Snapped: Women Who Murder - Stephanie Olson

Episode Date: April 9, 2023

After a single mother is found murdered in her Kentucky home, detectives follow a twisted trail littered with lies to identify the mastermind behind this vicious killing.Season 26 Episode 17Originally aired: December 15, 2019Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. A single mom is viciously slain in her own home. This is my end in the puddle of light in my room. I'll never forget the violence that had been done to her.

You see it on TV, you see it in movies, but then, for it to take place in your neighborhood, it's shocking. Unmasking her killer leads investigators down a twisted path littered with lies. Whoever was staging this was trying to make us think that it was a rape. They knew how to kill somebody with a knife so that they couldn't scream. Yes sir, it is a lot, but I did not kill her. That relationship was probably not as perfect as he led us to believe. The key to unlocking the mystery is

learning what triggered a murderous rage. Someone that he knew was alleged to have been a serial killer in another state. I remember not being able to speak. I couldn't put words together. I think nobody saw this coming. June 6, 2002, Georgetown, Kentucky. Just afternoon on a warm summer day, 9-1 day 911 dispatchers log an unusual call. I was pulling out of my neighborhood, or I heard the call come out, about a possible body at North Colonial Heights Drive,

which kind of shocked me because that's the same neighborhood I lived in at the town. So I immediately turned around and I responded. ... ... Georgetown police officers are the first to the scene. ... They find the 911 caller, Stephanie Olsonson standing in front of the house.

What's going on? He killed her. He killed herself. I don't know. I don't even know what it was. It was your mom. It's my mom. I got there right after Officer Pain got there.

There was a white female in the driveway. He was talking to her. I'm going to overlay a stair to the National Museum. Just stay right there. First responders enter the house and make their way upstairs to Stephanie's bedroom. What they find there is disturbing. This is a haven for women's rights.

This is the act of hiding in the market, line. I got to the top of the steps, and I turned to my left, and I looked into the bedroom. I saw the partially nude body of a white female. She is naked with the exception of a pajama top, which is unbuttoned at the top, exposing her. There is a tremendous amount of blood around her. A new right away that this was a homicide.

41-year-old Diane Snellan lies in a pool of blood covered in stab wounds. I'll never forget the violence that had been done to her and upon her, that was just chilling. Diane Marie Morgan was born on April 14, 1961 in Wakefield, Michigan, a small town in the Upper Peninsula. She was the oldest of three children raised by a single mother. I know her biological father. He was out of the picture rather quickly. I guess

she was probably four or five when he split. But that didn't stop Diane from growing up a happy and energetic kid. She was eternally upbeat. I don't care how bad crap was going. She managed to find a ray of sunshine and all that. By the time she graduated high school, Diane already knew what she wanted out of life. She wanted a family. I know she wanted kids.

I think she just had the childhood, had the childhood vision of the little white house with the picket fence, and I think that was her dream. At just 20 years old, Diane married 22-year-old Stephen Olson and moved to his hometown of Sheridan, Wyoming. The couple wasted no time building the family Diane had always dreamed of. They had a boy, Steven Jr. in 1982, and two years later, a girl named Stephanie. Stephanie was a sweet kid, a loving kid. She loved attention. She was, she was a bubbly, she was nice. People always got along with her.

Three years later, Stevens' new job forced a cross-country move to Versailles, Kentucky. The new town and the pressures of family life took a toll on the marriage. It wasn't a great relationship. She was emotionally upset a lot. In the wake of her divorce, Diane got custody of both kids. Now on her own, Diane took a job on the assembly line at a new Toyota plant in Georgetown, 20 miles away.

Georgetown was just a small, sleepy town. It was close to Lexington. It's a great place to raise a family. With Diane's focus being mostly on work and her two kids, the attractive single mother made the most of life in Georgetown. Diane was very gregarious and basically didn't know a stranger. Love to dance, love to get out. A coworker, 35-year-old Danny Snellan, was a kindred spirit. Even on her worst day, she had the magnificent smile.

