My Uncle Joe's Murder | Full Episode | Forensic Files

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ -My uncle Joe's creativity made his photography so special.
He had the eye of a child. His sense of humor was unmatched, and it really showed through all of his art.
-I worked with a lot of photographers, and Joe was the best. He had such a magnetic personality.
-Every picture I see, he just looks so charismatic. -Yes. -Bright blue eyes. -Yes. Anytime he'd see you, "Hey!"
Like, his mouth, like, lit up. His eyes went wide. -If you were judging somebody by their appearance,
you'd say, you know, "He's a jock." And then you talk to him for two minutes and he's this deep soul
that was a school teacher in DC. When you were with him, you wanted to be better.
♪♪ -I got a call from my dad, and he's like, "We can't find Uncle Joe." ♪♪ -I knew right away that
something really sinister had happened. [ Dialing, ringing ] -I'm Heather Snyder. I'm Joe Shymanski's ex-wife.
His car was there. His phone was there. His wallet was there. Where is he? It was surreal. Like, "What is going on?"
-We all knew Joe wasn't missing. We all knew Joe was gone. And it was just a couple of days later
that they had found his remains. -So at that point, this had gone from a missing persons case to a homicide.
-Technically, yeah. -It's like I'm living in a horror movie. -Upon questioning Heather,
they asked her who her last boyfriend was, and she mentioned Brandon Holbrook. -The police focused in on Brandon Holbrook
as the sole perpetrator. -Brandon Holbrook had no motive. -There are no forensics linking my client to this crime.
-This story is not about a guy who decided to drive 200 miles and kill a man that he had never met.
-Do you think Heather Snyder played some role in your uncle's murder? -Yes. -I wish I had answers. I don't know anything.
-It's a big twist in the story. We know each other. -We do. -We grew up together.
-We did. -The Heather Snyder I grew up with was an "A" student... -Mm-hmm. -...cheerleader, field hockey player.
-Mm-hmm. -One of the most unlikely people to be caught up in a murder case. -Correct. -Did you have any involvement
at all in Joe Shymanski's murder? -No. -Do you believe any of it? -No. [ Crying ] We need to piece the pieces of the puzzle together.
-We know there's more to this story. We can't rest until the whole truth comes out.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -The investigation of Joe Shymanski's murder began as a missing persons case.
It was September 4, 2023, at 7:47 p.m. when Sheriff's deputies in Calvert County, Maryland,
were called to the home of the well-known photographer. His ex-wife, Heather Snyder, met them in the driveway.
She would tell authorities she had arrived by car at about 7:00 p.m. from her home in Pennsylvania...
...to hand off custody of their then-eight-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son.
But nobody was home. Heather had checked with the neighbors and called 911. All the signs suggested Joe Shymanski should be there.
His car was in the driveway. -Joe? You home? -His keys and phones were in the house.
Authorities started searching the property. [ Drone beeps, whirring ] -I answered their questions about everything they asked --
you know, the situation. -Among other things, investigators wanted to know about Heather and Joe's
divorce from the previous year. -I know it was very contentious, so there was a lot of arguing.
Specifically, the drop-off location for the kids was their biggest argument. -Joe Shymanski's neighbors,
Alison Stinson-Pounsberry and Colton Pounsberry, were home that night when Heather Snyder knocked on the door.
-She had asked me if Joe was here. I said no. -How was Heather acting? -So Heather was acting a little annoyed.
She was annoyed that he wasn't here for drop-off after she had already driven four hours.
-The Pounsberrys went to Joe Shymanski's home, telling authorities they hadn't seen Joe
since the previous afternoon. -Yeah. -The Pounsberrys ended up giving Heather and the kids
places to sleep for the night. But first, Heather went inside Joe's house. -I didn't have any clothes for the kids,
so it was late at night. They let me go in and get pajamas. -Do you remember how you were feeling when you went inside?
-Upset. [ Exhales sharply ] It was surreal. -How could he not be there? Especially knowing the kids are going to be there.
