09x17 - Buried Treasure

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Narrator: when a -year-old married man ran off to montana

With a married woman, friends and family called it a midlife

Crisis.

When he disappeared just a year later, friends and family called

That a homicide.

The case went unsolved for years until a civil w*r buff

Found more than m*llitary memorabilia in the grounds near

Gettysburg.

Franklin county sits on the outskirts of gettysburg,

Pennsylvania, a must-see for tourists and m*llitary historians

Alike.

But the locals found the lives of melvin and joann snyder far

More interesting than those civil w*r battlefields.

On saturday, may , , joann snyder left for work

Around : a.m.

She baked pies for a local diner.

When she returned home around noon, her -year-old husband,

Melvin, was gone...and so was his truck.

She looked around for him and observed some things that she

Felt were out of the ordinary.

First of all, he left his tools out.

Melvin snyder was very meticulous about his things, he

Was very careful about his things.

He wouldn't have just left his tools laying about.

Joann had called some of her family to come over and help

Look for melvin.

Narrator: while searching the property, a family member found

A .-Caliber shell casing on the barn floor, but there was no

Blood evidence anywhere nearby.

A b*llet like that will usually not travel through a

Human body.

If it does not travel through, you're usually not gonna get

Blood running anywhere.

It's not like the typical tv shows where you see blood flying

Everywhere.

There were no eyewitnesses...

Unless maybe there were some barnyard animals, and, of

Course, they weren't talking.

Narrator: joann waited for two days before she filed a

Missing persons report.

Police found melvin's pickup truck about miles away in

Reisterstown, maryland.

It was in a grocery store parking lot.

Melvin's checkbook and .-Caliber r*fle were still

Inside the truck, so the motive wasn't robbery.

The truck was left, windows partially down, keys in the

Ignition.

I believe some of melvin's belongings were still located in

The truck.

Other than that, the truck was in fine condition, except for

Some marks in the back of the bed of the pickup truck.

Narrator: and the truck radio was tuned to a rock music

Station.

Melvin snyder never listened to rock music.

Narrator: melvin snyder was well-known in his small town.

Change partners!

Narrator: just a year earlier, melvin had an affair

With a married woman, theresa harshman, whom he knew

From square dancing.

Melvin and theresa left their jobs and families behind and

Fled to montana.

And, everybody, swing!

Narrator: melvin's wife, joann, and theresa'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.

Narrator: but after only three weeks, melvin and theresa

Decided they had made a mistake and moved back home.

Gentlemen!

Change partners across from where you are.

Change partners!

And swing her!

Narrator: however, in this recent disappearance, neither

Theresa harshman, nor her husband, ron, knew of melvin's

Whereabouts.

And the bank reported no activity on any of melvin's

Credit cards.

He had a young son -- he was early s -- and this wasn't the

Kind of man that would just run off and leave family

Obligations.

Narrator: which is why investigators began to suspect

Foul play.

Narrator: -year-old melvin snyder, a gentleman

Farmer and factory worker, went missing.

His family knew of no reason why he would've left home.

He would virtually have to live in a cave and have no

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.

Narrator: melvin's dental records were compared to every

Unidentified body discovered anywhere in the united states

With no success.

There was even an occasion where in a local landfill, they

Believed they had found a hand, and that was studied

Forensically, and, of course, it was determined that it wasn't a

Human hand.

They believed that it was perhaps animal, maybe a bear,

But it wasn't melvin snyder's hand.

Narrator: 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.

Narrator: police discovered that harshman had purchased a

.-Caliber handgun just a few weeks before melvin's

Disappearance.

Coincidentally, a .-Caliber shell casing was discovered in

Melvin's barn on the day he disappeared.

Police searched harshman's home and found amm*nit*on for a

.-Caliber w*apon, but no g*n.

I asked him where the g*n was, and he said, "you'll have

To ask theresa.

She's the one who took the g*n.

She liked it, and she took it."

So when we asked her, she said, "no, that's a lie.

I don't even like g*ns.

I don't know anything about the g*n."

Narrator: during their investigation, police also

Learned that ron harshman and melvin snyder once had an

Unpleasant confrontation over the affair 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 g*n with him at that point, sh*t at him.