Her outlook and attitude was just absolutely endearing, and I couldn't get enough of it. After a whirlwind courtship, Diane and Danny wed on New Year's Eve 1991. She was a wonderful free spirit and everything excited her. Anything she tried, she excelled at. She was just that person.

The second chance at love spurred Diane's career ambitions. Her dream became becoming successful within her workplace. She was the hardest working gal I ever knew. She was too a fault, too a fault. That business demands a lot of your time. And being as driven as Diane was, she was just that person. That go-to person. But as Diane's, she was just that person. That go to person. But as Diane's career took off, the demands of her work took a toll

on her relationship with Danny. We'd been separated a long time, probably two years, and getting back together here and there. In 1999, after eight years of marriage, they divorced. At that point, Diane's oldest child had moved out, and it was just Stephanie and Diane in the house. Stephanie was very well taken care of. She had anything and everything she ever wanted or needed. And Diane, her first concern, was Stephanie.

In August of 2001, 16-year-old Stephanie met her first love, 18-year-old David Dressman. I was friends with David. David seemed very sweet. He was just a nice kid. He was always holding the door for somebody, asking, you know, what can I do to help? He was always just well-spoken and quiet.

They seemed very close. They were happy together and they wanted very much to be together. The following year Stephanie graduated high school a year early. Her mom had a graduation party for her and made a big to-do about it. She was a very caring lady. But the exciting times come to an abrupt and horrific end on June 6, 2002. When Diane's bloody body is found on the floor of Stephanie's bedroom.

I didn't want to contaminate the scene anymore. So we back of the house and then I called for more detectives to come assist. MUSIC Coming up, close analysis of the scene reveals the killer's state of mind. It was obvious that whoever had murder, dying, snelling was in a rage.

And the Georgetown community goes on high alert. People were out on the front porch who's watching, wanting to know what was going on. I thought, what just happened? Where the hell am I? MUSIC Georgetown Kentucky detectives converge at the scene

of Diane Snowon's murder. The 41-year-old single mom was stabbed to death inside her home and discovered by her teenage daughter, Stephanie Olson. Stephanie looked rough. He fell for her because you just lost a parent in such a horrific way. I thought, what just happened? Where the hell am I? I need to wake up because this is horrible.

I remember not being able to speak. I couldn't put words together. The news media at the time was monitoring our radio frequency pretty heavily, so the news media responded. There were a whole bunch of police cars, a bunch of people news crews. You see it on TV, you see it in movies, but then for it to take place in your neighborhood,

just a couple houses down, it's shocking. Inside the SNELLIN home, investigators carefully inventory every gruesome detail. Diane was on her back on the floor. Her legs were spread. She was nude from the waist down. Her jump atop was open. It was obvious that whoever had murder, dying,

smelling was in a rage. What it looked like was that she had actually been raped. It was a gruesome sight. There is a tremendous amount of blood around her, numerous stab wounds to her chest, to her throat area, and what appeared to be the back inside of her head also. There was blood on the comforter, but it looked like that maybe a dion

had been thrown back against the comforter, and the blood was from the head wounds. She had defensive wounds on her hands. She had a lot of bruises and defensive wounds. So it looked like that she had fought her attacker, at least tried to fight them off initially. Investigators immediately begin zeroing in on series of what could have taken place in the smell and home.

My first thoughts were maybe a burglary. She interrupted a burglar. Somebody came in, assaulted her, raped her, and left. A search of the rest of the house tells detectives a different story. None of the doors were pried, none of the windows were broken. It didn't appear there was any valuables taken. The house, for the most part, was very neat.

There were towels in the washing machine that had been washed. The bathroom right off of Stephanie's room appeared, like someone had had a shower. We went through the kitchen. We did find blood in the kitchen sink in the trap. It appeared that someone was cleaning up after the murder took place. Forensics text, bag and tag blood evidence,

but a murder weapon is nowhere to be found. We found lots of hair on Diane's body, around Diane's body, in Diane's hands. We collected all those different pieces of trace evidence. Next, detectives turned their attention to Diane's daughter, Stephanie Olson, who was first to the brutal crime scene and called 911.

