Pod Insights Dark Downeast The Murders of Carol Caswell, Lisa Snyder & Sheila Holmes (New Hampshire) About this episode Carol Caswell, Lisa Snyder, and Sheila Holmes were forever connected when their names surfaced during the interrogation of a suspect who would later be charged and convicted in one of their murders. That same individual remains the primary suspect in at least one of the two other cases, but it’s been decades since their violent, senseless deaths, and charges have yet to be filed against anyone. When will their families finally get the answers and justice they’ve been waiting for?
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live US-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 70% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.
0:33 Kylie Low? Carol Caswell, Lisa Snyder, and Sheila Holmes were forever connected when their names surfaced during the interrogation of a suspect who would later be charged and convicted in one of their murders. That same individual remains the primary suspect in at least one of the other two cases, but it's been decades since their violent, senseless deaths, and charges have yet to be filed against anyone. When will their families finally get the answers and justice they've been waiting for? I'm Kylie Low, and these are the cases of Carol Caswell, Lisa Snyder, and Sheila Holmes, on Dark Down East.
1:23 Kylie Low? It was the 4th of July 1985 in Dover, New Hampshire, when 20-year-old Lisa Snyder was visiting her sister Lori for the holiday. According to reporting by Lita Hartman and Bill Abell for The Conquered Monitor, Lisa was on vacation from her job at Sprague Electronics, where she worked long overnight shifts assembling electronics components, so the sisters planned to have a night out together. But there was a snag. Brad Moran reports for Foster's Daily Democrat that Lori's son was supposed to be picked up by his father that night, but that fell through, so Lori couldn't leave. Lisa decided to head out for some fun on her own. She told Lori she was going to check out the Norseman Lounge, a taproom in Billiard Hall in town.
2:07 Kylie Low? Lisa didn't have a car, so she set off down the street on foot. Lori laid awake that night, waiting for her sister to get back home. She drifted off to sleep and woke the next morning to still know Lisa. The worry permeated Lori's chest. Lisa often hitchhiked to get around. Did something happen to her as she was thumbing for a ride? Lori waited three agonizing days to hear from her sister. On July 7th, she contacted the Dover Police Department to report Lisa missing. The early investigation into Lisa's unexplained disappearance revealed that the bar she was supposedly heading to that night, the Norseman Lounge, it wasn't even open that night.
2:52 Kylie Low? They were closed for the 4th of July. So where did Lisa go? Where was she now? Lisa didn't show up to work the following week, and she never picked up her paycheck at the office either. The local PD wasn't uncovering any solid leads as to her whereabouts in the days after she was reported missing, so Lori had posters made and distributed them around town herself. She gave a stack of them to police for distribution across other parts of the state and country. Lisa's name and information was also entered into the National Crime Information Center, NCIC, index in the event she turned up out of state. Lisa was a fiercely independent person.
3:34 Kylie Low? Her life didn't necessarily follow the route of societal expectations, but she was making her way. Lisa's mother passed away from cancer when she was young, and her father, Eli Snyder, remarried a few years later. He raised Lisa with his new wife, Lisa's stepmother in New Hampshire. Eli said that Lisa was a good, friendly kid. She could talk to pretty much anyone, friend or stranger. But as she got older, her friendliness seemed to pull people with nefarious intentions into her orbit.
4:07 Kylie Low? Eli and Lisa's stepmother said she became more rebellious in her teenage years, uninterested in the rules and boundaries her parents tried to set. When she was caught hitchhiking, they warned her of the dangers. When they found her packaging pot at their home one night in March of 1981, the resulting argument sent 16-year-old Lisa out the door. She hitchhiked her way across the country. Eli said he didn't hear from Lisa for weeks until the phone rang with a call from a runaway hotline. Lisa was in Arizona. He convinced her to come home and go back to school. The last time Eli saw his daughter was when they had dinner together on the Tuesday night before she disappeared.
4:52 Kylie Low? Lisa was looking forward to an interview for a new job at General Electric in Hookset, New Hampshire. That's where her dad worked at the time and he helped her get the interview. But she would never show up for that appointment. Possible sightings of Lisa trickled in over the next weeks and months. One tip said she was alive in Hampton Beach, a coastal town about 25 miles away from Dover. But that sighting couldn't be confirmed. Two months later, around Labor Day weekend, police got a call from someone who said they saw Lisa at the Hopkinton State Fair, but that couldn't be confirmed either. There was at least one moment of hope for Lisa's family. Dover police contacted her father and said they had reason to believe she was alive.
