The investigation of Joe Shymanski‘s murder began as a missing persons case. It was Sept. 4, 2023, at 7:47 p.m. when sheriff’s deputies in Calvert County, Maryland, had been known 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 house 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 purported 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 normally simply comes proper out, like he is aware of that they’re coming.
However no one was house. Heather Snyder had checked with the neighbors and known as 911.
HEATHER SNYDER (bodycam video): Yeah, I don’t know what I even ought to do at this level.
HEATHER SNYDER: … all the pieces about it’s bizarre.
DEPUTY: OK.
What occurred to Joe Shymanski?
All of the indicators recommended Joe Shymanski needs to be there. His automobile was within the driveway, his keys and cellphone had been in the home. Authorities began looking the property – even utilizing a drone.
Joe Shymanski
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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 wouldn’t put it previous him.
Heather Snyder: I answered their questions on all the pieces they requested, , the state of affairs …
Amongst different issues investigators needed 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 a variety 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 house that night time when Heather Snyder knocked on the door.
Alison Stinson-Pounsberry: She had requested me if Joe was right here. I mentioned, no.
Nikki Battiste: How was Heather appearing?
Alison Stinson-Pounsberry: So, Heather was appearing somewhat aggravated … She was aggravated that he wasn’t right here for drop-off after she had already pushed 4 hours.
The Pounsberrys went to Joe Shymanski’s house, 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 despair points?
COLTON POUNSBERRY: None that I seen.
DEPUTY What do you assume is happening?
HEATHER SNYDER: I do not know.
DEPUTY: OK. Alright.
The Pounsberrys ended up giving Heather and the youngsters locations to sleep for the night time. However first Heather went inside Joe’s home.
Heather Snyder: I didn’t have any garments for the youngsters … So it was late at night time they let me go in and get … pajamas.
Nikki Battiste: Do you bear in mind the way you had been feeling whenever you went inside?
Heather Snyder: Upset … It was surreal.
Heather Snyder seen crying in a picture from a deputy’s bodycam inside her ex-husband’s house after reporting him lacking the night of Sept. 4, 2023.
HEATHER SNYDER (bodycam video): I’m sorry. (crying)
DEPUTY: No, You’re superb. Completely superb. It’s 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 might he not be there? Particularly realizing that the youngsters had been going to be there.
It was about two-and-a-half hours later that Heather Snyder known 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 means on the earth that Joe woulda missed … this assembly with the youngsters. … This isn — one thing’s mistaken.
Mary Shymanski: After I heard that Joe … was lacking, I fell to my knees and mentioned a prayer. … As a result of this was such a weird state of affairs it felt like I wanted, I wanted one thing larger than me immediately …
After which the morning after Joe disappeared, investigators seen one thing they’d been unable to see at night time. 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 come back 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 just lately damaged up with somebody who lived close to her in Pennsylvania.
HEATHER SNYDER (questioning): I had a boyfriend however, briefly. However I don’t –
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK: Just lately?
HEATHER SNYDER: Yeah, inside the final couple months, yeah.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK: What’s his identify?
HEATHER SNYDER: Brandon Holbrook.
Mary Shymanski: The identify Brandon Holbrook entered the scene fairly rapidly.
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 pals for some time. Um, since 20 – 2022? I wanna say.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK: OK.
HEATHER SNYDER: Or it might need been, like, November 2021.
Authorities then determined to look extra carefully at Brandon Holbrook.
Brandon Holbrook’s van was registered in Pennsylvania. Investigators found a digicam had picked up Holbrook’s license plate close to Joe Shymanski’s home in Maryland.
They pulled his automobile registration and found a digicam 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 needed to speak to an individual of curiosity: Brandon Holbrook.
Sgt. John Chester: We’ve arrested Mr. Holbrook previously.
Through the years, Holbrook had pleaded responsible to a minimum of 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 a wierd, explicit scent — each on him and the lined 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 …
Brandon Holbrook
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One police report signifies he additionally denied any contact with Joe. One other says he “was not being entirely 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 responsibility.
Det. Jessica Aurand: I used to be known as in once they received again to the station with him.
Aurand helped them get warrants for Holbrook’s truck and home.
Sgt. John Chester: We nonetheless didn’t 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 appeared like a murder scene.
There have been firearms in the home and plastic rubbish luggage, bleach, Lysol, and moist instruments in a trailer outdoors.
Cleansing objects present in Brandon Holbrook’s trailer.
Within the storage, Aurand says, “there was an open tool case.” And subsequent to it, an open package deal of energy noticed blades. However investigators didn’t spot an identical noticed.
