Man allegedly choked his wife’s fiancée to death in a motel parking lot. 7 years later, it all comes crashing down

What began in 2019 as the unexplained disappearance of a woman from a motel in Pennsylvania is now a murder case against her fiancée’s husband. Seven years later, the police have learned a terrifying truth about the case.

Here is the fuller picture, according to the story that has emerged in September 2026. Amanda Snyder and Kimberley Gsell, 38, were engaged in 2019, though Amanda’s marriage to David Snyder had not ended. The couple had Room 312 at the Harrisburg Pike Rodeway Inn from Friday, September 27, 2019, until that Sunday.

Before it was over, the pair got into an argument, per Local 21 News. Snyder then needed care after her nose was injured, which the affidavit attributes to Gsell. Her husband arrived to drive her for treatment. The last sighting of Gsell was at roughly 1:30 a.m. that Sunday, September 29.

In the account Snyder eventually gave detectives, he left during his wife’s treatment and drove to the motel, where he got Gsell to come with him by saying Amanda wanted her brought over. Snyder described choking her where she sat in his passenger seat. In his telling, she was impaired that night and put up no resistance.

With Gsell’s body hidden under a blanket behind the van’s front seats, Snyder then went to collect his wife from her treatment, according to the probable cause affidavit. Later, he buried the body on a remote stretch of Yellow Breeches Creek bank near New Cumberland.

A disappearance that took seven years to resolve

The Snyders were the ones who told Gsell’s relatives and police she had vanished. By Amanda’s account, she came back to find the room empty. David claimed not to have laid eyes on Gsell that entire night.

In a request for tips published on October 8, 2019, Middlesex Township officers said the last thing known about Gsell was that she had quarreled with a second woman there and departed. Police later wrote that Amanda Snyder “provided numerous explanations for Gsell’s whereabouts,” per Law & Crime.

In September 2026, detectives interviewed Snyder again, this time with records that didn’t line up with his earlier story. He ended up revealing where he’d put Gsell’s body, then described the killing. The detectives found the grave and her remains were recovered on September 25, with prosecutors’ in-house lab confirming her identity with Rapid DNA testing and dental records. Snyder’s motive has yet to be established or revealed by the authorities. He was arrested on September 27, charged with first-degree murder and strangulation. His preliminary hearing is set for October 7.

Though the killing reportedly happened seven years ago, Pennsylvania sets no deadline for murder charges and such a prosecution “may be commenced at any time.” A first-degree murder such as this carries only two possible sentences: death or life imprisonment.