-It was about 2.5 hours later that Heather Snyder called Joe's older brother, Ted Shymanski...
and Ted's wife -- also named Heather. -I felt like I was, like, punched in the stomach.
-So there was no way in the world that Joe would have missed this meeting with the kids.
This isn't -- This -- Something's wrong. -It fell to Ted to deliver the news to the Shymanskis' sister Mary.
-When I heard that Joe was missing, I fell to my knees and said a prayer. Because this was such a bizarre situation,
it felt like I needed... I needed something greater than me right away. -And then the morning after Joe disappeared,
investigators noticed something they'd been unable to see at night -- there was blood in his driveway.
Did Joe have any enemies? -Not that we knew of. -An investigator asked Heather Snyder to come to the station.
But Heather told them she had recently broken up with someone who lived near her in Pennsylvania.
-The name Brandon Holbrook entered the scene quite quickly. -The Shymanskis say Joe told them
he'd never met Brandon Holbrook. Authorities then decided to look more closely at Brandon Holbrook.
They pulled his car registration and discovered a camera had picked up his license plate
near Joe's house the very day Joe vanished. Investigators now had a person of interest
and headed to Pennsylvania, notifying police there. -This one was definitely different than anything
that we've seen before. ♪♪ ♪♪ -On September 5, 2023, Sergeant John Chester of the Mifflin County Pennsylvania Police
got a call that Maryland authorities were investigating a homicide. They wanted to talk to a person of interest, Brandon Holbrook.
-We've arrested Mr. Holbrook in the past. -Over the years, Holbrook had pleaded guilty
to at least five counts of indecent exposure. They approached his house at about 11:00 p.m.
This is where you walked up? -Yes. -An investigator noted Holbrook's eyes were bloodshot
and that there was a strange particular smell both on him and the covered bed of his pickup in the driveway.
-This truck reeks. It smelled like death. -Holbrook told authorities he was a driver
for a Pennsylvania plant that processes chicken slaughterhouse waste. -Just have a seat right there, bud.
-He denied being near Joe's house or anywhere in Maryland the day Joe disappeared.
-We knew his truck was in Maryland. -One police report indicates he also denied any contact with Joe.
Another says he was "not being entirely truthful" and "appeared nervous." So in the early morning hours of September 6, 2023,
investigators arrested Brandon Holbrook for the murder of Joe Shymanski. By then, Detective Jessica Aurand
had reported for duty... -I was called in when they got back to the station with him.
-...and helped them get warrants for Holbrook's truck and house. -We still didn't know the magnitude
of what we were dealing with. -In the truck cab, investigators found gloves and plastic sheeting,
and in the truck bed, something described as human blood. -It looked like... a homicide scene.
-There were firearms in the house and plastic garbage bags, bleach, Lysol, and wet tools in a trailer outside.
In the garage... -There was an open tool case. -And next to it, an open package of power saw blades.
But investigators didn't spot a matching saw. Is that a tool that's powerful enough to dismember a body?
-Possibly. -Authorities with cadaver dogs began following a dirt road catty-corner
to Brandon Holbrook's house leading into the woods. The next day, they made a grisly discovery
in a clearing near a creek. -They found the jawbone with some of the ear and some teeth still intact.
-Incident reports show there was also a burn barrel which smelled of decomposition.
Scattered nearby, piles of ash. Authorities sent the material off for testing, but they had a strong hunch they were human remains
and a strong hunch whose. -It's the hope that we can keep his memory alive. -Fearing the worst, Joe Shymanski's
family and friends gathered in Washington. -He was a person that would give you his shirt off his back,
even in a rainstorm. -Joe met Alton McDougle in 2000 after coming to DC to teach middle school history and social studies.
Alton says Joe became his mentor, exposing him to new ideas and to photography. He taught you how to see the world?