Stephanie told the police that she and her mom had a great relationship that they were best friends that they were like sisters. When asked her whereabouts of the night before, Stephanie tells detectives that she'd spent the previous two nights at her friend Gail Shinnamens' house just down the street. Stephanie's boyfriend, David, was also there,

along with Gail's boyfriend, Zach Greer. She was just there to hang out with David. I was a manager at the Pizza Hut in town then. So I was at work most evening as well. She was there hanging out. They oftentimes sat and just listened to music, watch TV. She said they had stayed all night at Gail's house and ahead and left.

They had stayed and watched movies. Stephanie tells investigators she spoke to her mom on the phone that night around 10 p.m. Well, it was a very loving call and she was just calling her mom to say she would come home tomorrow and take a shower and you know I love you love you and and it was pretty much it. So we knew that Diane was alive around 10 30ish or somewhere in that area the night before. or somewhere in that area the night before. Stephanie returned home around noon the following day. She would not have expected her mother to have been there.

She normally would have left for work early at Toyota. That's when Stephanie had gone upstairs and discovered her mom. Stephanie says she rushed back to get Gail. The two of them returned to her mom's house, and that's when Stephanie called police. Stephanie came out with a phone and made the 911 call. I was sitting around and saw her when she made that phone call. Detectives ask Stephanie if she knows of anyone

who would have targeted her mother. So the obvious question is, who did this? And why? Was it a family member, co-worker, a boyfriend? Stephanie says that her mom had been dating a 33-year-old man named Todd Johnson for the past six months. There was a riding club that Toyota had sponsored. It was just a group Toyota employees

that would go out with their motorcycles and ride on the weekends and do things together, and they had met as part of that group. While detectives interview Stephanie, uniformed police canvass Diane's neighborhood in search of witnesses who may have heard or seen anything that night. A neighbor, Sean Satterley, tells officers that when he and his sister were coming home around 11.30 p.m. the night before, they saw something suspicious.

They came around the road that led toward Diane's house and towards their house. They saw someone crouching in the bushes outside Diane's house. They kind of looked like they were kneeled down time their shoe. They saw someone crouching in the bushes outside Diane's house. They kind of looked like they were kneeled down time their shoe. Didn't think much of it. It appeared to be a male, but really couldn't tell what they were wearing. It was dark. And what the officers going door to door learn from another neighbor

gives detectives the first hint of a flesh and blood suspect. There was a neighbor living next door who had heard a motorcycle rev up sometime after 11. And that was something that had to be followed up because Diane had a lot of friends, including her current boyfriend, who rode motorcycles. At this point, we were trying to get a hold of Todd Johnson. They don't have to look far to find him.

Todd actually showed up at the scene at the house later in the day because he'd been trying to call Diane. All morning, and she didn't show up for work, and he hadn't gotten her response. Somebody had called him and told him that the police and everybody read Diane's house. Todd agrees to talk to investigators at the scene. What he said to the police when he got there was,

she's dead, right? That really struck me as odd. That would be the way he would start off our conversation. Coming up, strong suspicions put a boyfriend in the hot seat. Diane had indicated that she was going to break up with him that night. And a brutal crime of passion begins to take shape. Here's the boyfriend, he's got the most motive. Todd was my prime suspect.

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Right now, new subscribers can enjoy two months free of Wondery Plus. Visit Wondery.com or download the Wondery app to get started. George Town, Kentucky Police, investigating the murder of Diane Snellon, have zeroed in on a potential suspect. Among the many people detectives have to talk to, Diane's current boyfriend. What's his alibi? What does he know if anything? We knew that there had been a phone call that Diane had around 10 or so that night. So we knew that Diane was alive at that time. And so the motorcycle sound at the neighbor

had heard sometime after 11 was a little concerning because we knew that he had a motorcycle. The sound of the motorcycle wasn't the only red flag. It's also Todd's initial reaction to the crime scene that raises concerns. When Todd got there, one of the first things he said to me was, well, she's dead, isn't she? Like, he had some knowledge.

It strikes me as someone who wants to inject themselves to find out what we know. I felt like he wasn't very emotional. It wasn't crying. That is something that I would expect to see from someone who just lost someone, you know, they supposedly cared for.

