know that she's so loved, that she has an incredible group of people, an -- an army behind her. and we won't stop until she's >> that is one tropical storm other opens. police and prosecutors are continuing the investigation in an ongoing effort to seek justice for christina and her family. >> that's all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. thank you for watching thank you for watching that is what she did. that was just solving the problem. lester holt (voice over): that's what she did-- solve problems-- as a busy mom 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't 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. s after th break. ♪breeze driftin' on by...♪ ♪...you know how i feel.♪ you don't have to take... [coughing] ...copd sitting down. ♪it's a new dawn,...♪ ♪...it's a new day,♪ it's time to make a stand. ♪and i'm feelin' good.♪ start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd...

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you followed them. eight years in a marriage that was neither equal, nor loving. and you were afraid to stand up to him? absolutely. josh makowitz (voice over): eight years of living a lie to the outside world in that big home that she and her husband mike had worked so hard to build. but ellen wouldn't leave, determined to make her marriage work. i wasn't going to be a failure at another marriage. josh makowitz (voice over): mike hung on as well. but his sister terri says mike was thinking of ending it. i believe he was in the process of trying to leave her. he was moving belongings to my mother's house. josh makowitz (voice over): mike and ellen's daughter elizabeth was now six years old, and very much daddy's little girl. and michael, ellen's son from her first marriage, was 17-- a high school junior. how was mike has a father towards michael? the older michael got, the more harsh he was with him. josh makowitz (voice over): but then, mike snyder got sick.

and life inside that home grew much worse for just about everyone in the snyder family. his body would go numb. he would pass out. he was in severe pain. josh makowitz (voice over): it was the summer of 2001 when mike went to see a doctor. the doctor came in and said, we believe that it's an onsetting case of multiple sclerosis. josh makowitz (voice over): multiple sclerosis. there is no cure, and the prognosis can range from a manageable disease 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. allen, 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 allen 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

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perhaps the loneliest place on josh makowitz (voice over): perhaps the loneliest place earth is in the middle of a bad. marriage which was exactly brett allen 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

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take a lap, rookie. 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. and-- it turns out they weren't even looking for most of that time. right. 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 allen'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 well 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 passing. if so why? from whom? >> coming up, the search for mike from the caribbean -- >> that's where he was with his boyfriend. >> to his own backyard. >> the neighbor said she remembered michael and allen digging out behind the garage. >> when dateline continues. n dateline continues

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♪ the barnes firm, injury attorneys out here in the mexico desert, josh makowitz (voice over): out here in the new mexico desert, the land is dry and vast. 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 sky? >> 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. he break. for your dog. but not if you protect him every month with heartgard plus, the #1 choice of dogs. digestive and neurological side effects have been reported. ask your vet for heartgard plus. i used to pre-rinse dishes cause my old detergent didn't actually get 'em clean. but new cascade platinum plus has me doing dishes...differently. scrub? soak? nope. i just scrape, load and i'm done.

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ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy, 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 of albuquerque, new mexico. in 2006, the albuquerque journal ran an article on the missing mechanic and father.

the cold case, which had been virtually dead for years, was suddenly picking up steam. reporter jeff proctor. it triggered some tips to the police department. 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 her 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. after the break. and tonight, sparks are gonna fly. kyle? and while romeo over here is trying to look cool, things are about to heat up. uh-oh.

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ask your provider for cologuard. his family, his friends, his his family, his friends, his coworkers-- no one had seen mike snyder.

coworkers. no one had seen mike snider. had his illness grown worse? had he moved to another city with another man as his wife had claimed. now, after all this time. someone is about to step forward from the shadows. saying he knows exactly what happened to mike snider. is the mystery over? or just beginning. here again, josh mankiewicz. >> mike snider had been missing for eight long years. his family did not know where he was. the detective investigating the case had a hunch that mike's wife ellen, was somehow involved. a coworker of ellen came forward and said he had loaned her his gun. but when she returned it a few months later there were no bullets. >> he looked at it, he looked at her, he said was the bullets? helen said she went to the gun range with a friend. who showed her how to use it. detective wilson had discovered something else.

