A Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to life in prison for knowingly helping to torture and starve her girlfriend’s two young daughters.
Echo Butler, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit the first-degree murder of his girlfriend’s two young daughters Friday in Lycoming County Court. Judge Nancy L. Butts sentenced Butler to two consecutive life terms in state prison without the possibility of parole.
On Oct. 3, Marie Snyder, the girls’ birth mother, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, theft by deception and food stamp fraud.
The girlfriends were accused of conspiring to kill the two girls by deliberately starving them to death. Snyder’s two daughters, Nicole, 6, and Jasmine, 4, were also subjected to shocking physical torture and abuse.
According to court evidence, the two women forced the children to stand against a wall with their hands tied behind their backs for hours, slammed the girls’ heads against the walls, hit the girls in the head with fists clenched, Jasmine was restrained in a car. seat, Nicole suffocated “until her eyes rolled back into her head,” forced them to take cold showers because they “didn’t deserve hot water,” and scrubbed their faces with feces and urine if they had an accident.
During questioning, Snyder told investigators Butler never liked girls and wanted boys out of his home.
Snyder, 33, wrote a letter to Butler in December 2015 that said, “I feel sorry for these whores whores.” The mother added, “If you want them to leave, not anymore.”
In court, Butler admitted to Judge Butts that he did not provide enough food for the girls.
Snyder testified in court that her daughter Nicole was given no food or water in the two weeks before her death. The 6-year-old girl weighed just 10 pounds at the time of her death around May 10, 2016.
Snyder allegedly told police that in the days before her daughter’s death, Nicole turned pale, couldn’t stand on her own and her hair started falling out. The Williamsport Sun-Gazette reported that Nicole’s ailments indicated a “type of intentional torture and an intentional act of starvation, which investigators determined is what led to her death.”
Jasmine weighed just five pounds when she died around August 11, 2017.
Law & Crime reported, “Investigators said Marie and Echo continued to collect benefits in excess of $2,000 from the Lycoming County Office of Assistance and the Office of Domestic Relations for up to five years after the children were dead and buried in the yard.”
The girls’ father, Joshua Snyder, had not seen his daughters since 2015.
The investigation into the case began in September 2021 after a case worker went to the trailer after receiving a tip about child abuse of Snyder’s third child. Jesse, now 9, was also being neglected. It is currently hosted.
The bodies of Nicole Elisabeth Snyder and Jasmine Jean Snyder were found in a shallow grave behind the mobile home in Hepburn Township in November 2021.
District Attorney Ryan Gardner said the girls were “subjected to conditions beyond comprehension” and called this the “most horrific case I’ve ever experienced.”
“In all the years I’ve been a practicing attorney, this is the most horrific case I’ve ever experienced,” Gardner said. “Two children subjected to repeated intentional starvation and torture resulting in their deaths is a tragedy of epic proportions. It’s tragic for the surviving family members and it’s tragic for the community at large.”
Gardner said, “Two precious souls were never given a chance at life.”
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