5:37 Kylie Low? They asked Eli to listen in on the line as they called the residence where Lisa might be. A woman picked up the phone, but as soon as Eli said Lisa's name, the line went dead. The lead did too. Investigators considered the very real lingering fear that something terrible had happened to Lisa. At the time of her disappearance, she was living in a basement-level room at a home in the town of Bow. Police reportedly got occasional calls to respond to the address for noise complaints and rowdy parties, but as far as criminal complaints or arrests for activities there, there were none. Police also learned that Lisa had recently broken up with her boyfriend before her disappearance.
6:21 Kylie Low? And he was questioned as part of the investigation. But Lisa's family had doubts that he even knew she was in Dover that weekend, and didn't think he had any knowledge as to her whereabouts. The one-year anniversary of her disappearance passed in 1986, and after 365 days of no real progress, the case was at a standstill. There were no hits in NCIC and no legitimate sightings to say Lisa was alive somewhere. But then, a discovery in the woods during the spring of 1987 changed everything.
6:58 Kylie Low? It was around 5:30 PM on April 18, 1987, and a fisherman was trekking through the wilderness to a pond in the remote area of Rollinsford, New Hampshire. As he navigated down a dirt road and crossed over private property, his eye was drawn to some farm gear that looked to be antiques. The rusted-out equipment was parked alongside the old foundation of a house or building. And as the fisherman got closer, he realized something else was in the brush alongside the foundation, too. He found bones, and they looked to be human. Rollinsford Police responded to the location to secure the scene and soon called in the New Hampshire State Police Major Crimes Unit. State Police would lead the investigation moving forward.
7:44 Kylie Low? The severely decomposed remains did not appear to be intentionally concealed or buried, but they were hidden by the overgrown brush. Investigators found some clothing and jewelry scattered around the body. That evidence gave police a tentative identification. Lisa Snyder's sister Lori recognized the jewelry. Dental records confirmed that after almost two years, Lisa Snyder was finally found. The autopsy determined that Lisa's manner of death was homicide, and her probable cause of death was strangulation. The ME did not elaborate on how he reached that determination. What was once the case of a woman missing
8:28 Kylie Low? under suspicious circumstances was now a murder investigation. But it seemed authorities were in no better position after locating Lisa's remains to make sense of what led to her death and how she ended up in the woods of Rollinsford. The town wasn't far from her sister's house in Dover, just four or five miles. But Lisa wasn't from that area, and the secluded spot was one only locals were likely to know about. But the site wasn't far from a party spot. In fact, reports say it's more than likely police passed by Lisa's remains while she was still missing on their way to break up parties without even knowing it. Lisa's clothing was sent to the crime lab for analysis, and soil samples from around
9:12 Kylie Low? the site of her remains were collected for testing, too. If the tests helped police draw any conclusions about what happened or who was responsible, they weren't strong enough to lead to an arrest. Lisa's case again stalled out until it went cold. Nearly three years to the day after Lisa's remains were found, Dover, New Hampshire was once again shaken by tragedy. Another woman, last seen alive in the same small town, had become the victim of a brutal homicide.
9:51 Speaker 00 The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live US-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around $1 a day. Right now, get 70% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.
10:21 Speaker 02 You know that thing where you're scrolling the internet and suddenly you're three hours deep into a celebrity lawsuit?
10:26 Speaker 03 Or you hear a courtroom term and think, wait, what does that actually mean?
10:30 Speaker 02 I'm Eliza Orland, career public defender.
10:32 Speaker 03 And I'm Taya Johnson, law professor and legal analyst.
10:35 Speaker 02 And on our brand new podcast, Criminally Online, we break down the law behind the stories you can't stop talking about.
10:42 Speaker 03 No legal degree required, just curiosity. Find Criminally Online wherever you get your podcasts.
10:59 Kylie Low? It was Thursday night, April 12, 1990, and 31-year-old Sheila Holmes had hit a stroke of good luck. It was her night off from work, and she decided to spend it at the St. Jean Social Club on Mechanic Street in Dover. According to Brad Moran's reporting for Foster's Daily Democrat, Sheila had won a bar pool and was treating everyone to a round of drinks. As the devoted mother of five children, a night out was a welcome reprieve from the demands of life and work. According to reports by the New Hampshire Union Leader, at some point during the evening, Sheila was seen chatting with someone at the club, a man believed to be in his early-to-mid 30s.
