he had a gun with him at that point, shot at him. [ gunshot ] did not hit him. nothing happened. no one was hurt. melvin didn t want to pursue the matter, and no charges were filed. melvin had expressed a great deal of embarrassment about the whole incident. and i think he sort of felt it was, in part, his own fault that this had happened. and there was one more interesting twist in the case. melvin and joanne snyder had come to terms with the affair, but the harshmans had not. melvin was trying very hard to make the marriage work. mr. and mrs. harshman on the other hand had a rockier road. although they did attempt to patch things up, eventually in the following spring, um, they separated and teresa filed for
contact with the outside world not to have some sort of record with something. we had divers check the ponds in the area. talked to neighbors, if they had seen anything unusual, if they saw him leave. no one did. melvin s dental records were compared to every unidentified body discovered anywhere in the united states, with no success. the only lead in the case was from a neighbor who said he saw a brown pickup truck near melvin s home on the day he disappeared. it was similar to the truck ron harshman owned. ron s wife and melvin snyder once had an affair. whether it was harshman s truck or not, i don t know. we don t know. police discovered that harshman had purchased a .25-caliber handgun just a few
markings that were present on the primer. but again, it can vary from case to case. under a microscope, firearms examiners discovered that this was precisely what happened. the impressions on the shell casing were still clear. and those impressions caused by the breech face were identical to the breech face impressions on the shell casing found in melvin snyder s barn. there was no doubt in my mind whatsoever that these two discharged cartridge cases had originated from the same source. same firearm. why would he have shot his gun on mr. snyder s property? there was no reason for that except for the fact to kill him. based on the ballistic evidence, prosecutors charged ronald harshman with first-degree murder. melvin snyder disappeared on may 25th, exactly one year to the
shell casing was discovered in melvin s barn on the day he disappeared. police searched harshman s home and found ammunition for a .25-caliber weapon, but no gun. i asked him where the gun was and he said, you ll have to ask teresa. she s the one who took the gun. she liked it and she took it. so when we asked her, she said no, it s a lie, i don t even like guns. i don t know anything about the gun. during their investigation, police also learned that ron harshman and melvin snyder once had an unpleasant confrontation over the affair that melvin was having with ron s wife. he learned that mr. snyder was coming to his home to pick up his wife, and he crashed his car into him. he had a gun with him at that point, shot at him.
other than that, the truck was in fine condition except for some marks in the back of the bed of the pickup truck. and the truck radio was tuned to a rock music station. melvin snyder never listened to rock music. melvin snyder was well known in his small town. gentlemen, change partners. just a year earlier, melvin had an affair with a married woman, teresa harshman, who he knew from square dancing. melvin and teresa left their jobs and families behind and fled to montana. hey, everybody swing! melvin s wife, joanne, and teresa s husband, ron, took the opportunity to get better acquainted, too. mr. harshman and mrs. snyder struck up a relationship and were intimate with one another.