-Yes, through a lens. -They eventually became friends, says Alton, and partnered in the photo business
at Eastern Market. That's where Joe first started dating Heather Snyder. She was then a single mom of three kids
and was running a vegetable business. -He was fun, very charming. -And he swept you off your feet?
-He did. -Heather and Joe married in July 2014 and bought a house in rural Calvert County.
Heather gave birth to a daughter and a son a year later. But Joe's family and friends say by 2020,
the marriage was in trouble. -Heather Snyder and Joe Shymanski were never on equal footing financially.
-The spending was definitely a problem. -Alton says Joe wrote Heather a check for thousands of dollars
to pay off a debt on a house she owned. Then he gave her more money to help her launch a new business.
-I used to tell him all the time, "She's using you." -Heather Snyder says that's not true.
She was never after Joe's money. She blames the difficulties in the marriage on Joe,
saying he could behave erratically and that he started pushing her and her older children away
after their own kids were born. -Joe's attention was just on those two children.
It was almost obsessive to a degree. It was... he cared less about what I thought or what I was saying,
and it was all about those two. -She says Joe was emotionally abusive to her, and there was one instance she claims when he got physical.
-He body-checked me into a car... and that was after... chasing me around the house.
-The Shymanski family says Heather's abuse allegations don't match the Joe they knew.
By 2021, Heather says she'd had enough. -I was afraid he was gonna snap and hurt me,
and then my children were gonna see it. -You just left. -I left. -He was devastated.
-Joe's friend Anneli Werner noticed it, too. -That spark that made Joe "Joe" was gone.
It was gone. -Heather had moved back to her hometown of Newport, Pennsylvania. She told investigators that it was a few months later
that she began seeing Brandon Holbrook. All the while, say, Joe's friends and family,
he and Heather were arguing over custody and cash. It got so bad, Heather says, she began recording their interactions around the kids.
Anneli says Joe was also upset and made recordings too about Heather for their children to hear one day.
-Joe was in a contentious, ugly divorce. -But Anneli says things had slowly started going Joe's way.
Though he and Heather had joint legal custody of the kids, he had primary physical custody when school was in session.
He'd bought $1 million life insurance policy, naming the children as beneficiaries.
And just weeks before he vanished, the court had reduced the settlement he owed Heather Snyder.
-Joe had started winning. -Anneli and the Shymanski family say, thinking back over the former couple's problems,
they began to wonder if Heather Snyder could have known more about Joe's disappearance than she was saying.
♪♪ ♪♪ -In mid-September 2023, forensic experts matched the remains that they found in that clearing near Brandon Holbrook's house
to Joe Shymanski. Mifflin County Coroner Andrea Alcalde. What was Joe Shymanski cause of death?
-Uh, he had a gunshot wound to the head. -What was his manner of death? -Homicide.
-Authorities had uncovered evidence that didn't look good for Brandon Holbrook. -We knew the white truck had been in Maryland
based on the license plate reader had read the tag, and the tag matched the vehicle that was sitting here.
-And with the saw blades in Holbrook's garage, the cleaning supplies and tools in his trailer,
and Joe's remains in the clearing nearby, it all seemed to suggest that Holbrook had killed Joe in Maryland
and brought his body to Pennsylvania. [ Gunshots firing ] But for all the evidence investigators had,
the case still contained some inconvenient truths. Did you find any of Joe Shymanski's remains
on Brandon Holbrook's property? -No. -Did you find a murder weapon? -No. -In addition, records show Holbrook's phone
had only pinged towers near his Pennsylvania home the afternoon and evening Joe disappeared.
And remember, images of Holbrook's truck in Maryland did not show who was driving.
And when the blood in the truck bed was tested, it wasn't human. It was animal. -Because he had access to the chicken plant,
did he put stuff in there and cover it up with the chicken remains? -Joe's family and friends
had trouble believing Holbrook could have devised such an elaborate plot without help.
-I do not believe that Brandon Holbrook is the only person involved in my brother's death.