11:42 Kylie Low? He was white with brown hair, dark eyes, and a slight beard or several days of growth, maybe around 6'1" and 220 pounds. She was also seen out in the club's parking lot, talking to a man before getting into a dark-colored Chevrolet Chevette-type car with him. Reports are vague here, but based on a few details across multiple sources, it seems Sheila may have been driving her boyfriend's truck that night, and she was supposed to pick him up when he got off work. But the boyfriend waited and waited for Sheila to arrive, and she never did. He walked himself home, possibly a little irritated that she had ghosted him.
12:25 Kylie Low? They had a rocky relationship as it was, and had gotten into a fight earlier that day. As the sun threatened to rise early the next morning, Sheila still hadn't called with a reasonable explanation for leaving her boyfriend stranded at work. In fact, she hadn't reached out or turned up at his place at all. With that, he called police to report Sheila missing around 4:00 a.m. on April 13.
12:52 Kylie Low? The search for Sheila was brief. Christopher Sheehan reports for the union leader that a person out walking along the railroad tracks in Dover found Sheila's body mere hours after authorities were alerted to her disappearance. She was partially clothed and lying in weeds and tall grass next to a blue Toyota pickup truck on a dirt road near the old B&M railroad yard. An autopsy by state medical examiner Dr. Roger Fossom determined that Sheila died as the result of strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head. She suffered multiple rib fractures and a lacerated renal artery, one of the blood vessels that carries oxygen to the kidneys.
13:34 Kylie Low? The ME was either unable to determine if she was sexually assaulted, or that information was not publicly confirmed at the time. He was also unable to pinpoint a precise time of death, but one thing was for certain: Sheila was murdered, and this was a homicide. Police had the blue pickup truck impounded, and it was later disclosed that the truck belonged to Sheila's boyfriend. He was among the 120 interviews conducted by police in just the first week of the investigation into her death. Investigators were also looking for the individuals Sheila was seen talking to on the night she was believed to be murdered: the guy from the lounge, and the man she reportedly got into a car with that evening.
14:19 Kylie Low? Alerts in the media requested anyone who might know who these people were, or who had information that could make sense of what happened to Sheila, to call police with those details. By April 27, police made an encouraging announcement: they'd identified suspects in Sheila's case, and expected to narrow the list down to a single primary suspect soon. In June of that year, they made good on their previous statements, and disclosed they'd identified the primary suspect they believed killed Sheila. They didn't name names, but hinted that Sheila knew the male suspect.
14:59 Kylie Low? It's not a very far leap to think the primary suspect could have been Sheila's boyfriend at the time, based on reports of their strained relationship and reports that they'd gotten into a fight that same day. Not to mention, her body was found near his truck. He lawyered up after police questioned him, but it's not clear if the boyfriend is the suspect police were referring to. In any event, police didn't arrest a primary suspect or any suspect in the coming months. Like the leads in Lisa Snyder's disappearance and murder, Sheila's too fizzled out. Six years later, police in the neighboring city of Portsmouth were investigating their
15:42 Kylie Low? own case of a woman who disappeared after a night out at a local bar. And some dogged detective work across multiple departments would reveal the similarities and possible connections between the new case and the two still unsolved cases in Dover. It was the night of August 23rd, 1996, and 35-year-old Carol Caswell was hanging out at a local watering hole, the Old Bridge Cafe on State Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. According to reporting by Lori Ann Neri for Foster's Daily Democrat, Carol was set to start a new job the very next day, and she'd have to pick up her eight-year-old
16:24 Kylie Low? daughter from her mother's house later on. But at least for that night, Carol was free of any responsibilities and was enjoying socializing with other patrons and staff. In fact, Carol planned to hang out with Lisa, one of the bartenders, after Lisa's shift ended. Around 7 or 8 o'clock after Lisa clocked out, she waited for Carol. Although Carol had left the bar at some point, she told Lisa she'd be back, but she never did return. Lisa shrugged it off and went about her evening without Carol. The next day, Carol didn't show up for the first day at her new job. She didn't show up to get her daughter from her mother's house either. When school started the following
17:08 Kylie Low? week, Carol wasn't there for her daughter's first day. By Labor Day more than a week later, there was still no sign of her. Carol's mother Dorothy officially reported her missing to Portsmouth Police on September 3rd. From the beginning, Carol Caswell's disappearance was treated as suspicious. Though she sometimes struggled with substance use and there were occasions where she wasn't the most reliable person, there was one undeniable truth about Carol. She was a devoted mother to her daughter. There was nobody and nothing she loved more than that little girl. So leaving without notice didn't track with what her family knew to be true about Carol.
