The investigation of Joe Shymanski‘s homicide started as a lacking individuals case. It was Sept. 4, 2023, at 7:47 p.m. when sheriff’s deputies in Calvert County, Maryland, had been referred to as to the house of the well-known photographer.
His ex-wife, Heather Snyder, met them within the driveway. She would inform authorities she had arrived by automobile at about 7 p.m. from her dwelling in Pennsylvania at hand off custody of their then-8-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son.
HEATHER SNYDER (bodycam video): Um, I used to be alleged to return the youngsters to him.
DEPUTY: OK.
HEATHER SNYDER: At 7 o’clock tonight …
HEATHER SNYDER (bodycam video): … youngsters went in the home trigger he did — he often simply comes proper out, like he is aware of that they are coming.
However no one was dwelling. Heather Snyder had checked with the neighbors and referred to as 911.
HEATHER SNYDER (bodycam video): Yeah, I do not know what I even ought to do at this level.
HEATHER SNYDER: … the whole lot about it is bizarre.
DEPUTY: OK.
What occurred to Joe Shymanski?
All of the indicators recommended Joe Shymanski must be there. His automobile was within the driveway, his keys and telephone had been in the home. Authorities began looking the property – even utilizing a drone.
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DEPUTY (bodycam video): Have you learnt if he ever goes out climbing within the woods or something?
HEATHER SNYDER: I imply, I would not put it previous him.
Heather Snyder: I answered their questions on the whole lot they requested, you already know, the scenario …
Amongst different issues investigators wished to learn about was Heather and Joe’s divorce from the earlier yr.
Alison Stinson-Pounsberry: I do know it was very contentious. So there was loads of arguing … particularly the drop-off location for the youngsters was their largest argument.
Shymanski’s neighbors Alison Stinson-Pounsberry and Colton Pounsberry had been dwelling that evening when Heather Snyder knocked on the door.
Alison Stinson-Pounsberry: She had requested me if Joe was right here. I stated, no.
Nikki Battiste: How was Heather appearing?
Alison Stinson-Pounsberry: So, Heather was appearing somewhat irritated … She was irritated that he wasn’t right here for drop-off after she had already pushed 4 hours.
The Pounsberrys went to Joe Shymanski’s dwelling, telling authorities they hadn’t seen Joe because the earlier afternoon.
COLTON POUNDSBERRY (bodycam video): Yeah, we noticed him yesterday about 4 o’clock. He was serving to me with some drywall.
DEPUTY: OK.
COLTON POUNSBERRY: We gave him some dinner …
DEPUTY: Any melancholy points?
COLTON POUNSBERRY: None that I observed.
DEPUTY What do you suppose is occurring?
HEATHER SNYDER: I do not know.
DEPUTY: OK. Alright.
The Pounsberrys ended up giving Heather and the youngsters locations to sleep for the evening. However first Heather went inside Joe’s home.
Heather Snyder: I did not have any garments for the youngsters … So it was late at evening they let me go in and get … pajamas.
Nikki Battiste: Do you keep in mind the way you had been feeling once you went inside?
Heather Snyder: Upset … It was surreal.
HEATHER SNYDER (bodycam video): I am sorry. (crying)
DEPUTY: No, You are wonderful. Completely wonderful. It is quite a bit to take care of …
HEATHER SNYDER: I simply really feel unhealthy for my youngsters. What am I gonna inform them? (crying)
Ted Shymanski: How may he not be there? Particularly understanding that the youngsters had been going to be there.
It was about two-and-a-half hours later that Heather Snyder referred to as Joe’s older brother Ted Shymanski and Ted’s spouse – additionally named Heather.
Heather Shymanski: I felt like I used to be like punched within the abdomen.
Ted Shymanski: So there was no approach on this planet that Joe woulda missed … this assembly with the youngsters. … This isn — one thing’s improper.
It fell to Ted Shymanski to ship the information to his sister Mary Shymanski.
Mary Shymanski: After I heard that Joe … was lacking, I fell to my knees and stated a prayer. … As a result of this was such a weird scenario it felt like I wanted, I wanted one thing higher than me immediately …
After which the morning after Joe disappeared, investigators observed one thing they’d been unable to see at evening. There was blood in his driveway.
Nikki Battiste: Did Joe have any enemies?
Alison Stinson-Pounsberry: Not that we knew of.
