After the Halloween Party

Summary

Dateline NBC: "After the Halloween Party"

Introduction "After the Halloween Party," an episode of Dateline NBC hosted by Lester Holt and Keith Morrison, delves into the haunting true-crime mystery of Karen Swift, a mother who vanished under suspicious circumstances in Dyersburg, Tennessee, just before Halloween in 2011. The episode meticulously unpacks the complexities of her disappearance, the ensuing investigation, and the lasting impact on her family and community.

The Disappearance On October 29, 2011, Karen Swift attended a Halloween party at The Farms country club in Dyersburg, Tennessee. Known for her vibrant personality, Karen felt out of place that evening, joining the event as the plus-one of another couple. As the night progressed, she left the party around midnight with her friends, Bill and Kathy Bona, planning to spend the night at the Bonas' home before rejoining her family the next morning.

Key Quote:

Keith Morrison (01:04): "That's when it really set in. Mom wasn't going to be here anymore and that mom wasn't coming back home. It's horrific."

Initial Concerns and Investigation The following morning, Karen failed to return home. Her husband, David Swift, reported her missing after noticing her car abandoned with a flat tire nearby. Despite initial efforts to locate her, including a thorough search by neighbors and friends, no immediate signs of Karen surfaced. The Dyer County Sheriff's Office, led by Chief Investigator Terry McCrite, began piecing together the timeline of her disappearance.

Key Quote:

Keith Morrison (05:27): "When I woke up that morning, it was a slow morning. It wouldn't be slow for long."

Rumors and Community Suspicion As days passed without Karen's return, rumors began to swirl within the tight-knit community of Dyersburg. Accusations toward David Swift intensified, exacerbated by unsettling tales of a local swinger community and Karen's recent behavioral changes. Friends and neighbors speculated about Karen's activities and her relationship with the Bonas, further complicating the investigation.

Key Quote:

Keith Morrison (07:38): "There's a huge swinger community here. People involved are in some pretty high positions."

Private Investigator Heather Cohen's Involvement Years into the cold case, Heather Cohen, a licensed private investigator and host of the "Justice Warriors" podcast, took a keen interest in Karen's disappearance. Suspecting foul play linked to powerful local figures, Cohen embarked on her own investigation, challenging existing narratives and bringing new theories to light. Her relentless pursuit led to heightened tensions with influential community members, particularly Darrell Sells, whose wealth and political clout added layers of complexity to the case.

Key Quote:

Keith Morrison (38:35): "Daryll Sells poking around the crime scene with a metal detector. Ridiculous, said Dina."

Re-opening the Case and Indictment In 2020, amidst a renewed focus by the newly elected DA Danny Goodman, the investigation into Karen's murder was reignited. Advancements in forensic technology and a deep dive into previously overlooked evidence led investigators to reassess David Swift's possible involvement. Discrepancies in his alibi, particularly relating to his knee injury and computer activities during the time of Karen's disappearance, raised significant suspicions.

Key Quote:

Keith Morrison (57:12): "A big piece of which was motive, which David certainly seemed to have in abundance."

The Trial By May 2024, the evidence amassed against David Swift culminated in his indictment for first-degree premeditated murder. The trial, moved to an impartial location to evade local biases, centered heavily on circumstantial evidence. Prosecutors painted a picture of a controlling, frustrated husband who snapped under marital strains, presenting a motive rooted in anger and loss of control.

Witness testimonies from friends like Kathy Bona and digital evidence from David's computer activities were pivotal. However, the defense, led by attorney Daniel Taylor, countered by highlighting David's physical limitations due to his knee injury and casting doubt on the reliability of the evidence, including contradictory statements from community members and the contested role of private investigator Heather Cohen.

Key Quote:

Keith Morrison (66:57): "We did not come across anything that was just the one big thing that's, you know, just the aha moment."

Verdict and Aftermath After a week of intense deliberations, the jury reached a hung verdict, resulting in a mistrial. David Swift was acquitted of both first and second-degree murder charges but remained incarcerated on stalking charges in Alabama. The failure to secure a unanimous decision left the community divided and the case unresolved, highlighting the enduring challenges in prosecuting cases reliant heavily on circumstantial evidence.

Key Quote:

Keith Morrison (86:48): "Not guilty of first degree murder and not guilty of second degree murder."

Current Status and Continued Impact As of late 2024, the Swift family continues to grapple with the unresolved loss of Karen. Ashley Swift, now a dental hygienist, and her sibling navigate life with lingering questions and a desire for closure. Meanwhile, Heather Cohen remains a controversial figure in Dyersburg, her theories and relentless investigations keeping the case alive in public discourse but also entangling her further with powerful local families.

Key Quote:

Keith Morrison (88:57): "I just want justice for her. And I don't know that that's ever going to come."

Conclusion "After the Halloween Party" serves as a compelling exploration of a family's tragedy intertwined with community secrets, power dynamics, and the relentless quest for truth. Through interviews, detailed reenactments, and insightful commentary, Dateline NBC sheds light on the complexities of the Karen Swift case, leaving viewers pondering the elusive nature of justice and the shadows cast by unresolved mystery.

Transcript

[Lester Holt]

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Keith Morrison]

That's when it really set in. Mom wasn't going to be here anymore and that mom wasn't coming back home. It's horrific. Your friend is missing. All I knew is that she had gone to a Halloween party the night before. David Swift reported they found a car on the side of the road. Everybody was pointing fingers at David. He came in on crutches and said he had a knee injury. Anything I could do to help. He couldn't have done this to her. I just don't think he could have. I came in and I stirred up the hornet's nest. There's a huge swinger community here. People involved are in some pretty high positions.

[Lester Holt]

She came right out and said your family was responsible.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah, crazy. I remember feeling very emotional. I'm having to testify. I'm sorry. It's all right. It was very heartbreaking. It's just not fair that she's not here. I want justice for her.

[Lester Holt]

A mother vanishes just before Halloween. The chilling case that's still haunting detectives. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with After the Halloween party. There must have been a little thrill in the air that autumn night in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

[Keith Morrison]

Dyersburg is a very small town, also really good at keeping secrets.

[Lester Holt]

It was October 29, 2011, two nights to Halloween when they gathered to celebrate in their costumes and their masks. To hide their secrets, perhaps, but certainly to make a new one. The darkest secret of them all.

[Keith Morrison]

I would say there's probably a couple hundred people there.

[Lester Holt]

It was a who's who of Dyersburg gathered for a Halloween party. Jason Creasy, a Locally prominent lawyer and judge was one of the hosts. Where was it?

[Keith Morrison]

It was at the Farms, which is a country club in Dyersburg. And almost everyone was in costume, including.

[Lester Holt]

A woman named Karen Swift. Charismatic Karen, life of the party, usually. What was she wearing?

[Keith Morrison]

She was wearing a black skirt with tights and then she had on kind of like a Mardi Gras mask. She didn't win the best costume of the night.

[Lester Holt]

She didn't have much fun either. Wasn't the Karen who loved to sing and dance. She was the plus one of another couple and felt like a third wheel. So she called her friend Jenny Gurion.

[Keith Morrison]

She had just said she wasn't having a good time and I told her, just go sit at the bar. And I said, just get you a drink. And she said, jenny, I just, I just don't want to be here.

[Lester Holt]

But Karen stuck it out. It was late when she left the party with the couple who had taken her Bill and Kathy Bona. They stopped at a McDonald's for some fries and then they went to the bonus house where Karen planned to spend the night. She would rejoin her own family in the morning. But after midnight, Karen got a call from her nine year old daughter, Ashley.

[Keith Morrison]

I was at a friend's house and I wanted to come home.

[Lester Holt]

You were at a sleepover and there were like three girls there and they were kind of making you feel like they had one left out, right?

[Keith Morrison]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

That feels crappy, doesn't it?

[Keith Morrison]

It does.

[Lester Holt]

So Mom, Karen wasn't the only third wheel. You called your mom then, huh? Is that what happened?

[Keith Morrison]

She did come pick me up and we went home.

[Lester Holt]

David Swift stayed up to make sure his wife and daughter got home safely, which they did after 2am David went to bed in one room while Ashley fell asleep with her mom in another. But she remembers waking up in a different room. What happened when you woke up in the morning?

[Keith Morrison]

When I woke up that morning, it was a slow morning.

[Lester Holt]

It wouldn't be slow for long. David and the girls woke up around 10am But Karen wasn't there. And then a neighbor told David that she saw Karen's car less than half a mile from the Swift home. One of the tires was completely flat and there was no sign of Karen. Did you understand then that something must have happened to your mom, that she was missing and this wasn't good?

[Keith Morrison]

I don't think I fully understood right then. So my first thought was, oh, you know, she called somebody else to help her or, you know, a number of things. That wasn't my first thought.

[Lester Holt]

Karen didn't answer several texts and calls that morning. So David and Karen's friends, the bonus. Called the Dyer County Sheriff's office. Terry McCrite is chief investigator. One of your deputies went to have a look at the car, right?

[Keith Morrison]

Yes. He noticed there was some article of clothing and just personal items that was inside the car.

[Lester Holt]

One of the things that the deputy noted was that the seat seemed to be pushed back to a position where a tall man like himself would not have to move it to get inside. And he figured she would have had it farther up. Is that true?

