Police say Kimberly Gsell disappeared after a motel dispute in 2019, while a man now charged in her death gave investigators conflicting accounts.
CARLISLE, Pa. — The murder case involving Kimberly Gsell begins with an ordinary motel stay in September 2019 and a sequence of events that, according to investigators, left one woman at a hospital, another missing and a man offering an account police would question years later.
Authorities now allege David Allen Snyder, 39, killed Gsell, 38, during the early hours of Sept. 29, 2019, after returning to the Rodeway Inn in Middlesex Township while his wife was being treated at a hospital. Snyder faces first-degree murder and strangulation charges after investigators say he admitted his role in Gsell’s death during renewed interviews in September 2026. Police later recovered Gsell’s remains near Yellow Breeches Creek. Snyder has not been convicted, and prosecutors have not publicly identified a motive for the alleged killing.
Two days before Gsell disappeared, she and Amanda Snyder checked into the Rodeway Inn on Harrisburg Pike, according to the probable cause affidavit described by Law&Crime and other news organizations. Gsell and Amanda Snyder were engaged, investigators said, although Amanda remained legally married to David Snyder. The women planned to stay through the weekend. Their relationship to Snyder would later become an obvious focus of public attention, but authorities have been careful not to announce a motive based simply on that relationship. Police have said only that the people involved knew one another and shared a history through direct friendships and mutual acquaintances.
At some point during the motel stay, investigators say Gsell and Amanda Snyder became involved in a confrontation in which Amanda suffered an injury to her nose. David Snyder was contacted and came to the motel, then drove his wife to a hospital. His initial account placed him with Amanda during her treatment, according to investigators. That detail was important because it appeared to account for his whereabouts during the period in which Gsell disappeared. Amanda later returned to the motel and said Gsell was no longer there. What initially appeared to be a missing-person case would remain unresolved for nearly seven years.
Police said Amanda Snyder gave family and friends more than one explanation for where Gsell might have gone. David Snyder, meanwhile, allegedly maintained that he did not see Gsell again that night. Investigators continued to examine what happened at the motel and what each person said afterward. With Gsell missing and no confirmed location for her, detectives did not have the physical evidence that would later become central to the case. The gap between the accounts they had and the evidence they lacked became one of the enduring problems of the investigation.
In 2026, Cumberland County authorities organized a concentrated effort to revisit Gsell’s disappearance. District Attorney Seán McCormack said an investigative team was assembled earlier in the year and met regularly to plan different approaches. Detectives reviewed the case again, including records and prior statements. The district attorney credited Middlesex Township detectives, county investigators and forensic specialists with putting sustained pressure on the unresolved questions. Their work eventually returned them to David Snyder and the account he had given about the night Amanda Snyder went to the hospital.
During interviews on Sept. 25 and 26, investigators confronted Snyder with what they described as inconsistencies. Authorities say Snyder then acknowledged that he had not remained at the hospital for the entire period. Instead, according to the affidavit, he allegedly returned to the Rodeway Inn while Amanda was still receiving care and spoke with Gsell. Police allege Snyder persuaded Gsell to get into his vehicle after telling her that Amanda wanted him to bring her to the hospital. Investigators say Gsell entered the front passenger area believing she was going to see her fiancee.
What happened next is an allegation contained in the criminal case and has not been established at trial. Snyder allegedly told detectives that he strangled Gsell inside the vehicle and used the seat for leverage. He said he believed Gsell was intoxicated and that she did not resist, according to the affidavit. Investigators further allege Snyder moved her body away from the front of the vehicle and covered it with a blanket. The description is significant because it places Snyder with Gsell at the time of her death, contradicting the earlier assertion that he had not seen her again.
The affidavit then traces a second movement: from the motel area to a secluded location near Yellow Breeches Creek in the New Cumberland area. Authorities allege Snyder transported Gsell’s body there and buried her along the creek bank. He later returned to the hospital and picked up Amanda Snyder, according to reports describing the affidavit. Gsell was subsequently reported missing to both family and law enforcement. For years, that report marked the formal beginning of the public search for her, even though investigators now allege she had already been killed and concealed.
The break came when Snyder allegedly described the burial location and later took investigators there. Searchers found material associated with the burial and an object that appeared to be a bone, according to the affidavit and official statements. Pennsylvania State Police assisted with a human-remains detection dog, and authorities brought additional personnel to the site. A team that included forensic anthropology specialists from Mercyhurst University helped recover skeletal remains. The discovery provided investigators with physical evidence at a place that matched the location Snyder allegedly described.
Officials then worked to establish identity rather than assuming the remains were Gsell’s. McCormack said the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Forensic Laboratory used rapid DNA testing that indicated a high probability of a match. Dental records separately confirmed the remains belonged to Gsell. The identification resolved the most basic question that had hung over the missing-person case since 2019: where she was. It also gave authorities evidence that could be evaluated independently from Snyder’s alleged account. Prosecutors announced that the disappearance was now being treated as a homicide and that Snyder had been charged.
Middlesex Township police list Snyder as charged with first-degree murder and felony strangulation. First-degree murder is among the most serious homicide charges under Pennsylvania law, but the filing of a charge does not establish guilt. Snyder was arraigned after his arrest and ordered held without bail at the Cumberland County Prison. Amanda Snyder has not been charged in the case. The available public records do not say authorities believe she participated in Gsell’s death, and the fact that police examined conflicting accounts does not by itself establish criminal responsibility.
One major question remains absent from the publicly described affidavit: why investigators believe Gsell was killed. Police Chief Andrew Bassler has said the people involved knew each other through direct relationships and mutual friends, but authorities have not announced a specific motive. McCormack said the criminal case may eventually produce answers to questions that could not be resolved while Gsell remained missing. That process will occur in court, where prosecutors will have to prove their allegations and Snyder will have the opportunity to challenge the evidence against him.
The initial charging information scheduled Snyder for an Oct. 7 preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge David J. Rogers. The reliable sources reviewed for this report do not establish the outcome of that proceeding, so no later court result is being asserted. What is confirmed is that the disappearance that began at a Middlesex Township motel in 2019 has become a murder prosecution after Gsell’s remains were found and identified in September 2026. Snyder remains presumed innocent unless and until he is convicted.
Author note: Last updated Nov. 9, 2026.