never actually left home after all. was just a big break the case needed? the detective discussed it with mike's sister. >> of course i get both excited, intrigued, anxious. i start asking him a bunch of questions. >> the team tried to dig deeper. but the ground was hard. >> we didn't find anything. the dogs weren't excited about the whole itself. >> soon, the trail went cold. with the tip that seem like cold and mike sisters terry was crushed. the detective was deflated. >> i had to think that, well, there's a possibility that maybe his body was somewhere else. i have a feeling that michael was dead somewhere. >> the digging here was over. but, metaphorically at least, detective wilson still held a shovel and was trying to get

the bottom of what ellen had been doing around the time her husband mysteriously disappeared. but it was a while before they found someone ellen worked with wet offered some very unusual -- >> the cork said i have a gun if you like to use it. if that would help. >> they live returns after the break. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis takes you off course. put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when i wanted to see results fast, rinvoq delivered rapid symptom relief and helped leave bathroom urgency behind. check. when uc tried to slow me down... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc caused damage rinvoq came through by visibly repairing my colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief... lasting steroid-free remission...

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ask your gastroenterologist about rinvoq it triggered some tips to the josh makowitz (voice over): it had been four years since mike snyder had gone missing. four years since he'd left his family, including his young daughter, in his hometown police department. it had gotten people, you know, talking about this. it's something other than a husband that had walked off. >> for the first time, albuquerque police were publicly calling the case a homicide investigation. and that caught the attention of a man named frank. >> he said i'm the one that

lent her the gun. if you think that she's a suspect in this i don't want my family in danger somewhat to turn the gun over to you. >> frank was a retired military. a straight, by the book guy. who had befriended ellen snyder when they work together in 2001. >> she was telling people that he yells at her all the time. >> it was christmas 2001. ellen said the daily fighting in the snyder home had escalated. his multiple sclerosis has grown progressively worse. with it, so did his anger. >> he would push me around and he would hit me.

>> he hit you how many times? one time? >> three or four. >> -- now held an executive level position at a large dealership. she was a boston 30 mechanics and making upwards of 90,000 a year. >> she put your feet to the fire. you get the job done handled on. >> so she was no pushover? >> no pushover. >> she stood up for herself? >> right. >> inside the walls of that nice home her rank was near the bottom. >> it became very condescending, controlling. where could go, who i could see. at home, mike made the rules. and she obeyed them. >> you had a significant executive job. so you're not some shrinking violet whose home cowering under her husband's direction. >> when it came to being home, and only in that door, was that shrinking -- that's how things were.

he ran the show. it was two different l -- two different lives. >> detective wilson interviewed her old boss. a man named james cassell. he told detective he remembered an incident where she came to work with bruises. >> she was wearing her sunglasses. i said why wearing sunglasses? so if i took a sunglasses up and shed a nice big old shiner. i asked her i said what happened to you? she had faded to me, supposedly, mike and michael got into some big will battle and michael's been the -- so she jumped in the middle and, of course, she took the brunt of it. >> was she giving the classic battered wife's explanation for her bruises? a few days later he says he heard yelling coming from her office. >> i are world war iii breaking

loose and the office next to me. there is a guy screaming, okay? >> turns out the loud every voice belongs to none other than mike snider. >> he's standing on the side of that desk, she standing on her side. he's just screaming. he stops what i bargained and he looks at me. i told him, i said, you know you can't do this here. and he basically told me and needed some on my own business. >> her colleague, frank, having nothing but good intentions volunteered to loan ellen a 32 caliber semiautomatic pistol. >> show to how to use it. explain a bunch of things are. it was a ten minute, please don't shoot yourself lesson. >> i never had one before. he offered it to me. after he saw my bruises. i took it home, put in the bathroom closet. >> why not just gather the kids and leave? >> it was christmas time. >> detective wilson checked for

any police report of domestic abuse or calls to 9-1-1. he found none. >> did they have altercations throughout their marriage? i would imagine, most couples do. but i never seen any violent type of my brother. >> it was a few months later when she returned the gun to her colleague. >> true looked at him, look at her, said was the bullets. >> he said a friend had taken her to the gun range and showed her how to use it. >> dateline returns, after the break.

