Pregnant Arundel woman found slain in Ore.
She may have met woman charged in case through Craigslist
By Julie Bykowicz | julie.bykowicz@baltsun.com
9:55 PM EDT, June 7, 2009
An Anne Arundel County woman who had recently moved out west to have her first baby was found dead Friday in the Oregon home of a woman she might have met through Craigslist, police said. The baby also died.
Heather M. Snively, 21, was eight months pregnant with a boy and had been trying to purchase and trade baby clothes online, relatives said. Korena Elaine Roberts, 27, was charged with Snively's murder and also could face charges in the baby's death, said Sgt. David Thompson of the Washington County, Ore., Sheriff's Office.
Roberts, who has two young children and lived with her boyfriend in a suburb of Portland, was being held without bail Sunday. The children were staying with relatives, authorities said, and the boyfriend is cooperating with the investigation.
Roberts is to be arraigned Monday.
Washington County authorities have not confirmed that the women met on Craigslist, and they have not released a motive.
"We have one witness in this crime that said Ms. Snively communicated with Ms. Roberts via Craigslist for the purpose of buying or swapping baby clothes," Thompson said. "It has not been confirmed forensically through the computers or through a second witness."
Authorities said Roberts called 911 Friday afternoon and pretended that she had just given birth to a baby boy, who was not breathing. Emergency workers took Roberts and the baby to the hospital, but the baby could not be revived. Roberts showed no sign of having been pregnant, authorities said.
Sheriff's deputies then searched Roberts' home and found Snively dead in the crawl space. Authorities have not said how she was killed and had not determined whether the baby was born alive.
Snively moved to Tigard, Ore., 10 miles southwest of Portland, about three weeks ago to be with her fiance, Christopher Popp, who had taken a job there as a boat salesman, said David Kidd, Snively's stepfather. Popp could not be reached Sunday night.
For four years, Snively had been in Edgewater, where her father and several grandparents also live, though she grew up in West Virginia with her stepfather, mother and three younger siblings. She graduated from an Edgewater high school, Kidd said.
Kidd said Snively was overjoyed about becoming a mother. The baby was to have been the first grandchild for Kidd and Snively's mother, Heidi Kidd. He would have been named John Steven, after a grandfather, Kidd said.
Snively told her younger sisters in a recent e-mail that she had just finished painting the baby's room and loved Oregon.
She would spend hours online looking for baby clothes, furniture and accessories, Kidd said. "It's your first baby -- you go a bit overboard," he said.
Although Snively had talked online to Roberts, she hadn't met her in person until Friday, Kidd said.
Kidd and Sandy Carson, a neighbor in Edgewater who was close with Snively, described her the young woman as trusting to a fault.
Carson said she worried about Snively's online habits. She said Snively would sell items on Craigslist and have the buyer come over to a house she shared with her grandfather to pick them up.
"I would tell her, 'Do you really want to have people you don't know over to your house?'" Carson said. "But she never had any trouble with it."
Carson's daughter-in-law is also eight months pregnant, with a girl, and the two would swap advice and talk frequently even after Snively moved out west.
Carson said she remembers that Snively used to constantly rub and show off her growing belly. "I can't keep my hands off him," she would tell people.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/annearundel/bal-pregnant0607,0,7224215.story