Nikki Battiste: Is {that a} device that’s highly effective sufficient to dismember a physique?
Det. Jessica Aurand: Probably.
Authorities with cadaver canines started following a mud street catty-corner to Holbrook’s home, main into the woods. The following 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 experiences 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 pals gathered in Washington.
Alton McDougle: He was an individual that may offer you his shirt off his again, even in a rainstorm …
“My Uncle Joe’s creativity made his photography so special,” mentioned niece Janine Shymanski. “He had the eye of a child. … His sense of humor was unmatched and it really showed through all of his art.”
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Joe Shymanski met Alton McDougle in 2000 after coming to D.C. to show center college historical past and social research. McDougle says Joe grew to become his mentor, exposing him to new concepts — and to images.
Nikki Battiste: He taught you tips on how to see the world?
Alton McDougle: Sure. By way of a lens.
They ultimately grew to become pals, says McDougle, and partnered within the photograph enterprise at Jap Market. That’s the place Joe first began relationship Heather Snyder. She was then a single mother of three youngsters and was operating a vegetable enterprise.
Heather Snyder: He was enjoyable … very charming.
Nikki Battiste: After which he swept you off your ft?
Heather Snyder: He did …
Heather Snyder and Joe Shymanski married in July 2014 and purchased a home in rural Calvert County. Heather Snyder gave start to a daughter and a son a yr later, however Joe’s household and pals say by 2020, the wedding was in hassle.
Joe Shymanski and Heather Snyder
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’s not true. She was by no means after Joe’s cash. She blames the difficulties within the marriage on Joe, saying he might behave erratically, and that he began pushing her and her older youngsters away after their very own youngsters had been born.
Heather Snyder: Joe’s consideration was simply on … these two youngsters. 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 don’t 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 youngsters had been gonna see it …
Nikki Battiste: You simply left?
Heather Snyder: I left.
Mary Shymanski: He was devastated.
Joe’s buddy Anneli Werner seen 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 a couple of 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 youngsters to listen to in the future.
JOE SHYMANSKI (audio recording): Mother has a means of manipulating everybody.
JOE SHYMANSKI (audio recording): Everybody. She’s poisonous. Truthfully, I’m truthfully afraid on your psychological and emotional security.
JOE SHYMANSKI (audio recording): There’s no security in mother for me. It’s 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 means. Although he and Heather had joint authorized custody of the youngsters, he had major bodily custody when college 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 diminished the settlement he owed Heather Snyder.
Anneli Werner: Joe had began profitable! …
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.
On Sept. 6, 2023, investigators arrested Brandon Holbrook for the homicide of Joe Shymanski.
INVESTIGATOR: May you simply state your identify?
BRANDON HOLBROOK: My identify is Brandon Holbrook.
BRANDON HOLBROOK: That is — factor has my entire head tousled.
Authorities had uncovered proof that didn’t 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 counsel 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, data present Holbrook’s cellphone had solely pinged towers close to his Pennsylvania house the afternoon and night Joe disappeared. And bear in mind, photos 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 pals had hassle believing Holbrook might have devised such an elaborate plot with out assist.
Mary Shymanski: I don’t consider that Brandon Holbrook is the one individual 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
Heather Snyder
Alton McDougle additionally thinks Heather Snyder was concerned. A number of 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 a substitute of assembly midway between their houses like they normally did. McDougle says he advised Joe that involved him.
Alton McDougle: I simply don’t need her to come back to your home, dude … I simply don’t belief her.
He says Joe dismissed his concern, however the dialog haunts him to today.
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 likely to be, proper?
Joe’s household and pals 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, a minimum of, deliberate it. … her boyfriend had a minimum of 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’re leaping to –
Ted Shymanski: He’s lacking … then he’s gone … name the police …
Heather Shymanski: — then he’s 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 as if extraordinary lengthy time frame earlier than she’d let the instant 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 he or she 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 needed to color an image that he was lacking as a result of she knew the plan.
And the Shymanskis consider 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 eliminate Joe Shymanski.
Janine Shymanski: … So she simply wanted it completed and he or she discovered her individual that may do this for her.
Nikki Battiste: You assume 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 location when she discovered extra burnt stays. She acknowledges searchers might have merely missed them within the woods, however she and Coroner Andrea Alcalde consider there’s one other risk.
Coroner Andrea Alcalde: I feel the extra seemingly is that there have been stays dumped after the actual fact.
That will imply they had been dumped by another person.