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his family, his friends, his coworkers-- no one had seen mike snyder. had his illness grown worse? had he moved to another city with another man, as his wife ellen claimed? now, after all this time, someone is about to step forward from the shadows to say he knows exactly what happened to mike snyder. >>

here again, josh mankiewicz. josh mankiewicz: mike snyder had been missing for eight long years. his family didn't know where he was, and the detective investigating the case had a hunch that mike's wife ellen was somehow involved. mystery over or just beginning. here again josh mankiewicz. h maz josh mankiewicz: ellen said she went to a gun range with a friend who showed her how to use it. and detective wilson had discovered something else. ellen had actually tried to purchase another gun at a local pawn shop one month earlier. she was turned down after a routine background check. and you couldn't? what happened? it was a fraud charge. what did you do that got you in trouble? i was working for a company that i wrote a check on.

josh mankiewicz: it turns out that in the late 80s, ellen had plead guilty to embezzlement. the charges were dropped after her probation. suddenly, ellen snyder's skeletons were starting to see the light of day. and while detective wilson was doing his investigative work, mike's sister teri, a schoolteacher, was doing hers. she told the detective about a second home mortgage that ellen took out, teri claims, without mike's knowledge. we actually have a copy of that document-- of the second mortgage-- and it is clearly not my brother's signature on either line. josh mankiewicz: that's true, ellen says. she did sign mike's name, but says mike knew all about it. the more teri thought about mike, the more she remembered his growing frustration with ellen in the months before he disappeared. he would intercede phone calls of debt collectors calling, wanting to know why their credit cards were past due,

and all these things that he had no idea of. these were bills that he thought ellen had run up, not some kind of identity theft? right. josh mankiewicz: not long after mike disappeared, ellen found herself in debt. she had 20 creditors and owed more than $120,000 on her credit cards. did mike know about the debt before he dropped by her work? is that why mike had showed up in a rage? had he discovered the financial mess into which she put their family? and if mike had been abusive, had ellen come to the conclusion that she could solve that problem with a gun? detective wilson was growing more and more skeptical of ellen snyder's story, and so was mike's sister, teri. but without any real proof that ellen had something to do with mike's disappearance, there was nothing that could be done about those aching suspicions. there was nothing that could tangibly prove murder enough to get an arrest warrant

for it until they had a body. and so another four years passed. mike's sister teri became more and more dissatisfied with the progress detective wilson was making. i think at first he was very zealous. he felt that, you're right, a lot of this isn't adding up. and i believe at first they worked very hard to find my brother. josh mankiewicz: but as the years went by, the unknown had become unbearable for the snyder family. they wanted answers from the police. teri johnson: i think he got very upset with me, that i was being pushy. our phone conversations got less and less. i would call and leave a message, and my messages weren't being returned. they kind of, i think, put the case on the back burner, i believe. josh mankiewicz: detective wilson did continue to look for mike snyder, but wilson also had to focus on the 20 other cold cases that needed his attention.

and then one day in 2010, came the phone call that would break this case. a confidential informant who said he knew exactly where mike snyder was. where are you to going? uh-oh, they're going to uncle mike now. josh mankiewicz: you'd looked in the yard and not found anything, not found mike anywhere, not been able to talk to ellen. i mean, i'm not going to say this wasn't going anywhere, but it certainly didn't seem to be pointing immediately to any resolution. correct. josh mankiewicz: and that's when you get this call. yes. josh mankiewicz: detective mark wilson was sitting in his office when a most unexpected call came in. the caller, a confidential source who said he had information on mike snyder. who was this confidential source? somebody that was a friend with michael sheffield. ellen's son. ellen's son. josh mankiewicz: the man's name was patrick, a 26-year-old motorcycle technician.

