Latest / NO FILTER / Did Her Husband Commit the Perfect Murder_ The Case of Karen Swift [True Crime Documentary]

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Did Her Husband Commit the Perfect Murder_ The Case of Karen Swift [True Crime Documentary] · NO FILTER

0:02
Speaker 1: On October thirtieth, twenty eleven, forty four year old Karen
0:05
Speaker 1: Swift's car was found abandoned on the side of a
0:08
Speaker 1: rural highway outside of Dyersburg, Tennessee. The mother of four
0:13
Speaker 1: was last seen at her home the night before, when
0:15
Speaker 1: she tucked her nine year old daughter into bed. When
0:18
Speaker 1: the girls woke the next morning, their mother was gone.
0:22
Speaker 1: To the frustration of Dier County investigators, there was a
0:25
Speaker 1: very little indication of what may have happened to Karen,
0:28
Speaker 1: though they suspected early on that they were dealing with
0:31
Speaker 1: a homicide, They had no witnesses, no DNA, cell phone
0:36
Speaker 1: data was unclear, and their main suspect appeared physically incapable
0:41
Speaker 1: of committing a murder. Hi er, thanks for joining me.
0:47
Speaker 1: I'm Kevin and this is just thought lounge. Today's case
0:51
Speaker 1: takes us back over a decade to a rural area
0:54
Speaker 1: in Tennessee where a popular mother of four went missing
0:57
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, leaving few traces behind.
1:01
Speaker 1: It took many years for this story to unravel, but
1:04
Speaker 1: now in twenty twenty four, we are finally seeing what
1:07
Speaker 1: the investigators in this case believed happened to Karen.
1:11
Speaker 2: Swift.
1:12
Speaker 1: Let's take a look. When Karen Swift's two young daughters
1:28
Speaker 1: awoke on the morning of October thirtieth, twenty eleven, their
1:32
Speaker 1: mother was not at home. The night before, nine year
1:36
Speaker 1: old Ashley had called her mother from a friend's house
1:38
Speaker 1: where she was meant to be having a sleepover party
1:41
Speaker 1: with two friends. She wasn't feeling well and no longer
1:45
Speaker 1: wanted to stay the night. Could her mother come and
1:47
Speaker 1: collect her. Karen had also been at a friend's home
1:50
Speaker 1: that night for a Halloween party and had no intention
1:54
Speaker 1: of returning to the family home. Nonetheless, the loving mother
1:57
Speaker 1: picked up her daughter, drove back to their house, and
2:00
Speaker 1: at some time after two am, the two crawled into
2:02
Speaker 1: bed together and went to sleep. Karen's husband, David, was
2:08
Speaker 1: at home. He was with six year old Kighley in
2:11
Speaker 1: an upstairs bedroom. When Ashley awoke, she was no longer
2:15
Speaker 1: in her mother's room. She was with her younger sister
2:18
Speaker 1: in the downstairs bedroom. Both girls had been moved into
2:21
Speaker 1: the same room while they slept in the night. Their
2:24
Speaker 1: mother's vehicle, a white two thousand and four Nissan Morano,
2:27
Speaker 1: was also missing. Two phone calls were placed to the
2:32
Speaker 1: DIYer County Sheriff's Office around three pm that same day
2:35
Speaker 1: to report Karen Swift missing. One was placed by David
2:39
Speaker 1: Swift after his phone calls to Karen's friends had failed
2:42
Speaker 1: to locate her. The second report came from two of
2:45
Speaker 1: these concerned friends, Bill and Kathy Bona. Karen's Nissan had
2:51
Speaker 1: been spotted abandoned on the side of Millsfield Highway in
2:54
Speaker 1: northern Dyer County, roughly a quarter mile from the Swift
2:58
Speaker 1: family home. The suv appeared to have a flat tire.
3:02
Speaker 1: Deputy Alexander arrived unseen, followed shortly by Sergeant Walker of
3:06
Speaker 1: the Dire County Sheriffs. They found David already with the car.
3:11
Speaker 1: He had unlocked the doors and taken a quick look
3:13
Speaker 1: for Karen's personal belongings, her keys, purse, or cell phone.
3:18
Speaker 1: Karen's cell phone was missing. Protruding from the flat tire
3:22
Speaker 1: was a single rusty screw. It appeared that Karen had
3:26
Speaker 1: unfortunately driven over the sharp object at exactly the right
3:30
Speaker 1: angle to pierce the tire. Neither the deputy or sergeant
3:34
Speaker 1: found any indication that anything suspicious had occurred inside the vehicle.
3:39
Speaker 1: Neither of the officers reported observing any traces of blood
3:42
Speaker 1: internally or externally. Later, forensic testing by the Tennessee Bureau
3:47
Speaker 1: of Investigation the TBI of the suv likewise returned nothing
3:52
Speaker 1: of note beyond the fact that no one had been
3:55
Speaker 1: able to reach Karen on her phone. Deputy Alexander made
3:58
Speaker 1: another unsettling observation when the deputy, at six foot two
4:03
Speaker 1: inches in height, got into the driver's seat in order
4:06
Speaker 1: to move the vehicle to impound, he was surprised to
4:08
Speaker 1: find that he did not need to adjust the seatback
4:11
Speaker 1: in order to fit comfortably. It seemed unlikely that Karen Swift,
4:16
Speaker 1: at only five foot five inches, was the last person
4:19
Speaker 1: to drive the Nissan. A search for Karen began promptly,
4:25
Speaker 1: beginning at the location of her abandoned vehicle and spreading
4:28
Speaker 1: out into the rural landscape.
4:31
Speaker 3: By missing mother of foe weard here from Derek County, Tennessee. Today,
4:37
Speaker 3: we've intensified our search once again, utilizing an arrow search
4:42
Speaker 3: from it with a Tennessee Howick trow helicopter. Also approximately
4:46
Speaker 3: sixteen members of the Tennessee Howick tro Strac Team, which
4:49
Speaker 3: is an advanced search team that they.
4:51
Speaker 1: Have a pair of jeans and a top later determined
4:55
Speaker 1: to be Karen's, relocated a short distance from the car.
4:59
Speaker 1: The Halloween costume that Karen had worn to her friend's
5:01
Speaker 1: home on the night she disappeared remained in the suv.
5:05
Speaker 1: The Nissa Morano had been left only minutes from the
5:08
Speaker 1: Swift house. Speaking with David, police learned that he had
5:12
Speaker 1: last seen his wife the night before in their home
5:15
Speaker 1: around two am, when she had returned with Ashley. There
5:19
Speaker 1: had been no sightings since that time. They also learned
5:23
Speaker 1: that Karen filed for divorce from David three weeks earlier.
5:28
Speaker 1: The two had chosen to remain in the family home
5:30
Speaker 1: together since that time to offer stability to their children.