[ g*nsh*t ] did not hit him.

Nothing happened.

No one was hurt.

Narrator: 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 that, well, I --

You know, certainly, you don't condone that kind of a reaction

From harshman, but I think melvin felt that it was, in

Part, his own fault that this had happened.

Narrator: and there was one more interesting twist in the

Case.

Melvin and joann 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, they separated, and

Theresa filed for divorce.

Narrator: joann snyder denied any involvement in her husband's

Disappearance, but she admitted having several telephone

Conversations with ron harshman the week before melvin

Disappeared.

Both joann and ron insisted the calls were innocent.

I'm sure there was still a little bit of resentment there

Of what happened a year prior when melvin left.

I know she was having conversations with ron harshman.

Whether or not there was anything more to their

Relationship...

Narrator: and that's where things stood.

One year later, ron and theresa harshman divorced, sold

The farm, and ron moved out of the area.

He continued to say he had nothing to do with melvin's

Disappearance, and he even demanded a meeting with police

To stop what he called "their harassment."

We did have the meeting.

We had lunch together.

He was sociable, but he bordered on being angry.

And the whole purpose was for me to stop interfering in his life,

Both his social life and with his co-workers.

I explained to him that I was an investigator, and that all he

Had to do was to take a polygraph test, and I would

Personally apologize to everyone, including his

Co-workers.

Narrator: but that was an offer he didn't care to accept.

We had no body.

We had no actual g*n.

We knew what the past history was between ron harshman and

Melvin snyder.

And common sense will tell you that, yeah, he has a good reason

To want to k*ll melvin snyder.

He's the only person that we know of that ever wanted to harm

Melvin, but that doesn't prove it in a court of law.

Narrator: before his disappearance, melvin snyder

Told friends that he was afraid of ron harshman because ron was

Still angry about the affair he had with his wife.

He always had a strange feeling about the fact that, in

Essence, he'd predicted something like this was gonna

Happen.

Narrator: for the next years, the case haunted

Prosecutor jack nelson.

He knew melvin snyder personally, and something just

Didn't add up.

A .-Caliber shell casing was discovered in melvin's barn, and

Ron harshman purchased a .-Caliber handgun just a few

Weeks before melvin disappeared.

But ron was never able to produce the w*apon, saying it

Had been misplaced.

There was a lot of information there, but nothing

New was coming in to give you the opportunity to do anything

More with it.

Narrator: nelson pored over the case file and discovered an

Interesting notation.

Ron harshman admitted test-f*ring his new .-Caliber

p*stol in his backyard just after buying it.

That gave nelson an idea.

What about going out there and seeing if we could find a

Shell casing, and then compare that to the one in the barn?

When mr. Nelson originally told me that, I just kind of

Gave him a look like, "this is years, to try to find a shell

Casing in grass, and we're not sure of the exact area."

But, in this case, being the fact that it's a m*rder, I'm

Willing to try any idea, and it was worth a sh*t to do.

Narrator: police found help in nearby gettysburg,

Pennsylvania.

Don hinks was known in these parts as a retailer who sells

Metal detector equipment.

These metal detectors were often used to unearth m*llitary

Artifacts.

When I went out and found three french-and-indian-w*r

Cannonballs in one hole on the braddock campaign, that probably

Gave me a bigger high than this .-Caliber a*t*matic shell

Casing.

Narrator: but hinks and several of his colleagues were

Happy to do what they could, despite the fact harshman's farm

Was several hundred acres.

But there was so much trash out there, so much farm

Equipment -- it's a place where they would throw the garbage

Along with the tin foil and the toothpaste tubes, and all the

Junk went out there.

So the challenge was working through years of trash and

Picking up the little single .-Caliber a*t*matic shell

Casing that we were looking for.

Narrator: modern metal detectors use computer

Processors to measure levels of conductivity, which enables them

To identify the type of metal and the depth of an object

Underground.

They're basically computers that can pretty well tell you

What's down there, how deep it is.

It does everything but dig for you today.

Narrator: hinks and his team found many shell casings, but

None that were .-Caliber.

[ Detector beeping ] then hinks got a signal near a

Clothesline post.

In about minutes, I got a signal that was in the proper

Reading range, as far as the detector was concerned, for a

Shell casing.

