In the spring of 1969 in Camden, New Jersey, the discovery of a young woman's body was a grim harbinger of a string of violent crimes that would grip the city. Just three days after Shirley Brittingham was found, another victim was identified as Warren Wells, a 27-year-old Black man. His death was part of a series of brutal slayings that initially baffled investigators, leading them to suspect a lone, vicious killer was preying on the community.
Detectives Earl Smith and Nate Jones were
tasked with unraveling the homicides that were terrorizing Camden. Their investigation into Wells's death led them to a man who had been living with him at the time of the murder, Leroy Snyder. Snyder was already known to the police, and as they delved deeper into the series of killings, his name would surface again. The investigation was a meticulous process of chasing down leads, with one witness directing police to a woman who then pointed them toward a residence on Walnut Street where Wells had connections.
The breakthrough in the case came when Leroy Snyder was arrested. During his confession to a string of murders, Snyder admitted to killing Warren Wells. The motive he gave was shockingly simple and callous: he had murdered his roommate for his paycheck. This admission brought a resolution to the death of Warren Wells, revealing it not as a random act of violence but as a calculated crime driven by greed. The confession closed the chapter on the search for Wells's killer, bringing a measure of clarity to a dark and violent period in the city's history.