Nikki Battiste: That’s 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. Still, the theory that someone else was involved in Joe Shymanski’s demise is a degree Holbrook’s attorneys will argue from the beginning of his trial.
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: Just one individual’s life is best immediately than it was earlier than the homicide of Joseph Shymanski. And that’s Heather Snyder.
Nikki Battiste: Did you have got 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 needed a conviction on premeditated homicide. They argued Holbrook fatally shot Joe Shymanski in Maryland, drove him again to Pennsylvania, put hen components 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 workforce says it was a tactic.
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: It was there for the emotional influence.
There have been no cameras allowed in courtroom. Protection lawyer Brendan Callahan tried to show the jury’s consideration away from Brandon Holbrook and in the direction of Heather Snyder. She was talked about greater than 400 occasions at trial, although she hasn’t been charged with a criminal offense.
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: The one individual with an apparent motive … was Heather Snyder. She was in a — a heated custody battle that was not going properly for her …
And Callahan advised the jury Heather Snyder had one million different causes, too. If Joe Shymanski was lifeless, Callahan mentioned, she would possibly stand to realize management of his life insurance coverage payout since her youngsters, the beneficiaries, are nonetheless minors.
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: While 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 stored the deal with Holbrook. They launched movies of his truck close to Joe’s home in Maryland the day Joe disappeared, Holbrook searching for cleansing provides in Pennsylvania the morning after, and video that’s exhausting to see, however that they are saying reveals Holbrook close to his white truck dumping one thing which turned out to be burned human stays. It put the protection in a nook.
Brandon Holbrook is seen searching for cleansing provides in Pennsylvania the morning after Joe Shymanski’s homicide.
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: There’s proof that he’s concerned sooner or later, however there’s little or no proof that he’s the one who dedicated the precise homicide.
And whereas Holbrook’s truck might need been noticed close to Joe’s home that day, Callahan says another person might have been driving it.
Protection Legal professional 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 arms.
Mary Shymanski: This man was obsessive about Heather Snyder …
Prosecutors painted an image of that obsession — displaying a picture taken practically seven months earlier than the homicide, of a automobile Holbrook additionally owned, close to Joe Shymanski’s home. They usually confirmed a textual content alternate between Heather Snyder and Holbrook from Jan. 21, 2023, additionally months earlier than the homicide, during which she is complaining about Joe. “… I’m just tired of the abuse.” Heather Snyder advised him, “It’s been years upon years. …” Holbrook later recommended she see a therapist however added: “I have other solutions in mind, but probably not the best way to go.”
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: That might imply a variety of issues. I imply it’s very straightforward to learn in it – the most nefarious intent and that’s what the State tried to do on this case. However it might imply absolutely anything. It may very well be a joke.
No matter it meant, Heather Snyder didn’t reply to Holbrook instantly. She later texted him: “I’m looking for a therapist.”
Nikki Battiste: Do you assume, how might Heather Snyder probably not know?
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: There’s quite a bit on this case that you might say that for about Heather Snyder … and her habits across the … time of the incident is general 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 Legal professional Thomas Mooney: She indicated to the police that … the connection had —
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: On the outs.
Protection Legal professional Thomas Mooney: — had cooled.
INVESTIGATOR JOSHUA BUCK (questioning): No boyfriends or —?
HEATHER SNYDER: No.
Protection Legal professional Thomas Mooney: … however the textual content messages appeared to counsel in any other case.
Six days earlier than the homicide Holbrook wrote: “I like the smell of your hair on my pillow …” And later within the day, she texted: “… Wish I was in your bed.” The following morning, he wrote again: “You can come to my bed anytime. Xo”
Mary Shymanski: Heather Snyder is … mendacity to the police and saying that she didn’t have an involvement with Holbrook.
In one other textual content, Heather Snyder complained particularly about her custody settlement with Joe: “… I keep thinking karma is going to catch up with him,” she wrote. “But I’m tired of being patient.”
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: Something that implies that there have been different individuals concerned makes Brandon Holbrook’s function on this unclear. And due to this fact, is suggestive of his innocence …
However prosecutors launched texts suggesting Heather Snyder was shocked to search out Joe lacking when she received to his home. “I have no idea, where he is” she wrote to Holbrook. “The car is here …” Each the protection and the prosecutors needed to query Heather Snyder below oath. However when she was known 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 Legal professional Brendan Callahan: {That a} truthful reply might are likely to incriminate her.
And Callahan needed the jury to think about one thing else about Heather Snyder.
Nikki Battiste: She had a gun?