he and ellen's son, michael sheffield, had gone to high school together and were close friends. he had been living with me in my house with my son for months. they lived there rent free. out of the goodness of your heart? because he was michael's friend, yeah. you know, he was a good kid. they needed this break. josh mankiewicz: not only was he michael sheffield's good friend, patrick was also ellen's employee at the r&s kawasaki motorcycle dealership where she was now working as the service manager. my boss was giving me a lot of heat about patrick's productivity and his comebacks. so he told me in december that i needed to let him go, but he wanted to wait until after christmas. i actually kept him much longer than i would have, because he was a friend. josh mankiewicz: the first week of january 2010, ellen fired patrick.

she could not have known just how life altering that decision would be. josh mankiewicz: what'd he say? didn't say too much, just loaded up his stuff and left. josh mankiewicz: of course, ellen didn't know that patrick knew the secret. josh mankiewicz: and he went to the police. and he went to the police. josh mankiewicz: and now patrick was sitting in a starbucks with detective wilson, letting him in on the 8-year-old secret. so this guy didn't really come forward out of the goodness of his heart or his civic duty. this was revenge. yes. but you'll take it. yes. josh mankiewicz: patrick told the detective that he knew that mike snyder had been killed, and that his body was buried in the yard of the snyder's former home. and how did patrick know this? his best friend michael had told him, and on more than one occasion. he even said the next day, he told him about it. and then over the years, if they were together or drinking

or something, that he would break down and tell him again the story. you believe him? yes. so this is one more person pointing you to the backyard. yes. but you'd already looked there. this seemed very believable, this information. and it really corroborated what we suspected. josh mankiewicz: patrick agreed to cooperate with police. he drove an undercover police vehicle with a hidden microphone to michael's home and told him they needed to speak privately. patrick said the police had contacted him about the disappearance of mike snyder, and he didn't know what to do.

josh mankiewicz: and then came the big question, the one the police had coached patrick to ask. josh mankiewicz: it was now time for detective wilson to pay a visit to michael sheffield-- ellen snyder's son, mike snyder's stepson-- and to begin to unravel an eight-year-old mystery. detective: you wouldn't happen to have some place we could just sit down and talk, would ya?

lester holt: coming up, the interrogation begins. can they get at the truth after all these years? i could only imagine what it would be like keeping that type of a secret. lester holt: when "dateline" continues. the all-in-one and done symptom relief of mucinex is delivered fast with doordash to the comfort of your couch. slow down!... i mean (coughs) slow down! ahh! watch it! ♪♪ come on! a hero will answer the call... (laughs) you just have to answer the door. oof! that was fast. ♪♪ mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season.

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hi, i'm darlene and i lost 40 pounds with golo in just eight months. golo has really taught me how to eat better and feel better. as long as you eat the right food groups in the right amounts, that's all it is. it's so simple and it works. golo was the smartest thing i ever did. josh mankiewicz: it was friday, january 29, 2010, and it was business as usual in the service department

at this albuquerque saab dealership located on the west side of town. that is, until detective mark wilson and three of his colleagues from the cold case team showed up. josh mankiewicz: they were there to speak with 25-year-old mechanic michael sheffield, ellen snyder's son, mike snyder's stepson. mark wilson: he didn't seem to be surprised that the police showed up at his work. and he said, sure, we have a break room we can go talk in. and so we went to his break room and we conducted an interview with him there.

josh mankiewicz: at first, michael tells the same story that ellen, his mom, has told since the day mike snyder first disappeared. appear appear appear appear

appear he said, well, as far as i know, he ran off with a guy and left my mother and sister and i behind, and denied that he knew anything. so he's still telling the story he's been telling for six, seven years. yes. josh mankiewicz: and repeatedly the detective tells michael that it's time for him to confess.

josh mankiewicz: how long did it take him to come off that story? after we told him that we had information that he knew where the body was and went a little further and told him that we heard him talking about it, he came forward after we showed him that we had evidence. josh mankiewicz: the detectives had broken him. and the story came spilling out after eight years of lies. it was early morning, january 2002, michael said, when he woke to the sound of gunshots, and he called 911.