[Keith Morrison]

She would have had it further up because she wasn't as tall as that. So he did say the seat had been moved to the rear.

[Lester Holt]

That afternoon, Karen's friend Jenny was at home in Lexington, Tennessee, when she got a call.

[Keith Morrison]

Bill Bona called my house in Lexington and asked me if I had seen Karen. He said, we seemed to have misplaced her. And I thought, you misplaced her. And then it wasn't. Probably five minutes later, the Lexington police department knocked on our door and said, is Karen here? We've had word that she might be hiding at your house. And I said, no, sir.

[Lester Holt]

Hiding? Why would a mother of four be hiding? Good question. One of many to come.

[Keith Morrison]

She just disappears, and nobody has any idea what happened to her. It was a very strange missing persons case.

[Lester Holt]

There would be an avalanche of rumors.

[Keith Morrison]

Rumors travel fast sometimes in our county.

[Lester Holt]

And accusations. These people have got a paper.

[Keith Morrison]

The lies they've told about my family.

[Lester Holt]

And stories of lewd all too public behavior.

[Keith Morrison]

There's a huge swinger community here. There are people involved in some pretty high positions in this town.

[Lester Holt]

Strange bed, fellas.

[Keith Morrison]

You could say that.

[Lester Holt]

So much drama. It all will obscure the long and hard search for Karen and the truth. Halloween night, 2011, when it came time to trick or treat. Karen Swift was missing. Hadn't been seen for more than 24 hours. Anxiety growing all day for Karen's friend, Robin Alford.

[Keith Morrison]

I ended up taking the girls trick or treating that night. And David brought them over. Boy, that was difficult. The girls constantly asking, you know, where's their mom?

[Lester Holt]

Where's mama? Yeah.

[Keith Morrison]

Yes. And I just said, honey, she'll be here when she gets here.

[Lester Holt]

Well, his kids went trick or treating. David told Robin he'd keep driving around looking for his wife. Did he seem terribly distraught?

[Keith Morrison]

He did. I could tell by the look in his eyes. He was just physically looked just beaten. And then emotionally as well.

[Lester Holt]

What a strange night that must have been.

[Keith Morrison]

I think my dad was trying to just give us A sense of normalcy. Halloween is my least favorite holiday now.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, I'm not surprised. It seemed helpful to put on a candlelight vigil. So that's what they did. And Karen's son Preston, went before TV cameras with an emotional appeal.

[Keith Morrison]

If anyone has any information about her, please, please let us know. We want to know she's okay. And I love you, mom.

[Lester Holt]

Angie Gallagher became friends with Karen when the Swifts lived in Arkansas and was desperate to do something.

[Keith Morrison]

We came up with an idea that, hey, what if we rounded up all of our horse buddies and went and did a horse search over in Dyersburg?

[Lester Holt]

Nearly 20 of them showed up on their horses. They rode for miles, scouring the woods around Karen's house. None of it was easy, mostly because of the dense kudzu vines that grow everywhere in Dyer County.

[Keith Morrison]

The kudzu was still up, and it kept us from being able to see anything. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anything.

[Lester Holt]

And of course, the sheriff's investigators were learning everything they could about Karen Swift.

[Keith Morrison]

She was a beautiful mom, beautiful person, beautiful friend.

[Lester Holt]

Karen was a stay at home mom who didn't really care much for staying at home.

[Keith Morrison]

She always was ready to go and do fishing and riding four wheelers and taking the kids to the water parks. We would have karaoke night. I mean, she was the most fun.

[Lester Holt]

Up for anything, apparently. Huh? Up for anything, including all kinds of mischief. She even joined her kids with a supply of toilet paper to do some decorating at Robin's house. A few days before Halloween, she called.

[Keith Morrison]

Me and said, the girls want to do something fun and they thought it would be fun to go and roll.

[Lester Holt]

Your house so you can't move to toilet paper all over the trees.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah, that's correct. Yes. And we had a good laugh about that. Me and my sister both were equally attached to her hip, but I was their first girl, and that was all they wanted.

[Lester Holt]

David had a good job as a manager in a factory that made gas pipelines, shared a deep sense of faith with Karen and was devoted to his children.

[Keith Morrison]

He was a good dad. He loved his kids very, very much and had good relationships with them.

[Lester Holt]

Karen told friends how much she wanted her kids to live in a happy home, something she said she didn't have growing up.

[Keith Morrison]

She said, all I want is a white house and a white picket fence and to go to church. That's all I want.

[Lester Holt]

But perfect lives and white picket fences are often more ideal than real.

[Keith Morrison]

David had an affair, and it created so much havoc in their marriage. A little while later, Karen found out that David actually had a son from that affair.

[Lester Holt]

Havoc was the least of it. They got a divorce, but they reconciled and remarried together under one roof again with two sons from their first marriage. And then Ashley was born, followed by another daughter. And then more infidelity. This time it was Karen who had an affair. The Swift marriage had become very messy.

[Keith Morrison]

That's probably why they moved from Arkansas is to get out of that situation, maybe have a new beginning.

[Lester Holt]

But their fresh start wasn't easy. Robin watched firsthand as the relationship started to sour again.

[Keith Morrison]

She told him in front of me, I don't love you anymore, David. I don't want to be married.

[Lester Holt]

Something big happened there.

[Keith Morrison]

Why something big happened? I never saw David get upset when she told him, I don't love you anymore. He just said, yes, you do, Karen. Yes, you do. Well, she's already divorced me once. I'll get her back. It's what it kind of seemed like to me.

[Lester Holt]

When the case landed on Sheriff Jeff Box's desk, he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

[Keith Morrison]

Most cases where wife comes up missing, you know who the most likely suspect is.

[Lester Holt]

Look at the husband first. That's Police Work 101. It was time to talk to David Swift.

[Keith Morrison]

I just wanted to come home and to be a mother. True Crime Podcasts There is no shortage to consume, and if you're like me, you've consumed them all. I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday we cover a case in a way that's not like you've heard before, because I have built a one of a kind team of investigative journalists dedicated to conducting original reporting, making sure that you get the inside scoop. Listen to hundreds of Crime Junkie episodes now. Wherever you get your podcasts. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing Mint Mobile unlimited premium wireless 3030 bid to get 30 better 20, 2020. But to get 2020 15. 15 15. Just 15 bucks a month. So give it a [e-mail] Switch $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees, extra speed slower above 40 gigabytes.

[Lester Holt]

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Lester Holt]

Stolen, their US based restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less Holiday worry with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com SpecialOffer terms apply. It didn't take a degree in criminology to suspect that something very bad had happened to Karen Swift or that investigators had better talk to her husband, David. And the day after Karen disappeared, David showed right up on crutches. Even if you have a seat right.

[Keith Morrison]

Over there, do you mean. Well, I had to have knee surgery. It's been giving me a lot of problems.

[Lester Holt]

David said he wanted to help any way he could.

[Keith Morrison]

I'm willing to do whatever I can to help and find her. I just want her home safely.

[Lester Holt]

He opened up to investigators about his relationship with Karen and their four kids and their 22 year history of UPS and downs.

[Keith Morrison]

We were having issues and I screwed up. What kind of issue was we need to know? Oh, yeah, well, just to tell, I had an affair.

[Lester Holt]

He told them about the divorce followed by reconciliation.

[Keith Morrison]

We were married probably six years and Karen had an affair.

[Lester Holt]

And now after their fresh start in Dyersburg, Karen was pulling away.

[Keith Morrison]

I still love her and care about her, and I just think she's lost right now. Okay. You think she's going through some midlife crisis? Yeah, I believe so.

[Lester Holt]

Perhaps that's why Karen did what she did just a few weeks earlier. File for divorce.

[Keith Morrison]

How did that make you feel then? Yeah, I was angry, I was mad, I was hurt.

[Lester Holt]

He thought they could work through it like they had in the past. They were sleeping in separate bedrooms. But David said things between them were amicable.

[Keith Morrison]

We had a hay ride and stuff for the kids and I mean, even under the circumstances, we've been still trying to be there, you know, for the K and still communicating.

[Lester Holt]

The morning before she disappeared, said David, she was helping out at a Habitat for Humanity house. And he went to see her, took.

[Keith Morrison]

Her something to drink, and I even did what I could around there to help with fixtures or whatever.

[Lester Holt]

Then later, when Karen got home, he said she told him she was going out with her friends, Kathy and Bill.

[Keith Morrison]

And I said, so are you going to a costume party or what are you doing? Are you all having a party? And she said, no, I'm just going to Kathy's.

[Lester Holt]

David said Karen had been going out a lot lately, and the next time he heard from Karen, he said, was well after midnight.

[Keith Morrison]

She said, I'm going to Get Ashley. I'm going to put her in bed with me. I said, okay, I'll leave the door.

[Lester Holt]

He was a little worried about that because he knew she must have been drinking.

[Keith Morrison]

Was there any kind of argument or anything down?

[Lester Holt]

No, I just.

[Keith Morrison]

It was very brief. I questioned Karen about driving and getting her. I said, you know, if you can't drive, I won't get Ashley. And that was all the conversation was. You know, as soon as I realized that Ashley and they were unsafe, I went back upstairs and went to bed.

[Lester Holt]

And when he woke up the next morning, Karen was gone. What do you think in your mind.