17:51 Kylie Low? Not only that, within days of the last time she was seen alive, but before the official missing persons report was filed, police had received a report from a hotel manager in the town of Somersworth that was undoubtedly connected to the disappearance. As reported by Jody Record for the New Hampshire Sunday News, on August 25th, the manager of the Somersworth Hotel on Elm Street called police to report that he'd found some items in the trash at his establishment that seemed like they shouldn't be there. Among the discarded items was a purse, and identification cards, and a set of keys. The name on the cards was Carol Caswell.
18:34 Kylie Low? When investigators checked the guest registry at the hotel, Carol's name wasn't on the list. None of the guests there remembered seeing her, and the manager couldn't recall Carol checking in or visiting with any of the boarders. Police retained that guest list as evidence, hoping it might reveal some answers as the investigation progressed. Police checked hospitals and prisons and contacted other police departments to see if Carol had surfaced somewhere in another part of the state. They spoke with friends and acquaintances, and people at the Old Bridge Cafe on the night of August 23rd, trying to piece together a timeline of her movements. Through these conversations, investigators learned that Carol sometimes traveled to
19:17 Kylie Low? Lawrence, Massachusetts to buy drugs. So, they put out a bulletin in that area, hoping to turn up any leads. Erica Mans reports for Foster's that leads came in on a daily basis, but any reported sightings and tips that originated from Massachusetts were either too vague or simply unverifiable. For nearly a year, Carol's family tried to maintain their hope that she would return, but as the one-year anniversary approached, police said they had reason to treat the disappearance as a probable homicide. But if they'd identified any suspects, or motives, or promising leads to follow, that wasn't public knowledge.
19:59 Kylie Low? Carol's case followed the same trajectory as Lisa Snyder and Sheila Holmes. Though all three cases were considered open, activity had slowed down to a near halt. Now, three families were waiting for answers, as they mourned the loss of their daughters, mothers, and sisters. In late fall of 1997, an incident in the town of Somersworth was the start of uncovering the truth.
20:28 Kylie Low? On November 16, 1997, Somersworth Police responded to an apartment at 10 Noble Street to find a woman suffering severe injuries, and a man in a violent, unruly state. As police tried to subdue the man, he fought back, attempting to kick out the windows of the police cruiser. The suspect was Edward Pahowick, and he just brutally attacked his girlfriend. The woman described to police the harrowing ordeal she'd just survived. She said Ed had been sober for a year, but started drinking that night, and then came after her. He pinned her down, and punched and choked her. He kicked her in the back and neck, and stood on her head.
21:11 Kylie Low? He sexually assaulted her, and then threatened to kill her. She said that Ed tried to make her take a bunch of pills to make it look like she died by suicide. If police hadn't arrived when they did, she was certain Ed would have killed her. Ed faced various charges, including aggravated felonious sexual assault and second-degree assault. He was held in jail as he awaited trial. With her abuser behind bars, Ed's former girlfriend told police she had more to tell them about the attacks she'd survived. Something Ed said that had her convinced he was capable of ending her life. He told her that he had killed before.
21:54 Kylie Low? According to reporting by James A. Kimball for Foster's, the woman told investigators that during his assault on her, Ed said that he killed Carol Caswell and had dumped her body somewhere. He also told her that a man he was in a substance use program with knew a secret about him. It was the first major lead that connected Ed Pahowick to the disappearance and presumed death of Carol Caswell. And what unfolded from there became an investigation crossing state lines. And by the end of it, more than one person would be implicated in her murder.
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23:08 Speaker 02 You know that thing where you're scrolling the internet and suddenly you're three hours deep into a celebrity lawsuit?
23:13 Speaker 03 Where you hear a courtroom term and think, wait, what does that actually mean?
23:17 Speaker 02 I'm Eliza Orland, a career public defender.
23:20 Speaker 03 And I'm Taya Johnson, law professor and legal analyst.
23:23 Speaker 02 And on our brand new podcast, Criminally Online, we break down the law behind the stories you can't stop talking about.
23:29 Speaker 03 No legal degree required, just curiosity. Find Criminally Online wherever you get your podcasts.
23:46 Kylie Low? Working off the tip that Ed Pahowick had confessed to killing Carol Caswell to at least two people, including his former girlfriend, police tracked down the other person who supposedly knew the secret about Ed, the individual who Ed met at an inpatient substance use treatment program.