josh mankiewicz: he must have hung up just in time, because there's no record of a 911 call from the snyder home that day. josh mankiewicz: a few days later in a second interview, michael told police this. josh mankiewicz: and so he says he reluctantly helped his mother wrap mike snyder's dead body in a waterproof tarp, place it in a hole in the backyard, and put some construction waste on top of it.

josh mankiewicz: and michael had told detectives about the breakdown he had at mr. snyder's funeral, the one the snyder family thought so peculiar. mark wilson: i had the feeling that he was glad to finally get it off his chest. he broke down somewhat. and i can only imagine what it would be like keeping that type of a secret. josh mankiewicz: the detective showed michael photographs of the snider's property as it looked in 2002 and had michael circle where he believed his stepfather's body was buried. josh mankiewicz: did michael believe that he was on the hook legally for his part in this?

mark wilson: i think he probably knew that he was. he knew that he was an accomplice in the case. josh mankiewicz: a few miles away, michael's mom ellen snyder was ending her work day. ellen snyder: when i came out from work, his girlfriend came by. she was sitting in her car next to my car. and she says, you need to get in the car. josh mankiewicz: she told ellen that michael had called. the police had shown up at his work and they knew the secret. so i called my mom and i said i need to come over. and she's like, are you ok? and i said no. josh mankiewicz: and with that, ellen's mother phoned an old acquaintance of hers-- a defense attorney, named penny adrian. her mom calls me up, said, i think we have a problem. there was apparently something very wrong. josh mankiewicz: the next morning, ellen went to meet with adrian. by then, the story was breaking. breaking news--

albuquerque police have an active crime scene investigation going on right now. police tell us that a confidential source told them that the remains of snyder are buried underneath the garage of this home on-- penny adrian: she just sat really stiffly in front of me. she said, have you heard about them digging for a body in the northeast heights. and i said, well, you couldn't not hear about it. it was on all of the television stations and all over the newspaper. and she said, well, my ex-husband is buried there, because i shot him. lester holt: "dateline" returns after the break. i got this $1,000 camera for only $41 on dealdash. dealdash.com, online auctions since 2009. this playstation 5 sold for only 50 cents. this ipad pro sold for less than $34. and this nintendo switch, sold for less than $20. i got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only $56. i got this bbq

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josh mankiewicz: north albuquerque acres is known for its large subdivisions in the foothills of the sandia mountains, not for crime scene vehicles and news helicopters flying overhead. but in february 2010, this was the scene in front of the home where ellen and mike snyder once lived. out in the street it was a zoo. josh mankiewicz: reporters like jeff proctor were staked out for three days, while men with jackhammers and backhoes began tearing up the garage floor. we continue to follow breaking news right now. let's go back-- josh mankiewicz: if you lived in albuquerque, you would have had to wear earplugs not to hear about it. we just spoke to the police chief, and he told us that the police is here looking for the remains

of michael snyder. mechanic jim hurtada a longtime friend of ellen's, was at work when the news broke. i couldn't believe it. so you really believed that he had left her and he was in phoenix? yeah. josh mankiewicz: police began cutting through the concrete of what was now a six car garage. the job of finding mike snyder's remains proved difficult. the garage floor was a solid foot of steel reinforced concrete. reporter: police say they will resume digging tomorrow. josh mankiewicz: the excavation went on for two more days. finally, on the third day, searchers uncovered a waterproof tarp. inside were the remains of mike snyder. well, ellen had been saying mike was in phoenix, mike this, mike that. and all along, mike wasn't in phoenix. josh mankiewicz: for mike's family, the finality was devastating. to not know for eight years and to somewhat hold on

to hope, and to have that hope finally just pulled out from under you, was very difficult for all of us. josh mankiewicz: ellen snyder sat in defense attorney penny adrian's office knowing an arrest was imminent. they had found the body. and she wanted to get it over with. she said, we just can't go on like this. josh mankiewicz: and so adrian informed the police that ellen snyder was ready to turn herself in. that following friday, i met with the police detectives at her office and gave a full statement. josh mankiewicz: she gave police a 2 and 1/2 hour confession. and her version of events is quite a story. he woke me up. i was-- 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. and we're arguing. pushing, you know, back and forth. and i told him that i know all about you and dave simmons.