[Keith Morrison]

What do you think was going on here? I don't know, other than when it appears that she had a flat. I don't know if she called someone or if she started walking. Someone picked her up. Let's take this also into consideration. What if she has left with somebody? How are you gonna take that?

[Lester Holt]

I just want her to come home and to be a mother.

[Keith Morrison]

She don't want to be a wife, you know, that's her decision. I can accept that. You know, that's not something that I want or something that.

[Lester Holt]

It'd be hard. So maybe she was off with a new love interest, or maybe she'd been picked up by a stranger. And then David had one more idea.

[Keith Morrison]

Has anyone talked with that hog shooter.

[Lester Holt]

John Hogshooter, the Swift's neighbor?

[Keith Morrison]

You know, I mean, everybody's scared to death of him in the neighborhood.

[Lester Holt]

We will talk to him.

[Keith Morrison]

We're gonna cover all the bases.

[Lester Holt]

Covering all the bases also meant searching the Swift home.

[Keith Morrison]

Will you give us permission to go back out there and look around? Yeah. I mean, anything I can do to help.

[Lester Holt]

I just ordered come home. Not long after that conversation, deputies arrived at the Swift home. They went from room to room to room and looked at every little thing.

[Keith Morrison]

But we didn't find any evidence or anything inside the house.

[Lester Holt]

They also searched David's car.

[Keith Morrison]

In the trunk of the car, underneath the spare tire, in the very bottom of the trunk, was the divorce papers. That's kind of odd to have divorce papers hidden away. What are you hiding them for?

[Lester Holt]

And then they got to the backyard.

[Keith Morrison]

There were bleach bottles in the backyard, Empty bleach bottles.

[Lester Holt]

That definitely got investigators attention. The Swift place was in the country where one property tended to meld into the next one. So investigators moved out, poking around. And eventually, something caught their eye. Something they'd been looking for since day one. Karen's cell phone.

[Keith Morrison]

When you think about the distance from somewhere less than 500 and something feet from the drive, from Karen's drive to where that phone was found. It just doesn't add up.

[Lester Holt]

And nearby was another one, a second phone. Now, what on earth could that mean? The mystery of what happened to Karen Swift was becoming bigger than anything this town had seen. And in the absence of answers, all kinds of rumors filled the void.

[Keith Morrison]

Stories started coming out.

[Lester Holt]

She's married, and she's hanging out with swingers.

[Keith Morrison]

So that was shocking.

[Lester Holt]

It was, to say the least, a surprise. Way off in the grass at the edge of a neighbor's property, Karen Swift's cell phone. And lying there with it, another phone, her phone, someone else's phone, who knew. And they weren't just dropped there either.

[Keith Morrison]

The phones were stomped and damaged. And so. But they did emit some data that.

[Lester Holt]

Morning, the findings of which would become very important to investigators. But what was extraordinary, curious, was that odd location.

[Keith Morrison]

They were near the property, but not on hogshooter's property itself.

[Lester Holt]

That is John Hogshooter, the Swift's neighbor, the man David had told investigators about.

[Keith Morrison]

You know, I mean, everybody's scared to death of him.

[Lester Holt]

In the neighborhood, investigators had already heard an alarming story about how hogshooter had poisoned the swift's family dog. That was just weeks before Karen disappeared, which made him a person of interest, to say the least. Did you bring him into the station to talk to him?

[Keith Morrison]

Yes, we did.

[Lester Holt]

What'd he tell you?

[Keith Morrison]

He told us that he didn't have any connection. Well, he said he got tired of.

[Lester Holt]

Dogs pooping on his property, so hogshooter put poison in his yard. One of the neighbor's dogs died because of it, and the Swift's dog became severely ill. Investigators searched hogshooter's home and his cars. Didn't find anything. But by then, all of Dyersburg seemed to know hogshooter was being looked at, and he felt the need to defend himself.

[Keith Morrison]

My family is standing behind me, and we're just going to trust in God that this is going to be over with and she's going to come home safely.

[Lester Holt]

That's what everyone said they wanted. The local news was all over. The story spoke to the friend Karen went to the costume party with Kathy Bona.

[Keith Morrison]

We're just very concerned about Karen right now. We want our safe return.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators were talking to everyone, eager to learn all they could. It helps to know you're missing person. And David, it turned out, had shared.

[Keith Morrison]

A lot when we lived first moved over there. And that's when Karen really started Changing and doing this. All kinds of stuff.

[Lester Holt]

Stuff he said was worrying him. Like how Karen had recently started leaving the house at all hours of the night.

[Keith Morrison]

Said David, it was about 9:30 one night and Karen was sneaking out of the door. He went outside. I said, karen, where you going?

[Lester Holt]

He said, most of it happened with Karen's friends. The bonus. They had a hot tub and liked to host parties. And one night, Karen was in the bed here. I went over there to the covers.

[Keith Morrison]

And I pulled them back. She did have a towel, but she was totally naked.

[Lester Holt]

Naked and in a bed with Kathy.

[Keith Morrison]

I asked her if. Weren't you in bed naked with Kathy?

[Lester Holt]

Karen's friend Robin reported the same sort of thing, different night. What did you see?

[Keith Morrison]

Karen just kind of out of control, not herself. She had had a drink or two and got a little crazy wanting to get into a hot tub. And eventually, with no clothes on, I saw her get up out of the hot tub and she kind of stumbled her way into the house.

[Lester Holt]

Still no clothes on?

[Keith Morrison]

No.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, boy.

[Keith Morrison]

So I needed to walk in and check and just make sure that she was okay.

[Lester Holt]

What happened when you got in there? What'd you see?

[Keith Morrison]

I witnessed Mr. Bona standing over her. And I was just, what are you doing? And I threw a towel to cover her up. Please. And I said, go get her husband.

[Lester Holt]

How did David react to all this?

[Keith Morrison]

I think he was just kind of shocked too, and probably a little embarrassed, to be honest. But I didn't witness him say anything to her other than just, let's get her home.

[Lester Holt]

So what exactly was going on with Karen and her good friends Kathy and Bill Bona? Rumors flew through town, of course, and into the ears of local reporters like Janice Broach of NBC affiliate WMC in Memphis. Stories started coming out about how she.

[Keith Morrison]

Was hanging around with a really wild crowd.

[Lester Holt]

The rumors, which the Bonas deny, were that they were swingers and that Karen was part of their group. She's married and she's hanging out with swingers.

[Keith Morrison]

So that was shocking.

[Lester Holt]

Shocking or, well, maybe not. In Dyersburg, that kind of thing was well worn gossip. There was even a name for the local swingers club that supposedly operated here years ago. The Pink Poodles. What can you tell me about the. What is it? The Pink Poodle Club.

[Keith Morrison]

What happened was, years ago, there was a Pink Poodle club allegedly in Dyersburg. Pink Poodle Club really is like just a synonym for swingers now.

[Lester Holt]

But Jason Creasy, one of the hosts of that Halloween party, has lived in Dyersburg for more than Two decades.

[Keith Morrison]

I think that in almost any town there's some facet of swingers. I would not say that Dyersburg is out of the way.

[Lester Holt]

Karen's friend Jenny didn't like all the swirling rumors anyway. Wasn't Karen on her way to a divorce? Jenny remembers being happy that Karen seemed to be finding herself even as her marriage fell apart.

[Keith Morrison]

She was also Karen. And not just a mom and not just a wife. She was also Karen. And I think she got to know herself and I think she liked her as she should.

[Lester Holt]

But her family was struggling with this new Karen. Was she out at night a lot? Eventually.

[Keith Morrison]

Eventually, yes. I remember nights of me begging and crying her not to leave. I didn't want her to go out and just wanting her to stay home with us.

[Lester Holt]

And she would go anyway.

[Keith Morrison]

She would and I was not like her at all.

[Lester Holt]

But to be gone for days without word to anyone, that made no sense.

[Keith Morrison]

To nine year old Ashley, I felt very confused. I thought, you know, my mom would just come home later. But the reality started setting in of okay, nobody's heard from her. And that's what I began to worry.

[Lester Holt]

Somewhere in her child's mind, she knew they all did. The awful truth they would be forced to face.

[Keith Morrison]

He just looked at me and he said, jenny. They found her.

[Lester Holt]

With each passing day and no news of Karen, her family and friends were enveloped by the fear of exactly what her absence meant.

[Keith Morrison]

I was scared because I knew the type of mother she was. I know even though she had her priorities kind of messed up at that time, there would be nothing that would keep her from taking her girl's trick or treat.

[Lester Holt]

Before they knew it, it was Thanksgiving.

[Keith Morrison]

I cried for hours thinking what if Karen is out there? She has no way to communicate to anybody on where she is at.

[Lester Holt]

December, winter descended, damp and cold outside around Dyersburg. The kudzu vine shrank to wait for spring. And then six weeks after it began, the search was finally over. A caretaker walking the grounds of a nearby cemetery saw something under a steel cross in a patch of withering kudzu.

[Keith Morrison]

You know, to the time she came up missing. October, you know, we probably had waist high kudzu vines. And when December 10, as it got colder, the kudzu had subsided so it made her body visible. She's there with just on her ornate clothes here. We talking about in the fall of the year, in October. Sure. So you wouldn't think the mother walked out of the house like that.

[Lester Holt]

Jenny's husband gave her the news.