ellen had actually tried to purchase another gun at a local pawnshop one month earlier. she was turned down after a routine background check. >> you couldn't? what happened. >> there was a fraud charge. >> what did you do to get you in trouble? >> i was working for a company that i wrote a check on. >> it turns out that in the late 80s she had pled guilty to embezzlement. the charges were dropped after her probation. suddenly, her skeletons were starting to see the light of day. and while detective wilson did his investigative work mike's sister terry, a schoolteacher, was doing hers. she told the detective about a second mortgage that ellen without mike's knowledge. >> we actually have a copy of the document of the second mortgage and it is clearly not my brother signature on even lined. >> that is true she says. she did sign mics name.

but as mike knew all about it. the more she thought about mike, the more she remembered is growing frustration with her and the months before he disappeared. >> he would introduce eve phone calls of debt collectors calling, wanted to know whether credit cards were passed to. all these things that he had no idea of. >> there are bills that he thought -- or some kind of identity theft? >> not long after she disappears. ellen founder self in that. she had 20 creditors and hold more than $120,000 on her credit card. did mike know about the debt before he dropped by her work? is that why mike had shown up enraged. had he discovered the financial mess into which she put their family? and, if mike had been abusive, had ellen come to the occlusion that she could solve that problem with a gun? >> detective wilson was growing more and more skeptical of

ellen the's story. and so was mike's sister terry. without any real proof that she had something to do with ike's disappearance, there was nothing that could be done about those suspicions. >> there was nothing that could tangibly prove murder enough to get in arrest warrant so we had a body. >> so, another four years had passed. mike's sister terry 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 is not adding up and i believe at first they worked very hard to unpack them. >> but as the years went by the unknown had become unbearable for the snyder family. they wanted answers from the police. >> i think he got very upset with me that i was being pushy. our phone conversation got less

and less. i would call leave a message, my messages would be returned. they kind of, i, think but the case on the backburner i believe. >> detective wilson they'd continue to look for mike snider. he also put a focus on the 20 other cold cases that needed his attention. and then, one day, in 2010. there came a phone call that would break this case. a confidential informant who said he knew exactly where mike snider was. >> you looked in the yard, not found anything, not on mike anywhere, not been able to talk to ellen. i'm not gonna say this wasn't going anywhere but, certainly, it didn't seem to be pointing immediately to any resolution. >> correct. >> that's what gave you this call. >> detective mark wilson was sitting in his office when a most unexpected call came in.

>> the collar, a confidential source. who said he had information on mike snider. >> was this confidential source? >> somebody that was a friend with michael sheffield. >> ellen sun? >> the man thing 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 with me, in my house, with my son, for months. they live there rent free. >> out of the goodness of your heart? >> because he was michael's friend, yeah. he was a good kid. they needed this break. >> not only was he michael sheffield's good friend. patrick was also ellen's employee at the harness kawasaki motorcycle dealership, where he was now working as the service manager. >> my boss was give me a lot of heat about patrick's

productivity. so he told me, in december, they needed to let him go but i knew he wouldn't wait till after christmas. i kept a much longer than i would have because he was a friend. >> the first week of january 2010 ellen fired patrick. she could not have known just how life altering that decision would be. >> what did he say? >> he didn't say too much. just loaded up his stuff and left. >> of course ellen did not know that patrick knew the secret. >> then he went to the police? >> then he went to the police. >> now. patrick was sitting in a starbucks with detective wilson, letting him in on the eight year old secrets. >> so this guy didn't come forward out of the goodness of his heart or civic duty? this was revenge. >> yes. >> but you will take it? >> yes. >> patrick told the detective that he knew that mike snider had been killed.

and there's 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 said the next day he told him about it. then, over the years, they were together drinking or something then he would break down and tell him again the story. >> did you believe? >> yes. >> so this is one more person pointing you to the backyard? >> yes. >> we had already look there. >> this seemed very believable. disinformation. and it with a cooperative police was -- >> patrick agreed to cooperate with police. they drove an undercover police vehicle within microphones of michaels home and told them they need to speak privately. patrick said the police had contacted him about the disappearance of mike snider. he didn't know what to do. >> they're really freaking me out. i just want to come to an like,

you know, what do i say? do i not say, you know? they're atmosphere like two hours. so just need to know from you, like, what i should do. >> tell them you don't know anything. >> i just don't have to, like, get stuff to. >> oh, i nodded myself. i don't know. i just tommy left us. i'm just scared. they seem to know a lot of things to. >> like what? >> they were saying something about hearing gunshots. they're also saying that they might know what the weapon is. do you still have that? >> oh, no. no that wasn't supposed right away. >> well what do you want me to tell them -- to i just say don't know anything? >> yeah. >> of the army to give him a shout of you like your numbers of shy given to them? >> yeah. >> okay. >> then came the big question. the one the police head coach past trick to ask. >> is he still there? >> as far as i know, under big

