Page 37 - Shell Casing News Today

Alike. but the locals found the lives of melvin and joanne snyder for more interesting than those civil war battlefields. on sat may 25, 1985 joanne snyder left for work around 5:30 a.m. she baked pies for a local diner. when she returned home around noon, her 43-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 thin...

Personally. and something just didnt add up. a .25-caliber shell casing was discovered in melvins barn, and ron harshman purchased a .25-caliber handgun just a few weeks before melvin disappeared. but ron was never able to produce the weapon, 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. >> nelson pored over the case file and discovered an interesting notation. ron harshman admitted te...

Casing in grass, and we are not sure of the exact area. but in this case, being the fact that its murder, im willing to try any idea and it was worth a shot to do. >> police found help in nearby gettysburg, pennsylvania. don hinks known in these parts as a retailer who sells metal detector equipment. these metal detectors were often used to unearth military artifacts. >> i went out and found three french and indian war cannon balls and one whole on the braddock campaign, that probably gave me a ...

From the manufacturing process. >> its subjected to several milling and finishing processes, which cause small, microscopic imperfections to be imparted to the surface. >> and those same marks are imprinted on each and every shell casing that exits that gun. 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, this is somewhat corroded and it has been exposed for a long period of time. he said,...

Junk went out there. so the challenge was working through 130 years of trash and picking up the single .25-caliber automatic shell casing that we were looking for. >> modern metal detectors use computer processors to measure levels of conductivity. which enables them to identify the type of metal and the depth of the object underground. >> they are basically computers that can pretty well tell you what happens down there how deep it is. it does everything but dig for you today. >> hinks and his ...

>> her body appeared to be fairly well preserved. i remember thinking at the time that i hope that means that were going to have some good evidence. >> but the crime scene itself was another matter. >> it was a dumping ground. it was a ravine where people dumped their tires. their stoves. it was very difficult for investigators to separate out what was perhaps related to the crime and what was not. >> at the top of the ravine was a single .22 caliber shell casing. as well as taras car keys and p...

The primer. but again, it can vary from case to case. >> 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 snyders barn. >> there was no doubt in my mind whatsoever that these two discharged cartridge cases had originated from the same gun. >> why would he have shot his gun on mr. ...

Clothesline post. >> in about 20 minutes, i got a signal that was in the proper reading range as far as the detector was concerned for a shell casing. i went down, got a plug, turned it over and sitting in the plug was a .25 caliber shell casing stuck to the bottom. when you look at it, and you see the patina on it, you know, its not a freshly buried object. >> my first thought was this is too good to be true, this cannot be the one that he actually fired. >> investigators hoped that after 15 ye...

Shell casing was discovered in melvins barn on the day he disappeared. police searched harshmans home and found ammunition for a .25-caliber weapon, but no gun. >> i asked him where the gun was and he said, you will have to ask teresa. she is the one who took the gun, she liked it and she took it. so when we asked her, she said no, its a lie, i dont even like guns. i dont know anything about the gun. >> during their investigation, police also learned that ron harshman and melvin snyder once had ...

Told me that and i just kind of gave him a look, this was 15 years to try to find a shell casing in grass, and we are not sure of the exact area. but in this case, being the fact that its murder, im willing to try any idea and it was worth a shot to do. >> police found help in nearby gettysburg, pennsylvania. don hinks known in these parts as a retailer who sells metal detector equipment. these metal detectors were often used to unearth military artifacts. >> i went out and found three french an...