Sister of slain New Jersey teens reacts to 53-year-old cold case breakthrough

KEY LARGO, Fla. — For 53 years, Sarah Jenkins Barlow lived with questions about the deaths of her younger sisters, Marguerite “Maggie” Jenkins, 18, and Mary Jenkins, 16, who authorities say were killed in the Florida Keys in 1973.

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On Wednesday, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office announced investigators had identified David Allen Snyder, formerly of Key West, as the man responsible for the killings. Deputies said Snyder died of natural causes in Idaho in 2008 at age 57 and never faced trial.

When authorities first contacted Barlow, she didn’t think they were calling with news that the case had been solved.

“At first I thought, because I do a little Googling, and I thought, oh they’re going to tell me about this podcast that they have,” Barlow said. “I just thought, don’t get your hopes up.”

Then investigators showed up at her home.

Barlow said three investigators carefully explained the breakthrough and gave her paperwork.

“They were very respectful, kind people,” Barlow said. “And they broached the subject gently and gave me the paperwork.”

Investigators told her DNA recovered from the crime scene eventually led them to Snyder through genetic genealogy and family-tree research.

“They told me that they found blood at the scene, not a lot,” Barlow said. “And it was the perpetrators, the murder monster, whatever you want to call him.”

Barlow said investigators explained that the DNA had been tested over the years before genealogy research produced a lead.

“They found a DNA click on one of those ancestries where you focus from the cousins out,” Barlow said. “It ended up where they found this girl who happens to be his daughter,” she said.

Authorities said a DNA sample from one of Snyder’s relatives was ultimately tested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, confirming Snyder as the source of the DNA profile.

A lifetime of waiting

Barlow was just 19 when her sisters were killed.

She traveled to Florida immediately afterward and stayed for a month with her mother and future husband.

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“We did our own investigation, but obviously we were in their way, and they kept telling us to go home,” Barlow said.

The sisters had traveled from New Jersey to the Keys for vacation. Investigators said they were last seen hitchhiking on Stock Island on May 2, 1973. Their bodies were found the following day in a wooded area near U.S. 1.

“It was shocking because I never expected it to be solved,” Barlow said. “I didn’t expect it to be solved six months into it.”

Snyder died without facing a trial, something Barlow said she has had to accept.

Still, she hopes the person responsible lived with the fear that his own loved ones could experience a similar tragedy.

“And I always thought, whoever did this, I hope they fear that somewhere someone was going to grab and do to their daughter or grandchild what happened to my sisters because it was monstrous,” she said.

Remembering Maggie and Mary

Barlow wants her sisters remembered for who they were, beyond the circumstances of their deaths.

“Maggie was strong and she was a little more of a daredevil,” Barlow said. “Mary was a sweet innocent girl. She had an excellent singing voice.”

Barlow remembers Maggie’s love of horses and her adventurous spirit.

“Maggie loved horses,” Barlow said. “She always wanted to have a horse ranch.”

The family also shared a love of adventure, and Barlow said she continues to carry that spirit with her.

“I’ve traveled all over and every time I go someplace like the Grand Canyon, I’ll go out there and I’ll say, ‘Maggie, Mary, look where we are,” Barlow said.

“Because if you give up your life because of some tragedy, that’s not honoring their life,” she said.

Her message after all these years?

“Not to give up, but don’t also let it control your life,” Barlow said. “I live my life full.”

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