i know that you're gay. josh mankiewicz: ellen says she had recently grown more courageous in her dealings with mike. and on this night, she'd confronted her husband over what she says was a secret gay affair. and i'm yelling at him, and he's yelling at me. and i told him, i said, i'm going to tell everybody. i'm going to tell everybody about you. and he's telling me, you will never tell anybody about me. you are not going to tell anything. there is nothing to tell. he's denying it. he's screaming at me. he's-- i have never seen him so angry ever. josh mankiewicz: she says she ran to the bedroom and got the gun from the closet. the gun that her colleague, frank, had loaned her. i said i have a gun. he's laughing at me, telling me i'm a coward and that i'm never ever going to tell anybody. so he's like taunting you. he's taunting me. he's saying, you don't have the courage to shoot me. calling me, you know, [bleep] and telling me what a rotten

person i am, screaming at me. josh mankiewicz: and in that moment of fear, ellen says, she pulled the trigger, not once, not twice, but repeatedly. and i emptied the gun. i have never been so afraid in my life. he turned around and ran away from you. - he did. - and you kept shooting. i did. he just turned and ran, and i kept shooting. how far did he get? 10 feet. and then what happened? then he fell down. josh mankiewicz: elizabeth, mike and ellen's six-year-old daughter, was fast asleep in the bedroom. she didn't wake up, but ellen's son, michael, 17, was in his bedroom, and he did. he was calling 911. i told him, just hang up, michael. and he hung up. and he hung up. and i sat down on the steps waiting for the police to come. josh mankiewicz: but the police never did show. i covered him up. i told michael to get ready for school.

i told him i shot mike. you need to just go to school. how was michael doing at this point? i thought he was doing ok. josh mankiewicz: but evidently michael was not ok. he skipped school that day. and he told his friend patrick about the horror he had gone through. did you talk to him about this, or did, from the first minute that this happened, did this become like the thing you're not talking about? right, we never talked about it. once you said to him, i shot mike, go to school-- we didn't talk about it. josh mankiewicz: later, with michael and elizabeth at school, ellen planned to move the body into the garage, but there was a problem. trying to get him situated to where i could get him-- a board under him to move him into the garage. and you couldn't do it alone. i couldn't do it alone. so you asked your son.

so i asked my son. yep. you asked michael to help you move the body. yes. he didn't want to. i asked him, please. he said, ok. josh mankiewicz: 17-year-old michael reluctantly agreed. were you aware that you were asking him to essentially help you commit a crime? i wasn't in the frame of mind to believe it as such. and yet at the time, you were willing to do that instead of the other option, which is call the cops and face the music. yes, at that point, i was just solving the problem. so the tears and regret that i'm seeing now, you weren't feeling that then? no, never cried. josh mankiewicz: because at the time, ellen says she was on autopilot and needed to dispose of a body.

and how did she do that? in the want ads, she found a guy with a backhoe who came out to the house and dug a hole. did you tell the guy why you were doing this? nn-hnn, he didn't ask. josh mankiewicz: ellen and her son michael wrapped snyder's body in a tarp and put plastic bags on his hands. and then in the dark of night, they moved him onto a dolly and into the hole. your son helping you this time or not? yeah, i had asked him to help me throw some dirt on top of him. he said ok. josh mankiewicz: they filled the hole with leftover construction waste, so the body couldn't be seen. the next day ellen went back to the paper, found a different guy who had a bobcat, and hired him to fill in the hole. and you buried a body. and i buried a body. josh mankiewicz: and then she came up with her story. you got better at telling that story as time went on. yeah, as time went on, it became a bigger and bigger story.