I think he was highly inspired by Heather Snyder. Heather Snyder is the common denominator
in this entire picture. -Alton McDougle also thinks Heather Snyder was involved.
A few days before Joe went missing, Alton says they were hanging out and Joe told him Heather was coming over
to drop off the kids instead of meeting halfway between their homes like they usually did.
Alton says he told Joe that concerned him. -"I just don't want her to come to your house, dude.
I just don't trust her." -He says Joe dismissed his concern, but the conversation haunts him to this day.
-I get chills right now. [ Exhales sharply ] -What are you feeling? That if he'd listened to you, he might still be here?
-I mean, he might be. Right? [ Sighs ] -Joe's family and friends acknowledge their suspicion of Heather Snyder
was just a gut feeling, and that the investigation hasn't turned up any evidence
of her involvement. Nevertheless, Alton says he shared his speculation with authorities.
-Heather at least planned it. Her boyfriend had at least helped. -He says he and the family find it strange
that Heather Snyder reported Joe as missing before he was even an hour late. -You're jumping to... -He's missing.
-...that he's missing? -Calling the police. -I mean, and you're going to call 911?
-Especially, they say, because she had then waited more than 2.5 hours to notify them.
-That seems like extraordinary long period of time before she'd let the immediate family know
that Joe was missing. -And they questioned Heather's behavior when she went in Joe's house with investigators.
-And she walks in the house and she begins to cry, sobbing over her ex-husband that she would do anything to get away from.
-They suspected it was all an act, something Heather Snyder denies. -She just wanted to paint a picture that he was missing
because she knew the plan. [ Camera shutter clicks ] -And the Shymanskis believe she was untruthful
with investigators about Brandon Holbrook. -She told the police that she broke up with him
and that they were no longer together. Bull[bleep]. -Janine says she suspects Heather had used
Brandon Holbrook to get rid of Joe. -So she just needed it done and she found a person
that would do that for her. -You think Heather Snyder was the mastermind? -Yes. -Is there any doubt in your mind?
-No. -Brandon Holbrook was in custody, and authorities had combed the clearing. But weeks later,
Mary Shymanski was visiting the site when she found more burnt remains. She acknowledges searchers may have simply missed them
in the woods, but she and coroner Andrea Alcalde believe there's another possibility.
-I think the more likely is that there were remains dumped after the fact. -That would mean they were dumped by someone else.
-That's a bombshell. -Yeah. -But Alcalde says Maryland authorities seemed skeptical.
The Calvert County Sheriff's Office declined our request for an interview. Still, the theory that someone else
was involved in Joe's death is a point Holbrook's attorneys will argue from the start of his trial.
-Only one person's life is better today than it was before the murder of Joseph Shymanski,
and that is Heather Snyder. -Did you have anything to do with Joe's death? -I did not.
♪♪ ♪♪ -On March 31, 2025, the trial of Brandon Holbrook for the murder of Joe Shymanski got underway.
Prosecutors wanted a conviction on premeditated murder. They argued Holbrook fatally shot Joe Shymanski in Maryland,
drove him back to Pennsylvania, put chicken parts in his truck to cover his tracks,
then disposed of Joe's remains in that clearing near Holbrook's house. And they brought in the barrel searchers found,
suggesting it was used to burn him. But Holbrook's defense team says it was a tactic.
-It was there for the emotional impact. -There were no cameras allowed in court.
Defense attorney Brendan Callahan tried to turn the jury's attention away from Brandon Holbrook
and towards Heather Snyder. She was mentioned more than 400 times at trial, though she hasn't been charged with a crime.
-The only person with an obvious motive was Heather Snyder. She was in a heated custody fight
that she -- was not going well for her. -And Callahan told the jury Heather Snyder had
a million other reasons too. If Joe was dead, Callahan said, she might stand to gain control of his life insurance payout,
since her children, the beneficiaries, are still minors. -When you throw in the $1 million life insurance policy,
the motives write themselves. -Heather told us she knew nothing about Joe's life insurance before he died.