An investigator requested Heather Snyder to return to the station.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK (questioning): Have you learnt of anyone that — that’d be, uh, an enemy of his?
HEATHER SNYDER: No …
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK: .… are you in any relationship proper now?
HEATHER SNYDER: No.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK: No boyfriends or —?
HEATHER SNYDER: No.
However Heather Snyder advised them she had not too long ago damaged up with somebody who lived close to her in Pennsylvania.
HEATHER SNYDER (questioning): I had a boyfriend however, briefly. However I do not –
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK: Lately?
HEATHER SNYDER: Yeah, throughout the final couple months, yeah.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK: What’s his title?
HEATHER SNYDER: Brandon Holbrook.
Mary Shymanski: The title Brandon Holbrook entered the scene fairly shortly.
The Shymanskis say Joe advised them he’d by no means met Brandon Holbrook.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK (questioning): How lengthy had been you and Brandon collectively?
HEATHER SNYDER: We had been mates for some time. Um, since 20 – 2022? I wanna say.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK: OK.
HEATHER SNYDER: Or it may need been, like, November 2021.
Authorities then determined to look extra intently at Brandon Holbrook.
They pulled his automobile registration and found a digital camera had picked up his license plate close to Joe Shymanski’s home the very day Joe vanished. Investigators now had an individual of curiosity, and headed to Pennsylvania, notifying police there.
A grisly discovery
On Sept. 5, 2023, Sgt. John Chester of the Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, Police Division received a name that Maryland authorities had been investigating a murder. They wished to speak to an individual of curiosity: Brandon Holbrook.
Sgt. John Chester: We have arrested Mr. Holbrook prior to now.
Over time, Holbrook had pleaded responsible to not less than 5 counts of indecent publicity. They approached his home at about 11 p.m.
An investigator famous Holbrook’s eyes had been bloodshot, and that there was an odd, specific scent — each on him and the coated mattress of his pickup within the driveway.
SGT. JOHN CHESTER (bodycam video): This truck reeks.
BODY CAM DEPUTY: … man, that smells horrible.
SGT. JOHN CHESTER: It smelled like demise.
Holbrook advised authorities he was a driver for a Pennsylvania plant that processes hen slaughterhouse waste. He denied being close to Joe’s home or wherever in Maryland the day Joe disappeared.
Sgt. John Chester: We knew his truck was in Maryland …
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One police report signifies he additionally denied any contact with Joe. One other says he “was not being totally truthful … and appeared nervous.” So, within the early morning hours of Sept. 6, 2023, investigators arrested Brandon Holbrook for the homicide of Joe Shymanski.
By then, Detective Jessica Aurand had reported for obligation.
Det. Jessica Aurand: I used to be referred to as in after they received again to the station with him.
Aurand helped them get warrants for Holbrook’s truck and home.
Sgt. John Chester: We nonetheless did not know … the magnitude of what we had been coping with …
Within the truck cab, investigators discovered gloves and plastic sheeting and within the truck mattress, one thing described as human blood.
Sgt. John Chester: It regarded like a murder scene.
There have been firearms in the home and plastic rubbish luggage, bleach, Lysol, and moist instruments in a trailer exterior.
Within the storage, Aurand says, “there was an open software case.” And subsequent to it, an open package deal of energy noticed blades. However investigators did not spot an identical noticed.
Nikki Battiste: Is {that a} software that is highly effective sufficient to dismember a physique?
Det. Jessica Aurand: Probably.
Authorities with cadaver canines started following a dust street catty-corner to Holbrook’s home, main into the woods. The subsequent day, they made a grisly discovery in a clearing close to a creek.
Det. Jessica Aurand: They discovered the jawbone … with among the ear … and a few tooth nonetheless intact.
Incident stories present there was additionally a burn barrel which smelled of decomposition. Scattered close by — piles of ash. Authorities despatched the fabric off for testing, however they’d a robust hunch they had been human stays, and a robust hunch whose.
Fearing the worst, Joe Shymanski’s household and mates gathered in Washington.
Alton McDougle: He was an individual that will offer you his shirt off his again, even in a rainstorm …
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Joe Shymanski met Alton McDougle in 2000 after coming to D.C. to show center faculty historical past and social research. McDougle says Joe grew to become his mentor, exposing him to new concepts — and to pictures.