slab of concrete. >> it was now time for detective wilson to pay a visit to michael sheffield. ellen snider son. mike snider's step son and begin to unravel and eight year old mystery. >> do you have someplace we can sit down and talk? >> coming up. >> interrogation begins. >> michael, it's time to come clean okay? can they get the truth after all these years? >> i can only imagine what it would be like. >> when dateline continues. n dateline continues ♪breeze driftin' on by...♪ ♪...you know how i feel.♪ you don't have to take... [coughing] ...copd sitting down. ♪it's a new dawn,...♪ ♪...it's a new day,♪ it's time to make a stand. ♪and i'm feelin' good.♪ start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd... ...medicine has the power to treat copd... ...in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler,... ...trelegy makes breathing easier for a full 24 hours,

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it was friday january 29th josh mankiewicz: it was friday, january 29, 2010, 2010. it was business as usual in the service department at this albuquerque 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. >> you would happen to have some place we could sit down and talk? >> i got to chat with you just a bit. >> they were there to speak with 25 your mechanic, michael sheffield. ellen snider son. mike snider's stepped on. >> we seem to be surprised that he shot -- so we went to his break room and we conducted an interview with him. >> we were at the violent crime section of the a.p.t., deal with homicides. we're going to ask you questions. all right? that we already know the answers to, okay? you knew this day was coming her sense you were about 17 years old. how you answer the questions and your honesty here is really going to change your life from this moment on, okay? detective wilson here has been investigating the disappearance of your stepfather. >> why don't you tell me right now what you know happened to your stepdad, michael snider?

michael snider who helped race you. >> adam, he left us. >> at first michael tells the same story that his mom had told since the day mike snider first disappeared. he had a partner in phoenix. >> michael. >> all? we >> remember what i told you. >> right. he had a partner phoenix. he left us. that's what my mother told me. >> that's what your mother told you? think about when you're 17 years old and what you woke up to one day. you pretty sure that's what you want your statement to be to the district attorney? we're not going to find his body up there? >> i sure sell hope not. >> michael, it's time to come clean, okay? it's over. >> i am. you know, i don't know what you are talking about. as far as i'm concerned he left us. he did. he left my sister and i. do you know what it's like trying to raise her? i was 17. she had no father figure in a

more. it was me. >> 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 still told the story he's been telling for six or seven years? >> we have information, all right? okay. that you assisted your mom and bearing your stepfather in his backyard? >> no. >> no? >> do you think we are here by chance? do you think we're making this up? >> i don't know where you got your information, but i would never, know. it's a terrible crime. >> repeatedly detective tells michael that it's time for him to confess. >> i need you to be honest with us. i need you to -- right here on this picture. show us where you put the body. >> i don't know where he's buried. i didn't bury the body.

>> yes, you did. >> hodge a taken to come off that story? >> actually told them that we had information that he knew where the body was and what's a little further and told him that we heard him talking about it, he came forward after we showed him that we had evidence. >> so tell us what happened and exactly where he buried the body. >> i need to know what's going to happen to my mom. >> the detective 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. he called 9-1-1. >> my mother comes in and says everything is all right, so i hung up the call. >> you must have hung up just in time. because there's no record of a 9-1-1 call from the snyder home that day. >> i'll just. i didn't know what to do. i was so scared.

>> that's a tough position for a 17 year old. did you know she had a gun? >> no. >> a few days later, in a second interview, michael told police this. >> mom tells me what had happened. >> okay, what does she tell you? >> she told me she shot him in defense. she was scared. told mission have done it. i'm sorry, but, could you help me with this? and i was scared of the time. i did know what to do. >> so, he says, he reluctantly helped his mother wrap mike snider that body and a waterproof tarp, place it in a hole in the backyard, and put some construction waste on top of it. >> what's going through your mind at this time? >> god, i don't want to get caught. i don't want to go to jail. what am i doing? >> micah told detectives about the breakdown he had at mr. snyder's funeral. the one the snyder family thought was so peculiar. >> i couldn't handle it. i just had a breakdown then.

so we leave. family staring at me. and she's outside talking to me. and she says, is this my fault? is this about what happened? and i don't remember say anything back. >> okay. >> but now it was, you know, it was about that. >> i had the feeling that he was glad to get it off his chest. he broke down somewhat. and i could only imagine what it would be like keeping that type of a secret. the detective showed michael photographs of the snyders property as it looked in 2002. and had michael circle where he believed his stepfather's body was buried. >> that michael believed that he was on the hook legally? for his part in this? >> i think he probably knew that he was. he knew that he was an accomplice in this case. >> a few miles away, michael's mom, was ending her workday.