Prosecutors kept the focus on Holbrook. They introduced videos of his truck near Joe's house in Maryland the day Joe disappeared,
Holbrook shopping for cleaning supplies in Pennsylvania the morning after, and video that's hard to see, but that, they say,
shows Holbrook near his white truck dumping something which turned out to be burned human remains.
It put the defense in a corner. -There's evidence that he is involved at some point,
but there's very little evidence that he's the one who committed the actual murder.
-And while Brandon Holbrook's truck might have been spotted near Joe's house that day,
Callahan says someone else could have been driving it. -Brandon Holbrook had absolutely no reason
to kill Joseph Shymanski. -The state contended Holbrook did have a motive -- love for Heather Snyder and hate for Joe Shymanski,
intense enough that Holbrook took matters into his own hands. -This man was obsessed with Heather Snyder.
-Prosecutors painted a picture of that obsession, showing an image taken nearly seven months before the murder
of a car Holbrook also owned near Joe's house, and they showed a text exchange between Heather and Holbrook
from January 21, 2023, also months before the murder, in which she is complaining about Joe.
"I'm just tired of the abuse," Heather told him. "It's been years upon years." Holbrook later suggested she see a therapist,
but added, "I have other solutions in mind, but probably not the best way to go."
-That could mean a lot of things. I mean, it's very easy to read in it the most nefarious intent,
and that's what the State tried to do in this case. But it could mean just about anything.
It could be a joke. -Whatever it meant, Heather didn't respond to Holbrook immediately.
She later texted him, "I'm looking for a therapist." Do you think, "How could Heather Snyder possibly not know?"
-There's a lot in this case that you could say that for about Heather Snyder, and her behavior around the time of the incident
is overall... very suspicious. -Callahan's co-counsel Thomas Mooney points to texts between Heather and Holbrook suggesting
they were still involved shortly before the murder. -She indicated to the police... -On the outs.
-...that the relationship had cooled. But the text messages seemed to suggest otherwise.
-Six days before the murder, Holbrook wrote, "I like the smell of your hair on my pillow..."
And later in the day, she texted, "Wish I was in your bed." The next morning he wrote back,
"You can come to my bed anytime. XO." -Heather Snyder is lying to the police and saying that she didn't have an involvement with Holbrook.
-In another text, Heather complained specifically about her custody agreement with Joe.
"I keep thinking karma is going to catch up with him," she wrote, "but I'm tired of being patient."
-Anything that suggests that there were other people involved makes Brandon Holbrook's role in this unclear,
and therefore is suggestive of his innocence. -But prosecutors introduced texts suggesting
Heather Snyder was surprised to find Joe missing when she got to his house. "I have no idea where he is," she wrote to Holbrook.
"The car is here." Both the defense and the prosecutors wanted to question Heather under oath,
but when she was called as a witness, she declined to testify, invoking her Fifth Amendment privilege.
What does Heather Snyder pleading the Fifth say to you? -That a truthful answer could tend to incriminate her.
-And Callahan wanted the jury to consider something else about Heather Snyder. She had a gun? -She did.
-Heather had told authorities about a gun Holbrook had given her before the murder,
but there were never any bullets or casings found, so it would have been impossible to tell
if it was the murder weapon. Still, Callahan says, authorities were slow to collect it from her.
-That wasn't investigated until weeks before the trial started, even though they knew about it.
-And he says they failed to ever search Heather's home or property. -She has acres of land that the police are on that land,
and they don't even ask to look around. They just take her word for everything. -Prosecutors say there was a thorough investigation,
and they saved what might be the most explosive evidence for near the end of their case.
"There's no way Heather could have killed Joe," they say. Why? The afternoon Joe disappeared,
you can see Heather on video buying pizza in Pennsylvania about three hours away.
Heather Snyder has an alibi. She's on surveillance video buying pizza miles away.