24:06 Kylie Low? At first, the witness was reluctant to talk. Police later learned why. Edward threatened to kill his children should he ever disclose the secret. But now, perhaps with the security of Ed behind bars, the witness was willing to share the story that Ed told him. According to this witness, one night when they were both in the program together, Ed confessed that he killed a woman and buried her body. But the witness said Ed then backtracked a little bit. Ed wasn't sure if it was all a dream. When police approached Ed himself on February 27, 1998, to ask him a few questions about Carol Caswell's disappearance,
24:49 Kylie Low? he was apparently open to talking to police about the case, but he wanted to check with his attorney first. A month later, when police returned hoping to officially talk to Ed, he turned them away. Ed mistakenly believed the detective was a reporter from a newspaper and didn't give the detective an opportunity to explain who he was. So instead, police tried another route to get Ed talking. The man who'd been in the treatment program with Ed agreed to wear a wire during conversations with Ed while he was in jail. Unfortunately, the attempt was spoiled by poor transmission and audio quality, so police had to keep at it. On March 16, 1998,
25:34 Kylie Low? Ed filed a notice of intent to plead guilty to one charge of aggravated felonious sexual assault and one charge of second-degree assault for the alleged beating and sexual assault of his girlfriend. That same month, investigators paid a visit to a club in Portsmouth. And that's when detectives really hit pay dirt. The Starlight Club across the street from the Old Bridge Cafe where Carol Caswell was last seen alive required guests to sign in on a registration list. As the detective scanned the log for the night of August 23, 1996, two names leapt off the page. There was Edward Pahowick's name. Right next to it was the name Mickey Tompkins.
26:21 Kylie Low? Twenty-four-year-old Merrill Tompkins III, who went by Mickey, was also on the guest list at the Summersworth Hotel, the same hotel where Carol's belongings were found in the trash. Edward's name on the guest list at the Starlight Club in Portsmouth put him in the area where Carol was last seen, and authorities had a feeling that the person whose name was next to his might have some valuable information about the night Carol was killed. They weren't able to find Mickey anywhere in town though, so police put out an alert to law enforcement agencies across the country. They soon received a call from Penobscot County Jail in Bangor, Maine. Mickey was incarcerated there,
27:03 Kylie Low? on charges of operating under the influence and assaulting a police officer. Police traveled north to Bangor to interview Mickey, but he wasn't interested in speaking with investigators. That is, until they pulled out a photo of Carol and her daughter. The image brought Mickey to tears, and then he came clean about what happened the night Carol Caswell was killed. He told police he was there when Ed murdered Carol, and he helped bury her body in northern Maine.
27:38 Kylie Low? Meanwhile, back in New Hampshire, investigators were still trying to get Ed Pahowick to talk about Carol's case. They turned to Ed's brothers, who agreed to wear wires and encourage Ed to talk to police about Carol Caswell, in exchange for their mother not having to testify at any trial should there be one. They wanted to save their mother any further stress that the investigation was causing. Like the earlier attempt at recording a conversation with Ed, the first two brothers weren't able to successfully get Ed on tape with usable audio quality. But then Ed's youngest brother stepped in. He explained to Edward what detectives had told him. Police had already interviewed Mickey Tompkins.
28:22 Kylie Low? They'd found his blue Chevy Nova, the vehicle they used to transport Carol's body across state lines. Hearing this, Edward began to make demands. He wanted his mother moved out of state and away from the media frenzy that he was sure was about to unfold. He wanted someone to warn his ex-wife that she may want to move their son out of the area too. He also wanted $300 deposited into his inmate account to buy weapons if or when he went to state prison. Only then would he confess to everything. On April 6, 1998, with those conditions apparently met, Ed Bahawick sat down with
29:04 Kylie Low? investigators at the Stratford County Attorney's Office for the first of two days' worth of interviews. He was almost calm as he confessed in great detail to how he met and killed Carol Caswell. There are two versions of Ed's confession. In the first, Ed said that he was the sole perpetrator of the killing. In the other, he said that Mickey Tompkins beat Carol. However, both versions ended the same way, with Edward ending Carol's life by drowning her in a pond. On the night of August 23, while hanging out at the Somersworth Hotel, Edward met Mickey Tompkins.
29:48 Kylie Low? They were strangers before that evening, but they used cocaine and drank beer together at the hotel before going out to a pool hall called Buster's, and then the Rusty Hammer Restaurant in Portsmouth, and at some point, the Starlight Club. Then they decided to check out the Old Bridge Cafe across the street just before it closed. Edward told police that he met Carol Caswell one time before in Hampton Beach a few weeks earlier, but he wasn't sure if Carol recognized him or he recognized her at the Old Bridge Cafe that night. Either way, they started talking. According to Edward, Carol wanted to use drugs, so he suggested they go to a remote area near Willand Pond in Somersworth.