>> when they came out from work his girlfriend came by. she was sitting in her car next to him. she says, you need to get the car. >> she told him that michael had called. the police had shown up at his work. and they knew the secrets. >> so i called my mom and said i need to come over. and she was like, are you okay? i said no. with that her mother phoned an old acquaintance of hers. a defense attorney named penny adrian. >> her mom calls me up and said, i think we have a problem. there was apparently something very wrong. the next morning she went to meet with adrian. by then the story was breaking. >> breaking news, albuquerque police have an active crime scene investigation going on. >> police tell us that a confidential source told them that the remains of snider are buried underneath the garage of this home. >> but she just sat really

stiffening in front of me, she said, have you heard about them digging for a body in the northeast heights? i said, well, you could not hear about it. it was on all of the television stations and all over the newspaper. she said, well, my ex-husband is buried there because i shot him. >> dateline returns after the break. r th break. hmm? what is this place? the other side of the rest stop. bundles as far as the eye can see. if you're looking for a first mate, i know a guy. me. i'm the guy. is this oak? [ sniffs ] four types of jerky. this is where i live now. you could save a ton with progressive by bundling your boat or rv with your home and auto. hey, guys! free bags! they're just giving them away! my mental health was much better, but i struggled with uncontrollable movements called td, tardive dyskinesia.

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stories. president biden told reporters sunday that he expects me to congressional leadership on tuesday for the next round of debt ceiling negotiations. the u.s. rates defaulting on its debt obligations has early as june 1st. and, the memphis grizzlies have suspended star player, ja morant, for a second time this year. he was reportedly seen on instagram live video saturday flashing a firearm. the team suspended morant for eight games in march after a similar incident. back to dateline. ck to dateline que acres of the mountains.

is known for its large subdivisions in the foothills of the sandia mountains, not for a crime scene vehicles and use helicopters flying overhead. but in february 2010, this was the scene in front of the home where allen and mike snider once lived. >> out in the street it was as a >> people like jeff proctor was talked out for three days of men with jackhammers and backhoes began tearing up the garage floor. >> we continue to follow breaking news right now. >> if you lived in albuquerque you would've had to wear earplugs not to hear about it. >> we spoke to the police chief and she told said the police is here for the remains of michael snider. >> mechanic, jim hurtado a, longtime friend of elephants was at work when the news broke. >> i couldn't believe it. >> so you really believed that he left her, and he was in

phoenix. >> yes. >> police began cutting through the concrete of what was now a six car garage. but the job of finding mike snider's remains prove difficult. the garage floor was a solid foot of steel reinforced concrete. >> police say they will resume begin tomorrow. >> the excavation went on for two more days. finally, on the third day, searchers uncovered a waterproof tarp inside where the remains of mike. >> mike was in phoenix, mike this, mike that. all along, mike was not in phoenix. >> for mike's family, the finality was devastating. >> to not know for a years and is somewhat hold on to hope. to have that hope, finally, pulled out from under you. it was very difficult for all of us. >> she sat in her defense attorney's office. knowing interest was imminent.

>> they had found the body and she had wanted to get it over with. she said she just can't go on like this. and so adrian, in front of the police, informed that allen snyder was ready to turn or self in. >> that friday i went with the police detectives at the office. and gave him a full statement. >> before i ask any questions, which understand these are your miranda constitutional rights, okay? >> she gave police a two and a half hour confession. and her version of events is quite a story. >> woke me up. i was, two, three in the morning. we are doing. pushing back and forth. i told him they know about you and dave symonds, i know that you're gay. >> she said she had recently grown more courageous in her dealings with mike. on this night, she had confronted her husband. over what she says was a secret

