Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 1, 1991 TAG: 9103010417
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Carolyn Smallwood Snyder remained in the Roanoke City Jail on Thursday in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
A Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge increased Snyder's bond from $25,000 after her attorneys decided not to contest the bond in a hearing.
Chief Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony said she asked for a higher bond because Snyder, a drifter with a record of prostitution convictions, "has shown the ability to flee the jurisdiction."
Snyder was arrested last week in Louisville, Ky., where she wound up stranded after a cross-country hitchhiking trip.
In an interview last week, Snyder said she confessed to police that she was the infant's mother only as a way of getting back to Roanoke. She now says that a partial hysterectomy three years ago left her unable to bear children.
But Anthony said it could still be possible for someone to have a child after such an operation. If Snyder has medical records, "we'll be happy to review that evidence," she said.
Meanwhile, authorities have obtained blood samples from Snyder and hope that DNA testing will remove any confusion about the question of maternity.
It may take up to two months for lab results on the DNA tests. In the meantime, authorities plan to conduct tests of blood type that could possibly eliminate Snyder as a suspect, but could not pinpoint the infant's mother as accurately as DNA testing.
Authorities have said that the child, named Isaiah by nurses at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, was born in a vacant Southwest Roanoke home and then abandoned in a dumpster on Mountain Avenue. He died five days after being discovered by an unemployed construction worker looking for aluminum cans.
by CNB