30:32 Kylie Low? In the first version of his story, he said he left Mickey behind in Portsmouth before driving off with Carol. Ed said he'd been using drugs and drinking alcohol that night, which had previously been a trigger for violent behavior. He told detectives that while they were alone in the secluded area near the pond, he started beating Carol before putting her in the water. He told her if she could make it to the other side of the pond, she could live. But Carol swam a ways out and then came back because it was too far. At that point, he held her head underwater until she drowned. When police started poking holes in his story and mentioning Mickey's name, Ed's story changed a bit.
31:16 Kylie Low? He said he was at first trying to protect Mickey because he was a young kid and figured, quote, "I'm going down anyway," end quote. But that plan apparently went out the window because Ed's new story was that Mickey was the one who beat Carol, and he also tried to sexually assault her. He said it was Mickey who told her to swim. Edward claimed he warned Mickey that Carol would go to police about the attempted sexual assault. He suggested to Mickey that they should hide her body, but she was still alive when he made that suggestion. Edward confessed that he then went after Carol in the water and drowned her, pinning her head beneath the water with his foot. After that, Ed said he freaked.
32:02 Kylie Low? They put Carol's body in Mickey's car and briefly went back to the Somersworth Hotel to decide their next move. Mickey's father lived in a remote region of Maine, so they decided that's where they'd dump Carol's body, and they drove off in Mickey's car. Once back in New Hampshire, Edward ditched Carol's belongings at the Somersworth Hotel and in the trash in his mother's neighborhood. He told Mickey they'd probably never see each other again. Ed's confession to detectives that he drowned Carol Caswell was now at least the third time he'd told somebody about what he'd done. His story that they buried Carol's body in a remote region of Maine aligned with what
32:44 Kylie Low? Mickey had already told them too. Though searches had not yet begun in full force, snow cover and frozen ground prevented a complete search of the area, there were plans to scour the location with cadaver dogs in hopes of recovering Carol's remains, if that's truly where she was. By late March and early April of 1998, police across multiple jurisdictions had joined together to investigate not only Carol Caswell's murder, but also the case of Sheila Holmes. After a meeting between departments, Dover Police identified several similarities between Carol and Sheila's cases, and there was a discussion about Lisa Snyder's unsolved homicide too.
33:28 Kylie Low? So, as the questioning continued in the Stratford County Attorney's Office, detectives asked Ed about the other two cases. Ed first tried to dodge any questions about Sheila Holmes when detectives brought up her name. Eventually, though, he said he knew Sheila from as far back as when he was in 7th or 8th grade. He used to babysit for her children. On the night Sheila was believed to be murdered, April 12th, 1990, Ed told police he remembered going to a play at Dover High School with a friend before going out to a few bars. He said he maybe went to the Dover American Legion Hall that night, and possibly St. Jean's Social Club.
34:12 Kylie Low? That was where Sheila was last seen alive. Ed explained that he was in a rough place at the time. He was going through a divorce and had lost custody of his son. He was using drugs heavily, and so he wasn't sure if what happened next was real or a dream. As he continued talking to investigators, Ed said that the next thing he remembered about that night was waking up from a drug-induced blackout. He was strangling a woman he thought was Sheila. He said she turned white and he freaked out. Ed said he got up and ran, following railroad tracks back to his house on Central Avenue. But then Ed started to waver on his story.
34:56 Kylie Low? He just wasn't sure if it actually happened. According to the transcript of the interrogation, Ed said, quote, "This thing with Sheila Holmes, I don't believe it was me. I don't know if it was a dream, you know what I mean?" End quote. The detectives suggested that maybe police could distinguish if it was a dream or not if they found Edward's DNA on a cigarette butt at the scene or something like that. Edward told them they should try and find his DNA because he didn't remember a lot about that night. When asked about Lisa Snyder, Ed said he was familiar with the area where her remains were discovered because he sometimes partied in that area, but he didn't think he killed her.
35:39 Kylie Low? Detectives asked Ed if he killed anybody else. Edward responded, quote, "Not that I want to talk about right now." End quote.
35:55 Speaker 00 The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live US-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 70% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.
36:25 Speaker 02 You know that thing where you're scrolling the internet and suddenly you're three hours deep into a celebrity lawsuit?
36:30 Speaker 03 Or you hear a courtroom term and think, wait, what does that actually mean?
36:34 Speaker 02 I'm Eliza Orland, career public defender.
36:37 Speaker 03 And I'm Taya Johnson, law professor and legal analyst.
36:40 Speaker 02 And on our brand-new podcast, Criminally Online, we break down the law behind the stories you can't stop talking about.
36:46 Speaker 03 No legal degree required, just curiosity. Find Criminally Online wherever you get your podcasts.