guy affair. >> i'm yelling at him. he's yelling at me. and 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're never gonna tell anybody. there's nothing to tell. he's denying, it he screaming at me. he saying he has never seen him so angry, ever. >> she says she ran to the bedroom and got the gun from the closet, the one that her colleague had loaned her. >> i said i have a gun. he's laughing at me, calling them a coward. that i'm never going to tell anyone. >> so he's taunting you? thank you to have the courage to shoot him. >> he's calling me, you know a -- and tell me what a pumpkin person i am. screaming at me. >> and that moment of fear, she says, she pulled the trigger. not once, not twice, but

repeatedly. >> i emptied the gun. i never been so afraid. >> he turned around a runway for me? and you kept shooting. >> i did. he just turned, and i kept shooting. >> how far you? >> ten feet. >> and what happened? >> he fell down. >> elizabeth, mike and ellence six role daughter was vacillating the bedroom. she didn't wake up. but her son michael, 17, was in his bedroom and he did. >> he's calling 9-1-1 and i told him to hang up. >> he hung up? >> and i sat down on the step waiting for the police to come. >> but the police never did show. >> i cover them up. i told him to get ready for school. i told them i shot mike, you need to just go to school. >> how is michael doing at this point? . a >> i thought he was doing okay.

>> evidently michael was not okay. he skipped school that day. he told his friend patrick about the horror he had gone through. >> did you talk about this? from the first minute that this happened this has become the thing you're not talking about. >> we never talked about it. >> thank shot my co-school. >> i don't talk about him? >> later, with michael elizabeth at school. helen plant move the body into the garage. but there was a problem. >> trying to get him situated the where i can get him under him to move him. >> you could not do it alone? >> i couldn't. >> so you asked your son. >> so i asked my son. >> yes. . >> you ask michael to help you move the body.

>> he did not want to. i asked them please. he said okay. >> 17-year-old michael reluctantly agreed. >> were you aware that you are asking him to, essentially commit a crime. >> i wasn't in the frame of mind to believe it as such? >> but at the time your plan to do that instead of the other option which is called the cops and face music. >> yes, at that point i was just solving the problem. >> so the tears and regret that i'm seeing now. you are not feeling back then. >> nope, never cried. >> because, at the time, ellen said she was on autopilot and needed to dispose of the body. how did she do that? and the want ads she found a guy with a backup, who came to the house, and dug a hole. >> you tell the guy why you're doing this? >> no, he did not ask.

>> >> her and her son michael wrap snyder's body in a tarp. and put plastic bags on his hands. then, the dark of night, they moved him onto a dolly and into the whole. >> we had recent helping at this time or not? >> yes, i asked me throw some dirt on top of him. he said okay. >> they fill the hole with leftover construction waste so the body could not be seen. the next day, she went back to the paper. and found a different guy, who had a bobcat, and hired him to fill in the hole. >> and you buried a body? >> i did. >> then, she came up with her story. >> you got better at telling that story. >> yeah, as time went on it became a bigger and bigger story. >> it was the end of her two and a half hour statement to police. and she wanted to get one last thing on the record. >> anything else you want to

say? , >> then what i want to say is i am not's all horrible killer. >> and what that ellen was charged with first degree murder and held on $1 million bail. >> they have announced they've arrested lacks wife of a man who vanished acre ago. and a cold cover-up was over but another storyline was just beginning. did mike snider have it coming? was ellen guilty of anything? and what could be proven after so many years? >> coming up, a stark police discovery. >> it occurred to me that michael was laying in his bed when he was shot. >> something more startling still. >> she walked away from this? she might have been charged with first we murder and caught away with it?

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you thought he was going to josh mankiewicz: he thought he was going to kill you kill you even though you have the gun? >> yes. i did. i had never seen such anger. ever. i shot him because i was afraid. >> there are some things ellen admits. she admits that she shot and killed her husband, mike snider, and 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 herself as a murder? >> no. >> i don't. >> i was saving -- >> it came down that night to mere him. >> she said it's a case of survival. but asked attractive, mark

