Updated – Mark Neal Golden has pleaded guilty to the murder of Daisy Ruth Moore Snyder and been sentenced to life in prison. The rest of the update at the bottom of the post.
Back in December of 1988 a deer hunter discovered a body in the woods near Lake Keowee, just northeast of the Georgia/South Carolina line. It’s fairly close to Lake Hartwell and the Sumter National Forest, a rather beautiful area actually. There have actually been a couple of bodies found in the area over the years. In 1992 Norsaadah Husain was murdered and her body was found in the area as well. I don’t think that they have ever solved Norsaadah’s case although I could be mistaken about that one.
Anyway, Daisy Ruth Moore Snider was last seen at the Greer Memorial Baptist Church but police believe she had gone to Easley Junior High to walk on the track. Her car was found there along with her purse, shoes and a gallon of milk she had purchased. I don’t know about anyone else but generally when I purchase milk I try and take it straight home and most likely wouldn’t stop to walk while my groceries sat in the car. Nevertheless, it can get somewhat cold in December so the milk probably would have been alright. Just one of those things that has been nagging at me about the case.
When Ruth Snider’s body was found law enforcement determined that she had been shot in the chest and shoulder and her clothing was thrown around her. She had also been raped.
Law Enforcement was able to take DNA samples from the murder scene and while they weren’t able to use them at the time, in 2004 it was matched to Mark Neal Golden. So why did they have Golden’s DNA in the first place? Oh yeah, he was already in jail for the 2003 beating death of a guy in Pennsylvania. Before that he had spent time in Pennsylvania for failing to register with state police since he was a convicted sex offender. Man, what a winner!
From what I’ve been reading Golden was originally from Corpus Christi, Texas but at the time of Snider’s murder he was visiting relatives in the area. He was indicted for the murder by a grand jury back in 2005.
They haven’t released any kind of information about a trial yet but I’m sure it’s coming.
Update – Mark Neal Golden faced a judge and after pleading guilty to the 1988 murder of Daisy Snyder a judge sentenced him this past Thursday to lif ein prison. He will be returned to Pennsylvania to finish serving a sentence there (around 20 years) before being shipped back to Oconee County to served out the rest of his miserable life.
Sources:
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png)
Blogring for lake+hartwell
Related Blog Entries