-Yes. -She couldn't have physically gotten there in time. -Yes, but... there are all sorts of different roles
that one can play in a crime. -He says Heather could have encouraged Brandon Holbrook,
or at least known about his plan. Holbrook doesn't take the stand, but in closings,
his attorneys remind the jury there's no proof he was even in Maryland that evening,
let alone at Joe Shymanski's house. -The burden is on the State, and we thought that they presented a strong case
that he was involved after the fact, but we're still waiting on the evidence that he was ever in that driveway.
-But it took just 80 minutes for the jury to reach a verdict. Brandon Holbrook is guilty of first-degree
premeditated murder of Joe Shymanski. -How are you feeling? -Extremely happy. -Joe's loved ones were happy, but not satisfied.
At sentencing, Anneli Werner presented a photo montage of Joe that also included some of those audio recordings about Heather
that he made for their children. And then a number of friends and family addressed the court, suggesting Heather could also be,
at least in part, to blame for what happened. The judge gave Holbrook life without parole
and said he was not closing the book on the case. You're at the center of this case.
-I am. ♪♪ ♪♪ -Do you remember the last time we saw each other before this story reconnected us?
-I believe it was at homecoming in 1998. -It was more than 25 years ago here on our high school sports fields
in tiny Newport, Pennsylvania. Heather Snyder and I had grown up together. In fact, I was the 1997 homecoming queen,
and she was my successor. I put a crown on your head, and now here we are. -And we're back.
-We hadn't communicated since then until reporting this story brought me back to some of the most familiar terrain of my life,
but it's taken me into uncharted territory in the process -- confronting someone from my youth
who has been caught up in a murder case. Heather told me she wanted to set the record straight.
She agreed to the interview with no questions off limits. She acknowledged she was upset with Joe
during their custody fight. Did you ever say to Brandon Holbrook, "I wish Joe were dead"? -No.
The most I said to Brandon was that I thought Joe should be in jail for the way he was acting.
-Did Brandon tell you he wanted to kill Joe? -No. -Did you help him cover it up?
-No. No. -So what about those texts between her and Brandon Holbrook, like when he mentions "other solutions"
to help deal with Joe? -I thought it was just a joke. -It didn't cross her mind for a second that he might hurt Joe?
-No. -As for her text about karma catching up with Joe, in which she wrote she was tired of being patient...
-That's how I was feeling. -Do you think a text like that may have triggered Brandon?
-I don't know. -Heather, who at the time was in that custody fight with Joe, says she ended her relationship with Brandon Holbrook
about a month before the murder, when Holbrook had been arrested again for indecent exposure.
What was the reason that you told Brandon you needed to end the relationship? -Because of his charge.
-The Shymanskis suspect Heather was actually worried if Joe heard she was dating a sex offender,
she would lose custody of their kids. They believe Heather continued to secretly see Holbrook.
About a week before Joe went missing, Brandon Holbrook texts you, "I like the smell of your hair on my pillow."
-He did. Mm-hmm. -Were you with him? -I stopped by his house. -It sounds like you're still involved...
-Mm. We were friends. -...that you were intimate...then. -We were friends. -Heather also texted Brandon, "Wish I was in your bed."
Weren't you and Brandon still involved this whole time? -We weren't. We weren't.
-People are gonna watch and say you're lying. -We were friends. It was hard to give up a friend.
-Why was there a smell of your hair on his pillow? -'Cause I was probably laying on his pillow.
-She says they were only talking. What did you talk about? -That was the last time.
It was just like... It was almost like a goodbye, honestly. -What did Brandon say? Was he upset?
-We were both upset. We were both crying. -Heather told us that even after Joe's murder...
-I still have love for Brandon. -Wow. -Wow is right. -How? -I don't... I think...
obviously psychologically he snapped over something. It's not like I don't think he should be in jail.
I think he did something horrible, horrific. He hurt my family. He hurt me. -If you could see him face to face,
what would be your first question? -Why? What happened? -And while she hasn't seen him in person,
she did have a chance to ask him. Shortly before his sentencing, she accepted his call from jail.
