Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991 TAG: 9102210581
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK and RON BROWN/ STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Carolyn Ann Smallwood Snyder, 19, is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail in a Jefferson County, Ky., jail on a felony child-neglect charge.
But Snyder's aunt, Judy Ann Wright, said today that she does not believe her niece is the mother of the child, who became known as Baby Isaiah.
Wright said Snyder has been unable to give birth since she had her Fallopian tubes removed in a 1988 operation. "There's no way in the world she could be the mother," Wright said.
According to Wright, Snyder was stranded in Tennessee and strung out on drugs and told police the child was hers only as a way to get back to Roanoke.
"She's just trying to get home," Wright said. "The girl's scared to death. She doesn't realize what she's doing or how much trouble she's getting herself into."
A police spokesman today declined to comment on Wright's story, saying only that charges were filed against Snyder after she made a statement to police.
On Tuesday, Snyder described to authorities how she had given birth to a child in a vacant house in Southwest Roanoke in December.
"I need help," police quoted her as saying. "Things are bothering me."
Snyder, whose nickname is "Angel," told police she was afraid her husband would leave her. She had told him the baby was his, but it was not, police said.
Baby Isaiah, as the baby was informally named by nurses at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, was found in a dumpster off Mountain Avenue Southwest on Dec. 19. He died five days later of complications from exposure.
Police plan to use DNA testing to verify whether Snyder is the mother. They would not comment on whether others had helped her give birth or how the baby got into the dumpster.
Roanoke police investigators started piecing the case together after street sources described a pregnant woman who visited shelters and halfway houses in early December. Investigators questioned a couple of hundred people in the case.
A break came after police released a composite drawing of the woman prepared by state police from descriptions of her. An anonymous caller contacted city officers Feb. 6 and said he knew the woman, who was described as heavyset, 20 to 30 years old, with acne scars and dyed black hair.
The caller told police that the woman was the girlfriend of a Roanoke man. Police later learned the woman was Snyder.
Witnesses told police that the couple had been married in July 1990. Officials at the shelters told police that Snyder was pregnant just before Isaiah was found but that she was not pregnant immediately afterward.
The husband, Robert Lee Snyder, 31, was seen by a city patrol officer in downtown Roanoke Monday. He told police his wife had been abducted while they were in California last month. Police verified that he had filed a missing-person report in California Jan. 29. They said the husband gave conflicting statements about his wife's pregnancy.
Tuesday, while police continued to question the man, Carolyn Snyder called a detective in the city youth bureau. She told police she had gotten into a truck with a man in California on Jan. 29 and that he had just dropped her off in Louisville. She said the man had beaten her several times.
Meanwhile, Robert Snyder had told Roanoke police that she was abducted after she went out to smoke marijuana with two truck drivers.
Robert Snyder's sister, Barbara Banks, told a reporter Wednesday that her brother, who goes by the name "Ray Ray," had married Carolyn Snyder last summer in Las Vegas. Banks said Carolyn Snyder told her in late summer that she was pregnant. Snyder did not appear pregnant when they saw each other on Christmas Day, Banks said, and Snyder never mentioned the baby.
" `This looks like that girl Ray Ray married,' " Banks quoted her husband as saying after he saw the composite drawing in the newspaper.
" `Yes, it does,' " she remembered answering. " `It just can't be.'
"Maybe I just didn't want to admit it looked like her."
Records in Roanoke General District Court show that the suspect has been convicted of prostitution three times in the past two years. With each conviction, she was sentenced to more jail time - first five days in jail, then 10 and then 30.
Court records also show that Robert Snyder was charged with assaulting the woman in May 1990. The charge was later dropped at her request.
Judy Wright, who gave Snyder a place to live at her Hollins Road home when she moved to Roanoke two years ago, said her niece has lived a troubled life.
After growing up in an abusive home in Tennessee, Snyder was placed in foster care and ran away at least once, Wright said.
When she turned 18, Snyder came to Roanoke and moved in with Wright. She met a man and got engaged, but he was killed a few months later in an automobile accident, Wright said.
After that, she met Robert Snyder and began to hang out on the streets, Wright said. She spent some time in an economy motel near downtown Roanoke, her aunt said, where she did some cleaning work to pay for the room.
Snyder was a frequent visitor to the RAM House day shelter on Campbell Avenue.
RAM House Director John Murray said that Snyder appeared to be putting on weight last fall, but it was not apparent that she was pregnant.
"She didn't say anything about it," Murray said. "She told people she was just putting on weight."
She stopped coming to RAM House last fall. Records show her last visit was in October.
Until then, she would show up for lunch almost everyday at RAM House with Robert Snyder, who was then her boyfriend. Murray said she was often dirty and had cuts or other marks on her face.
When Murray asked if she was being abused, she said she had fallen down or had been in a fight with another woman.
Murray said RAM House serves many like her - people who have been abused and pushed around all their lives.
When asked if he could understand Snyder's actions, if she was the child's mother, Murray said: "Like a lot of people around here, they don't think things through and try to hide their mistakes."
Staff Writer David M. provided information for this story.
by CNB