Nikki Battiste: He taught you how you can see the world?
Alton McDougle: Sure. By means of a lens.
They ultimately grew to become mates, says McDougle, and partnered within the photograph enterprise at Japanese Market. That is the place Joe first began relationship Heather Snyder. She was then a single mother of three youngsters and was working a vegetable enterprise.
Heather Snyder: He was enjoyable … very charming.
Nikki Battiste: After which he swept you off your toes?
Heather Snyder: He did …
Heather Snyder and Joe Shymanski married in July 2014 and acquired a home in rural Calvert County. Heather Snyder gave delivery to a daughter and a son a yr later, however Joe’s household and mates say by 2020, the wedding was in bother.
Heather Snyder 
Mary Shymanski: Heather Snyder and Joe Shymanski had been by no means on equal footing financially.
Alton McDougle: The spending was undoubtedly an issue …
McDougle says Joe wrote Heather Snyder a verify for hundreds of {dollars} to repay a debt on a home she owned, then he gave her more cash to assist her launch a brand new enterprise.
Alton McDougle: I used to inform him on a regular basis … she’s utilizing you.
Heather Snyder says that is not true. She was by no means after Joe’s cash. She blames the difficulties within the marriage on Joe, saying he may behave erratically, and that he began pushing her and her older kids away after their very own youngsters had been born.
Heather Snyder: Joe’s consideration was simply on … these two kids. He was nearly obsessive to a level. It was, he cared much less about what I assumed or what I used to be saying … and it was all about these two.
She says Joe was emotionally abusive to her. And there was one occasion, she claims, when he received bodily.
Heather Snyder: He bodychecked me right into a automobile. And that was after chasing me round the home …
The Shymanski household says Heather Snyder’s abuse allegations do not match the Joe they knew. By 2021, Snyder says she’d had sufficient.
Heather Snyder: I used to be afraid he was gonna snap and damage me after which my kids had been gonna see it …
Nikki Battiste: You simply left?
Heather Snyder: I left.
Mary Shymanski: He was devastated.
Joe’s good friend Anneli Werner observed it too.
Anneli Werner: That spark that made Joe “Joe” was gone, it was gone!
Heather Snyder had moved again to her hometown of Newport, Pennsylvania. She advised investigators that it was just a few months later that she started seeing Brandon Holbrook. All of the whereas, say Joe’s family and friends, he and Heather Snyder had been arguing over custody and money. It received so unhealthy Heather Snyder says she started recording their interactions across the youngsters. Werner says Joe was additionally upset and made recordings too, about Heather Snyder, for his or her kids to listen to someday.
JOE SHYMANSKI (audio recording): Mother has a approach of manipulating everybody.
JOE SHYMANSKI (audio recording): Everybody. She’s poisonous. Actually, I’m actually afraid in your psychological and emotional security.
JOE SHYMANSKI (audio recording): There is not any security in mother for me. It is harmful to be near mother for me.
Anneli Werner: Joe was in a contentious, ugly divorce.
However Werner says issues had slowly began going Joe’s approach. Although he and Heather had joint authorized custody of the youngsters, he had major bodily custody when faculty was in session. He’d purchased a million-dollar life insurance coverage coverage naming the kids as beneficiaries. And simply weeks earlier than he vanished, the courtroom had decreased the settlement he owed Heather Snyder.
Anneli Werner: Joe had began successful! …
A haunting dialog
In mid-September 2023, forensic specialists matched the stays that they present in that clearing close to Brandon Holbrook’s home to Joe Shymanski. Mifflin County Coroner Andrea Alcalde.
Nikki Battiste: What was Joe Shymanski’s reason for demise?
Coroner Andrea Alcalde: Uh, he had a gunshot wound to the pinnacle.
Nikki Battiste: What was his method of demise?
Coroner Andrea Alcalde: Murder.
INVESTIGATOR: Might you simply state your title?
BRANDON HOLBROOK: My title is Brandon Holbrook.
BRANDON HOLBROOK: That is — factor has my complete head tousled.
Authorities had uncovered proof that did not look good for Brandon Holbrook.
Sgt. John Chester: We knew the white truck had been in Maryland based mostly on … the license plate reader had learn the … tag and the tag matched the automobile that was sitting right here.