5:38
Speaker 1: David and Karen Swift had always had a complicated romance.
5:42
Speaker 1: First married in nineteen eighty nine, the couple went on
5:45
Speaker 1: to have two children, both boys, Preston and Dustin less
5:49
Speaker 1: than a decade into the marriage, cracks began to appear.
5:53
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety six, David began a three year long
5:56
Speaker 1: affair with a co worker, which resulted in the birth
5:59
Speaker 1: of a nutther baby by his mistress. Karen reportedly discovered
6:03
Speaker 1: her husband's infidelity upon the birth of the child and
6:07
Speaker 1: filed for divorce. It was finalized in two thousand. Not
6:11
Speaker 1: long after the papers were signed, however, the couple began
6:14
Speaker 1: to reconcile. In September of two thousand, on the anniversary
6:18
Speaker 1: of their first wedding, they tied the knot once again.
6:22
Speaker 1: The second time around, the couple welcomed two more children,
6:25
Speaker 1: both girls, Ashley and Keily. Not to be outdone, it
6:30
Speaker 1: would be Karen this time that chose to step out
6:33
Speaker 1: of the marriage and began an affair. In response to
6:36
Speaker 1: his wife's infidelity, David determined that what was needed for
6:39
Speaker 1: the family was a fresh start. At that time, the
6:43
Speaker 1: family had been living in Arkansas. David quit his job
6:46
Speaker 1: and found one in manufacturing management in Dyersburg, Tennessee. Then
6:51
Speaker 1: he purchased a new home and told his wife to
6:53
Speaker 1: pack up. David's decision to uproot the family was reportedly
6:58
Speaker 1: made independently as well as rapidly. The move occurred so abruptly,
7:03
Speaker 1: in fact, that their eldest son, Preston, was left behind
7:06
Speaker 1: to complete the school year while the rest of the
7:08
Speaker 1: family moved into the new house, a house that Karen
7:11
Speaker 1: had laid eyes on for the first time when unloading
7:14
Speaker 1: their belongings into it. Regardless of the rushed transition to
7:21
Speaker 1: rural Tennessee, Karen settled in quickly. Allegedly, David wasn't keen
7:26
Speaker 1: on her working. The mum of Ford nonetheless found ways
7:29
Speaker 1: to earn her own money. She cleaned houses, she did landscaping.
7:33
Speaker 1: Somewhat of a fitness fanatic, she also began teaching aerobics classes.
7:38
Speaker 1: These roles, coupled with Karen's outgoing nature, led to many
7:41
Speaker 1: new friendships. She was an extroverted, cheerful person. Friends described
7:46
Speaker 1: Karen as truly selfless, perhaps to a fault. She was
7:50
Speaker 1: always preoccupied with the comfort of others, so much so
7:53
Speaker 1: that she would shy away from asking for help when
7:55
Speaker 1: she needed it, even as her marriage once again was
7:59
Speaker 1: headed for this time, her husband's behavior had made her
8:03
Speaker 1: fearful for her own safety. Despite reported instances of David
8:08
Speaker 1: stalking Karen while she was out and confronting her while
8:11
Speaker 1: she spent time with girlfriends, Karen would remark that there
8:14
Speaker 1: was no reason for undue worry. He was unpredictable, but
8:18
Speaker 1: she was probably just making more of it than warranted,
8:21
Speaker 1: she said after her disappearance. The most consistent description of
8:26
Speaker 1: Karen Swift offered by those who knew her was that
8:29
Speaker 1: she was a great mother.
8:31
Speaker 4: We want her to come home.
8:32
Speaker 5: We know her family needs her and her kids need her,
8:35
Speaker 5: and she's a wonderful mother, very strong woman, and I
8:38
Speaker 5: know that if if she's out there, that she will
8:41
Speaker 5: find her way home.
8:44
Speaker 1: Following his phone call to report Karen missing, David sat
8:47
Speaker 1: down with police. He was assisted into the police interview room,
8:51
Speaker 1: just as he had been at the scene of the
8:52
Speaker 1: abandoned car, by a set of crutches. He explained to
8:56
Speaker 1: detectives how an old knee injury from the spring had
9:00
Speaker 1: laired up again only a few days before.
9:04
Speaker 6: Indeed, well, it was Easter morning. I had had knee surgery.
9:10
Speaker 6: I had to have a total Coandra said to tell
9:12
Speaker 6: atend and pressure at my daughter's soccer game and as
9:18
Speaker 6: be taken by an ambulance and had to have surgery
9:22
Speaker 6: the next morning. And about a week ago. It's been
9:25
Speaker 6: giving a lot of problems on having you know, say,
9:28
Speaker 6: yere's the stuff like aunt, because I had to pull
9:30
Speaker 6: seatures and drills in the camp.
9:32
Speaker 2: It's restricted that a little about a week ago I
9:35
Speaker 2: worked and turned wrong and.
9:37
Speaker 6: Had so I had at home today with another specialist
9:40
Speaker 6: of he had a second opinion that as all this.
9:46
Speaker 1: While still acquiring the background and contact information from David,
9:50
Speaker 1: he informed detectives that he had only just discovered that
9:53
Speaker 1: Karen had been using a second what he called a
9:56
Speaker 1: secret cell phone. This device had been provided to by
10:00
Speaker 1: Bill Bona, the husband of her good friend Kathy. He
10:03
Speaker 1: stated that he did not have the phone number.
10:08
Speaker 6: Does that her prom y, I'm finding out that she's
10:13
Speaker 6: got other phones, that that's the one that we've had.
10:16
Speaker 2: You know that she's had on the horizon Campfit.
10:19
Speaker 6: I paid for it, and you know what that she
10:24
Speaker 6: has that she would have well, I found out yesterday
10:28
Speaker 6: that Bill and Candy, but they'd give it her another
10:30
Speaker 6: cell phone she bed using it for.
10:34
Speaker 2: And I deal with that nutt. I suspected because.
10:39
Speaker 1: But according to David, it was not surprising that Karen
10:42
Speaker 1: would have kept something like this from him. From the
10:45
Speaker 1: topic of his wife's secrecy, David easily transitioned into a
10:49
Speaker 1: depiction of Karen as a partier and heavy drinker, and
10:53
Speaker 1: he implied repeatedly that Bill and Kathy Bona were somehow
10:56
Speaker 1: acting inappropriately with his wife Dealing.
11:00
Speaker 6: Campy's neighbor Janie, She was talking about the situation. Yeah,
11:09
Speaker 6: everything that was going on with dealing campy. She said
11:12
Speaker 6: that wasnt in my backyard. You'll see what I was doing,
11:16
Speaker 6: expected me, Well, the situation, we don't know. We've not
11:21
Speaker 6: heard that about three times from other people. Your you
11:27
Speaker 6: keep kind of hitting on it, okay.
