it was the summer of 2001 when mike went to see a doctor. the doctor came in and said we believe it is an onsetting case of multiple sclerosis. multiple sclerosis. there s no cure and it can range from to death. and mike was pu put on medication to slow the disease and ellen gave him the shots. it was my place. i was his wife. i was to take cake of him. as time went on, mike s work colleagues like chuck noticed a physically weaker mike. he was struggling to make it through the day. we weren t told what actually he had or what was going on but he was not coming in to work as often or every day. when he couldn t work at the level he expected of himself, mike went on disability. he was really starting to face it and try to understand how his life was going to be
it sounded like a viable lead. so in late spring 2006, with the current homeowner s permission, detective wilson brought two search dogs and their handlers to the snyder s old property. a neighbor show wrd a flowering tree had been planted in 2002, a year after mike disappeared. my suspicion was 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. incredible. 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 said say, well with, the body could be ten feet down here, 30 feet in that direction if indeed was there was a body there. detective wilson had a new theory. make mike snyder never left home
dave simmons. i mean, the only proof that they had a relationship is the voice mails which don t exist anymore. 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 mike was supporting this guy? i never found enough money that he was supporting him, but he was definitely helping him out. police tell us ellen s information didn t lead anywhere. the detective didn t locate mike in the caribbean. when he tried to contact dave simmons from phoenix, he never got a response. but that same albuquerque journal article, the one that infuriated ellen, also got ellen s former neighbors talking about something they d seen years before. they d seen michael and ellen digging out behind the garage, digging a hole. when was that? around the time that mike went missing.
albuquerque police chief ray shultz. it s not against the law to be a missing person unless there s suspicious circumstances. and chief shultz was right in saying 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. and so the investigation was limited to that of a missing person. winter, 2002, turned to spring. no one heard from mike snyder. his expensive mechanics tools lay unused at work. ellen, now a single mom, filed for divorce. she was awarded the house, the money in their joint account, and sole custody of their daughter elizabeth. when your daughter, mike s daughter, would say to you where s daddy, what would you say? i didn t know. that he had left because he was mad at mommy. a year after mike left her, ellen says she could no longer afford that home they built
she had confronted her husband mike snyder with her knowledge of his love affair with another man and in a rage, she says, mike left his home and his family and disappeared. it had been a long, lonely time to be married and lonely every day and that loneliness was gone. what disappeared along with mike was ellen s second marriage, which she says she fought so hard to save. now, it had failed, just like her first. on the plus said, she said, mike was no longer there to torment her, belittle her and shout at her. your husband wasn t waking you up in the middle of the night to yell at you now. just you and the kids now. just me and the kids. she said she tried to reach him and so did his family. he wasn t returning their calls either many your mother called