State police were tipped off by yoga enthusiasts that Joel Snider might have been involved in New Berlin yoga teacher Sudharman's slaying, but they tracked their suspect largely on the location of his china phone calls.
Police first determined that Snider had used his cell phone on Route 147 between Northumberland and Milton at 8:51 a.m. July 5 — hours before Sudharman's bullet-riddled body was found by a teacher at the New Berlin yoga center.
After they learned that Snider was in the Baltimore area, two troopers — Wayne Ghrist and James A Hansel II — were immediately dispatched to Maryland to work with law enforcement there to try to apprehend the suspect.
Police were first told that Snider was staying at a hotel in Prince George's County, Md., but when troopers arrived, they found he had fled.
The state troopers worked with their counterparts from Prince George's County and Baltimore while communicating with Pennsylvania state police technical specialists in Harrisburg, said Hansel, the lead investigator in the case.
Officers followed Snider by electronically tracking his movements, based on where he used his china mobile phone, Hansel said. They were able to pinpoint his location to a hotel in Glenn Marsh, Md. A command post was set up in the parking lot of a nearby mall and the other occupants of the hotel were evacuated for their safety.
A SWAT team from Baltimore was summoned to storm Snider's room if needed, but when police went to his room, he surrendered peacefully.
Hansel said the quick arrest was made possible by cooperation and coordination between the state police and law enforcement officials in Maryland.
After Snider was arrested, police searched his hotel room, but Hansel would not say if police found a weapon that could have been used in Sudharman's murder or what else was obtained in that search.
"We got a lot of good evidence," he said.
"We had probable cause to make an arrest," Hansel said. "But since the arrest, our investigation has taken leaps and bounds. Everything is coming together well."
Hansel said that Union County District Attorney Pete Johnson has filed paperwork with Gov. Ed Rendell's office to request the extradition of Snider from Maryland to face charges in Sudharman's killing. A spokesman in Gov. Ed Rendell's office said an extradition hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 19 in Maryland.