And with the noticed blades in Holbrook’s storage, the cleansing provides and instruments in his trailer, and Joe’s stays within the clearing close by, all of it appeared to recommend that Holbrook had killed Joe in Maryland and introduced his physique to Pennsylvania. However for all of the proof investigators had, the case nonetheless contained some inconvenient truths.
Nikki Battiste: Did you discover any of Joe Shymanski’s stays on Brandon Holbrook’s property?
Det. Jessica Aurand: No.
Nikki Battiste: Did you discover the homicide weapon?
Det. Jessica Aurand: No.
As well as, information present Holbrook’s telephone had solely pinged towers close to his Pennsylvania dwelling the afternoon and night Joe disappeared. And keep in mind, photographs of Holbrook’s truck in Maryland didn’t present who was driving. And when the blood within the truck mattress was examined, it wasn’t human. It was animal.
Det. Jessica Aurand: As a result of he had entry to the … hen plant, did he put stuff in there and canopy it up with the hen stays?
Joe’s household and mates had bother believing Holbrook may have devised such an elaborate plot with out assist.
Mary Shymanski: I don’t imagine that Brandon Holbrook is the one particular person concerned in my brother’s demise. I feel he was extremely impressed by Heather Snyder. … Heather Snyder is the frequent denominator on this total image.
Heather Snyder 
Alton McDougle additionally thinks Heather Snyder was concerned. Just a few days earlier than Joe went lacking, McDougle says they had been hanging out and Joe advised him Heather Snyder was coming over to drop off the youngsters as an alternative of assembly midway between their houses like they often did. McDougle says he advised Joe that involved him.
Alton McDougle: I simply don’t need her to return to your own home, dude … I simply do not belief her.
He says Joe dismissed his concern, however the dialog haunts him to this present day.
Alton McDougle: I get chills proper now. (crying)
Nikki Battiste: What are you feeling? That if he listened to you, he would possibly nonetheless be right here?
Alton McDougle: I imply, he is perhaps, proper?
Joe’s household and mates acknowledge their suspicion of Heather Snyder was only a intestine feeling, and that the investigation hasn’t turned up any proof of her involvement. Nonetheless, McDougle says he shared his hypothesis with authorities.
Alton McDougle: Heather, not less than, deliberate it. … her boyfriend had not less than helped …
He says he and the household discover it unusual that Heather Snyder reported Joe as lacking earlier than he was even an hour late.
Heather Shymanski: You are leaping to –
Ted Shymanski: He is lacking … then he is gone … name the police …
Heather Shymanski: — then he is lacking like … I imply and also you’re gonna name 911?
Particularly, they are saying, as a result of she had then waited greater than two-and-a-half hours to inform them.
Mary Shymanski: That looks like extraordinary lengthy time frame earlier than she’d let the speedy household know that Joe was lacking.
They usually query Heather Snyder’s habits when she went in Joe’s home with investigators.
Anneli Werner: And she or he walks in the home … and she or he begins to cry … sobbing over her ex-husband that she would do something to get away from.
They suspected it was all an act, one thing Heather Snyder denies.
Alton McDougle: She simply wished to color an image that he was lacking as a result of she knew the plan.
And the Shymanskis imagine she was untruthful with investigators about Brandon Holbrook.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK (reprise questioning): … are you in any relationship proper now?
HEATHER SNYDER: No.
Mary Shymanski: She advised the police that … she broke up with him and that they had been now not collectively. B——-.
Janine Shymanski says she suspects Heather Snyder had used Holbrook to do away with Joe Shymanski.
Janine Shymanski: … So she simply wanted it achieved and she or he discovered her particular person that will do this for her.
Nikki Battiste: You suppose Heather Snyder was the mastermind?
Janine Shymanski: Sure.
Nikki Battiste: Was there any doubt in your thoughts?
Janine Shymanski: No.
Holbrook was in custody and authorities had combed the clearing. However weeks later, Mary Shymanski was visiting the positioning when she discovered extra burnt stays. She acknowledges searchers could have merely missed them within the woods, however she and Coroner Andrea Alcalde imagine there’s one other risk.
Coroner Andrea Alcalde: I feel the extra probably is that there have been stays dumped after the actual fact.
That might imply they had been dumped by another person.
Nikki Battiste: That is a bombshell.