37:03 Kylie Low? On April 19th, 1998, two cadaver dogs put their noses to the thawing ground in a remote area near the Lincoln Main exit of Interstate 95. Interviews with Mickey Tompkins and Ed Pahowick had directed investigators to search the area for the remains of Carol Caswell. The first day of searching was unsuccessful, but the effort continued a few days later. On April 24th, they finally found her. According to Associated Press reports in the Bangor Daily News and Concord Monitor, a renewed search of the area with cadaver dogs led investigators to human remains in a makeshift grave about a half mile off I-95.
37:46 Kylie Low? It was assumed that the remains were Carol, though confirming her identity would take some time, as the remains were mostly skeletal. The shallow grave was located near a gravel pit, which was frequently the site of parties for teens and young adults. It was accessible by gravel road, but not necessarily a spot you'd stumble upon if you didn't know where you were going. The remains were transported to the medical examiner's office in Augusta for identification. Carol's family gave DNA samples, and when the results finally came back, they confirmed that the remains belonged to Carol Caswell. Despite his confession and the discovery of Carol's body, Edward Pahowick was not immediately charged in her death.
38:31 Kylie Low? He was still in prison, though, following his guilty plea in June of 1998 for beating and sexually assaulting his girlfriend in November of 1997. According to Associated Press reports published in the New Hampshire Union Leader, under the plea agreement, he would serve two sentences concurrently: 10 to 20 years for the charge of rape, and three and a half to seven years for second-degree assault. However, before he started the new sentence, he would have to serve one and a half to three years for a parole violation with 221 days' credit for time served. But any promise of release was unlikely, because two months later, in August of 1998,
39:12 Kylie Low? Ed Pahowick was finally charged with first-degree murder for the death of Carol Caswell.
39:19 Kylie Low? As for Mickey Tompkins, he was charged with hindering apprehension in connection with Carol's death. There was no word if charges were pending for the murders of Lisa Snyder or Sheila Holmes. Ed and Mickey pleaded not guilty to the charges against them, but Mickey went on to make a deal with prosecutors. He agreed to testify at Ed's trial in exchange for a lesser sentence. Mickey would have to give truthful testimony, and in exchange, a potential three to seven year sentence would be reduced to 12 months. Mickey took the deal and entered an intent to plead guilty to one charge of hindering apprehension. For the next year or so, Ed
40:03 Kylie Low? Pahowick and his attorneys fought to have his taped confession thrown out and not entered as evidence in his pending trial. He argued that he was not properly mirandized before making those statements to police, among other things. But in July of 1999, a judge ruled that the confession tapes could be used at trial. And that evidence, featured alongside the state's star witness Mickey Tompkins, would all be presented to a jury as the trial unfolded in September of that year.
40:35 Kylie Low? Ed Pahowick's defense at his murder trial leaned heavily on discrediting Mickey Tompkins as a witness, and he hoped to convince the jury that it was Mickey who was the real murderer, despite what Ed had confessed. His defense team presented their case that Ed's brothers pressured him into confessing, warning him of their mother's delicate health and the negative effects the investigation was having on her. "He only told police what they wanted to hear to spare his whole family any more misery," they said. According to reporting by Peg Warner for the Bangor Daily News, the defense also pointed to what they identified as inconsistencies in Ed's story, and the fact that he was admittedly
41:18 Kylie Low? using drugs, and more focused on using drugs than participating in whatever Mickey was doing to Carol at the time. They also presented evidence that Mickey supposedly had a hand injury that he sustained on the night of the murder. They suggested it was caused during an assault on Carol. During Mickey's testimony, he said that the injury was from falling down while intoxicated.
41:43 Kylie Low? Mickey's questioning on the stand revealed more of his version of events to the courtroom. He explained that on the night of the murder, he wasn't allowed into the Old Bridge Cafe because he was too drunk, and he'd passed out in the back of his car only later to wake up to Edward and Carol fighting. When he got out, he said Carol was laying on the ground with no shirt on and Edward was beating her. Mickey testified that he didn't intervene because he thought it was a domestic dispute and Edward didn't ask him for help. He said he only helped bury Carol's body because he was scared, but he didn't have any other involvement with her death. The defense called witnesses to further challenge Mickey's credibility.
42:29 Kylie Low? He allegedly made self-implicating statements to various witnesses, hinting at his involvement and saying that if police only knew exactly how much he was involved, he never would have gotten the deal he got. The jury was shown the entire videotaped confession and heard from Ed Pahowick's own mouth the violence he inflicted on Carol that night. By the time the panel was left to deliberate, they only needed about three hours to make their decision. In fact, the deliberations were so unexpectedly short that Carol's family had left the courthouse for the day and were not present as the verdict was delivered.
