Marie Snyder and Echo Butler charged with starving girls

Echo L. Butler and Marie S. Snyder

A pair of Pennsylvania women could face the death penalty – if the jury agrees with prosecutors – for allegedly beating and starving two young girls to death. Partner Marie S. Snyder, 32 and Echo L. Butler26 years old, charged with murder for the horrific deaths of Marie .’s daughters Nicole and Jasmine Snyder, the Williamsport Sun-Gazette report. Prosecutors and police have described the incident as “the worst they have ever seen.”

“The death penalty will be pursued for Marie Snyder and Echo Butler,” Lycoming County District Attorney Ryan Gardner was reported on Friday. “Before their death[s], [the vicitims] lived and suffered conditions beyond comprehension. “

Echo’s mother, Michele Butler, 49, is also facing third-degree murder charges.

According to an unsealed police affidavit Friday in Lycoming County Court and obtained by Sun-Gazette, the two defendants accused 6-year-old Nicole and 4-year-old Jasmine of brutal daily torture for many years, eventually causing the girls’ deaths in 2016 and 2017. Both children were buried in shallow makeshift graves in the backyard of the couple’s home on 600 Livermore Street in Williamsport.

“Unfortunately, the conditions that these two beautiful little girls suffered before their death were among the worst. [abuse] that I’ve seen so far,” said Gardner. “When talking to law enforcement, keep your hands down, it’s the worst they’ve also had to witness in their more than 30-year career.”

Marie and Echo allegedly abused the two victims but did not harm Marie’s young son, who allegedly gave pizza and ice cream while the girls were fed a “spoon of peas and two sips of water” “, on online news site NorthcentralPA.com.

The girls are said to be forced to wear dirty diapers, tied to stand in corners for hours, brutally beaten with their hands and objects, and given only ice cold baths because they “don’t deserve hot water”. The 3-year-old girl was often tied to the car seat in the house while the 6-year-old girl was tied for “hours”, the affidavit said.

After the arrest, Marie is said to have told investigators that Echo didn’t like her daughters and wanted them out of the house.

“I’m sorry about these damn dogs,” Marie is said to have written in a December 2015 letter to Echo. “If you want them to disappear, they will disappear.”

About a year later, in January 2017, Marie is said to have written to Echo, “I know you don’t like Jasmine and have never liked Nicole.”

Marie is said to have told investigators that on at least one occasion, Echo strangled Nicole “until her eyes returned to her head” and regularly hit both girls in the head and face with a fist. punch. If they went to the bathroom in their diapers, she said, Echo would smear poop on their faces.

Days before her death in 2016, Marie and Michele told police that Nicole was growing pale, weak and unable to stand up on her own. Her hair also started falling out.

Michele Butler said: “All three women are believed to have witnessed the girl take her last breath on or around 10 May 2016,” Sun-Gazette.

After Nicole’s death, Jasmine is said to have suffered even harsher forms of torture and abuse. According to the report, the child showed similar signs of her declining health in the days leading up to her death.

Investigators say Marie and Echo continued to collect benefits in excess of $2,000 from the Lycoming County Assistance Office and Office of Family Relations for five years after the two children died and were buried in the yard. .

Prosecutors charged Marie Snyder with four counts of murder, two counts of endangering the interests of children, unlawful restraint, theft by deception, concealing the death of a child , simple assault, reckless endangerment of others, corporal abuse, and a count of each obstruction in a case of child abuse and tampering of evidence.

Echo was charged with four counts of murder, one each endangering the interests of a child, unlawful restraint, concealing the death of a child, simple assault, reckless endangerment of others, abusing corpses and tampering with evidence, as obstruction in a child abuse case.

In addition to the murder charge, Michele Butler also faces two counts of endangering the interests of children, abusing a corpse, concealing the death of a child, forgery or forgery evidence and one count of obstruction in a child abuse case.

All three will return to court for a preliminary hearing in mid-February.

[images via the Old Lycoming Township Police Department]

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