so, in late spring 2006, with the current homeowners permission, detective wilson brought to search dogs and their handlers to the snyder s old property. a neighbor showed them where a flowering tree had been planted in 2000 into, a year after mike disappeared. my suspicion was that there was a body under the tree, that they planted a tree to hide the body. the handlers let the dogs loose on the property. at first, they showed little interest. that is, until 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 that possibly the scent is coming up through the tree. but she did say, well, the body could be ten feet down there, or 30 feet in that direction, if indeed there was a body there. detective wilson had a new theory, maybe mike snider had
bullets hit him. another went through a speaker, like the bottom of a speaker. i still have that speaker. 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. the office of the medical investigator reported the projectiles came up through the victim s body from down, 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
never actually left home, after all. was this the big break that the case needed? the detective discussed it with mike sister. of course, i get both excited, intrigued, anxious, and i start asking him about some questions. the team tried to dig deeper, but the ground was hard. when did you find? we don t find anything. the dogs didn t they were excited about the whole itself. soon, the chokehold. the tip seemed like gold, and mike sister, 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 did have a feeling that mike snider was dead somewhere. the digging was over. but metaphorically, at least, detective wilson still held a shovel. he was trying to get to the bottom of what ellen snider had been doing around the time her
snider. he standing on this side of the desk, she standing on her side of the desk, and he s just screaming. he stops, when i bargain, and he looks at me. i told, and i said, you know, you can do this. he basically told me i needed to mind my own business. her colleague frank, having nothing but good intentions volunteer to loan ellen a 32 caliber semiautomatic pistol. showed her how to use, it explained a bunch of things tour, you know, a ten minute please don t shoot yourself lesson. i had never had one before. he offered me the gun. i took it home, put it in the back of a closet. why not just gather up the kids and leave? it was christmas time, we had a six-year-old daughter. detective wilson checked for any police reports of domestic abuse or calls to 9-1-1. he found none. they have altercations throughout their marriage? i would imagine, most couples
still angry. but that he was gone, and he wasn t coming back. right. mike s sister, terry, hadn t yet learned about mike sister with the mysterious dave simmons, or about the accusation that her brother was secretly gay. ellen didn t share any of that with terry, until a few years after mike had disappeared. she told other people about it, at the time. but, not us. she did so that out to us at first. and if that make any sense to you? oh, goodness, no. i don t believe for one minute them a rather is gay. that was only one of the components to ellen story that detective wilson wanted to check out. he says he asked allen to come down to the police department, to meet with him in person. only, she wouldn t. she said, he s not missing. we said, well we want to find him. even asking her to come in to help us find him, she would not come in. so, ellen and detective wilson never did meet face to face. she claims she was giving him