Todd says he finished work at five o'clock the previous evening and went straight home. He spoke with Diane on the phone around 9 p.m. before getting in bed around 10.30. He was on the internet researching motorcycle parts and looking online, he went to bed and got up the next morning and came to work. Then he got the call of course that, you know,

something was going on and that's when he came over. Todd denies having anything to do with Diane's murder. He gave a very loving picture of their relationship that there was no problems in their relationship. Everything was fine. He had just talked to her the night before. There was nothing impactful or eventful. They went on there on the phone call.

But when investigators asked Stephanie about her mother's relationship with Todd, she tells a different story. But when investigators ask Stephanie about her mother's relationship with Todd, she tells a different story. She said that relationship was probably not as perfect as Todd had let us to believe at the time. Todd was a little bit more of a loner. He preferred not to go out as much. There was a friction that developed in the relationship.

Stephanie says Diane had indicated that she was was gonna break up with him that night. We went back to talk to Todd again and confront him with his new information. He was adamant that that never happened. She didn't break up with him. But we pressed him on the fact that Diane had ended the relationship. You get on your motorcycle.

You drive to Georgetown, you confront her. You know, accidents happen. You got angry. Just tell me what happened. And of course, he would say happen, you got angry. Just tell me what happened. And of course, he would say, it never happened like that. That's not what happened. I never left.

The interview ends as it began. Todd swears he's innocent. He's fingerprinted and consents to a DNA swab before he leaves. The following morning, detectives scour autopsy results they've just received from the medical examiner. Diane obviously fought back. She put up a struggle.

She was punched. She tried to block these blows and just couldn't overcome the person attacking her. The coroner's report lists nine stab wounds to Diane's head alone. One of those was a nine-inch wound. The coroner described it as an attempted scalping. Some of the stab wounds were so severe and had so much force behind them that they pierced through the chest cavity and out of her back. That was amazing to me.

That requires a whole lot of strength. Every injury has one thing in common. All of the wounds appeared to be consistent with the same knife. So we knew that we were possibly looking at a, you know, six to seven-inch blade on a knife. The autopsy disputes one key observation detectives made on the scene. Despite gruesome appearances to the contrary, Diane had not been sexually assaulted. We started to kind of put it together that whoever did this is wanting us to think that

this is a rape and a murder. There was such force behind these stab wounds that it was going through her body. It was a very up-close, personal crap. It was most likely somewhat dying new. Todd was my prime suspect. I thought, here's the boyfriend. He's got the most motive. Investigators look into Todd's alibi.

He indicated that he and Diane had been on the phone that night, so we got the phone records there to confirm that. The phone records corroborate Todd's story about his call with Diane. But what about the rest of his alibi? He also indicated that he had been online trying to get some new plans for some modifications on a motorcycle that he had. We were able to verify through his internet provider.

You could see his log off log on times. With Todd's story checking out, detectives go one step further. We had him submit to a polygraph, which he passed. So we know that through the records, what Todd's telling us is true. You never completely eliminate someone until you are certain who's done it.

But at that point, there was not any compelling evidence leading us in that direction at all. Detectives focus on the rest of Diane's inner circle. As we're finding all these people that are in Diane's life, we're starting to eliminate them one by one. They called me up and said, hey, can't you talk? And what am I going to say? No. I didn't know anything.

And I knew I didn't know anything. I remember the last question he asked me was, did you kill her? And I said, absolutely not. And he said, OK. We were working around the clock, interviewing people, running leads. The exhaustive work pays off. Through interviews with Diane's family,

detectives assemble a shockingly different picture of mother-daughter home life than Stephanie described. From the conversations that I had with the people closest to Diane, they said Stephanie was manipulative and sometimes very aggressive and violent, very confrontational with her mother, wanted to live her own life and not have any interference from Diane. According to a missing persons report filed by Diane just a month before the murder, Stephanie and her boyfriend, 18-year-old David Dressman, ran away together.