11:29
Speaker 1: Well, David told detectives story after story of what he
11:34
Speaker 1: called Karen's erratic behavior. She began to change, he said,
11:38
Speaker 1: shortly after the move to Dyer County. He placed the
11:42
Speaker 1: blame on the new friends she had made, primarily the Bonus.
11:46
Speaker 1: He spoke about catching Karen undressed in their hot tub.
11:49
Speaker 1: He recalled that on one occasion, he arrived at the
11:52
Speaker 1: Bonus to find his wife naked in bed with her
11:55
Speaker 1: friend Kathy.
11:58
Speaker 6: She was over there, you know, all the time she
12:01
Speaker 6: was here and started sneaking out of the house and she.
12:06
Speaker 2: Would go.
12:08
Speaker 6: To be with Kathy and Bill, and I know even
12:12
Speaker 6: this past summer, and.
12:15
Speaker 2: When used to go to meet with one of the
12:17
Speaker 2: people in the party.
12:18
Speaker 6: Want to call your party, and I found him Nick
12:22
Speaker 6: in the hotn backyard.
12:24
Speaker 2: I found Karen naked in bed.
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Speaker 6: With Kathy one night, which Kathy has a degree, a
12:31
Speaker 6: master's degree in psychology because she has at danced, you know,
12:34
Speaker 6: and I think that's been a lot of the stuff
12:36
Speaker 6: that's been missing with Karen's head stuff and to then
12:40
Speaker 6: with the exists of drinking and partying that you know,
12:45
Speaker 6: there's been times during the day and you know, I
12:49
Speaker 6: come home early from work or something and Karen.
12:52
Speaker 7: Me and.
12:54
Speaker 2: She was so drunk once that she was had passed
12:57
Speaker 2: down on the porch in her own envelopment.
13:00
Speaker 1: After David told a series of largely unprompted, as well
13:03
Speaker 1: as ungenerous stories of his wife's alleged behavior, detectives grew
13:07
Speaker 1: impatient and sought to steer David towards the facts relating
13:11
Speaker 1: to Karen's disappearance when she came home.
13:15
Speaker 6: But Ashley, ashleyrect any kind of argument or anything.
13:19
Speaker 2: Now, I just he was very brief.
13:23
Speaker 6: I want to make sure that Ashley was okay, And
13:25
Speaker 6: then she was because I questioned Karen about driving and
13:28
Speaker 6: he I said, you know, you can't drive.
13:30
Speaker 2: I will get Ashley. And that was all the conversation
13:33
Speaker 2: was how close did you get to it? Would you
13:35
Speaker 2: tell whether she's been drinking? How we had you can
13:38
Speaker 2: you know she drinking? You know that that was but
13:44
Speaker 2: that was it.
13:45
Speaker 6: You know, as soon as I realized that Ashley and
13:47
Speaker 6: they were unsafe, I went back up, Sarah went to bed,
13:49
Speaker 6: and then that's all I know until we got to
13:54
Speaker 6: about ten. And then by a Saturday morning at thirty.
13:58
Speaker 1: Ten, I love that if after David went upstairs to bed,
14:02
Speaker 1: Karen had made the decision to leave the house in
14:04
Speaker 1: the night or the very early morning, where could she
14:07
Speaker 1: have been going. David was asked what he thought had
14:10
Speaker 1: happened to his wife. He pointed the finger back towards
14:13
Speaker 1: Kathy Bona. Once again. He claimed the police had told
14:17
Speaker 1: her that Karen's cell phone pinged at a location by
14:20
Speaker 1: the Mississippi River. Kathy had allegedly shared that information back
14:24
Speaker 1: to David.
14:27
Speaker 2: Is right now or you that she used? I don't know.
14:30
Speaker 2: I'm so worried about her.
14:32
Speaker 6: I mean, she can be anywhere, you know, with Kathy
14:36
Speaker 6: telling me that at this morn in tow if she
14:39
Speaker 6: knows there was a pain on as City River, then.
14:42
Speaker 2: That's where my mind's going now. Is is she somewhere?
14:46
Speaker 2: Do you think she may have just told me she
14:48
Speaker 2: had to throw and go off? What if she's at
14:50
Speaker 2: her house, why don't she be putting a service in
14:54
Speaker 2: the girls. Why has she done the things that she
14:58
Speaker 2: had done before in line to you?
15:03
Speaker 8: I don't know.
15:04
Speaker 6: I don't know want that believe anymore. You know, with
15:06
Speaker 6: the hall of the lies, the safelness.
15:09
Speaker 2: What if she has met with somebody, how you.
15:14
Speaker 6: Will take that gus order to come home and too
15:19
Speaker 6: you'll be a murder. She don't want to be a
15:22
Speaker 6: why you know, that's her decision. I can accept that.
15:26
Speaker 6: But if there's someone else, you know, as long as
15:32
Speaker 6: they're not hurtful or armful. But you know, to the
15:35
Speaker 6: girl under riever, I may I just have to accept it,
15:37
Speaker 6: but you may not.
15:41
Speaker 1: As David collected his crutches and made his way from
15:43
Speaker 1: the room, he agreed to let investigators into his house
15:46
Speaker 1: to take a look around. A walk through of the
15:50
Speaker 1: Swift home revealed no signs of foul play. There was
15:54
Speaker 1: some untidiness, particularly in the downstairs bedroom used by Karen,
15:58
Speaker 1: but it could be interpreted as just the standard messiness
16:01
Speaker 1: expected in a busy household with two young children. Just
16:05
Speaker 1: like the forensic examination of Karen's car, a thorough sweep
16:08
Speaker 1: of the house revealed no evidence to what may have
16:11
Speaker 1: happened to the forty four year old mother outside of
16:14
Speaker 1: the house, Investigator Terry mccreete photographed seven gallons of bleach.
16:20
Speaker 1: David Swift explained that he had this on hand due
16:23
Speaker 1: to a recent situation involving his dog. A neighbor of his,
16:27
Speaker 1: John Hogshooter, had been arrested the same day as Karen's
16:30
Speaker 1: disappearance on counts of animal cruelty. He was accused of
16:35
Speaker 1: poisoning the Swift's dogs and others. Hogshooter would later claim
16:40
Speaker 1: it was accidental. He said that he didn't even know
16:42
Speaker 1: what the Swift's dogs looked like, but had placed fly
16:45
Speaker 1: killer outside of his home due to an abundance of
16:48
Speaker 1: flies surrounding construction materials in his yard. David had used
16:53
Speaker 1: bleach to clean up dog vomit after the incident. The
16:57
Speaker 1: bleach was not taken into evidence, though investigators, wary of
17:01
Speaker 1: the neighbour's explanations, began to consider John Hogshooter a person
17:05
Speaker 1: of interest in Karen's disappearance. Karen had not believed that
17:09
Speaker 1: the poisoning was accidental and was understandably upset. During the search,
17:15
Speaker 1: mcreach also discovered divorce papers served to David Swift. They
17:19
Speaker 1: were tucked under a tire in the back of his vehicle.