josh mankiewicz: it was the end of her 2 and 1/2 hour statement to police, and ellen snyder wanted to get one last thing on the record. josh mankiewicz: and with that, ellen snyder was charged with first degree murder and held on one million dollars bail. albuquerque police announced they've arrested the ex-wife of an albuquerque man who vanished eight years ago. josh mankiewicz: an 8-year-old cover up was over, but another storyline was just beginning. did mike snyder have it coming? was ellen guilty of anything? and what could be proven after so many years? lester holt: coming up, a startling police discovery.

it appeared to me that michael snyder was laying in his bed when he was shot. lester holt: and something more startling still. josh mankiewicz: she could walk away from this. she might have committed first degree murder and gotten away with it. lester holt: when "dateline" continues. the all-in-one and done symptom relief of mucinex is delivered fast with doordash to the comfort of your couch. slow down!... i mean (coughs) slow down! ahh! watch it! ♪♪ come on! a hero will answer the call... (laughs) you just have to answer the door. oof! that was fast. ♪♪ mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season.

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at the hour's top stories. the u.s. military conducted aran strikeover night in iraq that u.s. central command says likely killed multiple militants. in prison russian opposition leader alexei navalny haub found after nearly three weeks after contact was lost. associates say he's been moved to a prison colony above the

arctic circle in siberia where he's believed to be extremely isolated. back to "dateline." y isolated back to "dateline. josh mankiewicz: there are some things ellen snyder admits. she admits that she shot and killed her husband mike snyder in the early morning hours of january, 2002. she admits that she buried his body and then lied about his disappearance for years, but she does not admit to being guilty of murder. you don't think of yourself as a murderer? no, i don't. i was saving my own life. it came down that night to me or him. josh mankiewicz: she says it's a case of survival, but ask detective mark wilson, and he calls it something else. i believe this is an evil woman who planned this from the beginning. maybe she did fear for her life. there are people who say they saw her with bruises. sure, and it's a possibility--

possibility there was a bruise. or, it could have been something she set up to look like that, to go along with her story, because it was getting closer to the time when she was going to kill him. josh mankiewicz: but even if it was an act of self-defense that caused ellen snyder to shoot her husband, why hadn't she called the police? usually when abused women kill their abusers, they call the police and they're sitting there with the gun when the police drive up. ok. they don't try to evade responsibility. they admit what they did. and they say, i didn't have any choice, pretty much as you're saying to me now. but they don't bury the body and tell a series of pretty good lies over a long period of time. that's pretty unusual. ok. which suggests to some people that there's more to this story than you're telling. they didn't live through what we lived through.

they weren't there that night. josh mankiewicz: with ellen snyder now sitting in jail, detective wilson was trying to determine if the shooting happened the way ellen now said it did, because, after all, how believable was ellen? when we try to gather information six, seven years later, we don't have the actual crime scene. at that time, they would have seen blood streams from where he first got shot, to where the body was laying, to where the bullet projectiles had stopped. josh mankiewicz: ellen claimed that mike woke her up yelling, and that they fought in the family room where mike slept. josh mankiewicz: using some creative detective work, wilson had an idea. he remembered something that michael, ellen's son, had mentioned in his interview with police, something

about a stereo speaker. josh mankiewicz: the detective went back to the house with michael, asked him to show where the speaker was positioned on the floor, and where it was in relation to where mike slept. and detective wilson came to this hypothesis. it appeared to me that michael snyder was laying in his bed when he was shot. not up and advancing on ellen to do her harm? exactly, and the office of the medical investigator reported that the projectiles came up through the victim's body from down at stomach area up into the shoulder area. almost as if the person was lying flat, and the shooter was standing at his feet. yes. my estimation was that the body was on the mattress

when he was being fired at. he may have gotten up and started running, if it didn't kill him right away. josh mankiewicz: and there was something else the detective uncovered that appeared a lot more sinister than a woman in fear for her life. it seemed ellen snyder had actually made a pretty penny off mike's death. lester holt: "dateline" returns after the break. holy cannoli. look at this. it's like a science project. ordering lunch -- easy for you and me but can be so difficult for a young homeowner turning into their parents. are those all different lettuces? uh, yes, sir. brown rice, white rice, or quinoa? -[ groans ] -we're gonna need a minute. do you have any food allergies? -well, my teeth are sensitive to cold. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. that'll be $19.45. oh, i'm just paying for my own salad. right now, we are in a defining moment.