Stephanie and David had decided that they would just go to Florida. And when Diane reported them missing, they were ultimately located in Georgia. That's when Diane declared war on David. Diane was definitely not a fan. I don't think he was the person that she thought was going to be right for Stephanie at this point in her life. She didn't like the influence that he had over Stephanie, so she was trying to keep him away from her and keep her away from him.

When we got that information, we wanted to try to interview him as soon as possible. Coming up, a police interview breaks the case wide open. She slammed the phone down and said, I just wish she would go ahead and die. And one key figure is caught in a lie. Sir, it is a lie that I did not kill her. I had nothing to do with that. In the 24 hours since Diane Snellan's murder, Georgetown Kentucky police have shifted their focus to David Dressman,

the boyfriend of Diane's 17-year-old daughter, Stephanie. While officers are on the hunt for David, detectives reach out to David's friend, Gail Shiniman, for more information. They wanted to know what Stephanie had been doing, what David had been doing, the coming of the goings that I knew of, the kind of conversations that they had been having. Stephanie had said in her statements that they had stayed all night

at their friend Gail's house and that they hadn't left. Gail confirms that Stephanie and David were at her place the night of the murder. But she says the teenagers actually left and returned several times. I was at work until between midnight and 1 a.m. And when I got home, they were not at my house. Gail's boyfriend, Sack, told her that Stephanie and David left around 10.30 p.m. Gail learned Stephanie and her mom had had a knockdown drag out fight on the phone earlier that evening,

evidently, about Stephanie wanting to move out. She had not yet reached 18 years of age, so Diane would not allow Stephanie to move out, and that's where their problems lie. It appeared that Diane was ordering Stephanie to come home, that she was not going to be spending the night away again tonight. Courtney and Disack, Stephanie, slammed the phone down and said, I just wish she would go ahead and die. away again tonight. Cording to Zach, Stephanie slammed the phone down

and said, I just wish she would go ahead and die. Not long after that, Stephanie and David leave. Once Gail returned from work, she and Zach stayed up watching movies together until Stephanie and David returned around 2 a.m. They don't tell them where they've been, and they stay there till approximately 3 o'clock, and then they head out again

without any explanation as to where they're headed. And the next thing that Gail remembers is that Zach has to get up because they're pounding on the door later to get in, and her best guess at that time is four o'clock. Later that morning, Stephanie woke a gale up with the terrible news. Stephanie comes into my room and is kicking the end of my bed to wake me up.

And she says to me, I think my mom has tried to commit suicide. She's in the floor and she won't get up. Can you come help me? Gail, David, and Stephanie actually went to the house. It wasn't until Gail's statement that we started realizing that David was there. Gail says that David was visibly upset and wanted to leave, so she took him back to her apartment

while Stephanie waited for police. For David to leave, so she took him back to her apartment while Stephanie waited for police. For David to leave, I think that's pretty telling. Gail has no reason to lie about that at all. Gail says she then returned to the scene to comfort Stephanie. It was just strange. That is by far one of the strangest experiences that I've ever had to witness and go through in my life. An interview with Gail's boyfriend, Zack, confirms everything that Gail said. We start to realize that the only person that's not telling us everything is Stephanie.

On June 7, more than 24 hours after the murder, detectives bring David Dressman and Stephanie Olson to the station for questioning. When detectives speak with David, he says that their comings and goings that night were no big deal. He said they left. With the lesson they go buy some weed from a friend of his,

they came back, they left again to go have sex. They came back and then he said that she got up at some point and left and went to go home and take a shower. That's all he knew. David says the reason Stephanie kept quiet about him being there was that she feared they'd be busted for weed. In another room, detectives confront Stephanie. When I ask you where you were specifically,

if you ever left the apartment and you sit there with a straight face in old seriousness and tell me no, and you don't see that as a lie. Yes, sir. It is a lie that I did not kill her. I had nothing to do with that. She just didn't seem to hesitate at all to lie, I had nothing to do with that. She just didn't seem to hesitate at all to lie, to cover up, and even when confronted with lie after all, she didn't bat an eye.