[Keith Morrison]

I could kind of see it on his face. He just looked at me and he said, jenny, they found her. So that was a tough night.

[Lester Holt]

Do you remember hearing when they found your mother's body?

[Keith Morrison]

I don't remember the exact day of, like, hearing about it. And I don't think that's how it was described to me. I think it was that mom wasn't going to be here anymore and that mom wasn't coming back home. And that's when it really set in that that was my new life.

[Lester Holt]

At that age, how hard does that hit?

[Keith Morrison]

It's pretty hard because, you know, at that age, you're about to hit double digits. Everybody's excited to turn 10, and, you know, you're about to be the big kids in the school again before you go off to middle school. And I knew that I wanted her.

[Lester Holt]

There for all of that and the whole family. How was everybody coping?

[Keith Morrison]

You know, my dad just tried to always stay strong for us.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators processed the scene. Karen's remains were sent for an autopsy. What were their findings?

[Keith Morrison]

There was blunt force trauma.

[Lester Holt]

Any evidence of sexual assault?

[Keith Morrison]

No.

[Lester Holt]

No. So whoever left her there left her there in her underwear, and that was that.

[Keith Morrison]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

That it was murder was obvious. And the list of people they needed to speak to was long. They had already spoken with the couple Karen had been spending so much time with lately. Did you ask the bonus to come in for an interview?

[Keith Morrison]

They did come in for an interview, and they gave an interview. Bill and Kathy.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators learned something interesting. That second phone found near Hogshooter's place, that was Karen's, and it was given to her by the bonus.

[Keith Morrison]

She got another phone to get her through the divorce. Let her talk to her attorney, whoever she needed to have a private conversation if she needed to.

[Lester Holt]

Detectives discovered Karen was using it to talk to a man she met at a concert who said he wanted to get to know her better. David seemed to be concerned that she was having multiple affairs. Is that true?

[Keith Morrison]

Well, that's what he said. I mean, here's the thing. We wasn't here to investigate her private life.

[Lester Holt]

We were here to investigate a homicide, for one thing. Police didn't think the boners had anything to do with Karen's disappearance. And police knew all about the rumors in town.

[Keith Morrison]

I never found it to be true that she participated in a ping pool club. People do a lot of things in their personal lives, but Karen was murdered. And it wasn't because of the hot tub.

[Lester Holt]

No. Their investigation was not focusing in on what Karen was doing outside her marriage, but rather on the man she was married to.

[Keith Morrison]

Everything that we saw and discovered pointed straight at him.

[Lester Holt]

In their early interviews with David, they thought they saw a guy far more concerned with trash talking his wife than finding her. There were the stories he told about what Karen and her friends were doing.

[Keith Morrison]

I asked her, why aren't you in bed naked with Kathy?

[Lester Holt]

And he went on and on about how much she had started drinking recently.

[Keith Morrison]

There'd be times that somebody would have to drive Karen home or I'd have to go get her and drive her home. They call me. And so I was always concerned and worried about her. She was so drunk once that she had passed out on the porch in her own vomit. He would not focus on anything other than her behavior. That was just a sign to me that this guy is hiding something. He's covering up something.

[Lester Holt]

Like that business about Karen's secret phone.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, I found out yesterday that Bill and Kathy Bono had given her another cell phone. He told us, too, that he didn't know she had another phone. And we found the number programmed in his BlackBerry phone, his work phone.

[Lester Holt]

So he did know.

[Keith Morrison]

He did know.

[Lester Holt]

Had they caught him in a lie? Maybe. But more importantly, investigators were zeroing in on a motive. David angry over the divorce, watching Karen slip further away. But that certainly wasn't enough for an arrest. David got a lawyer and stopped talking. And then the investigation seemed to just stall.

[Keith Morrison]

It was so frustrating. Year after year, and there was still not an arrest made.

[Lester Holt]

Ashley went through her adolescence motherless.

[Keith Morrison]

I think the older I got, the more that I wanted to know what happened. And then I got to an age where I realized that I would never know what happened.

[Lester Holt]

But the question about what happened to her mother was far from over. Someone new was coming to Dyersburg, and so was a whole new theory of the case.

[Keith Morrison]

I came in, and I stirred up the hornet's nest.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, boy.

[Keith Morrison]

True crime podcasts, There is no shortage to consume. And if you're like me, you've consumed them all. I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, we cover a case in a way that's not like you've heard before, Because I have built a one of a kind team of investigative journalists dedicated to conducting original reporting, making sure that you get the inside scoop. Listen to hundreds of Crime Junkie episodes now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous two year contracts they said. What the are you talking about? You insane Hollywood so to recap, we're cutting the price of mint unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a [e-mail] Switch $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month New customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees extra speeds lower above 40 gigabytes of details explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos. Hard tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love an easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver The Snack Time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing. Shop game day favorites on Instacart and enjoy. $0 delivery fees on your first three grocery orders offer valid for a limited time. Other fees and terms apply.

[Lester Holt]

Wine improves with age Murder investigations generally not.

[Keith Morrison]

The general public might think it was a cold case, but for us, we're looking every day for that one thing that we need to prosecute, that one nail that we can put in it.

[Lester Holt]

David Swift didn't hang around to see what Sheriff Box would do. He left Dyersburg, eventually, settled in Alabama with his daughters, and that's where he found a new partner on the dating site Christian Mingle. Kelly Essman Four years after the murder, David Swift was a married man again. Were you okay with the idea that he would marry another woman?

[Keith Morrison]

Obviously she wasn't my mom, but I wanted my dad to be happy.

[Lester Holt]

How involved was your dad in your life during those years in Alabama?

[Keith Morrison]

He was very involved. I mean, he was very, very supportive and very encouraging.

[Lester Holt]

He's always been your guy, your rock. Yes, the story was no longer making headlines in dyersburg. But in 2018, seven years after some unknown person bludgeoned Karen Swift to death, a disruptor came to town. Disruptor with a capital D, and her name was Heather Cohen.

[Keith Morrison]

It was a cold case. It wasn't going anywhere.

[Lester Holt]

Heather studied criminal justice, worked as a Paralegal, and in 2016 became a licensed private investigator, recording in progress. She shares a lot about her cases online and on a podcast she hosts called the Justice Warriors.

[Keith Morrison]

We will stand for what is right because we are the Justice Warriors.

[Lester Holt]

A crime blogger friend told Heather about the Swift case, and she started making calls and then heard a lot of those salacious rumors About Dyersburg.

[Keith Morrison]

Dyersburg is a spicy place. I suppose you could say there's a huge swinger community here. There are people involved in some pretty high positions in this town.

[Lester Holt]

Strange bedfellows.

[Keith Morrison]

You could say that.

[Lester Holt]

And when she came to town, she did not tiptoe. She showed up with a big team and a friend, recording every move as she chased down leads and knocked on doors and did interviews.

[Keith Morrison]

The people needed somebody to come in from the outside and to be their voice.

[Lester Holt]

Who hired her to be that voice? Who paid her? No one said. Heather. Her first thought about David Swift was why hadn't he been arrested?

[Keith Morrison]

Initially, we believe that David Swift did it. I mean, that's what makes sense.

[Lester Holt]

So she called him directly and he agreed to talk. I would have done anything for my wife, and people just don't understand and.

[Keith Morrison]

That they've just been led astray. He confided in me and I saw a side of him that I just. I don't believe that he killed his wife. I believe he loved her.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, well, sometimes love leads to things, as you know.

[Keith Morrison]

I understand, but I just don't feel that.

[Lester Holt]

So Heather turned to all those stories about Karen's behavior in the last months of her life. What did she find rooting around in the gossip? A story about an affair, alleged affair, that is. And a man named Bentley Katermus, a.

[Keith Morrison]

Close friend of Karen's, told me that she knew about the affair between Bentley and Karen.

[Lester Holt]

She discovered that Bentley's wife Dina was at that country club Halloween party. And there were rumors she'd had an argument with Karen. And that led to speculation by Heather that there must have been a messy love triangle, which in turn somehow must have led to Karen's murder. There was an altercation in your mind?

[Keith Morrison]

Allegedly there was. There are some things that I was never able to get a first hand account of, and that was one of them.

[Lester Holt]

Looking into Bentley and Dena would end up being the most consequential decision of her career because it led her to Deena's father, Darrell Sells, a wealthy businessman. Learning all about him became Heather's obsession.

[Keith Morrison]

I went in the direction that the leads took me and they just kept pouring in.

[Lester Holt]

One of the leads came from witnesses who said they saw Darryl Sells poking around the crime scene with a metal detector. Before Karen's body was discovered, Heather recorded interviews with the witnesses.

[Keith Morrison]

I seen this old man and he had a metal detector. It was weird, you know, why was he there? Before the body was found, Heather went.

[Lester Holt]

From curious to off the charts suspicious. And then she Got her hands on a recording of an anonymous phone call made to the sheriff's office. This sheriff's office, it is telling the.

[Keith Morrison]

Lift of Karen Swift 5.3 miles west.

[Lester Holt]

Buried in shallow grave. The caller claimed to know the location of Karen's body when she was still a missing person. Heather believed the voice on that call was Darryl Sells. Take a look at it and see if you can find it.

[Keith Morrison]

Why is he calling and leading them to the body?

