SNELL-AMANDA

VICTIM  OF  SERIAL  RAPIST-MURDERER

 

Amanda Jean Snell was born on January 19, 1989, in Twentynine Palms, California.  She graduated in June 2007 from Chaparral High School in Los Vegas, Nevada, where she was active in ROTC.  Following in her mother’s military footsteps, who had been in the Marine Corps, Amanda enlisted the Navy in August 2007.  She did basic training in Great Lakes, Illinois, then attended the Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center in Virginia Beach.  In the fall of 2008 she was assigned to the office of the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon where she advanced in rate to Intelligence Specialist Second Class (IS2) and served as the Work Center Supervisor for the CNO Intelligence Plot.  Amanda made few friends in her barracks as they wanted to party hard and she didn’t.  She volunteered as a youth minster at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Virginia, and from her Pentagon desk she began dreaming of life after the Navy.  She wrote on MySpace, “I want to teach Special Education and kids with autism.  I guess I have been lucky on that front to find something that I truly value…and found my purpose in.”

 

On Monday, July 13, 2009, Snell failed to report for duty and word went out to check her barracks room.  The door was unlocked, the bed was made, the room was tidy and search revealed her body wedged into her clothes locker, a pillowcase over her head.  She was dead.  The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) was summoned to investigate and although an autopsy showed no bruising or signs of struggle and there was no indication of sexual assault, her death was ruled as “undetermined” and NCIS Headquarters directed the case be pursued as a homicide.  Few leads were developed until February 2010, when the Arlington, Virginia, Police Department (APD), responding to a report of a woman who had been abducted, raped and attempted homicide, identified the assailant as a marine residing in Snell’s barracks.  Working with NCIS, the APD obtained sufficient evidence to convict the marine, who was dishonorable discharged from the Marine Corps, of 14 charges including abduction, use of firearms, rape, forcible sodomy, robbery and burglary.  The NCIS investigation was also able to establish the former marine as being responsible for Amanda Snell’s death and in April 2014 he was convicted by jury of first degree murder in her death.  During the investigation it was discovered the former marine was responsible for several other deaths and he is now serving five life sentences and an additional 168 years for his crimes.  At the time of this writing it has been reported that the U.S. Attorney General has filed papers requesting the former marine be given the death penalty.

 

A memorial service for Snell was held at Fort Myer’s, Virginia, during which a chaplain recalled Snell’s work as a youth minister at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church as well as her volunteer service in an organization helping people with autism.  The chaplain said, “I talked to her friends and they told me how much she gave back to the community.  They know for sure that Amanda is in heaven.”  Snell’s supervisor, Executive Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, recalled Snell’s abilities and sense of purpose saying, “For those of us who knew Petty Officer Snell, we know her devotion and loyalty extended far beyond her immediate family.  She would do anything to help someone – anytime, anywhere, anyplace.  She didn’t hold back.  She was loyal, honest, kind and generous.  She didn’t just want to be a sailor – she wanted to be a great sailor.  She knew to do that she had to sprint from the starting line.” 

 

Snell’s supervisor also explained that one of the jobs in the division was to deliver briefing books to various admirals around the Pentagon.  “And the books cannot be late.  What you probably don’t know is that Petty Officer Snell could get two 10-pound bags through a quarter mile maze and four flights of Pentagon stairs in under two minutes…wearing a skirt, heels and a knee brace.  There are many of you who saw Amanda during her book runs – you know her as an energetic, happy and focused sailor.  For Petty Officer Snell the books were never late.  Petty Officer Snell is gone from this earth but she is very much with me every day.  She had a positive impact on me and as you well know, on everyone she met.”

 

The Chief Petty Officer under who Amanda Snell worked said, “She would tell me of her desire to be a leader.  If you didn’t know, she wanted to be the first female Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.  Petty Officer Snell is one of the sailors chiefs don’t get many of.  One of the ones who really get it, one you can fire up and forget, and one you can mold easily into someone’s relief someday.  Amanda was one of the ones to make the next big changes in the Navy.  She was one of those sailors.”

 

Amanda Snell was buried with full military honors at Garden of Memories Cemetery in Salinas, California.

 

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)