Detectives collected DNA swabs from both teens and released the couple to family members while the lab processes the evidence. Stephanie was a juvenile and she was placed with her brother and his family. David ended up moving back home with his parents up in Northern Kentucky. Finally, after weeks of waiting, lab results come back on the evidence gathered at the scene. The majority of the hair that we recovered was either Stephanie's hair and or Diana's hair.

There was only one hair that didn't belong to either one of them. The unidentified hair was actually David Tressman's. It was found on her leg. A single hair won't put David and Jail for murder. They were boyfriend, girlfriend. They were sexually active. They'd had sex in that room if Diane's snowing had been in there and struggling with somebody.

It's not as a prize that David Dressman's hair would be on her. A deeper look into David's social circle puts another name into play. As we were interviewing people, we started finding out about a incident a few months prior. A mutual friend describes a conversation that took place at an abandoned house just two months

before the murder. David and some of his friends had gone to this house, and there was a young man that was with the group, by the name of Tim Crabtree, who had moved in from North Carolina. Crabtree was semi-natorious at that point, and that someone that he knew was alleged to have been a serial killer in another state.

David asked Tim, how would you kill someone in a crowded area like a neighborhood and not make any noise? Tim Crabtree was telling him to stab them in the lungs because then they can't get a breath so they can't yell. I don't know if that is scientifically or medically correct, but it turns out that that information was consistent with the murder of Diane.

Police immediately pick up 23-year-old Tim Crabtree. He was very confrontational. He was very non-responsive. He didn't know nothing about nothing. With nothing to hold him on, detectives have no choice but to let Tim go. At that point for a few months, we were working around the clock, meeting with the FBI to try to get a profile,

try to get some hints or leads of something we may have overlooked. Three months after the murder, in September 2002, Tim Crabtree is arrested for theft and check fraud, which leads to the first big break in the case. Tim's cellmate comes forward with some shocking information. He says Tim confessed that he and David were involved in Diane's murder.

Tim admits to a cellmate that he was there. He does not admit that he took part in the stabbing. One of the things that he said, that he almost got caught because when he was standing out in front of the house, a car came by and he went to go hide in the bushes. The account matches what neighbors described seeing on the night of the murder. That information had never been made public. So there was no way that anybody would have known that what neighbors described seeing on the night of the murder. That information had never been made public.

So there was no way that anybody would have known that unless they had actually been there. The most disturbing thing Tim told his cellmate was about the person behind the crime. He says that Stephanie is aware of it and that she had been involved in the planning of it. Once we had that, along with the DNA test on the hair, the inconsistent statements, we tried to go back and craftry it with this information. He would never give anything up. I think we were at that point that this was all the evidence. We're gonna get it.

On April 8, 2003, Georgetown officers arrest David Dressman and Tim Crabdry for the murder of Diane Snellan. As for Stephanie's indictment, she'll have to wait. They can't present Stephanie Olson's case at Grand Jury, at this point, because she was a juvenile at the time. That has to work its way through the juvenile system, which sometimes can take a while. Coming up, a new motive surfaces. She told several people she was going to have a lot of money.

And a shocked jury hears what really happened the night of the murder. I could never imagine anybody doing that to their mother. The community of Georgetown, Kentucky, reels after the 2003 arrest of David Dressman and Tim Crabtree for the murder of Diane Snellan. The case is presented by Tom Bell to the Scott County Grand Jury. That results in indictments of both Dressman and Crabtree. Investigators also believe that Diane's daughter, Stephanie,

was in on the killing. But her arrest is delayed. Stephanie's arrest was a little trickier because of the fact that she was a juvenile when the crime occurred. There was a lag time cause it had to work its way through juvenile court first, and then would have to be presented to grand jury.

With Stephanie's arrest looming, police continue to build their case by interviewing friends and family. That's when an additional motive emerges. Stephanie told several people that if her mom was gone, she was gonna have a lot of money. She told people that her mom had a big life insurance policy. It was right around $500,000. She had an older brother, so she would have gotten half. On February 12, 2004, officers finally arrest Stephanie. Even though she was an adult at the time,

she was still charged as a juvenile, because Stephanie was 17 at the time of murder. She was indicted for conspiracy to murder. One month before his trial, Tim Crabtree takes a plea. The best way to get the evidence in was to a lower degree of homicide. One month before his trial, Tim Crabtree takes a plea. The best way to get the evidence in was to a lower degree of homicide. He pled guilty to a six-year sentence.

