The Final, Sad Chapter for the Fugitives

The Final, Sad Chapter for Delbert Lyle Snook and Eunice Rosenberg

Running a resort definitely has its perks.  But at times like this, it has its sad and stressful chapters.

If you haven't read my previous post about the fugitives, perhaps you should go back and read that first.

We met the couple in August, 2016.  They told us their names were Blossom and Quincy Eagleman.  We took them at their word.  They paid us in cash only so we never saw any identification nor had any reason to doubt their claims.  They seemed normal, friendly and fun.  Little did we know how this would end up.

This last Sunday, January 29, started out like a normal Sunday.  I went to church, made lunch, sat around and read a book.  Around 5:00 p.m. I received a call from Lyle's daughter.  She was crying  and emotionally distraught.  She told me she had some very sad news.  The authorities on Madeline Island (just outside Bayfield, WI) had found her dad's body.  Next to his body was a woman's body whom they believed to be Eunice's.

My heart went into my throat.  Tears sprang to my eyes.  I didn't want to believe it.  I was incredulous but I had no reason to doubt what she was telling me.  So I asked questions.  This is what she told me.

On December 14th the fugitives had left a motel in Bayfield without paying.  The owner/operator of the motel investigated their room after not seeing nor hearing of them for two days.  Inside the room was their dog, Punky, alive.  Also in the room was a suicide letter.  They called the police and took the dog out of the room to take care of it, get it water, etc.

The police investigated and then notified Lyle's family.  The fugitives were nowhere to be found but they would keep looking.

The family called me to let me know of the latest development.  We hoped that the suicide notes were just a false lead.  Hope is a blessing.

The family made plans to drive up from Wyoming to pick up the Jeep, which was left behind too, and the dog, as well as personal belongings.  They did that.  We offered them a free room in our cabin and when they arrived, I had dinner waiting.  We had a lot to catch up on.  When they pulled up to the resort, in tow was the Jeep we had become familiar with, now on a trailer.  Punky, the border collie, being very familiar with the resort, ran up to greet me and was very happy to see us all again.  She greeted me and our two dogs like old friends.

Over dinner and after, we talked with the family for hours about the investigation, the character of the two fugitives, and our stories of the last few months with them.  They were eager to hear all about their dad as they missed him very much.  We missed him already too.  Punky made herself comfortable on the sofa in the lodge, next to our dogs, as she had months previous.  She was sound asleep quickly as we all talked for hours.

Lyle had become a good friend of my husband's.  They spent every day in each others company from August through to the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.  You can't spend that much time with someone and not get to know them better and become a friend.  At no time during those months did he seem worried, agitated, sad, depressed or like he was a victim.  Lyle would come and go from the resort lodge, where there was a free telephone right on the wall he could have used at any time.  He didn't.  He was there of his own free will.

At that time, we didn't know what had happened to the fugitives.  I guess you could say we were blissfully ignorant.

When we got the call on Sunday, January 29, that their bodies had been found, it was like a bomb went off in our lives.  Everywhere we went in the house, resort, up the road past cabins they had stayed in, on trails they had walked on, were memories.  We felt jabbing pain as those memories kept reminding us of what had been, wherever we walked.

Their ending of the story goes like this: 

• They left suicide notes in the Bayfield motel and left their dog and Jeep there.  
• They got on the ferry in Bayfield to Madeline Island.
• They met someone from the yacht club who gave them a ride to a local coffee shop.  (They were cold, seemed lost, and took the offer of a ride happily.)
• They talked over coffee.  Eunice said (another lie) how she wanted to rent a boat slip for a party in May.
• Then they walked out of the coffee shop, down a trail, heading towards the woods.
• There they eventually committed suicide with a pistol that Lyle had carried.  No one heard a thing.

The main question I get from people is who did the shooting?  It doesn't matter.  Its the same result either way.  Its a tragic, horrible, devastating way to end a life.

On Saturday, January 28, a person hiking in the woods on a very warm, winter day, found their bodies.  There had been a major thaw.  My guess is they didn't think their bodies would be found until spring.  But we had received an unseasonably warm weather week.

If they would have asked anyone for help in the northwoods, they would have received it.  If they would have given us a call, to even say good-bye, we would have offered help, a free place to stay, food, whatever they needed.  We had given them as much in the past.  So it wasn't a stretch of the imagination that we would be there for them.  They didn't.  We will never know why.

Many questions have gone through our heads.

• How could he have not called his family?
• Why did they do it?
• How could he not have called his bank to find out why his debit card wasn't working?  (It had become a chip card and they would have sent him a new one if he had only asked.)
• Were they starving since his money had been "frozen"?
• How could she have lied right up until the last hour?  What happened to her to make her this way?  Did she have a horrible event in her youth to cause her pathological lying?
• Did she talk him into it?  Or was it she told him her plans and he wouldn't let her do it alone?
• They had options so why didn't they use one?
• Didn't they have any notion of this being wrong?

My husband saw pictures people were posting on the Memories of Lyle Snook Facebook page and swore.  I understand how he feels.  Its hard to see pictures of him smiling on a fun trip, smiling at a family gathering, etc.  This is such an extreme, total loss of a great man.  It didn't have to happen.  Its a horrible tragedy.

It took the coroner days to confirm that it was, in fact, Eunice Rosenberg's body.  They wouldn't tell me why.  So I can only assume its because she has been on the run for so long.  She had supposedly broken all ties to her actual family and son.

Already Lyle's remains are home in Wyoming with his family.  His family worked so hard for over a year to get him home alive.  They spent weeks of long hours combing through leads.  One family member has a chronological and geographical map of where he was and when.  They didn't mind that he ran off with a woman.  They just wanted him to be safe and happy.  They didn't freeze his money.  They didn't do anything wrong.  For them this will be the saddest story that will be passed down through the generations.

As for us, we will make a trail on our property a memorial to Lyle with a bench.  He helped my husband make the trail and helped set up the bench.  Lyle had walked the trail many times and had a smile on his face when people used it.  We will get a plaque to put on the bench with his name on it.  Its the least we can do.

May God rest their souls.