17:23
Speaker 1: The search for the missing mother continued.
17:26
Speaker 3: No remember the fourth two thousand and eleven, it's approximate,
17:29
Speaker 3: not at the young. We concluded our sixth day of
17:33
Speaker 3: searches for Miss Suale.
17:39
Speaker 1: Days passed with no further signs of Karen. David was
17:42
Speaker 1: asked back to the station for yet another interview. By
17:46
Speaker 1: this time he had spoken with the county detectives about
17:48
Speaker 1: the last time he saw his wife, offering four slightly
17:52
Speaker 1: different accounts. At first, he said he did not actually
17:55
Speaker 1: see her, but spoke to her from the top of
17:57
Speaker 1: the stairway. Then he stated that he did see her,
18:01
Speaker 1: but it was unclear what clothing she was wearing. In
18:04
Speaker 1: the most recent iteration, he recalled seeing her clearly and
18:08
Speaker 1: could describe her clothing.
18:11
Speaker 2: Did you have the physical figure? Yeah? What far has
18:15
Speaker 2: did you say? Using the kitchen kitchen? Did you a
18:18
Speaker 2: conversation very early media? I said, and she's sounded financially.
18:23
Speaker 9: Me and and that was brit clean, He republic jail,
18:28
Speaker 9: she had never blue jeans, socclay had holes.
18:33
Speaker 2: And then a great count.
18:38
Speaker 1: As the interview concluded, David inquired about the state of
18:42
Speaker 1: the missing person's investigation. They were still working on it.
18:45
Speaker 1: He was told. The search continued for months. Items were located.
18:53
Speaker 1: Most significantly, Trooper Jason Page found two cell phones. Karen's
18:57
Speaker 1: regular Verizon wireless device as well was her second phone,
19:01
Speaker 1: known as a Voyager, which had been gifted to her
19:03
Speaker 1: by Kathy and Bill Bona. The trooper discovered both devices
19:07
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty five feet off of Harness Road,
19:10
Speaker 1: in a wooded area, only five hundred feet from the
19:12
Speaker 1: Swift house and between the location of her abandoned vehicle
19:16
Speaker 1: and the family home. The cell phone data was revealing
19:20
Speaker 1: in part because of a device called a signal extender
19:24
Speaker 1: that David Swift had installed in the house. Its purpose
19:28
Speaker 1: was to boost the cellular signal when at home, something
19:31
Speaker 1: that was very useful in rural Tennessee in twenty eleven.
19:35
Speaker 1: When a device entered the range of the extender, it
19:37
Speaker 1: would automatically connect and that data was recorded. Investigators could
19:42
Speaker 1: therefore see when Karen's Verizon phone connected to the extender
19:46
Speaker 1: just after two am on October thirtieth, She had just
19:49
Speaker 1: returned home with Ashley from her sleepover. Her phone then
19:53
Speaker 1: left the range of the home extender at four thirty eight.
19:56
Speaker 1: At five oh nine, the phone went off the main
19:58
Speaker 1: network and was never turned back on. When it was discovered,
20:02
Speaker 1: the phone appeared to have been partially crushed, possibly smashed
20:06
Speaker 1: on the road. Karen's vehicle was first spotted pulled over
20:10
Speaker 1: only minutes later at five point fifteen am. The second
20:15
Speaker 1: device history was even more curious. The Voyager phone had
20:19
Speaker 1: also connected to the house extender, but at nine to
20:22
Speaker 1: fifty five am, a full five hours after the first
20:25
Speaker 1: device had been turned off and presumably smashed and discarded.
20:30
Speaker 1: There is a single call made from the secret Voyager
20:32
Speaker 1: device at that time to check the phone's voicemail. Then miraculously,
20:37
Speaker 1: it ended up in the woods off of Harness Road,
20:40
Speaker 1: right next to Karen's other phone. The Bonus told investigators
20:45
Speaker 1: that they gave the Voyager to Karen to enable her
20:47
Speaker 1: to communicate with her divorce attorney. They said that David
20:51
Speaker 1: had been a controlling husband who sought to dictate Karen's
20:54
Speaker 1: every move. In addition to the cell phone, they had
20:58
Speaker 1: lent Karen the money that she needed to hire an
21:00
Speaker 1: attorney and to file for the divorce. On December tenth,
21:08
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, John Robinson, the preacher at the Bogada Church
21:12
Speaker 1: of Christ, along with his friend Mark Rickman, were leaving
21:16
Speaker 1: Bledsoe Cemetery around noon. There, under kutsu vines, they discovered
21:22
Speaker 1: human remains. The cemetery is less than three miles from
21:26
Speaker 1: the Swift home, and autopsy later determined that they had finally,
21:30
Speaker 1: after six weeks of searching, found Karen Swift. The mother
21:34
Speaker 1: of four, was mostly unclothed, with her undergarments pushed below
21:38
Speaker 1: her knees. An examination determined that these had likely been
21:42
Speaker 1: pulled down due to the dragging of her body from
21:45
Speaker 1: the gravel pathway through the cemetery to where she was found.
21:49
Speaker 1: It did not appear that this was the location where
21:51
Speaker 1: Karen had died, but rather that she had been moved
21:55
Speaker 1: into the cutsu vines after an attack. After so many weeks,
22:00
Speaker 1: the medical examiner could not definitively state her cause of death.
22:04
Speaker 1: It was clear that Karen had sustained blunt force trauma
22:07
Speaker 1: to the head, which the pathologist determined would have been
22:10
Speaker 1: fatal had Karen been alive at the point the blow
22:13
Speaker 1: had been delivered. She was struck with an unknown heavy
22:17
Speaker 1: and blunt weapon while against a heart surface. The status
22:20
Speaker 1: of the case was formally changed from a missing person
22:24
Speaker 1: to a homicide. No weapon was ever recovered. David Swift
22:29
Speaker 1: remained the main suspect.
22:32
Speaker 10: He didn't really had a reaction. That only what somebody
22:35
Speaker 10: would have if you know, if you said that you
22:38
Speaker 10: found your loved ones. But what do you mean by that,
22:44
Speaker 10: if my memory serves me correct, I mean, I'm not
22:49
Speaker 10: really sure if he even called her by name. And
22:52
Speaker 10: you know, I'm not going to get into, you know,
22:53
Speaker 10: the details of it, but it was just wasn't the
22:56
Speaker 10: right response to investigators. He has never assisted us in
23:03
Speaker 10: searching for her.