Coroner Andrea Alcalde: Yeah …
However Alcalde says Maryland authorities appeared skeptical. The Calvert County Sheriff’s Workplace declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview. Nonetheless, the idea that another person was concerned in Joe Shymanski’s demise is a degree Holbrook’s attorneys will argue from the beginning of his trial.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: Just one particular person’s life is healthier in the present day than it was earlier than the homicide of Joseph Shymanski. And that’s Heather Snyder.
Nikki Battiste: Did you’ve something to do with Joe’s demise?
Heather Snyder: I didn’t.
The trial of Brandon Holbrook
On March 31, 2025, the trial of Brandon Holbrook for the homicide of Joe Shymanski received underway. Prosecutors wished a conviction on premeditated homicide. They argued Holbrook fatally shot Joe Shymanski in Maryland, drove him again to Pennsylvania, put hen elements in his truck to cowl his tracks after which disposed of Joe’s stays in that clearing close to Holbrook’s home. They usually introduced within the barrel searchers discovered, suggesting it was used to burn him. However Holbrook’s protection crew says it was a tactic.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: It was there for the emotional influence.
There have been no cameras allowed in courtroom. Protection legal professional Brendan Callahan tried to show the jury’s consideration away from Brandon Holbrook and in direction of Heather Snyder. She was talked about greater than 400 occasions at trial, although she hasn’t been charged with against the law.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: The one particular person with an apparent motive … was Heather Snyder. She was in a — a heated custody struggle that was not going properly for her …
And Callahan advised the jury Heather Snyder had 1,000,000 different causes, too. If Joe Shymanski was lifeless, Callahan stated, she would possibly stand to realize management of his life insurance coverage payout since her kids, the beneficiaries, are nonetheless minors.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: If you throw in … a million-dollar life insurance coverage coverage … the — the motives write themselves.
Heather Snyder advised “48 Hours” she knew nothing about Joe’s life insurance coverage earlier than he died.
Prosecutors saved the concentrate on Holbrook. They launched movies of his truck close to Joe’s home in Maryland the day Joe disappeared, Holbrook purchasing for cleansing provides in Pennsylvania the morning after, and video that is exhausting to see, however that they are saying exhibits Holbrook close to his white truck dumping one thing which turned out to be burned human stays. It put the protection in a nook.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: There’s proof that he’s concerned in some unspecified time in the future, however there’s little or no proof that he is the one who dedicated the precise homicide.
And whereas Holbrook’s truck may need been noticed close to Joe’s home that day, Callahan says another person may have been driving it.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: Brandon Holbrook had completely no motive to kill Joseph Shymanski.
The state contended Holbrook did have a motive: love for Heather Snyder and hate for Joe Shymanski intense sufficient that Holbrook took issues into his personal fingers.
Mary Shymanski: This man was obsessive about Heather Snyder …
Prosecutors painted an image of that obsession — exhibiting a picture taken almost seven months earlier than the homicide, of a automobile Holbrook additionally owned, close to Joe Shymanski’s home. They usually confirmed a textual content change between Heather Snyder and Holbrook from Jan. 21, 2023, additionally months earlier than the homicide, during which she is complaining about Joe. “… I am simply uninterested in the abuse.” Heather Snyder advised him, “It has been years upon years. …” Holbrook later recommended she see a therapist however added: “I’ve different options in thoughts, however in all probability not one of the best ways to go.”
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: That might imply loads of issues. I imply it’s extremely straightforward to learn in it – the most nefarious intent and that is what the State tried to do on this case. Nevertheless it may imply absolutely anything. It might be a joke.
No matter it meant, Heather Snyder did not reply to Holbrook instantly. She later texted him: “I am in search of a therapist.”
Nikki Battiste: Do you suppose, how may Heather Snyder probably not know?
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: There’s quite a bit on this case that you can say that for about Heather Snyder … and her habits across the … time of the incident is total very suspicious.
Callahan’s co-counsel Thomas Mooney factors to texts between Heather Snyder and Holbrook suggesting they had been nonetheless concerned shortly earlier than the homicide.
Protection Lawyer Thomas Mooney: She indicated to the police that … the connection had —
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: On the outs.
Protection Lawyer Thomas Mooney: — had cooled.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK (questioning): No boyfriends or —?
HEATHER SNYDER: No.
Protection Lawyer Thomas Mooney: … however the textual content messages appeared to recommend in any other case.
