My Uncle Joe's Murder

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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.

Yeah.

Bright blue eyes.

Yes.

Anytime he'd see you, hey, like his mouth 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 NDC.

When you were with him, you wanted to be better.

And 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.

901 Emergency.

What is your name?

My name is Heather Snyder.

I'm Heather Snyder.

I'm Joe Shymanski's ex-wife.

Okay, Heather, tell me exactly what happened.

I was returning my two children to my ex's house.

He's missing.

We don't know where he is.

His car was there.

His phone was there.

His wallet was there.

Where is he?

All right, so we are here because

your ex-husband Joe is missing right now.

It was surreal.

Like, what's 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 person's case to a homicide.

Technically, yeah.

It's like I'm living in a horror movie.

Are you in any relationship right now?

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.

Me too.

We grew up together.

We did.

The Heather Snyder I grew up with was an A student.

Cheerleader, field hockey player.

One of the most unlikely people to be caught up in a murder case.

Correct.

Did you have any involvement at all in Joe Shymansky's murder?

No.

Do you believe any of it?

No.

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.

Nikki Batiste reports My Uncle Joe's murder

The investigation of Joe Shymansky's murder began as a missing persons case.

Hello.

Hi.

Where's everybody at?

I'm not sure where everyone went.

We have to drown up.

It was September 4th, 2023 at 7.47 p.m.

when sheriff's deputies in Calvert County, Maryland were called to the home of the well-known photographer.

How are you doing tonight?

I'm Heather.

I'm Joe's ex-wife.

Okay.

His ex-wife, Heather Snyder, met them in the driveway.

She would tell authorities she had arrived by car at about 7 p.m.

from her home in Pennsylvania.

I was supposed to return the kids to him at 7 o'clock tonight.

To hand off custody of their then eight-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son.

Kids

went in the house because he usually comes right out like like he knows that they're coming.

But nobody was home.

Heather had checked with the neighbors and called 911.

Yeah, I don't know what I even should do at this point.

Everything out is weird.

All the signs suggested Joe Shymansky 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.

So I'm going to try to put that drone up.

Does she know if he ever goes out hiking in the woods or anything?

I mean, I wouldn't put it past them.

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 Shymansky's neighbors, Alice and Stinson Poundsbury and Colton Poundsbury, 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 Poundsburys went to Joe Shymansky's home, telling authorities they hadn't seen Joe since the previous afternoon.

Yeah, we saw him yesterday about four o'clock.

He was helping me with some drywall.

Okay.

We gave him some dinner.

Any depression issues?

None that I noticed.

What do you think is going on?

I have no idea.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

The Poundsberries 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?

It was surreal.

Fine.

Now you're fine.

Absolutely fine.

It's a lot to deal with.

Let me see what I've got.

How could he not be there, especially knowing that the kids are going to be there?

It was about two and a half hours later that Heather Snyder called Joe's older brother, Ted Chymansky.

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, something's wrong.

It fell to Ted to deliver the news to the Shymansky 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.

Do you know of anybody that'd be an enemy of his?

No.

Are you in any relationship right now?

No.

No boyfriends?

No.

But Heather told them she had recently broken up with someone who lived near her in Pennsylvania.

I had a boyfriend, but

briefly.

But I don't.

Recently?

Yeah, within the last couple months, yeah.

What's his name?

Brandon Holbrook.

The name Brandon Holbrook entered the scene quite quickly.

The Shymanskis say Joe told them he'd never met Brandon Holbrook.

All right, how long were you and Brandon together?

We were friends for a while, um,

since 2022,

I want to say.

Okay.

Or it might have been like November 2021.

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.

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On September 5th, 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 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.

Oh man, that smells terrible.

Yeah.

It smelled like death.

Holbrook told authorities he was a driver for a Pennsylvania plant that processes chicken slaughterhouse waste.

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 Shymansky.

By then, Detective Jessica Arendt 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 toolcase 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 caddy 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 a hope that we can keep his memory alive.

Fearing the worst, Joe Shymansky'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 McDougall 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.

Then 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 Shymansky were never on equal footing financially.

The spinning 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.

He 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 going to snap and hurt me.

And then my children were going to see it.

You just left.

I left.

He was devastated.

Joe's friend Annalee 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.