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: She did …
Heather Snyder had advised authorities a couple of gun Holbrook had given her earlier than the homicide however there have been by no means any bullets or casings discovered, so it could have been unattainable to inform if it was the homicide weapon. Nonetheless Callahan says authorities had been gradual to gather it from her.
Protection Legal professional 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 house or property.
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: She has acres of land that the police are on that land, and so they don’t even ask to go searching. They only take her phrase for all the pieces.
Prosecutors say there was an intensive investigation and so they saved what is likely to be probably the most explosive proof for close to the top of their case. There’s no means Heather Snyder might 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.
Heather Snyder is seen on safety video at a Pennsylvania retailer across the time Joe Shymanski disappeared from his Maryland house.
Nikki Battiste: Heather Snyder has an alibi. I imply, she’s on surveillance video shopping for pizza … miles away.
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: Sure.
Nikki Battiste: She couldn’t have bodily gotten there in time.
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: Sure. … however … there are all kinds of various roles that one can play in a criminal offense.
Callahan says Heather Snyder might have inspired Holbrook or a minimum of identified about his plan. Holbrook doesn’t take the stand however in closings, his attorneys remind the jury there’s no proof he was even in Maryland that night, not to mention at Joe Shymanski’s home.
Protection Legal professional Brendan Callahan: The burden is on the state … and we thought that they offered … 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.
However it took simply 80 minutes for the jury to succeed in 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 happy. At sentencing, Werner offered a photograph montage of Joe, that additionally included a few of these audio recordings about Heather Snyder that he made for his or her youngsters:
JOE SHYMANSKI (audio recording): And I’m fearful about you guys rising up in a world the place you’re afraid of mother. She takes her love away from you and for those who piss her off you’re completed …
After which quite a few family and friends addressed the courtroom — suggesting Heather Snyder may be a minimum of partly responsible for what occurred. The decide gave Holbrook life with out parole and mentioned he was not closing the guide on the case.
Nikki Battiste: You’re on the middle of this case.
Heather Snyder: I’m.
A dialog with Heather Snyder
Nikki Battiste: Do you bear in mind the final time we noticed one another earlier than this story reconnected us?
Heather Snyder: I consider 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. Actually, I used to be the 1997 homecoming queen and he or she was my successor.
Heather Snyder, left, and “48 Hours” contributor Nikki Battiste in 1998, when Battiste topped Snyder as her successor as homecoming queen at their Pennsylvania highschool.
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. However it’s taken me into uncharted territory within the course of — confronting somebody from my youth. Heather Snyder advised me she needed to set the report straight. She agreed to the interview with no questions off limits. She acknowledged she was upset with Joe Shymanski throughout their custody battle.
Nikki Battiste: … did you ever say to Brandon Holbrook, I want Joe had been lifeless?
Heather Snyder: No. … Probably the most I mentioned to Brandon was that I assumed Joe needs to be in jail for the best way he was appearing.
Nikki Battiste: Did Brandon let you know he needed 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 “…other solutions…” to assist take care of Joe?
Heather Snyder: I assumed it was a — only a joke.
Nikki Battiste: It didn’t 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 “… tired of being patient” —
Heather Snyder: That’s how I used to be feeling …
Nikki Battiste: Do you assume … which will have triggered Brandon?
Heather Snyder: I don’t know.
Heather Snyder, who on the time was in that custody battle with Joe, says she ended her relationship with Holbrook a couple of month earlier than the homicide when Holbrook had been arrested once more for indecent publicity.
Nikki Battiste: What was the explanation that you just advised Brandon you wanted to finish the connection?
Heather Snyder: Due to his cost.
The Shymanskis suspect Heather Snyder was really fearful if Joe heard she was relationship a intercourse offender, she would lose custody of their youngsters. They consider Heather Snyder continued to secretly see Holbrook.
Nikki Battiste: A couple of week earlier than Joe went lacking, Brandon Holbrook texts you. “I like the smell of your hair on my pillow.”
Heather Snyder: He did. Mm-hmm.
Nikki Battiste: Had been you with him?
Heather Snyder: … I finished by his home …
Nikki Battiste: It sounds such as you’re nonetheless concerned.
Heather Snyder: We had been pals.
Nikki Battiste: … that you just had been intimate then.
Heather Snyder: We had been pals.
Heather Snyder additionally texted Holbrook “… Wish I was in your bed.”
Nikki Battiste: Weren’t you and Brandon nonetheless concerned this entire time?
Heather Snyder: We weren’t. We weren’t.
