HOBE SOUND, Fla-- Tuesday night the Martin County community gathered to honor the memory of Tricia Todd.
Earlier in the day, Sheriff William Snyder sat down with NewsChannel5’s Alyssa Hyman to reflect on the troubling case and the long road to justice.
“To see this level of evil is disturbing.” That’s how Martin County Sheriff William Snyder describes the horrific murder of Hobe Sound mother Tricia Todd.
“They went from a situation where there was no more evidence then the carpet underneath our feet to ultimately solving the case.”
The case went from a troubling missing person’s case back in April, to weeks of searching then finally to arresting her ex-husband, and finding her remains.
“What really was going on in Steven’s mind. What made him drive down here, lure his former wife to his temporary abode? Murder her and do what he did afterwards. You know what we may never know that.”
He says Tricia’s ex-husband Steven Williams was the last one to see Tricia alive. While he had been on investigators radar, Snyder says they needed more evidence to get him to crack.
“When confronted with the lies, when confronted with some witness testimony about who was in her car, when confronted with the video evidence, he became convinced that we had a very strong case.”
The sheriff says it was that dedicated work that got Williams to confess. Williams pled guilty to second degree murder in exchange for showing investigators where he left the body.
The sheriff said that deal foreshadowed the gruesome details of what was to come.
“I heard everything the judge said about the rights he was giving up for appeal, for discovery, to delay the trial and he agreed to all of those,” said Snyder. “My stomach turned. And I got a knot in my chest. And I did have a sense that uh oh what in this world are we going to find out.”
Sheriff Snyder says we may never have all the answers, but at least now he can bring some closure to a community in pain.