Six days earlier than the homicide Holbrook wrote: “I just like the scent of your hair on my pillow …” And later within the day, she texted: “… Want I used to be in your mattress.” The subsequent morning, he wrote again: “You possibly can come to my mattress anytime. Xo”
Mary Shymanski: Heather Snyder is … mendacity to the police and saying that she did not have an involvement with Holbrook.
In one other textual content, Heather Snyder complained particularly about her custody settlement with Joe: “… I maintain pondering karma goes to meet up with him,” she wrote. “However I am uninterested in being affected person.”
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: Something that implies that there have been different individuals concerned makes Brandon Holbrook’s function on this unclear. And subsequently, is suggestive of his innocence …
However prosecutors launched texts suggesting Heather Snyder was stunned to seek out Joe lacking when she received to his home. “I do not know, the place he’s” she wrote to Holbrook. “The automobile is right here …” Each the protection and the prosecutors wished to query Heather Snyder beneath oath. However when she was referred to as as a witness, she declined to testify — invoking her Fifth Modification privilege.
Nikki Battiste: What does Heather Snyder pleading the Fifth say to you?
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: {That a} truthful reply may are likely to incriminate her.
And Callahan wished the jury to contemplate one thing else about Heather Snyder.
Nikki Battiste: She had a gun?
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: She did …
Heather Snyder had advised authorities a few gun Holbrook had given her earlier than the homicide however there have been by no means any bullets or casings discovered, so it will have been inconceivable to inform if it was the homicide weapon. Nonetheless Callahan says authorities had been gradual to gather it from her.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: That wasn’t investigated till … weeks earlier than the trial began, although they knew about it.
And he says they didn’t ever search Heather Snyder’s dwelling or property.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: She has acres of land that the police are on that land, they usually do not even ask to go searching. They simply take her phrase for the whole lot.
Prosecutors say there was an intensive investigation they usually saved what is perhaps essentially the most explosive proof for close to the tip of their case. There is not any approach Heather Snyder may have killed Joe Shymanski, they are saying. Why? The afternoon Joe disappeared, you’ll be able to see Heather Snyder on video, shopping for pizza in Pennsylvania about three hours away.
Nikki Battiste: Heather Snyder has an alibi. I imply, she’s on surveillance video shopping for pizza … miles away.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: Sure.
Nikki Battiste: She could not have bodily gotten there in time.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: Sure. … however … there are all types of various roles that one can play in against the law.
Callahan says Heather Snyder may have inspired Holbrook or not less than recognized about his plan. Holbrook would not take the stand however in closings, his attorneys remind the jury there isn’t any proof he was even in Maryland that night, not to mention at Joe Shymanski’s home.
Protection Lawyer Brendan Callahan: The burden is on the state … and we thought that they introduced … a robust case that he was concerned after the actual fact, however we’re nonetheless ready on the proof that he was ever in that driveway.
Nevertheless it took simply 80 minutes for the jury to achieve a verdict. Brandon Holbrook is responsible of the first-degree premeditated homicide of Joe Shymanski.
Nikki Battiste: How are you feeling?
Janine Shymanski: Extraordinarily blissful.
Joe’s family members had been blissful however not glad. At sentencing, Werner introduced a photograph montage of Joe, that additionally included a few of these audio recordings about Heather Snyder that he made for his or her kids:
JOE SHYMANSKI (audio recording): And I am fearful about you guys rising up in a world the place you are afraid of mother. She takes her love away from you and when you piss her off you are achieved …
After which a variety of family and friends addressed the courtroom — suggesting Heather Snyder is also not less than partially in charge for what occurred. The choose gave Holbrook life with out parole and stated he was not closing the e-book on the case.
Nikki Battiste: You are on the middle of this case.
Heather Snyder: I’m.
A dialog with Heather Snyder
Nikki Battiste: Do you keep in mind the final time we noticed one another earlier than this story reconnected us?
Heather Snyder: I imagine it was at homecoming in 1998.
It was greater than 25 years in the past on our highschool sports activities fields in tiny Newport, Pennsylvania. Heather Snyder and I had grown up collectively. The truth is, I used to be the 1997 homecoming queen and she or he was my successor.
Nikki Battiste 
Nikki Battiste: I put a crown in your head and now right here we’re.
Heather Snyder: And we’re again.