23:05
Speaker 1: Suspicions. Aside, there was no evidence anywhere in the house,
23:09
Speaker 1: on the property, or in the family vehicles to suggest
23:12
Speaker 1: where a fatal blow could have taken place. During both
23:15
Speaker 1: interviews with David, investigators failed to observe any scratches or
23:19
Speaker 1: signs that he had been in a scuffle. Karen had
23:22
Speaker 1: no foreign DNA under her fingernails that would have suggested
23:25
Speaker 1: that she had fought against an attacker. Then there was
23:28
Speaker 1: David's leg injury. He had first indisputably damaged his left
23:33
Speaker 1: knee in April twenty eleven, and had undergone surgery a
23:37
Speaker 1: coworker later explained that only three days before his wife disappeared,
23:41
Speaker 1: they were speaking in the office hallway when David's left
23:44
Speaker 1: leg gave out and he collapsed to the floor. For
23:47
Speaker 1: days leading up to and many following Karen's death, her
23:51
Speaker 1: husband had been dependent upon the crutches and ostensibly unable
23:56
Speaker 1: to place full pressure of even his own body weight
23:59
Speaker 1: on injured knee. This presented a conundrum for suspicious investigators
24:05
Speaker 1: because he did not appear to be physically capable of
24:08
Speaker 1: committing the murder.
24:10
Speaker 11: I believe that her husband is innocent, and if that
24:12
Speaker 11: is so, if I'm correct about that, then what he's
24:14
Speaker 11: been through is far worse than anybody could imagine, because
24:18
Speaker 11: on top of losing his wife, he's been the prime suspect.
24:20
Speaker 11: The plot has thickened and there's a lot more players
24:23
Speaker 11: involved than you know what we thought.
24:27
Speaker 1: Years passed and no arrest was made. Alongside David Swift,
24:31
Speaker 1: Bill and Kathy Bona, as well as the neighbor who
24:33
Speaker 1: placed out the fly poison, John Hogshooter, had their behaviors
24:36
Speaker 1: and movements around the time of Karen's death scrutinized. There
24:40
Speaker 1: were questions about the activities that took place at the
24:43
Speaker 1: Bonus House, particularly at Kathy's fortieth birthday party, when multiple
24:48
Speaker 1: individuals were said to have undressed in their hot tub,
24:51
Speaker 1: including Karen. Although this behavior may have had little or
24:55
Speaker 1: no connection to her murder, to some, it indicated that
24:59
Speaker 1: she it may have been physically involved with others at
25:02
Speaker 1: the party, as David had implied repeatedly to police. To others,
25:07
Speaker 1: it may have been a motive for her husband to
25:09
Speaker 1: become enraged. There were other questions lingering. It emerged that
25:14
Speaker 1: another dog in the neighborhood had been poisoned around the
25:17
Speaker 1: same time as the Swift family. Pent Sheriff's deputies had
25:21
Speaker 1: been called out to the house to address the incident.
25:24
Speaker 1: When Karen had confronted hogshooter on the same day that
25:27
Speaker 1: she went missing, and after her disappearance, other strange happenings
25:32
Speaker 1: were reported in the neighborhood. David and Karen's son, Dustin,
25:36
Speaker 1: recalled an encounter with an unknown man near to Bledsoe
25:40
Speaker 1: Cemetery not long before his mother was found there. The
25:43
Speaker 1: stranger held a metal detector, but when asked what he
25:46
Speaker 1: was doing, he told Dustin that he was exercising odd
25:51
Speaker 1: Dustin thought so he asked about the metal detector. To this,
25:55
Speaker 1: he was told by the man that he was actually
25:57
Speaker 1: searching for his watch. The thing is, Dustin saw clearly
26:01
Speaker 1: that the stranger was, in fact already wearing a watch.
26:05
Speaker 1: What was this strange man's real purpose for lingering near
26:08
Speaker 1: to the rarely frequented cemetery With so few traces of
26:12
Speaker 1: potential evidence to work with? Speculations surrounding Karen's murder ran
26:17
Speaker 1: wild in the neighborhood and in the media for years.
26:22
Speaker 12: So what do you think, Kapin, do you think David
26:25
Speaker 12: killed her?
26:30
Speaker 13: I really put you I don't know, you know, it
26:34
Speaker 13: could have been a lot of people.
26:35
Speaker 12: I guess, do you really do you know it really
26:38
Speaker 12: could have been or not?
26:40
Speaker 14: Or if you don't want to talk about it, I
26:41
Speaker 14: really don't know.
26:42
Speaker 7: You know.
26:44
Speaker 8: The way the investigations going.
26:46
Speaker 14: Well, at first, I thought it was going really well.
26:50
Speaker 13: You know, they were picking up all this evidence, and
26:52
Speaker 13: they were finding these things here there, you know, and
26:54
Speaker 13: yon but and I was given hope that every time
26:58
Speaker 13: something came back from the lab that this is it,
27:03
Speaker 13: this is it, this is it. But I don't know
27:06
Speaker 13: what they're looking for. There's not a smoking gun. I
27:09
Speaker 13: don't know what they have to have. Do they interviewed
27:13
Speaker 13: Ashley once or well, and David will not allow her
27:17
Speaker 13: to be interviewed anymore.
27:18
Speaker 6: So what do.
27:20
Speaker 12: You think about the fact and David won't talk to
27:22
Speaker 12: them either. So I don't think what the fact that
27:24
Speaker 12: he won't talk and he won't let Ashley talk.
27:29
Speaker 14: Silence says a lot.
27:32
Speaker 1: In the following years, the Swift family left the Dyersburg area.
27:36
Speaker 1: David eventually remarried and settled in Jefferson County, Alabama, but
27:41
Speaker 1: public pressure to bring charges for Karen's murder back in
27:44
Speaker 1: Tennessee remained. Reviewing the case file, investigators including Terry mccrete,
27:50
Speaker 1: began to piece together a theory of the crime which
27:52
Speaker 1: would account for all of the evidence and placed David
27:55
Speaker 1: Swift at its center. DIYer County investigate believed that the
28:01
Speaker 1: jilted husband, angry over Karen's decision to file for divorce
28:05
Speaker 1: and seeking to control her, began planning the murder days
28:08
Speaker 1: in advance. The first step in his plan was faking
28:12
Speaker 1: the reinjury of his knee in front of his coworker.
28:16
Speaker 1: On the night of October twenty ninth, he made a
28:18
Speaker 1: last ditch effort to save his marriage by asking Karen
28:21
Speaker 1: out to dinner. Instead, his wife chose to attend a
28:24
Speaker 1: Halloween party with Bill and Kathy Bona, infuriating David even further.
28:31
Speaker 1: Due to the lack of defensive wounds, it was believed
28:34
Speaker 1: that Karen was attacked while she slept, but the fatal
28:37
Speaker 1: blow could not have occurred in the bedroom they believed
28:41
Speaker 1: she had been strangled. Karen had been in bed with
28:44
Speaker 1: nine year old Ashley, whom David must have moved into
28:47
Speaker 1: the other room along with her sister before he attacked
28:49
Speaker 1: Karen to ensure that he did not wake his daughter.