[Lester Holt]

Soon Heather was convinced Darrell Sells was engaged in a huge cover to protect his own family.

[Keith Morrison]

The theory that I came up with from my investigation is that Darrell was using his money and his power to divert the investigation and keep it off of his daughter and son in law.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, it was just a theory, but that didn't stop Heather. She continued doing podcasts about the cells.

[Keith Morrison]

Dina does come from a very prominent family and her father is, let's just say, very well, politically connected.

[Lester Holt]

And pretty soon, people in Dyersburg knew all about Heather's theories.

[Keith Morrison]

As far as our investigation is concerned, we have very different suspects than law enforcement. I came in and I stirred up the hornet's nest.

[Lester Holt]

She stirred up hornet's nest, all right. And when you do that, you'd better be ready to get stung. You're accused of repeatedly threatening Heather Cohen and including threatening to crush her skull. Heather Cohen thought she'd found the key to unlock the Karen Swift murder mystery.

[Keith Morrison]

There was lead after lead after lead that pointed in the direction of the Sells family.

[Lester Holt]

Heather's theory about the murder started with the tip alleging that Karen Swift was having an affair with Daryl Sells son in law Bentley. Heather tried to get Bentley and his wife Dina to talk to her. They wouldn't do it, but Dina did talk to us. Heather Cohen said that Bentley was having an affair with Karen.

[Keith Morrison]

False.

[Lester Holt]

But what do you think of that? How did he react to that?

[Keith Morrison]

Well, it hurts your feelings that you know that people are just going to talk lies about you and your family.

[Lester Holt]

Another of Heather's lies, according to Deena, was that story about a supposed fight between her and Karen at the Halloween party.

[Keith Morrison]

It just didn't happen. I mean, that's all I can say and do. I can't understand still how we got drugged into this. It's just something of a made up Lifetime movie.

[Lester Holt]

What it feels like Deena told us she and Bentley didn't even know Karen Swift.

[Keith Morrison]

People say lies, just vicious things about us for no reason.

[Lester Holt]

But what about those witnesses who said Dena's father, Daryl Sells, was poking around the crime scene with a Metal detector. Ridiculous, said Dina.

[Keith Morrison]

I can barely see my dad picking up a weed eater, so he's not going to go do something like that. I'm not saying somebody wasn't up there, but I'd bet my life on it wasn't my father.

[Lester Holt]

Heather also fixed on that strange call to the sheriff's office directing them to Karen's body. Yeah, telling them that for Karen Swift, 5.3 miles west, buried his shallow grave. Darryl's son Darren has listened to it more than once.

[Keith Morrison]

If somebody wanted to do a voice analysis of that call versus his voice, you're going to find out that that is not him at all whatsoever.

[Lester Holt]

Heather didn't offer proof it was Sells voice. It was just her opinion. After listening to it, Sheriff Box knows Darrell Sells and came to a different conclusion.

[Keith Morrison]

We know it's not him. Now she's alleging it is. She has no proof. We don't believe it's him.

[Lester Holt]

If you're an out of town PI poking around in Dyersburg, you might want to think twice before picking a fight with Darrell Sells, a self made man who became one of the wealthiest men in town. So let me tell you, I'm a 9th grade dropout from high school. Sells was a barber who got into the fast food business in the 1970s and built it into a burger and fries empire worth millions. Would you say that you are kind of the archetypal American success story? Well, I think so. I had an opportunity to make myself.

[Keith Morrison]

Successful far beyond my means.

[Lester Holt]

And it worked out good. Good. Until Heather started promoting an ugly new chapter to his American success story. Sells told us he has no idea what happened to Karen Swift. And anyone who says they saw him poking around the place where her body was found is either confused or lying. You were never anywhere near there with a metal detector. Hell, sorry, my pardon my parents, but I've never.

[Keith Morrison]

He never owned a metal detector.

[Lester Holt]

I don't even know how to operate one. When Daryl heard about the allegations, he called Heather, gave her a piece of his mind.

[Keith Morrison]

You are spreading some around my sandwich. No sir.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, you are. I'm gonna fix your ass before it's over with you.

[Keith Morrison]

Lying people don't need to be. I haven't lied about nothing. He belittles me, he demeans me, he puts me down. That's okay. I don't care much for him either.

[Lester Holt]

You're accused of repeatedly threatening Heather Cohen, including threatening to crush her skull. Oh, well, I think I said I'd like to rub her nose in the concrete.

[Keith Morrison]

And I'd still Like to do that.

[Lester Holt]

Tell you the truth about it.

[Keith Morrison]

Did he always handle himself the best way? Why, no, he did not. But that's his inner I'm going to protect my family coming out.

[Lester Holt]

Your dad is a fighter. He's kind of an unfiltered guy, isn't he?

[Keith Morrison]

Well, just a little.

[Lester Holt]

I don't know, maybe it's me, maybe it's my makeup, but I can't get.

[Keith Morrison]

This off my mind, you know?

[Lester Holt]

These people have got to pay for.

[Keith Morrison]

The lies they've told about my family.

[Lester Holt]

Darrell did try to make Heather Cohen pay. He filed a lawsuit saying her entire theory of the case, the affair, the fight that somehow led to a murder and cover up the Sells family's influence over law enforcement. It was all malicious and defamatory. And Heather, she appeared before a grand jury to present evidence that Daryl had threatened and harassed her. One of them was arrested him. I got a phone call from my attorney. He said, well, you've been indicted.

[Keith Morrison]

What?

[Lester Holt]

Daryl was charged with cyberstalking.

[Keith Morrison]

So I had to go down there.

[Lester Holt]

And sit there for this woman to fingerprint me. And it was on the front page of the newspaper the next day. In the end, the lawsuit was settled out of court. Each side agreed not to disparage the other, and Heather conceded she had no firsthand knowledge that the Sells family was involved in Karen Swift's murder. The cyberstalking charge against Darrell Sells was dismissed, which in Heather's book was just another example of the Sells family getting favorable treatment in Dyersburg.

[Keith Morrison]

The man has more money than God. And the justice system is very influenced by money. The Sells family also contributes to the Sheriff and the DA's political campaigns.

[Lester Holt]

In fact, didn't you call this the Sells family sheriff's office?

[Keith Morrison]

Yes, I said you need to change the name of the Dyer County Sheriff's Office to the Sells family Sheriff's office. Yep.

[Lester Holt]

Sheriff Box is not contemplating a name change. Heather Cohen has said all kinds of things about the department, essentially saying that Darrell Sells controls you.

[Keith Morrison]

Yes, she's made many, many false statements. Nobody runs us. And when you see her coming, she's always trouble. I'll keep going as long as I have to. They messed with the wrong PI.

[Lester Holt]

Heather Cohen does have her supporters in Dyersburg. People who think she has uncovered the truth. It's fair to say Sheriff Box and the Sells family are not among them. Why should we believe you and not them?

[Keith Morrison]

I have no reason to lie. I mean, what am I getting out of this? I don't have a dog in this Fight.

[Lester Holt]

Heather kicked up a storm. All right. Got everyone talking. What new secrets about Karen's life would come to light?

[Keith Morrison]

She would advance to make a lot. She felt as if she was controlled. True crime Podcasts There is no shortage to consume. And if you're like me, you've consumed them all. I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, we cover a case in a way that's not like you've heard before, because I have built a one of a kind team of investigative journalists dedicated to conducting original reporting, making sure that you get the inside scoop. Listen to hundreds of Crime Junkie episodes now. Wherever you get your podcasts. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing Mint Mobile unlimited premium wireless. 30. 30. Bid to get 30. Better 20. 20. Better get 20. 20. 15. 15.

[Lester Holt]

15, 15.

[Keith Morrison]

Just 15 bucks a month. So give it a [e-mail] switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees. Extra Speed slower above 40 gigabytes. Y Detail explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos. Hard tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love an easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver The Snack Time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing shop game day favorites on instacart. And enjoy. $0 delivery fees on your first three grocery orders. Offer valid for a limited time. Other fees and terms.

[Lester Holt]

APPLAUSE with no one arrested for Karen Swift's murder, the drama between private investigator Heather Cohen and the Sells family took center stage. Heather's theories about Karen's killer went viral in Dyersburg.

[Keith Morrison]

At least she's not from Dyersburg, so she's not scared of people. She's not going to be intimidated by the who's who of Dyersburg, Tennessee. And she was going to seek out the truth, whether a certain person liked it or not.

[Lester Holt]

All the talk even reached Ashley 300 miles away in Alabama.

[Keith Morrison]

I do think she has a lot of information.

[Lester Holt]

Even though Heather's podcast and Internet posts were pointing away from her dad as a suspect, Ashley didn't like how Heather was operating.

[Keith Morrison]

I Did talk to her a little bit, and over the years, I've cut that back significantly. I think that this is kind of her 15 minutes of fame.

[Lester Holt]

And while Heather said she wasn't hired by Ashley's dad, some of her information did come from David's family.

[Keith Morrison]

I seen this old man, and he.

[Lester Holt]

Had a metal detector. Heather reported talking to three people who said they'd seen Darrell Sells at the crime scene. One of them was Ashley's own brother. That whole business about Daryl Sells, the metal detector, what did you make of all that stuff?

[Keith Morrison]

I don't want to sit here and accuse anyone of anything. I wasn't there to see that that's my brother's story to tell. But I do think that he is weirdly obsessed and involved.

[Lester Holt]

Back in Dyersburg, Robin Alford heard the suspicions about David and the possibility he may have snapped and done something to Karen. Did rattle around in the back of her mind. But she could not imagine David as a killer and thought Heather's fresh take on the case was exactly what was needed. Did she change your point of view about what may have happened here?

[Keith Morrison]

Well, she definitely gave me a lot to think about.

[Lester Holt]

But whatever people felt about the Heather Darrell sideshow, it did get people talking about Karen's case again. Danny Goodman took over as DA of Dyer county in 2018.

[Keith Morrison]

I think the DA that was here before me was looking for that smoking gun, the one piece of evidence that would just make the case a slam.

[Lester Holt]

Dunk, but that just didn't exist, apparently. And then 2020 hit.

[Keith Morrison]

The thing that actually worked out well for even though it was something that was tragic for so many people was Covid. We had more free time than usual, so we decided that it would be a good time just to. Let's. Let's dig back into this case.

[Lester Holt]

They dusted off 30 large bins, and for a year, they poured over it. Nine years worth of police reports and transcripts and evidence.

[Keith Morrison]

I'm just assuming.

[Lester Holt]

Not to mention all the theories and allegations Heather stirred up.

[Keith Morrison]

There were a lot of rumors, and Heather Cohen actually brought a lot of information to me.

[Lester Holt]

And when he wasn't sure Heather had given him everything, he went to a judge, got a warrant to search her house, and collected all the research she'd done on the case.

[Keith Morrison]

We investigated everything. We checked out any allegation that was made.

[Lester Holt]

After they spoke to some of Heather's sources, Goodman said a pattern emerged.

[Keith Morrison]

Each witness that we were to go and talk to would say, no, I didn't say that or, no, that's not exactly how that was. This is what I said.

[Lester Holt]

Heather stands by her information. But by the end of it, Goodman said the evidence led him back to the man sheriff's investigators had suspected all along. David Swift. As you went through those 30 boxes, did you find something that you felt was, you know, eye opening, was going to change things?

[Keith Morrison]

We did not come across anything that was just the one big thing that's, you know, just the aha moment. It was more so of putting a.

[Lester Holt]

Puzzle together, a big piece of which was motive, which David certainly seemed to have in abundance.

[Keith Morrison]

I think he saw that he was losing control because in the past, he was able to control everything that Karen did. Everywhere she went, he controlled the money, and he saw that that was starting to slip away.

[Lester Holt]

Goodman saw Karen chasing a new life on the brink of freedom, and David refusing to let her go. Karen, it turned out, had complained to her friends about it.

[Keith Morrison]

She would vent to me a lot. She felt as if she was controlled and always expected to let him know where she's at and what she's doing.

[Lester Holt]

Maybe David just snapped. That night after the Halloween party, Goodman reviewed David's past interviews against material they had gathered from his computer.

[Keith Morrison]

David made numerous statements. He went to bed and slept till the next morning at 10:30 when the children woke him up. We know that that's not true because we could prove that there was activity on his computer at 3:00 in the morning and after.

[Lester Holt]

But if David killed Karen, he hid his tracks well. In a decade of searching, they had never found any evidence of a crime at the Swift home. And they never found a weapon that might have inflicted the deadly blows. So in 2020, in 1942, 11 years after Karen was murdered, sheriff's investigators decided to try once more. They brought excavators and dug near the rear of the property. And there they unearthed something. A burn barrel. And when they opened it, we found.

[Keith Morrison]

What appears to be a bar bale.

[Lester Holt]

That was in that burn barrel. During an earlier search, they found a single barbell in the Swift's home, but it was missing its mate. So was this it? Could this buried barbell be the murder weapon? Investigators sent it off for testing, but when the results came back, we didn't.

[Keith Morrison]

Recover any kind of usable evidence.

[Lester Holt]

Still, two investigators, it begged the question.

[Keith Morrison]

Why is that out there in the burn bale?

[Lester Holt]

Over the years, Sheriff Box had kept in close contact with Karen's mother, Carol. She was among the people who wanted to see David charged with the murder of her daughter.

[Keith Morrison]

She said, well, just tell me Again, how come the case hadn't been indicted? And I said, well, you know, Ms. Carol, the former DA said that we had one shot at the this case. One shot. And she said, well, she said, I wish you would tell Mr. Goodman, what good is that shot if you never take it?

[Lester Holt]

What good indeed. The folks in Dyersburg were more than a little interested in what would happen next.

[Keith Morrison]

Every morning I get up, I think about this.

[Lester Holt]

Who's going to be in diet here? Who's going to be arrested? Waiting and waiting and waiting. As investigators were taking a fresh look at the Karen Swift case, David's life in Alabama seemed to be falling apart. There was tension with his second wife, Kelly.

[Keith Morrison]

There were times where I begged him to leave her because of the way that she made comments about things. And he wanted to try to always mend that relationship.

[Lester Holt]

He tried and she left him anyway, right?

[Keith Morrison]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

David's second wife filed for divorce. She told us David prioritized his kids over their marriage, and that took a toll on their relationship. Back in Tennessee, DA Goodman was quietly building his case. Though investigators did pay David a visit.

[Keith Morrison]

They came to see him and asked for his fingerprints. He wasn't home at the time. I think he met them at City Hall, I think, and willingly gave his fingerprints and did what he needed to do and whatever they needed. He was very cooperative.

[Lester Holt]

And that was that.

[Keith Morrison]

M. That was that.

[Lester Holt]

In 2022, District Attorney Danny Goodman was up for reelection. And. But wouldn't you know, his opponent decided to make an issue out of the fact that the biggest murder in town was still unsolved under Goodman's watch.

[Keith Morrison]

There was actually a district attorney's race where the other guy said he supports swift justice. So he didn't mention Karen by name.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, didn't have to.

[Keith Morrison]

But it was apparent that he was trying to say that he would seek justice in the Karen Swift case.

[Lester Holt]

Goodman won reelection, and days later, he decided it was time to take his shot on the Karen Swift case.

[Keith Morrison]

So much time had passed that you start losing witnesses. And we had one of the investigators that was a lead investigator who died during that period of time. We had a few witnesses who had health issues.

[Lester Holt]

You way much like you're not going to have a case at all, right?

[Keith Morrison]

That was the concern.

[Lester Holt]

On August 8, 2022, David was pulled over by police. They handcuffed him, took him into custody. He was charged with first degree murder. How did you find out that your dad had been arrested?

[Keith Morrison]

I was at work, and I remember somebody coming to get me and saying that my stepmom was on the phone. Didn't know why she was calling because at this point you weren't speaking. I picked it up and she let me know that he had been arrested. I knew that my sister was now at home alone. So I got in the car and went straight home. I was very distraught, trying to figure out what we were going to do.

[Lester Holt]

Do you think there's any chance in the world that your dad killed your mom? Any chance at all? Just one little inkling of suspicion sometimes.

[Keith Morrison]

I do not. No.

[Lester Holt]

You don't have any doubts at all?

[Keith Morrison]

I don't.

[Lester Holt]

For years, Robin hadn't been able to make up her mind about what happened to her friend.

[Keith Morrison]

And I thought you got premeditated first degree murder. I just knew they have it. They've got something I don't know. Or that none of us know. And all these rumors are finally going to be put to rest.

[Lester Holt]

Karen's friend Angie Gallagher always believed David was the one responsible for the murder and and held onto faith he'd be arrested.

[Keith Morrison]

I knew that Sheriff Box and his team were working on it very diligently. Eventually the job would get done.

[Lester Holt]

I imagine it must have been pretty good to hear that they had charged the husband, David. Well, it was, yeah. It has not been much fun for you in the last few years. Well, it hasn't been fun for me for 12 years. Yeah.

[Keith Morrison]

Every morning I get up, I think about this.

[Lester Holt]

What's going to happen today to make.

[Keith Morrison]

This thing go away?

[Lester Holt]

Who's going to be indicted, who's going to be arrested? Waiting and waiting and waiting. David could no longer afford a private attorney. So he was assigned a court appointed lawyer named Daniel Taylor.

[Keith Morrison]

There were a lot of documents, 20,000 documents.

[Lester Holt]

From what we were told, Taylor set out to acquaint himself with the evidence. And what stood out to him right away was David's bad knee. He had major surgery in April 2011 and then re injured it about a week before Halloween.

[Keith Morrison]

They indicated that it was painful and that it would make it difficult for him to move around. That doesn't mean he was absolutely paralyzed, but it did affect his ability to move and walk.

[Lester Holt]

Robin remembers seeing David on Halloween the day after Karen vanished.

[Keith Morrison]

He was on crutches at that time time so he wasn't able to walk up and down the neighborhood like we were going to with the girls. So he dropped them off and he looked horrible.

[Lester Holt]

Murder his wife, ditch her car, toss her phones, carry her body and then dump it and clean up any evidence. David Swift was in no condition to do that at least that's what his defense attorney thought. And even though it had taken over a decade, Taylor thought this was a rush to judgment. All that attention from podcasters, the media, the community was just too much pressure on DA Goodman.

[Keith Morrison]

It became an election year issue. No Swift justice talking about the Swift case and criticizing the DA's office. Now, I believe that Danny Goodman is an honorable person. The purpose of bringing that up is to talk about if there's pressure to do something. Pressure about doing something, about making a decision, is it the right decision?

[Lester Holt]

Heather Cohen had been an advocate for David's innocence, but now some people blamed her for David's arrest.

[Keith Morrison]

I was told that it seemed that that was what aroused them to go after David the way that they did. It was a cold case. And I think that because I was exposing some things that they didn't want exposed, I believe that they retaliated by pushing back on David Swift.

[Lester Holt]

The DA denied that, of course. Instead he got ready to tell his to a jury and, well, maybe he had a good case after all.

[Keith Morrison]

I followed the trial.

[Lester Holt]

I was like, oh, that's some new evidence.

[Keith Morrison]

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[Lester Holt]

13 years after Karen Swift was killed, gossip and rumors were still swirling in Dyer County. So when David Swift's murder trial began In May of 2024, it was moved to a different town.

[Keith Morrison]

State of Tennessee versus David Swift, indictment for first degree premeditated murder.

[Lester Holt]

Very first thing. Prosecutor Goodman warned the jury this would not be some CSI extravaganza.

[Keith Morrison]

This is not one of the cases where you're going to see positive DNA results. You are not going to see fingerprint analysis. We will, however, give you several pieces of a puzzle. And when we get through giving you all of those, you're going to see that complete picture of exactly what happened to Karen Swift. Our plan was to show the jury that it was impossible for anyone else to have committed this crime. No one else had the motive to do it. No one else had the opportunity to do it.

[Lester Holt]

Motive was a big focus for the prosecutors. They believed David was angry and controlling when it came to Karen. Her friend Kathy Bona testified that David hounded Karen when the two women were out together.

[Keith Morrison]

There was one night we were hanging out on my porch and he called 25 times. In what period of time? 30 minutes.

[Lester Holt]

She told the jury about another incident. After a day she spent shopping with.

[Keith Morrison]

Karen, he yelled at her in the parking lot and, like, slammed his hand against the car window and was accusing her of things that she was sneaking around. You're lying.

[Lester Holt]

Karen's relationship with Kathy and her husband had been the subject of species speculation for years. And Kathy testified there was nothing at all to that talk. The prosecutor asked her about that night that David found Karen in her bed naked.

[Keith Morrison]

So we had gone out to dinner with some friends, and again we came back home and a couple people had gotten in the hot tub. Said, I'm tired. I'm gonna go to bed. So I proceeded to go into the bedroom, put on my pajamas and get under the covers and go to sleep. She was again, feeling a little lightheaded, had a towel wrapped around her and laid down on the other side of the bed. You were under the covers? I was. And was she under the covers with you?

[Lester Holt]

She was not totally innocent, she said. But David's reaction was over the top.

[Keith Morrison]

He accused her of lots of things. Sleeping with me, being a doing, being drunk, lots of things. Was very angry.

[Lester Holt]

Bill Bona also testified. He said Karen was their Good friend, nothing more.

[Keith Morrison]

Did you have a romantic relationship with Ms. Swift? No.

[Lester Holt]

And the night Robin saw him with Karen after she stumbled out of the hot tub, he testified he was just trying to help.

[Keith Morrison]

And at that point in time, one of her friends was coming in from behind me. And I said, well, you know, let me get you a towel.

[Lester Holt]

Jason Creasy was also Karen's divorce lawyer. A divorce the state contended David didn't want and couldn't afford.

[Keith Morrison]

We were asking for her to get half of the house sold and for her to have half the equity. And it came out where he would have to pay $1,408 per month in child support.

[Lester Holt]

Prosecutors played David's interviews with police to show how he talked about his missing wife. She was.

[Keith Morrison]

Had passed down on the porch in her own vomit. I looked down, I noticed her panties were in the floorboard.

[Lester Holt]

David, they believe, wanted to give the impression that a drunk. Karen, most likely went out to meet someone in the dead of night. But the prosecution argued that just didn't happen. She'd returned from that Halloween party, remember, brought her daughter home. Assistant DA Tim Box.

[Keith Morrison]

She comes back home. It's 208.

[Lester Holt]

Prosecutors believe she went right to bed and to sleep. And detectives found a sleep aid on her bedside table. The drug showed up on her autopsy report.

[Keith Morrison]

I did argue to the jury that she took something to sleep when she got home and went to bed.

[Lester Holt]

Further proof she was sleeping. Prosecutors said both her phones were inactive in the hours after 2am David said he was sleeping, too, but they had that evidence from his computer showing someone used it around 3am so we know.

[Keith Morrison]

That he was awake at that time, and he was accessing photos of Karen, deleting photos of Karen.

[Lester Holt]

So what happened in the Swift home the night Karen was killed? Prosecutors had a theory, and it had nothing to do with. With the buried barbell. They said David's rage built and built and built until he decided to end his anguish and his marriage. Once Karen and Ashley were both asleep, they believed David came in and picked up Ashley and carried her to another room.

[Keith Morrison]

And then we felt that David Swift somehow got Karen Swift into the garage. Garage. Once inside the garage, the defendant stomped Karen on her head with such violence that it caved her skull in and it caused shards of broken bone to enter her brain. I followed the trial. The prosecutor said that David Swift stomped Karen Swift's head.

[Lester Holt]

And I was like, oh, that's some new evidence.

[Keith Morrison]

I've never heard that.

[Lester Holt]

The state described a premeditated violent murder followed by a careful and thorough cleanup and cover up. Goodman and Box knew that offense was going to claim that David's bad knee made it impossible for him to have committed this crime. But they had an answer for that ready. He would very publicly hobble around on crutches and pretend to be injured so people would think that healer, there's no way that he could kill his wife. Yes, he'd had surgery earlier that year, they said, but the story about injuring it, again, that was a lie. David's neighbor, who lent the Swifts hay for a Halloween hayride, testified that David seemed fine to him that weekend.

[Keith Morrison]

David helped me unload the hay. Was he using crutches? I never seen no crutches on Saturday.

[Lester Holt]

Fakery, said the prosecution, that he started planning weeks before the murder.

[Keith Morrison]

We felt like that the knee injury was a part of the plan from the very beginning to show that it was impossible he could have committed this crime because he was injured and couldn't walk at the time.

[Lester Holt]

So we see him on crutches in the police station. That's just a ruse. That's just a costume he's wearing.

[Keith Morrison]

There were times that he was using crutches, and then there were times that he was not.

[Lester Holt]

Sadly, the state ended with what it felt was its strongest evidence. Karen's phones, the ones that were found in that field. The state told the jury that Karen's secret phone was connected to the Swift House wi fi and someone called voicemail at 9:55am that Saturday morning. That's after Karen went missing.

[Keith Morrison]

We know there was only one adult.

[Lester Holt]

In the swift home at 9:55 in the morning, and that adult was David Swift, which meant to prosecutors, David must have been the one to dump the phones.

[Keith Morrison]

We felt that that was going to be the nail in the coffin. It was something that we felt like there was no other explanation of how that could have happened.

[Lester Holt]

But of course, that wasn't the whole story. David Swift had important defenders, including those who loved him and Karen, the mother most.

[Keith Morrison]

I'm having to testify for my dad's innocence about my dead mother.

[Lester Holt]

What a grizzly story.

[Keith Morrison]

The state told the defendant stomped Karen on her head was such violence that it caved her skull in.

[Lester Holt]

That theory came from the medical examiner, but at the exact time prosecutor Goodman was describing it to the jury, the M.E. emailed to say he had changed his mind.

[Keith Morrison]

We received an email at that time saying that's not what he thought was going to be the cause of death.

[Lester Holt]

Wow. I've heard of awkward timing, but that takes the cake.

[Keith Morrison]

It was very difficult.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Keith Morrison]

And we were concerned.

[Lester Holt]

So that brutal theory was just that, a theory.

[Keith Morrison]

Prosecutor is saying to you that he took her out in the garage and stomped her head.

[Lester Holt]

There's no physical evidence in the garage.

[Keith Morrison]

There's no blood in the garage.

[Lester Holt]

The defense also argued that the state's claim about Karen's phone being used inside the Swift home after she disappeared was based on unreliable evidence. In fact, no proof became a theme of Daniel Taylor's defense.

[Keith Morrison]

There was no physical proof in the house, in the garage, in the car, on her, on him. It just didn't add up.

[Lester Holt]

Rather than the angry stalker described by the state, the defense said David Swift was just worried about his wife.

[Keith Morrison]

You're in a relationship, and somebody you believe is not being honest with you, you check on them, you ask them questions.

[Lester Holt]

There's no violence. The defense said David was not capable of violence. His bad knee made that impossible.

[Keith Morrison]

I do.

[Lester Holt]

His physical therapist took the stand. Didn't you indicate that he would have.

[Keith Morrison]

Extreme difficulty walking and lifting?

[Lester Holt]

Oh, yes.

[Keith Morrison]

He definitely had limitation, and he had pain. Several witnesses testified that he actually had the injury, and he was being treated for it even months after this.

[Lester Holt]

It was, said defense attorney Taylor, a classic case of tunnel vision by law enforcement. One of the issues you raised was that the investigators didn't look into possible suspects. Who did you have in mind? Any particular persons?

[Keith Morrison]

There was an issue with Mr. Hogshooter that lived on the same street and, you know, about poisoning the dog.

[Lester Holt]

Police had cleared Hogshooter, but the defense said there were other possible suspects, like the man Karen met when she was at a concert with her friends, the Bonas. And on cross examination, the defense asked Kathy Bona about that.

[Keith Morrison]

From that, they started having contacts.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, He's a gentleman who has a.

[Keith Morrison]

Corvette and a bar in his house. Yep.

[Lester Holt]

Another mysterious suspect emerged during testimony from someone who passed Karen's abandoned car the morning she disappeared.

[Keith Morrison]

Did you see a person there yesterday? We thought maybe he was hunting, so we slowed down. And whenever we slowed down, he put a pistol on the hood of the car.

[Lester Holt]

How would you describe him?

[Keith Morrison]

He was tall, and he had dark hair.

[Lester Holt]

And of course, there was Darryl Sells, the suspect in Heather Cohen's blogs and podcasts. The defense called the three witnesses who told Heather they saw cells at the crime scene with a metal detector. Before Karen was found, I observed something that was out of the ordinary. One of them was David Swift's son, Dustin. I noticed somebody randomly standing in the ditch with a metal detector. He said he had lost his Watch. And if I'm not mistaken, when I.

[Keith Morrison]

Look down, he's got a watch on his wrist.

[Lester Holt]

And I thought it was very odd. Two neighbors of the Swifts also testified to seeing Daryl Sells at the same location, just on the side of the road.

[Keith Morrison]

I thought. I wondered why he was there.

[Lester Holt]

And the person you saw near the cross that day, what was his name?

[Keith Morrison]

Mr. Darrell Sales.

[Lester Holt]

Ashley Swift also took the stand.

[Keith Morrison]

I remember feeling very emotional. I'm having to testify for my dad's innocence about my dead mother.

[Lester Holt]

I don't think anybody could possibly understand it. Besides you?

[Keith Morrison]

I don't think so. Are you related to David and Karen Swift? Yes. I have no daughter. And how old are you now? I'm 22. I'm sorry. It's all right. We're good.

[Lester Holt]

As he watched his daughter, David Swift wept. Ashley composed herself and described the final moments she spent with her mother. How old were you back then?

[Keith Morrison]

I was nine. And were you close to your mother? I was very close to her. Do you recall everything about that night? Yeah. We came into the house and we went to sleep in her bedroom. Me and her went to sleep in the bed.

[Lester Holt]

Did you aware of being moved or.

[Keith Morrison]

Your mother getting up? Yes. I remember her moving me in the middle of the night to my sister's room. You recall it being your mother that moved you? I know it was her. It was just instinct to know what your mother feels like.

[Lester Holt]

Who moved Ashley was a very important issue. Innocent enough if it was her mom. But the state claimed it was David getting Ashley out of the way before.

[Keith Morrison]

Murdering Karen, I would know it was her.

[Lester Holt]

Sure.

[Keith Morrison]

After all this time of not feeling her, touching her, smelling her, I would know it was her.

[Lester Holt]

That was the last time you felt her too?

[Keith Morrison]

It was.

[Lester Holt]

According to the defense, David slept through the night. He did not move. Ashley did not use his computer. That must have been Karen. Whatever happened that terrible night, the defense said David Swift had nothing to do with it.

[Keith Morrison]

I don't know what happened, but there is no proof to support the state's theory in this case.

[Lester Holt]

After the defense rested, the prosecution got one more chance with the jury.

[Keith Morrison]

Only one person on the planet had the motive, the means and most importantly, the opportunity to kill Karen Swift. He was fine with being in a marriage that was a marriage in name only. Karen was not.

[Lester Holt]

And David killed her for it. After five days of testimony, the lawyers were finished. Up to the jury now to decide. Gotta have butterflies in your stomach, that's for sure.

[Keith Morrison]

It was a very long couple days of waiting.

[Lester Holt]

She was powerless now, as she waited for 12 strangers to decide the fate of her father, Ashley Swift, in a stew of anxiety.

[Keith Morrison]

We're all sitting there trying to speculate what they're thinking, but we don't know what they're thinking in there.

[Lester Holt]

You gotta have butterflies in your stomach, that's for sure.

[Keith Morrison]

It was a very long couple days of waiting.

[Lester Holt]

Prosecutors Danny Goodman and Tim Box couldn't help but speculate, too. They felt confident in their circumstantial case, but they felt there was more to David Swift than what they were able to present to the jury.

[Keith Morrison]

David had gotten into some trouble in Alabama.

[Lester Holt]

In July 2023, while awaiting trial for Karen's murder, David was out on bail and was allowed to go back home to Alabama. That's where his ex wife Kelly still lived. Kelly contacted Karen's friend Angie.

[Keith Morrison]

David's second wife was asking me about things like did he do this and that to Karen like he was doing to her? And what that involved was like putting a tracker on her vehicle, calling her all the time, never leaving her alone.

[Lester Holt]

David was wearing an ankle monitor, and authorities could see he was near Kelly's house late at night.

[Keith Morrison]

The police department notified her that he had been stalking her. And she looked at her security camera and she actually caught him leaping over her fence.

[Lester Holt]

David was charged with first degree stalking in Alabama. He pleaded not guilty. His bond on the murder charge was revoked, and he was sent back to a Tennessee jail. The prosecutors knew the stalking case would be inadmissible in the murder trial, so the jurors never heard about that. They deliberated for one day and then two. Ready to go, ready for the jury. The jurors sent a note to the judge. They had made up their minds, sort of.

[Keith Morrison]

Does the jury agree on the highest level of offense that the defendant is either guilty or not guilty? Yes.

[Lester Holt]

What is the.

[Keith Morrison]

What is the verdict in that?

[Lester Holt]

Not guilty, not guilty of first degree murder and not guilty of second degree murder. The charges that carried a possible life sentence. There was another charge, voluntary manslaughter, which carries a penalty of three to six years. Did the jury believe David had killed Karen in the heat of passion?

[Keith Morrison]

Has the jury found the defendant not guilty of voluntary manslaughter? There was no agreement. No agreement.

[Lester Holt]

A hung jury. The judge declared a mistrial. What is that like as you're sitting there after having put all that time and effort into this case?

[Keith Morrison]

Extremely frustrating. Tim and I will not prosecute a case against a person unless we have no doubt that we're prosecuting the right person. It's a hard pill to swallow. It just tore at all of our hearts knowing that we had not got justice for Karen.

[Lester Holt]

David Swift has been acquitted of murder and cannot be tried again. But DA Goodman re indicted him on the manslaughter charge. A new trial date hasn't been set.

[Keith Morrison]

My dad still wasn't coming home.

[Lester Holt]

For now, David is still behind bars. He's facing those stalking charges in Alabama, too. How's he doing in there? Can you tell?

[Keith Morrison]

I think he tries to stay positive as much as he can, but obviously he feels like he's missing out on a lot. I just finished school and my sister graduated high school and started college. And I think that's hard for him.

[Lester Holt]

Hard for you, too, I would think. Yes, it's been a hard road for the Swift children, but they're finding a way through. Ashley went to college and works as a dental hygienist. She's still living in Alabama.

[Keith Morrison]

This has been over a decade going on, and obviously I want justice for my mom and I want my dad home, but I want to live a normal life.

[Lester Holt]

So no real ending for now. Except one big change. Bitter enemies. Heather Cohen and Daryl Sells agree about one thing. They're both looking forward to the retrial.

[Keith Morrison]

I want him to be found not guilty so that they can go back and get on the right track.

[Lester Holt]

If he is convicted, will all this stuff go away, do you think?

[Keith Morrison]

Well, I think it will because they'll shut. They'll shut up. Yeah. If he's found guilty on manslaughter, I think it will quieten everything down and that'll be some kind of a closure to this case.

[Lester Holt]

Closure. Wouldn't that be nice? But after all this time, some of Karen's friends are more confused than ever about what happened to her.

[Keith Morrison]

I don't see how they can convict him on what they have. I just don't feel like it is strong enough to say that he did this. I don't know whether David killed her. I don't know. I don't want to have an opinion on it anymore. I just want her to be able to rest. I want her kids to be able to rest. I want, you know, I want justice for her. And I don't know that that's ever going to come.

[Lester Holt]

They're trying to make peace with the not knowing. And they cherish what's left, memories of the Karen they loved, the spitfire friend who was up for anything with her kids in tow.

[Keith Morrison]

And that's something that I want everyone to know. She was a wonderful mother. My mom was that mom that went to every single game, every cheer thing, every dance competition.

[Lester Holt]

She loved being a mom.

[Keith Morrison]

Yes, she did. She loved being a mom. I miss her. She's just. She deserves to be here. And whoever took her, I hope they get what they deserve.

[Lester Holt]

That's all for this edition of dateline. And check out our talking Dateline podcast. Keith Morrison and Blaine Alexander will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the DATELINE feed. Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.

[Keith Morrison]

True crime podcasts, there is no shortage to consume. And if you're like me, you've consumed them all. I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, we cover a case in a way that's not like you've heard before, because I have built a one of a kind team of investigative journalists dedicated to conducting original reporting, making sure that you get the inside scoop. Listen to hundreds of Crime Junkie episodes now. Wherever you get your podcasts.