We hadn’t communicated since then, till reporting this story introduced me again to among the most acquainted terrain of my life. Nevertheless it’s taken me into uncharted territory within the course of — confronting somebody from my youth. Heather Snyder advised me she wished to set the document straight. She agreed to the interview with no questions off limits. She acknowledged she was upset with Joe Shymanski throughout their custody struggle.
Nikki Battiste: … did you ever say to Brandon Holbrook, I want Joe had been lifeless?
Heather Snyder: No. … Essentially the most I stated to Brandon was that I assumed Joe must be in jail for the best way he was appearing.
Nikki Battiste: Did Brandon let you know he wished to kill Joe?
Heather Snyder: Nope.
Nikki Battiste: Did you assist him cowl up?
Heather Snyder: Nope. Nope.
So what about these texts between her and Holbrook, like when he mentions “…different options…” to assist take care of Joe?
Heather Snyder: I assumed it was a — only a joke.
Nikki Battiste: It did not cross your thoughts for a second —
Heather Snyder: No.
Nikki Battiste: — that he would possibly damage Joe?
Heather Snyder: No.
As for her textual content about karma catching up with Joe, during which she wrote she was “… uninterested in being affected person” —
Heather Snyder: That is how I used to be feeling …
Nikki Battiste: Do you suppose … that will have triggered Brandon?
Heather Snyder: I do not know.
Heather Snyder, who on the time was in that custody struggle with Joe, says she ended her relationship with Holbrook a few month earlier than the homicide when Holbrook had been arrested once more for indecent publicity.
Nikki Battiste: What was the rationale that you simply advised Brandon you wanted to finish the connection?
Heather Snyder: Due to his cost.
The Shymanskis suspect Heather Snyder was truly fearful if Joe heard she was relationship a intercourse offender, she would lose custody of their youngsters. They imagine Heather Snyder continued to secretly see Holbrook.
Nikki Battiste: A few week earlier than Joe went lacking, Brandon Holbrook texts you. “I just like the scent of your hair on my pillow.”
Heather Snyder: He did. Mm-hmm.
Nikki Battiste: Have been you with him?
Heather Snyder: … I ended by his home …
Nikki Battiste: It sounds such as you’re nonetheless concerned.
Heather Snyder: We had been mates.
Nikki Battiste: … that you simply had been intimate then.
Heather Snyder: We had been mates.
Heather Snyder additionally texted Holbrook “… Want I used to be in your mattress.”
Nikki Battiste: Weren’t you and Brandon nonetheless concerned this complete time?
Heather Snyder: We weren’t. We weren’t.
Nikki Battiste: Individuals are gonna watch and say you are mendacity.
Heather Snyder: We had been mates … it was exhausting to surrender a good friend.
Nikki Battiste: Why was there a scent of your hair on his pillow?
Heather Snyder: As a result of I used to be in all probability laying on his pillow.
She says they had been solely speaking.
Nikki Battiste: What did you discuss?
Heather Snyder: That was the final time. It was identical to, it was nearly like a goodbye, actually.
Nikki Battiste: … what did Brandon say? Was he upset?
Heather Snyder: We had been each upset. We had been each crying.
Heather Snyder advised us that even after Joe’s homicide —
Heather Snyder: I nonetheless have love for Brandon …
Nikki Battiste: Wow.
Heather Snyder: Wow is correct.
Nikki Battiste: How?
Heather Snyder: I do not — I feel clearly, psychologically, he snapped over one thing. …. It is not like I do not suppose he must be in jail. I feel he did one thing horrible, horrific. He damage my household. He damage me.
Nikki Battiste: If you happen to may see him nose to nose, what can be your first query?
Heather Snyder: Why? What occurred?
And whereas she hasn’t seen him in particular person, she did have an opportunity to ask him. Shortly earlier than his sentencing, she accepted his name from jail.
Heather Snyder tells Holbrook she believes Joe’s household is attempting to incriminate her.
HEATHER SNYDER (jail telephone name): The Shymanskis are attempting to show that I did one thing improper …
BRANDON HOLBROOK: … by no means in 1,000,000 years would I say you had something to do with this. I — I swear.
HEATHER SNYDER: Mm, properly, trigger I did not. I simply want I knew what occurred. I simply need the reality.