And once he pled and was sentenced, he no longer had a privilege against self-incrimination. And he had to come testify. and crimination, and he had to come testify. In May 2005, Stephanie's trial begins. She pleads not guilty to complicity to commit murder. Complicity carries the same penalty as the principal crime. The charge is based on the fact that all of the participants are planning the same outcome, killing her

mom accomplish several goals for her. Number one, she believes she could call her own shots, which means she could be with Dave. Number two, she believed that she would stand to inherit one half of everything that her mom would leave. The prosecution tells the jury what police believe happened the night of June 5, 2002. After Stephanie hangs up in this angry conversation with her mother, she has been denied what she believes that she deserves her freedom.

Diane would not give her blessing for David and Stephanie to live together. She snapped. She and David at some point pick up Crabtree and they're gonna go confront Diane. Stephanie drove the three of them to her mother's house. Crabtree's outside, keeping watch, while Stephanie goes in the house.

Stephanie storms upstairs into her room. Diane follows. Once Diane gets upstairs and Stephanie and her get into an argument, David comes in from behind. And now that God Diane trapped inside, Stephanie's room. The fight ensues, the knife comes out. The knife comes out. Prosecutors believe David plunged the knife into Diane while Stephanie held her and urged

him on. I think David was going to go along with anything that Stephanie wanted him to do. I think Stephanie was the leader, David, was the follower. Once it was over, they staged the scene to look like a sexual assault and wash Diane's blood off themselves. One of them takes a shower. One of them cleans up in the kitchen sink.

They dumped the knife in Elkorn Creek and dropped off Crabtree on their way back to Gales. And next thing, you know, Stephanie's taking Gale and David back to the house. And that was the theory that we had come up with, based on everything that we knew. Under Oath, Tim Crabtree throws the prosecution for a loo. based on everything that we knew. ... Under oath, Tim Krabdry throws the prosecution for a loop.

We were gonna rely on getting evidence in based on cross-examining the third co-defendant, Tim Krabdry, but he did not cooperate with us at all. I did not know really what to expect in terms of how jury was going to react to this. We had what I thought was a superb case of circumstantial evidence. Stephanie's defense argues that investigators had no real physical evidence proving her or David's involvement. My theory has always been that there is an unknown man who murdered Diane Snelling and got by with it.

In an unusual move for a murder trial, Stephanie takes the stand in her own defense. The reason we decided that Stephanie should testify is in part to explain how she felt about her mother, what the relationship was, how she had dealt with grief throughout the process. Stephanie's tearful testimony seemed to have an effect on people in the courtroom. It takes the jury more than eight hours to reach a decision. On May 27th, 2005, they find Stephanie Olson guilty.

She was shocked. She turned to one of the attorneys started to cry. Stephanie is sentenced to 25 years in prison. It was a sense of relief. It was three years of my career. I was glad that the jury saw it the way we saw it. I was glad to get the closure for Diane and her family. A year later, David Dressman goes to trial

for complicity to murder and burglary in the first degree. On June 15, 2006, David is found guilty. He sentenced to 20 years for complicity and 10 years for burglary. The two sentences bring mixed emotions. I think that Miss Snowon deserves more justice than that. I don't think she should get out. I don't think any of them should. To take a life like that, that's not enough time for them.

But with closure comes some comfort for Diane Snowland's family and friends. Anyone that's ever said anything about Diane has had nothing to good things to say about her. She was honest, forthcoming, optimistic, and the life of the party. She was a good person. I'm sure everybody will remember that smile on her always will. Stephanie Olson is serving her sentence

at Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women. She will become eligible for parole on September 9, 2024 when she's 39 years old. David Dressman became eligible for parole in 2021 and was released from prison. He is currently under supervision at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex for unrelated

charges. For more information on SNAPED, go to oxygen.com. you