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josh mankiewicz: just months after she shot her husband and filed for divorce, ellen was awarded the couple's home and the cash in their joint account. and remember those tax returns that had been filed in mike's name after he disappeared? turns out it was ellen who'd filed them in order to get a refund. she also cashed out mike's $60,000 401(k). and she continued to collect the disability checks that mike had been getting because of his multiple sclerosis. you kept cashing those checks for a year. those checks were deposited into my account, yes. totaling about how much money? about four grand a month. that must have helped. it did. so the argument could be made that you made some money out of this. so are you implying that it was because of that that it occurred? is that what you're implying? i'm not implying it.

i'm saying you made money out of the death of your husband. i did not make substantial amount of money out of the death of my husband, no. josh mankiewicz: it was now the job of prosecutor david waymire to put together a case for a jury to hear. covering up the crime, it would be our best evidence in terms of trying to convince a jury that her intent at the time of the killing was something along the lines of a premeditated murder. josh mankiewicz: but the prosecution found itself in a rather unusual predicament. eight years had passed since the shooting, and in that time the statute of limitations had run out on any charge other than first degree murder. that meant in order to get any conviction at all, prosecutors would have to prove to a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that ellen snyder planned mike snyder's murder. and with no crime scene and little in the way of forensics, that was going to be hard to prove. so in her view it was self-defense, but maybe she was guilty of manslaughter or second degree

murder, but you couldn't prosecute her for either of those offenses. that's correct. the statute of limitations here in new mexico on a state case like this prohibited us from going forward on any of those lesser types of offenses. josh mankiewicz: ellen snyder's defense attorney penny adrian knew a first degree murder conviction could mean a life sentence for ellen, but felt the prosecution would have a tough time making their case. the premeditation would be hard to prove, but even harder would be to prove that she did not act in self-defense given all the things that were going on with mike. josh mankiewicz: adrian says ellen acted after years of emotional and physical abuse. this guy was treating her horribly. that's right, and had been for a long, long time. and she couldn't leave him? no, no. and that's what the cycle of abuse is all about. there's an isolation.

there's a dependency. there's a demeaning factor. and those things all go together until the abuser has turned the abused into someone who thinks that he or she-- because it happens both ways-- is a worthless person. josh mankiewicz: would ellen snyder spend the rest of her life behind bars or had she committed the perfect murder? is it possible she's going to walk? i mean, it's certainly possible in this case. josh mankiewicz: she could walk on from this? david waymire: she might have committed first degree murder and gotten away with it. lester holt: "dateline" returns after the break. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis takes you off course. put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill.

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josh mankiewicz: mike snyder's side of the family had spent many years waiting. they'd waited for mike to call after he disappeared. he never did. they'd waited for the police to call when investigators first said they'd look for him. that didn't happen either. and finally, years later, with ellen snyder sitting in jail facing a murder charge for killing mike, they waited for justice. mike's sister, teri. how could you look at us, the family, in the face, and tell us that you have no idea where mike is at, or you just spoke to mike and mike is doing just fine. thus giving all of you hope. thus giving all of us hope. it's beyond me how any one person can do that.

it's unimaginable. josh mankiewicz: finally, ellen snyder would pay the price for the murder of mike snyder and the cover up that followed. at least, that's what mike's side of the family fully expected, but there was that problem. with the statute of limitations expired on anything less than first degree murder, there was the chance ellen snyder could be found not guilty. mike's family was willing to risk that. we felt that strongly that it was premeditated. and you know, that was a gamble we were willing to take. josh mankiewicz: but when it comes to a murder, prosecutor david waymire isn't willing to gamble. maybe she gets convicted of first degree murder, and maybe that's what she did all along. and that would have been justice. but with an all or nothing, where you're trying to convince beyond a reasonable doubt 12 jurors-- you didn't want to roll the dice. that's a huge risk to roll the dice and not have somebody held accountable at all for the death of another human being.

