the snyder home had escalated. mike s multiple sclerosis had grown progressively worse and with it so had his anger. he would push me around. he hit me. he hit you, how many times? one time? three or four. ellen now held an executive-level position at a large dealership. she was the boss of 30 mechanics and making upwards of $90,000 a year. she put your feet to the fire. make sure you get the job done and move on. she was no pushover. no pushover. she stood the up for herselves. right. inside of the walls of the nice home ellen s rank was near the bottom. he became condescending, controlling where i could go, who i could see. at home, mike made the rules and ellen obeyed them. you had a significant executive job at a big company. yes. so you are not some little
her husband mike snyder in the early morning hours of january 2002. she admits she buried his body and 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. reporter: 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. reporter: maybe she did fear for her life. there are people who say they saw her with bruises. sure, and it is a possibility. there s a possibility there was a bruise. there 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. reporter: 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
station sister terry filed a missing person s report. she had a feeling something happened. it was one thing to leave a bad marriage but quite another to end contact with the daughter mike loved. i know my brother remained steadfast in his love for his daughter. she was the joy of my brother s life. i believe he fell victim to foul play. i really did not have a concrete explanation besides that s just how i felt. that was my gut. but terry wasn t too pleased with the response the officer gave them. the officer that took our report was a little arrogant and said, you know, that he s a grown adult and that he can come and go as he pleases. so he really at that time didn t even want to write our report. the police were essentially making the same argument ellen was making. right. mike snyder s name was entered into a national missing person s database, but there wasn t much else the police could do or frankly would do.
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. reporter: not up an advancing on ellen to do her harm? exactly. the office of the medical investigator reported the projectiles came up through the vic victim s body from the stomach area up to 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. reporter: and there was something the detective uncovered that appeared a lot more sinister than a woman in fear for her life.
husband in self-defense but a detective uncovered a more sinister motive, money. here again is josh mankiewicz. reporter: 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 filed them in order to get a refund. she also cashed out mike s $61,000 401(k) and she continued to collect the disability checks 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. reporter: totaling about how much money? about 4 grand a month. reporter: that must have helped? it did. reporter: so the argument can be made that you made some money out of this. so are you implying it was