wilson, and he calls it something else. >> i believe this is a evil woman who planned this from the beginning. >> what if she did fare for life? >> sure, it's a possibility. possibility there was a murder. but there's also evidence he set it up to look like that because as we get close to the time when she was going to kill him. >> even if it was an act of self-defense that caused her to shoot her husband, why hadn't she called the police? >> usually, when abused women killed their abusers they call the police and they're sitting there with a gun when the police drive up. >> okay. >> they don't try to evade responsibility, they admit what they did, and as they say they don't have a 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 is pretty unusual. >> which suggests that some people, that there's more to the story than you are telling. >> they did not live through what we lived through. >> they were not there that night. >> with helen now sitting in jail detective wilson was trying to determine if the shooting happened the way ellin now said it did. because, after all, how believable was allen? >> we try to gather information six or seven years later. we don't have the actual crime scene. at that time you would've seen bloodstreams from where he first got shot when the body was laid to the projectiles had stopped. >> ellen had claimed that mike walker up yelling. and they fought in the family room where mike slept. >> in the middle of the family room he is, as far as you and

i. >> then he comes and steps forward and i start shooting. >> using some credit detective work wilson had an idea. he remembered something that michael, allen son have mentioned in this interview with police. something about a stereo speaker. >> not all the bullets that the body. some of them went through a speaker. like the bottom of the speaker. i still have that speaker. >> the detective went back to the house with michael. and awesome to show where the speaker was positioned on the floor. where it was in relation to where mike slapped. detective wilson came to this hypothesis. >> it appeared to me that michael was laying in his bed when he was shot. >> not up in advancing on ellen to do her harm? >> exactly. handed the medical investigator reported that the projectiles came up through the victims

body from down in the stomach area. >> almost as if the person was lying flat and the shooter was standing at his feet. why? my estimation was that the body was on the mattress when he was being fired at. it may have gotten up and started to bleed if it didn't kill him right away. >> there is something else to 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 of mike's death. >> dateline returns after the break. break. steal this game from you just like i stole kelly carter in high school. you got no game dude, that's a foul! and now you're ready to settle the score. game over. and if you don't have the right home insurance coverage, well, you could end up paying for all this yourself.

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with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. helen was awarded -- josh mankiewicz: just months after she shot her husband and filed for divorce, ellen was awarded and the cash in their joint account. remember those tax returns that

have been filed in mike's name after he disappeared? turns out it was ellen who had filed them in order to get a refund. she also just cashed out mics 60,000-dollar 401(k). and she continued to collect the disability checks that mike had been getting because of his multiple sclerosis. >> you kept catching those checks? for a year. >> those checks were deposited into my account, yes. >> totaling about how much money? -- >> that must have helped? >> >> it did. >> the argument could be made that you made some money out of this. >> are you implying it was because of that that it occurred? is that what you're implying? >> i'm not implying, i'm saying you made money out of the death of your husband. >> i did not make a substantial amount of money out of the death of her husband, no. >> it was now the job of prosecutor -- to put together a case for a jury to hear.

>> covering up the crime would be her best evidence in terms of try to convince a jury that her intent, at the time the killing, was something along the lines of a murder. >> but the prosecution found itself in a rather unusual predicament. eight years had passed since the shooting, and 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, the prosecutors would have to prove to a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that ellen snyder planned mike snider's murder. but with no crime scene, and little in the way forensics. that was going to be hard to proof. >> so, in her view was self-defense. but maybe she was guilty of manslaughter, second-degree murder. but you could prosecute for either those offenses. >> that is correct. the statute of limitations here in new mexico on the state case like this prohibited us from going forward on any of those

lesser types of offenses. >> her defense attorney, benny abraham knew a first degree murder conviction could mean a life sentence for elon. but felt the prosecution would have a tough time making their case. >> premeditation would be hard to prove. but even harder would be proving she did not act in self-defense. given all the things that were going on. >> adrian said ellen acted after years of emotional and physical abuse. >> this guy was treating her horribly. >> that is right, it happened for a long long time. >> no. >> that's with the cycle of abuse is all about. they're in isolation, there is a competitive scene, there is a demeaning factor. those things will all go together and so the abuser has turned the abused into someone who thinks that he, or she,

because it happens both ways as a worthless person. >> would she 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 is certainly possible in this case. that she could walk away from this. >> she might have committed first degree murder and gotten away with it. >> dateline returns after the break. s after th break. helps lower a1c, and it's covered by medicare. before using the dexcom g7, i was really frustrated. all of that finger pricking and all that pain, my a1c was still stuck. before dexcom g7, i couldn't enjoy a single meal. i was always trying to outguess my glucose, and it was awful. before dexcom g7, my diabetes was out of control because i was tired, not having the energy to do the things that i wanted to do. (female announcer) dexcom g7 is a small, easy-to-use wearable

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mike side of the family had josh mankiewicz: mike snyder's side of the family spent many years waiting. they waited for mike to call after he disappeared, but he never did. they were waiting for the police to call when investigators first said they had looked for him. that did not happen either. finally, years later. ellen is sitting in jail, facing a murder charge for killing mike. they waited for justice. mike's sister, terry.