28:53
Speaker 1: Karen was then dragged into the garage where the blow
28:56
Speaker 1: to her head was delivered, placing Karen in either his
28:59
Speaker 1: view or hers. David drove three miles to Bledsoe Cemetery,
29:04
Speaker 1: where he dragged her into the vines. The route that
29:07
Speaker 1: David allegedly took that night was recreated by detectives as
29:11
Speaker 1: they sought to establish a timeline. Investigators speculated that when
29:15
Speaker 1: David returned to the house, he devised a plan to
29:18
Speaker 1: make it appear that Karen had left on her own
29:20
Speaker 1: in the night, only to have her plans foiled by
29:23
Speaker 1: a flat tire. He took an old screw from somewhere
29:26
Speaker 1: in the garage and hammered it into the Nissan's tire
29:29
Speaker 1: and let out the air. Then, at roughly four forty
29:32
Speaker 1: a m. When Karen's phone disconnected from the home extender,
29:36
Speaker 1: he drove the Nissan a distance far enough from the
29:39
Speaker 1: house that she could have conceivably gotten a flat tire,
29:42
Speaker 1: but not so far that he could not walk back.
29:46
Speaker 1: On the way, he disposed of her Verizon cell phone
29:48
Speaker 1: in the wooded area. Karen's second secret phone, however, must
29:53
Speaker 1: have been hidden in the downstairs bedroom. He searched for
29:56
Speaker 1: this device, making a mess of the room in the process,
30:00
Speaker 1: and then went through its contents, including accessing the voicemail
30:04
Speaker 1: five hours later at just before ten a m. Afterwards,
30:09
Speaker 1: knowing where he left the first phone, he went back
30:11
Speaker 1: out to the woods and dropped the Voyager cell phone
30:14
Speaker 1: next to it. Investigators then surmised that he must have
30:18
Speaker 1: cleaned the garage with the bleach found at the scene
30:21
Speaker 1: before calling Karen's friends, pretending to be concerned for her whereabouts.
30:29
Speaker 1: In July twenty twenty three, over a decade after Karen's death,
30:34
Speaker 1: David Swift was arrested in Alabama and extradited back to
30:38
Speaker 1: Tennessee following an indictment for first degree murder. It was
30:42
Speaker 1: unclear what, if anything, had been uncovered in the intervening
30:46
Speaker 1: years that convinced the county prosecutors to finally break charges.
30:51
Speaker 1: No new witnesses had come forward, analysis of the cellular
30:54
Speaker 1: data had not advanced since twenty eleven, nor had forensic
30:58
Speaker 1: teams come up with any new DNA evidence.
31:01
Speaker 13: People see this and I think it's been almost eleven years.
31:05
Speaker 8: What was the thing that made things change?
31:07
Speaker 1: What made them all of a sudden India, What can
31:09
Speaker 1: you tell us?
31:09
Speaker 15: I can't talk about specifics of the case, so I
31:12
Speaker 15: can't at this time divulge any information about that.
31:16
Speaker 1: When the trial commenced, the state presented a largely circumstantial case.
31:21
Speaker 1: They called friends of Karen's to testify to David's controlling
31:24
Speaker 1: behavior and to instances in which they believed he had
31:27
Speaker 1: been stalking his wife.
31:30
Speaker 16: Give me about other examples you saw of his controlling behaved.
31:33
Speaker 7: He came over to the house and told her to
31:35
Speaker 7: come home.
31:36
Speaker 16: How often to death happened?
31:38
Speaker 7: Almost every time she came over to the house if
31:40
Speaker 7: it was after dark, she drinks a lot, she quarries
31:43
Speaker 7: a lot. She's never home, she's with Kathy and Bill.
31:46
Speaker 7: She's involved in this sex the sex ring.
31:53
Speaker 17: She wanted to see other men.
31:55
Speaker 16: You know, just did you have anything good to say
31:58
Speaker 16: about her?
32:00
Speaker 17: Tistdy hopes she's okay. I mean it.
32:05
Speaker 1: A neighbor of Bill and Kathy's told the court that
32:08
Speaker 1: she had discovered David in her backyard spying on the
32:11
Speaker 1: Bonus household. David had told investigators that this same neighbor
32:15
Speaker 1: had invited him to come see what they were up to.
32:20
Speaker 18: One night. I had come out. It was real late,
32:25
Speaker 18: probably around eleven twelve at night, and I was gonna
32:30
Speaker 18: walk over to probably Kathy's house. I was on the
32:33
Speaker 18: side of my house and I walked out and there
32:38
Speaker 18: was a man standing there and I screamed.
32:41
Speaker 16: It scared me.
32:43
Speaker 18: And I looked and it was David standing there. And
32:48
Speaker 18: I said David, And he said, I said, what's what?
32:53
Speaker 18: And he said, I'm trying. I have a restraining order.
32:57
Speaker 18: I can't be in Kathy and Bell bound the yard.
33:01
Speaker 18: And I wanted to know if I could use your
33:06
Speaker 18: lot or inside your yard to watch over there.
33:12
Speaker 16: And what did you tell him?
33:14
Speaker 18: There's the fans.
33:16
Speaker 16: You said, what, there's the fans? Okay?
33:19
Speaker 18: So you allowed him to go and a look, I said,
33:22
Speaker 18: there's the fans. Okay, it's scared. I was scared, okay.
33:28
Speaker 1: Kathy Bona retounted repeated instances of David's controlling behavior, calling Karen,
33:34
Speaker 1: excessively following her on her errands, and confronting Karen over
33:38
Speaker 1: her alleged partying with them.
33:41
Speaker 19: Oh, well, there was one night we were hanging out
33:43
Speaker 19: on my port and he called twenty.
33:44
Speaker 16: Five times in what period of time? Thirty minutes? Okay?
33:51
Speaker 16: Was that typical?
33:53
Speaker 17: That was a little excess of that day.
33:54
Speaker 1: But it was typical for him to call often.
33:56
Speaker 16: Yes, do you know why I did that? Why he
33:59
Speaker 16: was calling so.
34:00
Speaker 19: Often because he just wanted to know where she was.
34:04
Speaker 19: He yelled at her in the parking lot and like
34:08
Speaker 19: slammed his hand against the car window and was accusing
34:11
Speaker 19: her of things that she was sneaking around and doing
34:15
Speaker 19: all kinds of things. You're sneaking around, you're lying, you're
34:18
Speaker 19: doing this, and was very angry that she had, you know,
34:22
Speaker 19: found her car in Walmart and then she had gotten
34:25
Speaker 19: back to it and didn't know where.
34:26
Speaker 16: She was Okay, did you say anything to you?
