00:00:05
when a 42 year old married man ran off
00:00:07
to montana with a married woman
00:00:10
friends and family called it a midlife
00:00:12
crisis
00:00:13
when he disappeared just a year later
00:00:16
friends and family called that
00:00:18
a homicide
00:00:20
the case went unsolved for 15 years
00:00:24
until a civil war buff found more than
00:00:27
military memorabilia in the grounds near
00:00:30
gettysburg
00:00:33
[Music]
00:00:59
franklin county sits on the outskirts of
00:01:01
gettysburg pennsylvania a must see for
00:01:04
tourists and military historians alike
00:01:09
but the locals found the lives of melvin
00:01:11
and joanne snyder far more interesting
00:01:14
than those civil war battlefields
00:01:18
on saturday may 25th 1985
00:01:21
joanne snyder left for work around 5 30
00:01:24
a.m she baked pies for a local diner
00:01:29
when she returned home around noon
00:01:32
her 43 year old husband melvin
00:01:34
was gone
00:01:36
and so was his truck
00:01:38
she looked around for him and and
00:01:40
observed some things that she felt were
00:01:43
out of the ordinary first of all he left
00:01:45
his tools out melvin snyder was very
00:01:47
meticulous about his things he was very
00:01:49
careful about his things he wouldn't
00:01:51
have just left his tools laying about
00:01:54
joanna had called some of her family to
00:01:56
come over and help look for melvin
00:02:00
while searching the property
00:02:02
a family member found a 25 caliber shell
00:02:05
casing on the barn floor but there was
00:02:08
no blood evidence anywhere nearby
00:02:10
a bullet like that
00:02:12
will usually not travel through a human
00:02:13
body
00:02:14
if it does not travel through you're
00:02:16
usually not going to get blood
00:02:18
running anywhere
00:02:20
it's not like the typical tv shows where
00:02:22
you see blood flying everywhere there
00:02:24
were no eye witnesses
00:02:26
um
00:02:27
unless maybe there were some barnyard
00:02:29
animals and of course they weren't
00:02:30
talking
00:02:32
joanne waited for two days before she
00:02:35
filed a missing persons report
00:02:37
[Music]
00:02:39
police found melvin's pickup truck about
00:02:41
60 miles away in reisterstown maryland
00:02:45
it was in a grocery store parking lot
00:02:49
melvin's checkbook and 22-caliber rifle
00:02:52
were still inside the truck so
00:02:55
the motive wasn't robbery
00:02:57
the truck was left windows partially
00:03:00
down keys in the ignition i believe some
00:03:03
of melvin's belongings were still
00:03:05
located in the truck
00:03:07
other than that
00:03:08
the truck was in fine condition except
00:03:10
for some marks in the back of the bed of
00:03:13
the pickup truck
00:03:15
and the truck radio was tuned to a rock
00:03:18
music station
00:03:19
melvin snyder never listened
00:03:22
to rock music
00:03:24
melvin snyder was well known in his
00:03:26
small town
00:03:32
just a year earlier
00:03:34
melvin had an affair with the married
00:03:35
woman teresa harshman whom he knew from
00:03:38
square dancing
00:03:42
melvin and teresa left their jobs and
00:03:44
families behind and fled to montana
00:03:47
[Music]
00:03:52
melvin's wife joanne and teresa's
00:03:55
husband ron took the opportunity
00:03:58
to get better acquainted too
00:04:01
mr harshman and mrs snyder
00:04:05
struck up a relationship and
00:04:08
were intimate with one another
00:04:13
but after only three weeks melvin and
00:04:15
teresa decided they had made a mistake
00:04:18
and moved back home
00:04:19
gentlemen
00:04:22
changed partners across from where you
00:04:24
are
00:04:25
change partners and swing her
00:04:30
however in this recent disappearance
00:04:33
neither teresa harshman nor her husband
00:04:36
ron knew of melvin's whereabouts
00:04:41
and the bank reported no activity on any
00:04:43
of melvin's credit cards
00:04:46
he had a young son he was early 20s and