josh mankiewicz: and it was a risk for ellen too. she knew that going to trial could mean a possible life sentence. one month before the case was set for trial, prosecutors offered ellen a plea deal, which she accepted. ultimately, ellen snyder agreed to waive the statute of limitations restrictions and plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, admitting that she shot her husband. she also plead guilty to tampering with evidence for the burying and concealment of mike's body. david waymire: falsely filed tax returns-- josh mankiewicz: and to one count of tax fraud for filing tax returns after his death. in all, the maximum sentence possible was not life in prison, but just 11 years. mike's side of the family was devastated. josh mankiewicz: so whether she's sentenced to four years, five years, six years, seven years, eight years, eleven years-- she's still getting away with it in your view.

she's definitely getting away with murder. nothing is going to be long enough for us. josh mankiewicz: in july 2011, family and friends of both ellen and mike gathered in the bernalillo county district courthouse for ellen's sentencing. ellen's son michael was there in support of his mom, just as he had been on the day she shot her husband. michael was still a minor when the killing happened. and so in exchange for his cooperation, he was given immunity and faced no charges. as we sit here, you're about to go into that courtroom and a judge is going to pronounce sentence. yep. you ready for what's coming? how do you say you're ready for that? i know that it has to happen. and i know it has to happen for this to be over, so i don't know that i can say, yes, i'm ready,

but it's going to happen. david waymire: we have what became eight years of concealment, of lies-- josh mankiewicz: the prosecution asked the judge to give ellen snyder the maximum sentence of 11 years. she could have been looking at a total of 389 years. josh mankiewicz: ellen's defense attorney asked the judge for some leniency. she does ask, your honor, that the court sentence her to five years in prison, which will allow her to at least be at her daughter's graduation from college. josh mankiewicz: the judge addressed ellen directly, focusing on that construction waste she buried on top of her husband's body. judge: it was reported that you unceremoniously threw trash in the same hole that mr. snyder had been placed. josh mankiewicz: and with that, ellen was given the maximum sentence of 11 years behind bars.

judge: ms. snyder, hopefully, once you are released, you can get things together and go forward in life. josh mankiewicz: and she hopes to. when we spoke with ellen shortly after her sentencing, ellen said she worried most about her children. her then 16-year-old daughter elizabeth was a high school junior. she was only 6 when her father disappeared from her life. you told her that you'd been lying to her all those years. ellen snyder: i did. josh mankiewicz: what'd she say? she was most concerned about losing her mom. she's been to see me every week. she is such a remarkable young woman. she loves me. josh mankiewicz: but ellen says the greatest regret of her life was putting her son michael in the middle of a cover up. you said that you always looked out for him and that he always looked out for you. i didn't do such a good job. you didn't. and he's such a remarkable man.

i know you wish you'd shielded him from that. yep. i get the feeling you have way more regret about that than about what happened. absolutely. the shooting happened for a reason. the shooting happened-- it was too much to give michael. josh mankiewicz: no one but ellen snyder will ever know exactly what happened inside the walls of that dream home in the early morning hours of january, 2002. that will forever remain a mystery. but one thing is clear, ellen snyder is something of an expert on how to live a life of secrets and lies. one thing we know about you for sure is that you're pretty good at telling a lie. ok. josh mankiewicz: and the truth is, if you hadn't fired the wrong person,

i think you'd still be telling that lie today. you're right. i can't dispute that. you have some sense of regret now? absolutely. i'm sorry that it ever happened. i'm sorry for mike. i'm sorry for my family. i'm sorry for his family. [theme music] welcome to "the beat." i'm ari melber. and let's get right to the. we begin with the collision of law and politic said that america is facing in 2024, whether we like it or not, whether we're all tired or not, which i get. but the