43:09 Kylie Low? The jury found Edward Pahowick guilty of first-degree murder in Carol Caswell's death, and he was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As he was led out of the courtroom, Edward said to reporters, "Mickey's still out there." No additional charges were expected to be filed against Mickey Tompkins.
43:36 Kylie Low? Just because he was already serving a life sentence in prison for one murder, doesn't mean his other suspected victims and their families were given their own version of justice and closure. It was quite the opposite feeling for Sheila's sister Cindy, who said she feared people would forget about Sheila now that Edward was in prison. She said in 2001, quote, "He's in there for life, but he doesn't make our family feel any better. We need the closure Carol's family has now. And it's not just closure, it's relief that someone's being held responsible for it," end quote. In the fall of 1999, AG Phil McLaughlin spoke in general terms,
44:18 Kylie Low? explaining that if a suspect was already convicted of one murder and serving a life sentence, but was also a suspect in another, then, given enough evidence, the AG's office would still pursue an independent indictment to bring closure to the case and the family. Edward Pahowick was considered the only suspect in Sheila Holmes murder as of September 1999, but no charges were filed at any point after he seemingly confessed to killing her. Cindy said in 2001, quote, "Ed Pahowick has admitted his guilt more than once. He was never charged for it at all, and we really don't understand why not. She died a very
45:02 Kylie Low? violent death. We need to find resolution," end quote. By 2002, Sheila's family was told that until there was new evidence, or until Edward confessed without retracting his statement, there would be no charges. Today, almost 35 years later, Ed has not been charged with any crimes connected to Sheila's death. For years after Sheila's murder and after Ed Pahowick's conviction, Sheila's sister Cindy posted flyers around town on the anniversary of Sheila's death and at Christmas, asking for tips. She believes there are people still out there who know what happened, and hopes they will come forward with that information.
45:49 Kylie Low? What about Lisa Snyder? As of 2003, Lisa's father Eli was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and had entered a nursing home without learning what happened to his daughter. Lisa's stepmother was not optimistic that they'd ever know, as it had been years since they heard from police on any activity or leads. Although detectives asked Ed Bahawick about Lisa's murder, he said he didn't think he was responsible for her death and believed police were just trying to link all the cases together, whether there was proof of a connection or not. Some sources say Ed Bahawick is a suspect in her case, but as of today, he has not been charged with any crimes as it relates to her murder.
46:33 Kylie Low? So, if not Ed Bahawick, who? What happened to Lisa Snyder and who is responsible? There's one detail reported by Brad Moran for Foster's Daily Democrat in 2003 that I've done some digging into. According to that story, investigators were exploring a theory that Lisa Snyder was the victim of a possible unnamed serial killer. This serial killer was a man operating in Massachusetts and who had served time in Texas for strangling a 15-year-old girl. But that lead hasn't developed into anything. I've gone down a deep, dark rabbit hole
47:15 Kylie Low? and have identified a few suspects this theory may have been referring to. But if you have any thoughts, I want to hear them. DM me on Instagram, @DarkDownEast. Carol Caswell was a happy-go-lucky person and always smiling. She loved her daughter, a little girl who was denied a lifetime of special mother-daughter memories when Ed Bahawick took her life. Sheila's oldest son, Jay, who was 13 years old at the time his mother was killed, remembered his mother as happy and generous. She always cared for her kids, and he knew she loved him and his siblings more than anything. The loss of his mom tore their
47:59 Kylie Low? family apart. Two of the children were adopted and moved out of state. Two other siblings were adopted by a family in the area, while Jay himself was raised by his grandparents, and he enlisted in the US Army. Tragedy struck Sheila's family again when, in 2004, Jay was killed in Iraq. His vehicle ran over a roadside bomb. He was 27 years old and had an infant son and wife at home. Lisa Snyder was just 20 years old when she lost her life to circumstances still not fully known. Her father once said that she was a good girl, and even when she started to veer down a treacherous path, she still called her dad every week to check in. She
48:44 Kylie Low? was proud of going back to school and earning her GED. She even had a few semesters of college under her belt. Her life was just getting started. If you have any information that could help bring answers to the families of Sheila Holmes and Lisa Snyder, please report it to the New Hampshire State Police Cold Case Unit. Use the tip form linked in the description of this episode, or find it on the post for this episode at darkdowneast.com.
49:23 Kylie Low? Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram @darkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones, and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Low, and this is Dark Down East.
49:55 Kylie Low? Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and AudioChuck. So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?
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