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10-03-2026, 07:33 PM
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Philip Snider Questioned in Wife Roberta's Death
Philip Snider, 73, pleaded guilty in Stark County Common Pleas Court on August 27, 2018, to aggravated murder and two other charges in the death of his wife, Roberta Snider, 70, whose body has never been found. Philip and Roberta had been married 53 years and lived in Hartville, Stark County, Ohio. Roberta was in poor health, and a missing-person listing described her as ill with cancer. Philip later told family they were traveling to Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. According to Philip's recorded account to an undercover officer, the couple argued on January 2, 2018. He said that on January 3, he placed a shop towel over Roberta's face while she slept and struck her twice with a two-pound hammer. He said he put her body in a plastic container, drove south and discarded items along the way. Roberta's brother asked police for help on January 9, 2018. Philip first told relatives that she died of natural causes in Memphis and that emergency crews took her body, but Tennessee had no record of her death. Surveillance video showed him traveling alone, and he stayed at Days Inn hotels in Memphis and in Benton County, Tennessee. He later said she choked in Memphis, that she died between Columbus and Cincinnati, and that he put her body in the Tennessee River. Searches found nothing. After a cadaver dog alerted in the basement, police found a bloodstained piece of Roberta's sweatshirt in a plastic tub. DNA testing was reported to match her. During an interview with detectives that captions place at a hospital on January 30, 2018, Philip gave shifting accounts of the trip. Hartville police then used an undercover female officer who posed as a woman caring for her dying mother. She gained Philip's trust during several meetings at fast-food restaurants. On April 20, 2018, he described the killing to her on a recording, and police arrested him. He was indicted on aggravated murder, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse. Philip pleaded guilty to all three charges before Judge Frank Forchione. The agreed sentence was life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years, with a requirement that he show investigators where he disposed of the body. After the plea, he said he left Roberta's body in a dumpster in Bullitt County, Kentucky. Investigators believe the remains ended up in a landfill in Hardin County, Kentucky, and said they did not plan to search it. Her remains have not been recovered. The video is a police interview-room recording that runs about 59 minutes and shows the interview itself. It opens with a short narrated introduction naming the people involved.
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