>> how could you look at us, the family, in the face. and tell us that you have no idea where mike is that. when you just spoke to mike, and mike is doing just fine. >> that was given you all the hope. >> that's giving us all of us hope. it's beyond me how any one person could do that. it is unimaginable. >> >> finally, she would pay the price for the murder of mike snider. and the cover-up that followed. at least, that is what mike 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 when snyder could be found, not guilty. , mike's family was not willing to risk that. >> we felt that strongly that it was premeditated. that was a gamble we are willing to take. >> when it comes to murder the prosecutor, david way mahner, is not willing to gamble. >> maybe she gets convicted of first degree murder and maybe

that's what she did all along, according to justice. but what an all or nothing, trying to convince beyond a reasonable doubt 12 jurors. >> that is a huge risk to roll the dice and not have somebody to be held accountable at all for the death of another human being. >> it was a risk for allen to. she knew that going to trial could mean a possible life sentence. one month before the case was set for trial, prosecutors offered her a plea deal. which she accepted. ultimately, she agreed to waive the statute of limitations restrictions and plead guilty to voluntarily manslaughter. admitting that she shot her husband, she also pled guilty to tampering with evidence for the burying and concealment of his body. >> falsely filed tax returns. >> and for one count of tax fraud for filing his tax returns after his death. in all, the maximum sentence possible was not life

imprisonment. but just 11 years. mike side of the family was devastated. >> so whether she sentenced to four years or five years or six years or seven years or eight years or 11 years. she is still getting away with it in your view. >> she is definitely getting away with murder. nothing is gonna be long enough for us. >> and july 2011, family and friends of both allen and mike gathered at the county district courthouse for her sentencing. her son, michael, was there in support of his mom. just as he had been on the day she shot her husband. michael was still amman near when the killing happened. so, in exchange for his cooperation, he was given immunity and face no charges. as we sit here, you are about to go in that courtroom and a judge is going to present a sentence. are you ready for what is

coming? >> how do you say you are 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 am ready. but it is going to happen. >> you will face a year for concealment of lies. >> the prosecution asked the judge to give allen the maximum sentence of 11 years. >> she could get 339 years. her defense attorney asked for leniency. >> she does ask, your honor, that the court senator to five years in prison. which would allow her to be at her daughters graduation from college. >> the judge addressed her directly. focusing on that construction waste she buried on top of her husband's body.

it was reported that you, unceremoniously, through trash in the same hole that mr. snyder had been placed. >> what that, she was given the maximum sentence of 11 years behind bars. >> snider, hopefully you can put things together and it won't fall your life. >> she hopes to when we spoke with her shortly after sentencing she said she worried most about her children. who were then 16-year-old daughter elizabeth was a high school junior. she was only six when her father disappeared from her life. >> you told her you had been lighter all these years? >> i did. >> what did she say? >> she was most concerned about losing her mom. she has been here to see me every week. she's such a remarkable young woman. she loves me. >> but she says the greatest

regret of her life was putting her son michael in the middle of her cover-up. >> you said you also thought for him, and he also thought for you. >> i agree with that sentiment. >> he's such a remarkable being. >> i know you wish you shielded him from that. >> yes. >> i get the feeling you have way more regret about that. then about what happened. >> absolutely. the shooting happened for a reason. the shooting happened, it was too much to get michael. >> no one but allen will ever know exactly what happened inside the walls of that home. in the early morning hours of january 2002. that will forever remain a mystery. but one thing is clear. ellen 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 your pretty good at telling a lie. >> okay. >> the truth is if you hadn't fired the wrong person, i think you'd be still be telling that lie today. >> maybe. i can't dispute that. >> do you have some sense of regret now? >> absolutely. i am sorry that it happened. i'm sorry for mike. i'm sorry for my family, i'm sorry for his family. . . ♪♪ this sunday, party boss. donald trump previews his vision for a second term, an agenda that proved divisive with swing voters in 2022.