34:31
Speaker 20: He was mainly yelling at her, and she was trying
34:33
Speaker 20: to de escalect the situation because again she didn't like
34:36
Speaker 20: me to be uncomfortable, so she was like, just go on,
34:39
Speaker 20: it's fine, you know, And so he didn't really say
34:41
Speaker 20: anything to me. He was just yelling at her.
34:44
Speaker 16: Okay, how'd you feel after that incident?
34:46
Speaker 19: That again creeped me out because I knew that he
34:49
Speaker 19: had been He knew where her car was, so he
34:51
Speaker 19: had been watching her or stalking her.
34:56
Speaker 15: Was there another time that Karen was at your house
35:00
Speaker 15: and mister Swift showed up?
35:02
Speaker 2: Yes?
35:03
Speaker 16: Okay? What did she do?
35:05
Speaker 20: She was again feeling a little lightheaded, had a towel,
35:08
Speaker 20: rapp drownder and laid down on the other side of
35:10
Speaker 20: the bed in a towel, wrapped her on top of
35:13
Speaker 20: the covers.
35:13
Speaker 16: Okay, you were under the covers?
35:16
Speaker 13: I was.
35:16
Speaker 16: And was she under the covers with you?
35:20
Speaker 21: She was not?
35:21
Speaker 16: Okay, And did mister Swift show up at your house?
35:24
Speaker 6: Yes?
35:25
Speaker 16: What was his demeanor when he showed up?
35:27
Speaker 19: Well, when he came into the room that we were
35:30
Speaker 19: both in, he was again enraged.
35:33
Speaker 16: Okay, and what did he do?
35:34
Speaker 19: He accused her of lots of things, sleeping with me,
35:38
Speaker 19: being a whore, being drunk, lots of things, was very angry.
35:45
Speaker 1: A considerable amount of testimony focused on the events that
35:49
Speaker 1: took place at the Bonas on Kathy's fortieth birthday. Bill
35:53
Speaker 1: Bona told the jury that he came across Karen naked
35:56
Speaker 1: and passed out in his living room. He, along with
35:59
Speaker 1: a Hers, covered Karen with a towel and called to
36:02
Speaker 1: David to collect her. Karen's friend Robin, told a different
36:06
Speaker 1: version of events.
36:08
Speaker 16: Did you see karens with leave the hot tub and
36:12
Speaker 16: go into the house.
36:13
Speaker 18: I did.
36:13
Speaker 4: I witnessed her get up. She looked to me as
36:16
Speaker 4: if she was hot, noisy kind of feeling, and I
36:21
Speaker 4: saw her go inside and it wasn't but a few
36:24
Speaker 4: minutes later I saw mister Bona go in as well.
36:29
Speaker 22: Can I ask this was was missed with? Was she
36:33
Speaker 22: wearing her outfit or.
36:36
Speaker 4: That's vaguely something I'm trying to remember. I know when
36:40
Speaker 4: I walked in and I witnessed her land and the floor,
36:42
Speaker 4: she didn't have anything on her. I walked in, I said,
36:47
Speaker 4: what's going on? And I got a town and immediately
36:51
Speaker 4: covered her up and I said, go get her husband
36:53
Speaker 4: right now.
36:54
Speaker 8: Well, when you walked in, what did you see?
36:57
Speaker 4: I saw him standing over her, gawking with a creepy luck.
37:00
Speaker 17: On his face.
37:01
Speaker 8: Was she clothed or did she have a towel on her?
37:04
Speaker 4: I put a towel on her.
37:06
Speaker 22: Did mister did you see mister Bona put a towel
37:08
Speaker 22: and cover her before you walked in.
37:12
Speaker 1: The prosecution also argued that David had been caught in
37:15
Speaker 1: multiple lies. They found the phone number for Karen's allegedly
37:19
Speaker 1: secret second cell phone on David's call log. He had
37:23
Speaker 1: phoned the voyager device multiple times prior to Karen's death,
37:27
Speaker 1: though he told investigators that he had only just discovered
37:30
Speaker 1: that she had it. In addition, he had stated that
37:34
Speaker 1: he had been asleep from two am when he saw
37:36
Speaker 1: Karen come home, until roughly ten am. Computer and phone
37:40
Speaker 1: activity showed someone was up downloading and viewing photos of
37:44
Speaker 1: Karen around three am, including accessing multiple photos of her
37:49
Speaker 1: new tattoo. The widower was also found to have accessed
37:53
Speaker 1: dating websites and women's profiles over two hundred and fifty
37:57
Speaker 1: times in the days following his wife's disappearance. A physical
38:02
Speaker 1: therapist who treated David for his knee injury in the
38:05
Speaker 1: weeks after she went missing, testified that David would have
38:10
Speaker 1: been physically capable of dragging a body. Indeed, a neighbor
38:14
Speaker 1: who loaned the Swift's hey for a hay ride testified
38:18
Speaker 1: that on October twenty ninth, David helped him move hay bales,
38:21
Speaker 1: each weighing about sixty five pounds without the use of crutches.
38:26
Speaker 1: The next day, however, at the police station, he could
38:29
Speaker 1: not move around without them. For Karen to have left
38:35
Speaker 1: on her own, the state argued that a handful of
38:37
Speaker 1: a logical things must be true. She likely would have
38:40
Speaker 1: had plans to meet someone, but there is no evidence
38:43
Speaker 1: of these arrangements. She must have moved both Ashley from
38:46
Speaker 1: her bed as well as Keeley from her husband's bed
38:48
Speaker 1: before leaving the house that night, But why would she
38:51
Speaker 1: risk waking David if she was sneaking out? And finally,
38:55
Speaker 1: toxicology results showed that she had taken a benadr before
38:58
Speaker 1: going to sleep. Why would she have taken a sleep
39:01
Speaker 1: aid if she intended to leave the house less than
39:03
Speaker 1: three hours later?
39:06
Speaker 21: We can surmise by the toxicology report and the bottle
39:10
Speaker 21: of pm cold medicine in a half empty water bottle
39:12
Speaker 21: by her bed. She took a ben a drill and
39:15
Speaker 21: went to sleep benadrill on top of alcohol. What did
39:20
Speaker 21: doctor Ross say about that greatly enhanced sedative effects?
39:28
Speaker 6: Karen?
39:28
Speaker 21: After all of that, the defense will have you believe
39:30
Speaker 21: gets up to meet someone on two and a half
39:33
Speaker 21: hours of sleep.
39:35
Speaker 1: The defense poked holes in the state's theory. They pointed
39:38
Speaker 1: out that David required further surgery on his injured leg.
39:43
Speaker 1: Daughter Ashley, now an adult, testified that she was certain
39:46
Speaker 1: that it was her mother that moved her to her
39:48
Speaker 1: sister's room in the night, not her father.