00:04:49
this wasn't the kind of man that would
00:04:50
just run off and leave family
00:04:53
obligations
00:04:55
which is why investigators began to
00:04:57
suspect
00:04:58
foul play
00:05:00
[Music]
00:05:04
43 year old melvin snyder a gentleman
00:05:07
farmer and factory worker went missing
00:05:10
his family knew of no reason why he
00:05:13
would have left home
00:05:15
he would virtually have to live in a
00:05:17
cave
00:05:18
and have no contact with the outside
00:05:20
world not to have some sort of record
00:05:23
with something
00:05:24
we had
00:05:26
divers check the ponds in the area
00:05:31
talk to neighbors if they had seen
00:05:33
anything
00:05:35
unusual if they saw him leave no one did
00:05:39
melvin's dental records were compared to
00:05:41
every unidentified body discovered
00:05:43
anywhere in the united states with no
00:05:46
success
00:05:48
there was even an occasion where
00:05:51
in a local landfill they believed they
00:05:53
had found a hand
00:05:55
and that was studied forensically
00:05:58
of course it was determined that it
00:06:00
wasn't a human hand they believed that
00:06:02
it was perhaps animal maybe bear
00:06:05
but it wasn't melvin snyder's hand
00:06:08
the only lead in the case was from a
00:06:10
neighbor who said he saw a brown pickup
00:06:13
truck near melvin's home on the day he
00:06:15
disappeared
00:06:18
it was similar to the truck ron harshman
00:06:20
owned
00:06:21
ron's wife and melvin snyder once had an
00:06:24
affair
00:06:25
whether it was harshman's truck or not
00:06:29
i don't know we don't know
00:06:31
police discovered that harshman had
00:06:34
purchased a 25 caliber handgun just a
00:06:37
few weeks before melvin's disappearance
00:06:41
coincidentally
00:06:42
a 25 caliber shell casing was discovered
00:06:45
in melvin's barn on the day he
00:06:48
disappeared
00:06:51
police searched harshman's home and
00:06:53
found ammunition for a 25-caliber weapon
00:06:57
but no gun
00:06:59
i asked him where the gun was and he
00:07:02
said you'll have to ask theresa
00:07:04
she's the one who took the gun she liked
00:07:06
it and she took it
00:07:08
so when we asked her she said no that's
00:07:09
a lie i don't even like guns i i don't
00:07:12
know anything about the gun
00:07:15
during their investigation police also
00:07:17
learned that ron harshman and melvin
00:07:20
snyder once had an unpleasant
00:07:22
confrontation over the affair melvin was
00:07:25
having with ron's wife
00:07:29
he learned that mr
00:07:31
snyder was coming to his home to pick up
00:07:33
his wife
00:07:34
and he crashed his car into him
00:07:39
he had a gun with him at that point shot
00:07:41
at him
00:07:45
did not hit him
00:07:47
nothing happened no one was hurt
00:07:50
melvin didn't want to pursue the matter
00:07:52
and no charges were filed
00:07:54
melvin had expressed
00:07:57
a great deal of embarrassment about the
00:07:59
whole incident and i think he sort of
00:08:02
felt that
00:08:04
well i you know
00:08:06
certainly
00:08:08
don't condone that kind of
00:08:11
reaction from harshman but i think
00:08:13
melvin felt
00:08:14
that it was
00:08:16
in part his
00:08:17
his own fault that
00:08:19
this had happened
00:08:21
and there was one more interesting twist
00:08:24
in the case melvin and joanne snyder had
00:08:27
come to terms with the affair
00:08:29
but the harshmans had not
00:08:32
alvin was trying very hard to make the
00:08:34
marriage work
00:08:36
mr mrs harshman on the other hand
00:08:39
had a rockier road although they did
00:08:41
attempt to patch things up
00:08:44
eventually in the following spring
00:08:49
they separated and
00:08:51
theresa filed for divorce
00:08:54
joanne snyder denied any involvement in
00:08:57
her husband's disappearance
00:08:59
but she admitted having several
00:09:01
telephone conversations with ron
00:09:03
