Murder suspect proposed to marry undercover officer — then started talking, cops say

When 73-year-old Philip Snider kept changing his story about his wife’s disappearance, police decided to try a different route to uncover the truth: an undercover officer and some subtle subterfuge, WREG reported.

The Ohio man initially told investigators he had been on a trip to Graceland in Memphis,Tenn., with his wife, 70-year-old Roberta Snider, in early January, the Canton Repository reported.

A family member reported Roberta missing, and police contacted Snider, who told officers his wife had suddenly died in a parking lot of a hotel and had been taken away by an ambulance, according to the paper.

But soon that story changed, cops say.

A body never appeared at a hospital, so Snider told investigators his wife had been cremated and sent back to Ohio, WKYC reported. Then when video showed Snider staying alone at a Tennessee hotel, police said, he changed his story again, according to the station.

This time, investigators say he told them his wife had died of cancer while they were driving and so he wrapped her in plastic and tossed her body into the Tennessee River to “put her with nature,” according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Authorities searched along the river but never found a body, and no record of her death ever appeared, Fox 8 reported. Her body has still not been found.

Ohio police eventually found more video evidence of Snider driving alone, but when they went to speak to him, they found him attempting suicide in the basement of his home, WREG reported.

He was hospitalized, and while he was away, police searched his home with a cadaver dog and found a piece of bloody cloth that matched Roberta’s blood, according to the station.

When Snider was released from the hospital, police say he changed his story again.

This time, investigators say he told them Roberta had died in Ohio of natural causes, and he had driven her body to Memphis and dumped her body in the river, News 5 Cleveland reported.

Officers wanted to get to the bottom of things once and for all — so they tried a different tactic.

This time, an undercover female police officer befriended Snider and began meeting him at fast food restaurants, where she spoke about her frustration with caring for her sick mother, the Canton Repository reported.

“Eventually, the undercover officer confided in Snider that she wished her mother would die and even told him that she thought about killing her mother,” prosecutors said, according to the paper.

Police say he told the undercover cop she could get away with it, and then he proposed she marry him so she could get his pension when he died, WKYC reported.



Police said she told him if they were going to stay together, she needed to know the truth about his wife, according to the station.

Police say he soon confessed to the undercover cop that after arguing with his wife, he beat her to death with a 2-pound stake hammer while she slept and disposed of the body along his drive to Tennessee, News 5 Cleveland reported.

On Monday, Snider pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and faces the rest of his life behind bars, according to Fox 8. He is also required to tell officials where to find the evidence and his wife’s body, according to the station.

Snider’s defense attorney said his client was remorseful and pleaded guilty to spare his family further distress, according to the Canton Repository. The judge was not impressed.

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for people like you,” the judge told Snider, according to the paper.