Neil Snelson found guilty of manslaughter in former L.V. Rogers graduate's death
By Nelson Daily Staff
An answer to the mysterious death of former L.V. Rogers graduate Jennifer Cusworth 18 years ago has now been unearthed, the Vancouver Province reported Thursday.
A B.C. Supreme Court in Kelowna found Neil Snelson, 44, of Kelowna guilty of manslaughter in the cold case killing of Cusworth, down from the initial charge of first-degree murder.
Cusworth, a 19-year-old college student at Okanagan College at the time, was found strangled and clubbed to death in a ditch after a house party she and Snelson both attended in October 1993.
Snelson, now a married father of four, admitted to the jury he met Cusworth at the party and they had sex in his truck the night she died. However, he said he did not know the woman’s name, nor did he know the woman reported dead the next day was the same woman he had met at the party.
Snelson has not yet been sentenced but will face a prison term of four years to life.
- For more details on the trial, go to http://www.theprovince.com/news/Neil+Snelson+found+guilty+manslaughter+Kelowna+teen+death/5513419/story.html#ixzz1a7E81ZyK
Former Nelson area residents and Jennifer’s parents, Jean and Terry Cusworth, were in Kelowna for the trial.
Kelowna RCMP had been investigating the incident for the past 18 years, until Snelson was arrested two years ago.
At the time, police said Snelson was one of the 150 people at the house party from which Cusworth disappeared. According to the police, they had allegedly found DNA on an object at the murder scene matched with Snelson’s.
New technology has allowed police to match DNA collected, implicating Snelson. A practicing Christian, Snelson was a congregant and a bassist in the “praise team” at First Lutheran Church in Kelowna.
The Cusworths lived in Crescent Valley for a number of years while Jennifer, their only daughter, was going to high school in Nelson and Jean worked in the local school system as a principal.
Shortly before her death they moved to Victoria and Jennifer moved to Kelowna to attend Okanagan University College to study social work at age 19.
See also
Former Nelsonite Jennifer Cusworth’s cold case murder trial begins in Kelowna court
Kelowna father denies killing college student
- http://thenelsondaily.com/news/kelowna-father-denies-killing-college-student-13969