harshman the week before melvin
00:09:06
disappeared
00:09:08
both joanne and ron insisted the calls
00:09:12
were innocent
00:09:14
i'm sure there was still a little bit of
00:09:15
resentment there what happened a year
00:09:17
prior
00:09:18
when melvin left
00:09:20
i know she was having conversations
00:09:22
with ron harshman
00:09:24
whether or not there was anything more
00:09:26
to their relationship
00:09:28
and that's where things stood
00:09:33
one year later
00:09:34
ron and joanne harshman divorced sold
00:09:37
the farm and ron moved out of the area
00:09:41
he continued to say he had nothing to do
00:09:44
with melvin's disappearance
00:09:46
and he even demanded a meeting with
00:09:48
police to stop what he called their
00:09:50
harassment
00:09:52
we did have the meeting we had lunch
00:09:54
together it was
00:09:56
he was sociable but he bordered on on
00:09:59
being angry
00:10:02
and
00:10:03
the whole purpose was
00:10:05
for me to stop interfering in his life
00:10:08
both his social life
00:10:11
and
00:10:12
with his co-workers
00:10:14
i explained to him that i was an
00:10:16
investigator and
00:10:19
that all he had to do
00:10:21
was to take a polygraph test and i would
00:10:24
personally apologize to everyone
00:10:26
including his co-workers
00:10:29
but that was an offer he didn't care to
00:10:31
accept
00:10:37
we had no body we had no
00:10:39
actual gun
00:10:41
we knew what the past history was
00:10:42
between ron harshman and melvin snyder
00:10:45
and common sense will tell you that yeah
00:10:47
he has a good reason to want to kill
00:10:49
melvin snyder he's the only person
00:10:51
that we know of that ever wanted to harm
00:10:53
melvin
00:10:55
but that doesn't prove it in a court law
00:10:58
before his disappearance
00:11:00
melvin snyder told friends that he was
00:11:02
afraid of ron harshman because
00:11:05
ron was still angry about the affair he
00:11:08
had with his wife
00:11:09
i always have a strange feeling about
00:11:12
the fact that
00:11:13
in essence had predicted
00:11:16
something like this was going to happen
00:11:20
for the next 15 years the case haunted
00:11:23
prosecutor jack nelson he knew melvin
00:11:25
snyder personally and something just
00:11:29
didn't add up
00:11:31
a 25 caliber shell casing was discovered
00:11:34
in melvin's barn
00:11:36
and ron harshman purchased a 25 caliber
00:11:39
handgun just a few weeks before
00:11:42
melvin disappeared
00:11:45
but ron was never able to produce the
00:11:47
weapon saying
00:11:49
it had been misplaced
00:11:52
there was a lot of
00:11:53
information there
00:11:55
but nothing new was coming in to give
00:11:57
you the opportunity to do
00:11:59
anything more with it
00:12:01
nelson poured over the case file and
00:12:04
discovered
00:12:05
an interesting notation
00:12:08
ron harshman admitted test firing his
00:12:11
new 25-caliber pistol in his backyard
00:12:14
just after buying it
00:12:16
that gave nelson
00:12:18
an idea
00:12:20
what about going out there and
00:12:22
seeing if we can find a shell casing and
00:12:24
then compare that to the one
00:12:27
in the barn
00:12:29
mr nelson originally told me that
00:12:31
i just kind of gave him a look like this
00:12:33
is 15 years to try to find a shell
00:12:35
casing
00:12:36
in grass and we're not sure the exact
00:12:39
area
00:12:40
but
00:12:41
in this case being the fact that it's a
00:12:43
murder i'm willing to try any idea and
00:12:46
it was worth a shot to do
00:12:48
police found help in nearby gettysburg
00:12:51
pennsylvania
00:12:53
don hinks was known in these parts as a
00:12:56
retailer who sells metal detector
00:12:59
equipment
00:12:59
[Music]
00:13:01
these metal detectors were often used to
00:13:04
unearth military artifacts
00:13:07
now when i went out and found
00:13:09
three french and indian war cannonballs
00:13:10
in one hole on the brother campaign that
