Edwin Snelgrove

Edwin "Ned" Snelgrove (born Edwin Fales Snelgrove, Jr.; August 9, 1960) is an American double-murderer who is currently serving a 60-year sentence for the murder of a Hartford, Connecticut woman, Carmen Rodriguez. He was also previously convicted of the 1983 killing of his former girlfriend Karen Osmun and the 1987 attack on Mary Ellen Renard. Snelgrove is incarcerated at the Cheshire Correctional Institution in Cheshire, Connecticut. He is scheduled for release October 14, 2063, when he will be 103 years old.

Murder of Karen Osmun In 1983, the 23-year-old Snelgrove had previously been dating Karen Osmun from New Brunswick, New Jersey, also 23. Karen was a graduate student at Rutgers University, studying computers. On December 24, 1983, Karen was reported missing by her parents after she failed to show up at their home for dinner in Bricktown, New Jersey. The next day, her body was found in her apartment on her bedroom floor. She had been stabbed with a knife several times to death. She was also strangled. Karen's ex-boyfriend, Ned Snelgrove, was the prime suspect in her murder, but was not charged until several years later, after attacking another New Jersey woman. In 1988, Snelgrove wrote "I could not stop my hands from squeezing her throat as hard as I could" about killing Karen Osmun. Snelgrove wrote the following in a 1992 letter about the assault on Mary Ellen Renard: "I botched it up. She didn't die. If she had died, my name wouldn't have even made the suspect list". On June 24, 1988, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. During his incarceration, he wrote many letters to a former classmate George Recck. He had compared himself to serial killer Ted Bundy and mused how he should emulate Bundy's practice of choosing victims far from his home.

Aftermath On April 15, 2005, Snelgrove was sentenced to life in prison, which is defined by state law as a term of 60 years.

Snelgrove filed an appeal, claiming that his past criminal history should not have been introduced at his 2005 murder trial. In September 2008, the Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed Snelgrove's convictions.

The case has been profiled on the Oxygen Network series Captured and the Investigation Discovery series On the Case with Paula Zahn. In both programs, Mary Ellen Renard provides statements about her horrifying ordeal with Snelgrove.