Holbrook tells her:
BRANDON HOLBROOK (jail telephone name): I might like to let you know the whole lot that I do know … however I am not going to do it on one in all these recorded strains.
After which he denies killing Joe Shymanski.
BRANDON HOLBROOK (jail telephone name): I will let you know one factor for positive … I by no means noticed Joe, talked to Joe, had any interplay at by any means with Joe, his total life. I promise you that.
Heather Snyder says Holbrook by no means confessed to her – and she or he by no means had an inkling of his plans. She says there may be nothing suspicious about her calling 911 so shortly when she did not discover Joe on the home. She says it was her divorce legal professional who suggested her to make the decision and a legal lawyer who suggested her to plead the Fifth within the trial.
Nikki Battiste: Did you’ve one thing to cover?
Heather Snyder: No.
Nikki Battiste: If you do not have something to cover, why not simply stand up there and testify?
Heather Snyder: Folks twist your phrases.
And the phrases Joe used to explain Heather Snyder in these audio messages?
Heather Snyder advised us Joe was twisting actuality on the time. She says Joe was the harmful one. And she or he created an internet site, “Heather’s Abuse Story,” detailing her facet.
We additionally requested Heather Snyder about that gun she says Brandon Holbrook gave her earlier than Joe’s homicide. She says it was just for goal apply.
Nikki Battiste: is there any likelihood that gun is the homicide weapon?
Heather Snyder: I do not — no. No. I imply, clearly it was locked in my closet.
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Nikki Battiste: Is there something … you are not telling us?
Heather Snyder: No.
Nikki Battiste: Look me within the eye. Are you mendacity about something?
Heather Snyder: I’m not.
Nikki Battiste: Both you are a bold-faced liar or you’re terribly unfortunate.
Heather Snyder: I’m unfortunate.
Heather Snyder says her focus is on elevating her and Joe’s kids, and she or he’s unhappy that they’re going to develop up and not using a father.
Heather Snyder: They’ve very blissful reminiscences of their father and I strive … I attempt to do what I can to honor and maintain that protected.
She is aware of the Shymanskis need to see the youngsters however says Joe’s kin cannot anticipate a full relationship with them whereas publicly pointing a finger at her.
Heather Snyder: There must be a spot we transfer on apart from this, the place they’re continuously blaming me for one thing that I did not do.
Nikki Battiste: Are you afraid authorities will come for you?
Heather Snyder: No.
Nikki Battiste: By no means? …
Heather Snyder: I am not fearful in any respect, no …
Ted Shymanski: If Joe by no means met Heather Snyder, Joe can be alive in the present day. (crying)
Heather Shymanski: Alive.
Calvert County, Maryland’s, prime prosecutor Robert Harvey declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview, however wrote to us that there was “… an intensive and exhaustive investigation …” into Mr. Shymanski’s demise. “Mr. Holbrook acquired a good and neutral trial … As a result of Mr. Holbrook’s case is beneath enchantment … it stays open. Due to this fact, I’m not going to answer questions concerning the investigation and I’m not going to take a position on what could or could not occur sooner or later.”
And after we requested Pennsylvania authorities about Heather Snyder —
Nikki Battiste: Is there a present investigation into Heather Snyder?
Det. Jessica Aurand: I can not reply that query.
Nikki Battiste: Ought to there be?
Det. Jessica Aurand: I can not reply that query.
Nikki Battiste: Do you suppose Heather Snyder is concerned on this crime in any approach?
Det. Jessica Aurand: I can not reply that.
Nikki Battiste: However you do know the reply.
Det. Jessica Aurand: Sure. However I am not allowed to say.
Nikki Battiste: So many individuals watching are gonna be pissed off –
Heather Snyder: Uh-huh.
Nikki Battiste: — they usually’re gonna suppose it — it simply — logically, you must had recognized one thing.
Heather Snyder: Proper. However I did not. That is the torturous half, as a result of individuals will — it is nearly like they need to imagine that I used to be concerned with it. They need that true crime narrative. And it simply merely wasn’t the case.
Brandon Holbrook is interesting his conviction.
A scholarship has been established in Joe Shymanski’s title for pictures college students in Washington D.C. public excessive colleges.
Produced by Josh Yager. Shaheen Tokhi is the sector producer. Michelle Sigona is the event producer. Atticus Brady is the producer-editor. Michelle Harris is the editor. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.