00:13:13
probably gave me a bigger high this 25
00:13:16
caliber automatic shell casing
00:13:19
but hinks and several of his colleagues
00:13:21
were happy to do what they could despite
00:13:24
the fact harshman's farm was several
00:13:26
hundred acres
00:13:28
but there was so much
00:13:30
trash out there so much farm equipment
00:13:34
is the place where they would throw the
00:13:36
garbage along with the tinfoil and
00:13:38
toothpaste tubes and
00:13:40
all the junk went out there
00:13:42
so the challenge was working through 130
00:13:45
years of trash and picking up the little
00:13:48
single 25 caliber automatic shell casing
00:13:51
that we were looking for
00:13:53
modern metal detectors use computer
00:13:56
processors to measure levels of
00:13:58
conductivity
00:13:59
which enables them to identify the type
00:14:02
of metal and the depth of an object
00:14:05
underground they're basically computers
00:14:08
that can pretty well tell you what's
00:14:09
down there how deep it is does
00:14:11
everything but dig for you today
00:14:14
hinks and his team found many shell
00:14:16
casings but none that were 25 caliber
00:14:22
then
00:14:23
hinks cut a signal near a clothesline
00:14:25
post
00:14:27
in about 20 minutes
00:14:29
i got a signal that was in the proper
00:14:31
reading range as far as the detector was
00:14:34
concerned for a shell casing
00:14:36
and it went down so we cut a little plug
00:14:38
turned it over
00:14:40
and there sitting right in the plug was
00:14:42
25 caliber shell casing stuck to the
00:14:45
bottom when you look at it and you see
00:14:47
the patina on it you know it's not a
00:14:49
freshly buried
00:14:51
object my first thought was this is
00:14:53
going to be too good to be true
00:14:55
this can't be the one that he actually
00:14:56
fired investigators hoped that after 15
00:15:00
years in the ground
00:15:02
the shell could still be tested
00:15:06
[Music]
00:15:08
fifteen years after melvin snyder's
00:15:10
disappearance investigators found a 25
00:15:14
caliber shell casing several inches
00:15:16
beneath the soil on ron harshman's farm
00:15:20
it was the same caliber and made by the
00:15:22
same manufacturer as the shell casing
00:15:25
found in melvin's barn
00:15:28
when someone pulls the trigger of a gun
00:15:31
there is a mini explosion inside
00:15:34
the bullet goes through the barrel
00:15:37
the shell casing is forced backwards
00:15:40
coming into contact with the breach
00:15:42
phase before it is ejected
00:15:46
the breach face and any gun has unique
00:15:49
and distinctive marks from the
00:15:51
manufacturing process
00:15:53
it's subjected to several milling and
00:15:55
finishing processes which cause small
00:15:58
microscopic imperfections to be
00:16:00
imparted to the surface
00:16:02
and those same marks are imprinted on
00:16:05
each and every shell casing that exits
00:16:08
that gun
00:16:10
ballistics experts at the pennsylvania
00:16:12
state police crime lab were asked to
00:16:14
analyze both shell casings
00:16:17
when he first got the case and he said
00:16:19
you know this is
00:16:20
somewhat corroded and it's been
00:16:23
exposed for a long period of time he
00:16:24
said don't get your hopes up
00:16:27
i'm not a soil expert it could have the
00:16:29
effect of minimizing any distortion or
00:16:32
variation that could occur
00:16:34
had it been on the surface of the ground
00:16:36
and maybe been exposed to rain
00:16:38
and and corrosion other things like that
00:16:41
being underground may have in fact in
00:16:42
this particular case helped to maintain
00:16:45
the quality of the markings that were
00:16:46
present on the primer
00:16:48
but again it can vary from case to case
00:16:52
under a microscope
00:16:53
firearms examiners discovered this was
00:16:56
precisely what happened
00:16:58
the impressions on the shell casing were