And I went down, cut a little plug, turned it over, and there,

Sitting right in the plug, was a .-Caliber shell casing stuck

To the bottom.

When you look at it and you see the patina on it, you know it's

Not a freshly buried object.

My first thought was, "this is gonna be too good to be true.

This can't be the one that he actually fired."

Narrator: investigators hoped that after years in the

Ground, the shell could still be tested.

Narrator: years after melvin snyder's disappearance,

Investigators found a .-Caliber shell casing several

Inches beneath the soil on ron harshman's farm.

It was the same caliber and made by the same manufacturer as the

Shell casing found in melvin's barn.

When someone pulls the trigger of a g*n, there's a

Mini-expl*si*n inside.

The b*llet goes through the barrel.

The shell casing is forced backwards, coming into contact

With the breech face before it is ejected.

The breech face in any g*n has unique and distinctive marks

From the manufacturing process.

It's subjected to several milling and finishing processes

Which cause small, microscopic imperfections to be imparted to

The surface.

Narrator: and those same marks are imprinted on each and

Every shell casing that exits that g*n.

Ballistics experts at the pennsylvania state police crime

Lab were asked to analyze both shell casings.

When he first got the casing, he said, you know, "it's

Somewhat corroded and it's been exposed for a long period of

Time."

He said, "don't get your hopes up."

I'm not a soil expert.

It could have the effect of minimizing any distortion or

Variation that could occur, had it been on the surface of

The ground and maybe been exposed to rain, corrosion,

Other things like that.

Being underground may have, in fact, in this particular case,

Helped to maintain the quality of the markings that were

Present on the primer.

But, again, it can vary from case to case.

Narrator: under a microscope, firearms examiners discovered

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,

The same firearm.

Why would he have sh*t his g*n on mr. Snyder's property?

There was no reason for that, except for the fact to k*ll him.

Narrator: based on the ballistic evidence, prosecutors

Charged ronald harshman with first-degree m*rder.

Melvin snyder disappeared on may th, exactly one year to

The day from when melvin started the affair with

Theresa harshman.

Mr. Harshman is the kind of man that no one was gonna tell

Him what to do, no one was gonna take his property.

He became very vengeful, very, very angry.

He was not the kind of person that was gonna allow his wife to

Return home and try to rebuild their relationship.

There was no forgive and forget.

It was, "I will get my revenge."

And that's what he did.

Narrator: prosecutors say the crime was premeditated.

The evidence suggests that harshman drove to melvin's home,

Found him inside the barn, then sh*t and k*lled him with his new

.-Caliber p*stol.

[ g*nsh*t ] the .-Caliber round probably

Didn't exit melvin's body.

Prosecutors believe harshman drove home and returned later on

His motorcycle.

After he disposed of melvin's body, he put his motorcycle in

The back of melvin's truck, which created the damage found

In the bed of the truck.

Harshman then abandoned melvin's truck miles away in maryland

And drove his motorcycle home.

What did he do with the body?

The body, after years, has not been found.

Carefully, carefully, he must have planned where he was gonna

Take the body, how he was gonna dispose of the body.

Narrator: during police questioning, joann snyder

Admitted that she'd told ron harshman that melvin would

Be home alone that day, but prosecutors had no proof she had

Any prior knowledge of the m*rder.

I think joann had some involvement in this case.

Now, I'm not sure whether or not that was done intentionally, or

If she was being used by ron harshman and didn't realize

She was setting melvin up.

Narrator: ron harshman pled not guilty.

Prosecutors knew that trying a case with only one piece of

Forensic evidence would be difficult.

There aren't a whole lot of cases out there that get

Prosecuted without a body.

There aren't a whole lot of cases that get prosecuted

Without a w*apon.

And for a case to be prosecuted with no body and no w*apon was

Almost unthinkable.

Narrator: in july , a jury convicted ron harshman of

First-degree m*rder and sentenced him to life in prison.

He came years close to getting away with this.

Years is an awfully long time to get away with m*rder.

He came very close.

It was years later after the m*rder that we went out and

Found that shell casing before everything caught up with him.

And now, he's in his orange prison jacket paying for his

Crime.

It'll catch up with you sooner or later.