39:51
Speaker 4: Yes, I remember her moving me in the middle of
39:53
Speaker 4: the nine to my sister's room, in the bed with
39:58
Speaker 4: her in the.
39:59
Speaker 8: Bed with your Yes. Is that on the same floor
40:02
Speaker 8: as your.
40:02
Speaker 2: Mother's It is.
40:04
Speaker 8: It's the bedroom ripe beside. You recall it being your
40:08
Speaker 8: mother that moved you.
40:09
Speaker 4: I know it was her.
40:10
Speaker 14: It was just instinct to know what your mother feels
40:13
Speaker 14: like and.
40:14
Speaker 8: How that felt. Okay, that's your best recollection.
40:19
Speaker 12: Yes, sir.
40:21
Speaker 1: The weakest area of the case against David Swift was
40:24
Speaker 1: the lack of physical evidence in the house. The vehicles
40:28
Speaker 1: and on his person. They had not been able to
40:31
Speaker 1: link the rusty screw from the SUV's tire to the
40:34
Speaker 1: Swift garage. There was no murder weapon, so they theorized
40:38
Speaker 1: that David had used his foot, yet he had been
40:40
Speaker 1: visibly injured.
40:43
Speaker 22: There's no evidence of the struggle in that room. You
40:47
Speaker 22: heard her daughter who was there, and their son who
40:52
Speaker 22: came the next morning. It didn't look out of the ordinary.
40:56
Speaker 22: Is it an untidy place? There was a headboard and
41:00
Speaker 22: everything was tested. There's nothing indicated that anything occurred in
41:04
Speaker 22: that room. I subbect.
41:07
Speaker 23: The prosecutor is saying to you that he took her
41:10
Speaker 23: out in the garage with a knee injury on his
41:14
Speaker 23: left leg and stomped her head in the garage. He's
41:22
Speaker 23: not going to do it with his injured leg, I
41:25
Speaker 23: would think, And is it possible if you're going to
41:29
Speaker 23: use his right leg, that he can put enough pressure
41:32
Speaker 23: on his injured leg and stop her head in and
41:35
Speaker 23: she's just going to sit there and take it a
41:37
Speaker 23: strong woman.
41:39
Speaker 22: There's no physical evidence in the garage. There's no blood
41:43
Speaker 22: in the garage. They imply that later they went out there,
41:47
Speaker 22: and there's a picture showing bleach near a pool. This
41:52
Speaker 22: is October. Pools get closed. Bleach is used for pools.
41:57
Speaker 1: You heard when you returned from their deliberations. They surprised
42:02
Speaker 1: many in the courtroom. David Swift was found not guilty
42:07
Speaker 1: of first degree and second degree murder, as well as
42:10
Speaker 1: attempted first and second degree murder. On the count of
42:13
Speaker 1: voluntary manslaughter. However, the jury could not reach a verdict
42:17
Speaker 1: and told the judge that they were hopelessly deadlocked.
42:21
Speaker 24: Is there an agreement or as the jury found the
42:24
Speaker 24: defendant not guilty of voluntary manslaughter, No agreement is at
42:30
Speaker 24: the level of the offense at which there is disagreement.
42:33
Speaker 8: Yes, is that correct, ma'am.
42:42
Speaker 1: Throughout the trial, David's defense implied, with objections from the state,
42:46
Speaker 1: that the murder charges were politically motivated. The investigation had
42:51
Speaker 1: failed to uncover any direct evidence of his guilt, yet
42:54
Speaker 1: the sheriff and district attorney, both facing re election, felt
42:58
Speaker 1: pressured to pursue the case anyway.
43:01
Speaker 15: It's very difficult because I think jury's like to see
43:04
Speaker 15: direct evidence. They like to see DNA blood fingerprints, So
43:09
Speaker 15: you know, it's an uphill climb from the very beginning.
43:12
Speaker 16: So it's always difficult to put those cases together.
43:15
Speaker 1: With the manslaughter verdict undecided, the county was left with
43:18
Speaker 1: the decision of whether to try this charge once more,
43:21
Speaker 1: and they have opted to push forward. David's attorneys argued
43:25
Speaker 1: that the new indictment is illegal, that the statute of
43:28
Speaker 1: limitations on the manslaughter charge has now passed, but on
43:32
Speaker 1: July eleventh, twenty twenty four, a judge refused to dismiss
43:36
Speaker 1: the charges.
43:38
Speaker 17: I thank you.
43:39
Speaker 13: If I could know for sure, if I could know
43:42
Speaker 13: who to be angry at, I think I could start
43:45
Speaker 13: to heal. But as it is, you know, it's just
43:47
Speaker 13: an open wound every day.
43:50
Speaker 14: People just don't know what you'd live through every day.
43:54
Speaker 14: And you know, like six weeks we didn't even know
43:57
Speaker 14: where she was, right wait, and it was agony every day,
44:03
Speaker 14: agony every day. And then after they did found her,
44:08
Speaker 14: it was like, Okay, I who did this?
44:11
Speaker 17: And it still hurts every day to know that somebody
44:17
Speaker 17: took my baby, killed her and took her down to
44:22
Speaker 17: the kids and threw out like a rag bell. Yeah,
44:27
Speaker 17: just bright small.
44:32
Speaker 1: The date for a new trial is yet to be set.
44:35
Speaker 1: David Swift is also facing charges in Alabama for stalking
44:39
Speaker 1: his second wife, who has since divorced him. That was
44:46
Speaker 1: the tragic case of Karen Swift. Thank you for joining me,
44:50
Speaker 1: and a special showed out to the latest joiners of
44:53
Speaker 1: the Members Lounge, Jonathan Gonzalez, Melissa Hall, Kyra Choice and
44:58
Speaker 1: Dark Star. I'm Kevin. This is just thought Lounge and
45:02
Speaker 1: I'll see in the next one when the.
45:04
Speaker 16: Scene, please tell me who the screen saves. I can
45:06
Speaker 16: hear the crimes repeat.
45:07
Speaker 25: Gotta take my time because these crimes get deep, but
45:10
Speaker 25: these stories can't hide. Let me find my seat, Kevin,
45:12
Speaker 25: go ahead and settle in. Gotta be selective, doing all
45:15
Speaker 25: the research, keeping it objective, always being effective. Can say
45:18
Speaker 25: he got a neck pick of the litter. You see
45:20
Speaker 25: how Newton got his back.
45:21
Speaker 4: Yeah.
45:22
Speaker 25: The content that you need is to be a new sign.
45:24
Speaker 16: We're talking in the comments they got in the few lines.
45:26
Speaker 25: Tune in and it like love that it's true con
45:28
Speaker 25: It feels like.
45:29
Speaker 16: The whole world is on line with true crime.
45:31
Speaker 25: Watch him on the run, but it's not a race.
45:34
Speaker 16: Disappeared