00:17:01
still clear
00:17:03
and those impressions caused by the
00:17:06
breech face were identical to the breech
00:17:09
face impressions on the shell casing
00:17:11
found in melvin snyder's barn
00:17:15
there was no doubt in my mind whatsoever
00:17:17
that these two discharge cartridge cases
00:17:19
had originated from the same source same
00:17:21
firearm why would he have shot his gun
00:17:23
on mr snyder's property
00:17:25
there was no reason for that except for
00:17:27
the fact to kill him
00:17:29
based on the ballistic evidence
00:17:32
prosecutors charge ronald harshman with
00:17:35
first degree murder
00:17:37
melvin snyder disappeared on may 25th
00:17:40
exactly
00:17:41
one year to the day from when melvin
00:17:43
started the affair with teresa harshman
00:17:47
mr harshman is the kind of man that no
00:17:50
one was going to tell him
00:17:52
what to do no one was going to take his
00:17:54
property
00:17:56
he became very
00:17:58
vengeful very very angry he he was not
00:18:02
the kind of person that was going to
00:18:04
allow his wife to return home and try to
00:18:06
rebuild their relationship
00:18:07
there was no forgive and forget
00:18:10
it was um
00:18:11
i will get my revenge
00:18:15
and that's what he did
00:18:18
prosecutors say the crime was
00:18:21
premeditated
00:18:23
the evidence suggests that harshman
00:18:25
drove to melvin's home found him inside
00:18:28
the barn then shot and killed him with
00:18:31
his new 25 caliber pistol
00:18:36
[Music]
00:18:39
the 25 caliber round probably didn't
00:18:42
exit melvin's body
00:18:45
prosecutors believe
00:18:47
harshman drove home and returned later
00:18:50
on his motorcycle
00:18:52
after he disposed of melvin's body he
00:18:55
put his motorcycle
00:18:56
in the back of melvin's truck which
00:18:58
created the damage found in the bed of
00:19:01
the truck
00:19:05
harshman then abandoned melvin's truck
00:19:08
60 miles away in maryland
00:19:11
and drove his motorcycle home
00:19:14
what did he do with the body
00:19:16
the body after
00:19:18
19 years
00:19:19
has not been found
00:19:21
carefully carefully he must have planned
00:19:24
where he was going to take the body how
00:19:26
he was going to dispose of the body
00:19:28
during police questioning
00:19:30
joanne snyder admitted that she told ron
00:19:32
harshman that melvin would be home alone
00:19:35
that day
00:19:37
but prosecutors had no proof she had any
00:19:39
prior knowledge of the murder
00:19:42
i think joanne
00:19:43
had some involvement in this case now
00:19:45
i'm not sure whether or not that was
00:19:47
done
00:19:47
intentionally or if she was being used
00:19:50
by ron harshman and didn't realize she
00:19:53
was setting melvin up
00:19:55
ron harshman pled not guilty
00:19:58
prosecutors knew that trying a case with
00:20:01
only one piece of forensic evidence
00:20:04
would be difficult
00:20:05
there aren't a whole lot of cases out
00:20:07
there that get prosecuted without a body
00:20:10
there aren't a whole lot of cases that
00:20:11
get prosecuted without a weapon
00:20:14
and for a case to be prosecuted with no
00:20:16
body and no weapon was almost
00:20:19
unthinkable
00:20:21
in july 2001
00:20:24
a jury convicted ron harshman of first
00:20:27
degree murder and sentenced him to life
00:20:29
in prison
00:20:31
he came 16 years close to getting away
00:20:33
with this
00:20:34
16 years is an awfully long time
00:20:38
to get away with murder
00:20:40
he came very close
00:20:43
it was 15 years later
00:20:45
after the murder that we went out and
00:20:48
found a shell casing before everything
00:20:50
caught up with him and now he's
00:20:53
in his orange
00:20:55
prison jacket
00:20:57
paying for his crime
00:21:00
he'll catch up with you sooner or later
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:13
[Music]
00:21:24
so
00:21:32
[Music]
00:21:41
you
