Zachary’s Law

Zachary's Law was named after ten-year-old Zachary Snider of Cloverdale, Indiana, who was molested and murdered by a neighbor, Christopher Stevens.

Stevens had a previous conviction for Child molestation and served 1 year of a 4 year sentence. Upon release, Stevens moved in with his father.

Zachary Snider, age 10, lived in the same neighborhood and was often seen with 20 year old Stevens. Though Zachary's father told Stevens to stay away from Zachary, their friendship continued. After Zachary turned up missing, Stevens confessed to the crime as well as to having sexual relations with Zachary. He also confessed to molesting 25 to 30 other children.

In an appeal of his conviction for the murder of Zachary Snider, the court found regarding Christopher Stevens that:

This evidence included testimony of a witness that, upon the defendant's prior release from jail onto probation for a previous conviction of child molesting, the defendant had declared that he planned to kill his next child molesting victim to avoid returning to jail.

The defendant had admitted to a family member that he killed Zachary Snider and disclosed where he had concealed the body. After his arrest, the defendant admitted in a videotaped confession that he had repeatedly molested the ten-year old boy and then killed him, first attempting to do so by suffocating him with a pillow, then by strangling him with a cord, and finally by suffocating him by wrapping a trash bag over his head. This crime occurred while the defendant was on probation for a prior conviction of child molesting.

Zachary's law requires offenders convicted of specified sex and violent crimes to register with local law enforcement agencies in the area they reside or intend to reside for more than seven days.

To help protect your children you should learn the whereabouts of these convicted sex offenders and keep up-to-date about new sexual predators moving into your neighborhood.

Source: Zachary's Law

For additional information please see:

• Signs of Molestation
• The Sexual Abuse of Boys
• The Sexual Abuse of Girls
• Pedophilia and Child Sexual Molestation
• Preventing the Sexual Exploitation of Children
• Internet Predators
• The More You Know
• Indiana Sex & Violent Offender Registry
• Crisis Connection Statistics
• Speakers Available