-Heather tells Holbrook she believes Joe's family is trying to incriminate her. Holbrook tells her...
And then he denies killing Joe. Heather says Holbrook never confessed to her and she never had an inkling of his plans.
She says there's nothing suspicious about her calling 911 so quickly when she didn't find Joe at the house.
She says it was her divorce attorney who advised her to make the call and a criminal lawyer who advised her
to plead the Fifth in the trial. Did you have something to hide? -No. -If you don't have anything to hide,
why not just get up there and testify? -People twist your words. -And the words Joe used to describe Heather
in those audio messages? Heather told us Joe was twisting reality at the time. She says Joe was the dangerous one,
and she created a website, Heather's Abuse Story, detailing her side. [ Camera shutter clicks ]
We also asked Heather about that gun she says Brandon Holbrook gave her before Joe's murder.
She says it was only for target practice. Is there any chance that gun is the murder weapon?
-I don't -- No. No, I mean, obviously it was locked in my closet. -Is there anything you're not telling us?
-No. -Look me in the eye. Are you lying about anything? -I am not. -Either you're a bold-faced liar,
or you are extraordinarily unlucky. -[ Chuckles ] I am unlucky. -Heather says her focus is
on raising her and Joe's children, and she's sad that they'll grow up without a father.
-They have very happy memories of their father, and I try... I try to do what I can to honor and keep that safe.
-She knows the Shymanskis want to see the kids, but says Joe's relatives can't expect
a full relationship with them while publicly pointing a finger at her. -There needs to be a place we move on other than this,
where they're constantly blaming me for something that I didn't do. -Are you afraid authorities will come for you?
-No. -Not at all? -I'm not worried at all. No. -If Joe never met Heather Snyder,
Joe would be alive today. -Joe would be alive. -Calvert County, Maryland's, top prosecutor Robert Harvey
declined our request for an interview, but wrote to us that there was "a thorough
and exhaustive investigation" into Mr. Shymanski's death. "Mr. Holbrook received a fair and impartial trial.
Because Mr. Holbrook's case is under appeal...it remains open." Therefore, I'm not going to respond
to questions regarding the investigation and I'm not going to speculate on what may
or may not happen in the future." And when we asked Pennsylvania authorities about Heather Snyder...
Is there a current investigation into Heather Snyder? -I can't answer that question.
-Should there be? -I can't answer that question. -Do you think Heather Snyder is involved
in this crime in any way? -I can't answer that. -But you do know the answer. -Yes...
but I'm not allowed to say. [ Camera shutter clicks ] -So many people watching are going to be frustrated,
and they're going to think it just... logically, you have to have known something.
-Right. But I didn't. ♪♪ That's the tortuous part, because people will... It's almost like they want to believe
that I was involved with it. They want that true crime narrative... and it just simply wasn't the case.
[ Exhales sharply ] [ Camera shutter clicks ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

A young woman mourns her uncle's murder … and questions whether the convicted killer was the only one involved. "48 Hours" contributor Nikki Battiste reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Joe Shymanski's murder case reveals complex relationships and suspicions surrounding his ex-wife Heather Snyder and her boyfriend Brandon Holbrook.

Key points

Uncle Joe's Creativity. Joe's unique photography style and magnetic personality left a lasting impression.
The Sinister Disappearance. Joe Shymanski's sudden disappearance escalates into a homicide investigation.
Heather's Involvement Questioned. Suspicion arises around Heather Snyder's role in Joe's murder.
Trial of Brandon Holbrook Begins. The trial for Joe Shymanski's murder unfolds with shocking revelations.
Motive for Murder. Heather Snyder's potential motives come under scrutiny during the trial.
The Texts Reveal Suspicion. Text messages between Heather and Holbrook suggest a deeper involvement than she admits.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's a big twist in the story.

2:32WatchOct 24, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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