Annalie says Joe was also upset and made recordings too about Heather for their children to hear one day.

The mom has a way of manipulating everyone, everyone.

She's toxic.

Honestly, I am honestly afraid for your mental and emotional safety.

There's no safety in mom for me.

It's dangerous to be close to mom for me.

Joe was in a contentious, ugly divorce.

But Annalie says things had slowly started started going Joe's way.

Though he and Heather had joint legal custody of the kids, he had primary physical custody once school was in session.

He bought a million-dollar 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.

Analy 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.

Tonight's 48 Hours will continue.

From 48 Hours, follow and listen to 15 Inside the Daniel Marsh Murders, wherever you get your podcasts.

Mifflin County Coroner Andrea Alcalde.

What was Joe Shymansky's cause of death?

He had a gunshot wound to the head.

What was his manner of homicide?

Could you just state your name?

My name is Brandon Holbrook.

This thing has my whole head messed up.

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.

It 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.

But for all the evidence investigators had, the case still contained some inconvenient truths.

Did you find any of Joe Shymansky's remains on Brandon Holbrook's property?

No.

Did you find a murder weapon?

No.

In addition, records show Holbrook's phone had only ping 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 McDougall 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.

What are you feeling?

That if he'd listened to you, he might still be here.

I mean,

he might be,

right?

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

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 two and a half hours to notify them.

That seems an extraordinary long period of time before she'd let the immediate family know that Joe is missing.

And they question 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.

And the Shymanskis believe she was untruthful with investigators about Brandon Holbrook.

Are you in any relationship right now?

No.

She told the police that she broke up with him and that they were no longer together.

Janine says she suspects Heather had used Brandon Holbrook to get rid of Joe.

So she just needed it done, and she found her person that would do that for her.

You think Heather Schneider 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 Shymansky 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 seem 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.

Tonight's 48 hours will continue.

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On March 31st, 2025, the trial of Brandon Holbrook for the murder of Joe Shymansky got underway.

Prosecutors wanted a conviction on premeditated murder.

They argued Holbrook fatally shot Joe Shymansky 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 million-dollar 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 Shymansky, 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 21st, 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 suggesting they were still involved shortly before the murder.

She indicated to the police, but that the relationships had cooled.

No boyfriends or

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 text 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.

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.

I mean, 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 closing, says attorneys remind the jury there's no proof he was even in Maryland that evening, let alone at Joe Shymansky'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 the first-degree premeditated murder of Joe Shymansky.

How are you feeling?

Extremely happy.

Joe's loved ones were happy, but not satisfied.

At sentencing, Analee Werner presented a photo montage of Joe that also included some of those audio recordings about Heather that he made for their children.

And I'm worried about you guys growing up in a world where you're afraid of mom.

She takes her love away from you.

And if you piss her off,

you're done.

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 at the center of this case.

I am.

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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?

Nope.

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 your 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 Shymanski 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.

Sounds like you're still involved.

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 going to 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?

Because 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.

This call will be recorded and is subject to monitoring at any time.

Heather tells Holbrook she believes Joe's family is trying to incriminate her.

Samanskis are trying to prove that I did something wrong.

Never in a million years would I say you had anything to do with this.

I swear.

I didn't.

I just wish I knew what happened.

I just want the truth.

Holbrook tells tells her,

I would love to tell you everything that I know, but I'm not going to do it on one of these recorded lines.

And then he denies killing Joe.

I'll tell you one thing for sure.

I never saw Joe, talked to Joe, had any interaction whatsoever with Joe his entire life.

I promise you that.

Heather says Holbrook never confessed to her, and she never had an inkling of his plans.

She says there is 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?

It's dangerous to be close to mom for me.

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.

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.

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 to do what I can to honor and keep that safe.

She knows the shamanskis 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.

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.

Shymansky'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.

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 torturous 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.

Brendan Holbrook is appealing his conviction.

A scholarship has been established in Joe Shymansky's name for photography students in DC public high schools.

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Everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery.

We don't know what we're looking for.

Their bodies are the scene of the crime.

No symptoms in history are clues.

You saved her life.

We're doctors and we're detectives.

I kind of love it if I'm being honest.

Solve the puzzle, save the patient.

Watson, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus.