Killing Mike News Today

marriage to work, i did not give up. >> soon he was gone, vanished without a word or a trace. >> he left the young daughter behind. he left the house. >> was this a husband who did not want to be found? or could this be something else. >> detectives are not an undercover operation. that would lead to a long -- >> hard to say ready for that? i know that it has to happen. >> disappearance in the desert. could it be the perfect crime. i can only imagine what would be like to keep that. we...

School -- >> we didnt talk about it. >> reporter: later with michael and elizabeth at school, ellen planned to move the body into the garage. but there was a problem. >> trying to get him situated to where i could get him -- a board under him to move him to the garage. >> reporter: and you couldnt do it alone? >> i couldnt do it alone. >> reporter: so you asked your son. >> so i asked him, yep. >> reporter: you asked michael to help you move the body? >> yes. he didnt want to. i asked him, pleas...

Albuquerque police chief ray shultz. >> its not against the law to be a missing person unless theres suspicious circumstances. >> and chief shultz was right in saying mike was totally within his rights to walk out and cut off ties with everyone in his life, the people he loved, the people he no longer loved. and so the investigation was limited to that of a missing person. winter, 2002, turned to spring. no one heard from mike snyder. his expensive mechanics tools lay unused at work. ellen, now ...

About it. the more terry thought about mike, the more she remembered his growing frustration with ellen in the months before he disappeared. >> he would intercede phone calls that collectors calling, you know, wanting to know why their credit cards passed due and all of these things he had no idea of. >> reporter: these are bills he thought ellen had run up, not some identity theft. >> right. >> reporter: not long after mike disappeared, ellen found herself in debt. she had 20 creditors and owed...

There would be no way that my brother would have ever left his daughter. ever. >> at the jeep dealership where mike had worked for ten years, his name was rarely mentioned in conversation. >> after three or four years of mike being gone, he didnt come up too much anymore. >> we knew he was sick. we didnt really know if he was still in the hospital somewhere or if he had actually just passed away from his illness. >> his tools were no longer lying there unused. ellens son michael was using them. ...

Disappeared. >> the article didnt implicate you. >> yes, it did. >> i read it. it doesnt lay the blame at your feet. >> yes, it does. >> what did she say to you? >> she and michael had had a heated discussion and that the next morning when she woke up he was gone and he hadnt taken a vehicle. >> ellen told the detective she was pretty sure mike had initially moved to phoenix, home of his lover dave simmons. more recently she believed he moved on to the caribbean. >> she said he was probably on a...

Question what was going on. >> there was no question, no. >> it was january 11, 2002. ellen says that like so many nights before, mike woke her for the nightly screeching match. this was at around 2 or 3 in the morning. there was, ellen says, a heated argument and then mike left the next morning. at the jeep dealership where mike worked, colleagues knew only that hed been out for a while. >> we didnt know if it was cancer or he had come back or not come back. we had no idea. >> this was like los...

His family had waited for mike to call after he disappear disappeared. they waited for the police to call when investigators first said theyd look for him. that didnt happen either. years later with ellen snyder facing a murder charge for killing mike, they waited for justice. mikes sister, terry. >> how could you look at us, the family, in the face and tell us that you have no idea where mike is at or you just spoke to mike and mike is doing just fine? >> thus, giving all of you hope. >> thus g...

Her office and gave a full statement. >> we ask you any question, i want you to understand these are your miranda or constitutional rights. >> reporter: she gave police a 2 1/2 hour confession and her version of events is quite a story. >> woke me up. i was 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. we were arguing. pushing back and forth and i told him, i know all about you and dave simmons. i know that youre day. >> reporter: ellen said she had recently grown more courageous in her dealings with mike and on t...

>> dave worked alongside mike for a decade at this jeep dealership. >> if you owned a yeep ajeep an was an older jeep, mike could fix it. he had a wealth of experience. >> and that wealth of experience earned mike a six figure salary. >> were you happy for his success? >> absolutely. its a proud thing to say mike snyder is my boyfriend. >> ellen was making a name for herself too. she was the automotive sales adviser at a neighboring dealership. >> there is a perception that women dont know about...