Nikki Battiste: Individuals are gonna watch and say you’re mendacity.
Heather Snyder: We had been pals … it was exhausting to surrender a buddy.
Nikki Battiste: Why was there a scent of your hair on his pillow?
Heather Snyder: As a result of I used to be most likely laying on his pillow.
She says they had been solely speaking.
Nikki Battiste: What did you speak about?
Heather Snyder: That was the final time. It was similar to, it was nearly like a goodbye, truthfully.
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 don’t — I feel clearly, psychologically, he snapped over one thing. …. It’s not like I don’t assume he needs to be in jail. I feel he did one thing horrible, horrific. He damage my household. He damage me.
Nikki Battiste: When you might see him head to head, what could be your first query?
Heather Snyder: Why? What occurred?
And whereas she hasn’t seen him in individual, 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 making an attempt to incriminate her.
HEATHER SNYDER (jail cellphone name): The Shymanskis are attempting to show that I did one thing mistaken …
BRANDON HOLBROOK: … by no means in one million years would I say you had something to do with this. I — I swear.
HEATHER SNYDER: Mm, properly, trigger I didn’t. I simply want I knew what occurred. I simply need the reality.
Holbrook tells her:
BRANDON HOLBROOK (jail cellphone name): I’d like to let you know all the pieces that I do know … however I’m not going to do it on one among these recorded traces.
After which he denies killing Joe Shymanski.
BRANDON HOLBROOK (jail cellphone name): I’ll 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 he or she by no means had an inkling of his plans. She says there’s nothing suspicious about her calling 911 so rapidly when she didn’t discover Joe on the home. She says it was her divorce lawyer who suggested her to make the decision and a felony lawyer who suggested her to plead the Fifth within the trial.
Nikki Battiste: Did you have got one thing to cover?
Heather Snyder: No.
Nikki Battiste: When you don’t have something to cover, why not simply rise up there and testify?
Heather Snyder: Individuals 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 a web 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 probability that gun is the homicide weapon?
Heather Snyder: I don’t — no. No. I imply, clearly it was locked in my closet.
Nikki Battiste: Is there something … you’re 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’re a bold-faced liar or you might be terribly unfortunate.
Heather Snyder: I’m unfortunate.
Heather Snyder says her focus is on elevating her and Joe’s youngsters, and he or she’s unhappy that they’ll develop up with out a father.
Heather Snyder: They’ve very blissful recollections of their father and I attempt … I attempt to do what I can to honor and maintain that secure.
She is aware of the Shymanskis wish to see the youngsters however says Joe’s kinfolk can’t anticipate a full relationship with them whereas publicly pointing a finger at her.
Heather Snyder: There must be a spot we transfer on aside from this, the place they’re always blaming me for one thing that I didn’t do.
Nikki Battiste: Are you afraid authorities will come for you?
Heather Snyder: No.
Nikki Battiste: In no way? …
Heather Snyder: I’m not fearful in any respect, no …
Ted Shymanski: If Joe by no means met Heather Snyder, Joe could be alive immediately. (crying)
Heather Shymanski: Alive.
Calvert County, Maryland’s, prime prosecutor Robert Harvey declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview, but wrote to us that there was “… a thorough and exhaustive investigation …” into Mr. Shymanski’s demise. “Mr. Holbrook received a fair and impartial trial … Because Mr. Holbrook’s case is under appeal … it remains open. Therefore, I am not going to respond to questions regarding the investigation and I am not going to speculate on what may or may not happen in the future.”
And after we requested Pennsylvania authorities about Heather Snyder —
Nikki Battiste: Is there a present investigation into Heather Snyder?
Det. Jessica Aurand: I can’t reply that query.
Nikki Battiste: Ought to there be?
Det. Jessica Aurand: I can’t reply that query.
Nikki Battiste: Do you assume Heather Snyder is concerned on this crime in any means?
Det. Jessica Aurand: I can’t reply that.
Nikki Battiste: However you do know the reply.
Det. Jessica Aurand: Sure. However I’m not allowed to say.
Nikki Battiste: So many individuals watching are gonna be pissed off –
Heather Snyder: Uh-huh.
Nikki Battiste: — and so they’re gonna assume it — it simply — logically, you must had identified one thing.
Heather Snyder: Proper. However I didn’t. That’s the torturous half, as a result of individuals will — it’s nearly like they wish to consider 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 identify for images college students in Washington D.C. public excessive faculties.
Produced by Josh Yager. Shaheen Tokhi is the sphere 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 manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
