Dateline NBC - After the Halloween Party

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

After a Halloween party at a country club, a wife and mother of four vanishes. Nearly a decade later, a private investigator claims to uncover chilling new clues that turn the town upside down. Keith Morrison reports.

Tonight on Date Live. 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 her 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 can 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. stirred up the Hornet's Nest. There's a huge swinger community here.

People involved are in some pretty high positions. She came right out and said your family was responsible. 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. A mother vanishes just before Halloween, the chilling case that's still haunting detectives. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Date Line. 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. Dyersburg is a very small town, also really good at keeping secrets. It was October 29th, 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. I would say there's probably a couple hundred people there. 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? It was at the farms, which is a country club in Dyersburg,

and almost everyone was in costume. Including a woman named Karen Swift. Charismatic Karen. Life of the party, usually. What was she wearing? 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. 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 Gurian. She just said she wasn't having a good time, and she called her friend Jenny Gurian. She just said she wasn't having a good time. And I told her to go sit at the bar and I said, just get you a drink.

And she said, Jenny, I just don't want to be here. 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 Bonas 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. I was at a friend's house and I wanted to come home. You were at a sleepover and there were like three girls there and they were kind of making you feel like the one left out, right? Yes. That feels crappy, doesn't it? It does. So, Mom Karen wasn't the only third wheel.

You called your mom then, huh? Is that what happened? She did come pick me up and we went home. David Swift stayed up to make sure his wife and daughter got home safely, which they did after 2 a.m. 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?

When I woke up that morning, it was a slow morning. It wouldn't be slow for long. David and the girls woke up around 10 a.m. 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? 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.

Karen didn't answer several texts and calls that morning. So David and Karen's friends, the Bonas, called the Dyer County Sheriff's Office. Terry McCright is chief investigator. One of your deputies went to have a look at the car, right? Yes. He noticed there was some article, clothing, and just personal items that was inside the car. 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? She would have had it farther up because she wasn't as tall as that. So he did say the seat had been moved to the rear.

That afternoon, Karen's friend Jenny was at home in Lexington, Tennessee when she got a call. 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. Hiding? Why would a mother of four be hiding? Good question. One of many to come. She just disappears and nobody has any idea what happened to her. It was a very strange missing persons case. There would be an avalanche of rumors.

Rumors travel fast, sometimes in our county. And accusations. These people have got to pay for the lies they told about my family. And stories of lewd, all too public behavior. There's a huge swinger community here. There are people involved in some pretty high positions in this town. Strange bedfellows. You could say that.

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 Elford. 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? Where's mama? Yeah. Yes, and I just said, honey, she'll be here when she gets here.

Well, his kids went trick-or-treating. David told Robin he'd keep driving around, looking for his wife. Did he seem terribly distraught? He did. I could tell by the look in his eyes he was just physically looked just beaten and then emotionally as well. What a strange night that must have been. I think that I was trying to just give us a sense of normalcy. Halloween is my least favorite holiday now. 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. If anyone has any information about her, please, please let us know. We wanna know she's okay. And I love you, Mom. Angie Gallaher became friends with Karen when the Swift's lived in Arkansas and was desperate to do something.

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

And of course the sheriff's investigators were learning everything they could about Karen Swift. She was a beautiful mom, beautiful person, beautiful friend. Karen was a stay at home mom who didn't really care much for staying at home. 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. Up for anything apparently, huh? Up for anything. Including 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 me and said the girls want to do something fun and they thought it would be fun to go and roll your house. So you came home to toilet paper all over the trees, eh? 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.

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. He was a good dad. He loved his kids very, very much and had good relationships with them. Karen told friends how much she wanted her kids to live in a happy home, something she said she didn't have growing up. She said, all I want is a white house and a white picket fence and to go to church. That's all I want. But perfect lives and white picket fences are often more ideal than real. 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. 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. That's probably why they moved from Arkansas, is to get out of that situation, maybe have a new beginning.

But their fresh start wasn't easy. Robin watched firsthand as the relationship started to sour again. She told him in front of me, I don't love you anymore, David. I don't want to be married. Something big happened there. Why? Something big happened there. 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. That's what it kind of seemed like to me. When the case landed on Sheriff Jeff Box's desk, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. Most cases where wife comes up missing.

You know who the most likely suspect is. Look at the husband first. That's Police Work 101. It was time to talk to David Swift. I just want her to come home and to be a mother. 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.

What happened to you, man? Well, I had knee surgery. What happened to you, man? Well, I had knee surgery. It's been giving me a lot of problems. David said he wanted to help any way he could. I'm willing to do whatever I can to help and find her. I just want her home safely. He opened up to investigators about his relationship with Karen and their four kids and their 22-year

history of ups and downs. We were having issues and I screwed up. Our person screwed up. What kind of issues? We need to know. Oh yeah, well I had... Just tell me. I had an affair.

He told them about the divorce, followed by reconciliation. We were married probably six years and Karen had an affair. And now after their fresh start in Dyersburg, Karen was pulling away. 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. Perhaps that's why Karen did what she did just a few weeks earlier, file for divorce.

How did that make you feel then? Yeah, I was angry. I was mad. I was hurt. 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. We had a hayride and stuff for the kids and I mean even under the circumstances we've been still trying to be there you know for the kids and still communicating. The morning before she disappeared, said David, she was helping out at a habitat for humanity house and he went to see her.

I took her something to drink and I even did what I could around there to help with the pot, big screws or whatever. Then later when Karen got home he said she told him she was going out with her friends Kathy and Bill. And I said, um, so are you going to a costing party or what are you doing or you all having a party? And she said, no, I'm, a costing party, or what are you doing, are you all having a party? She said, no, I'm just going to Kathy's. David said Karen had been going out a lot lately. And the next time he heard from Karen, he said, was well after midnight. She said, I'm going to get Ashley,

I'm gonna put her in bed with me. I said, okay, I'll leave the door. He was a little worried about that because he knew she must have been drinking. Was there any kind of argument or anything down? No. I just um, I was very brief. I questioned Karen about driving and getting her. I said you know if you can't drive I'll get Ashley and that was all the conversation was. You know as soon as I realized that Ashley and they were in safe I went back upstairs and went to bed.

And when he woke up the next morning, Karen was gone. What do you think, in your mind, what do you think is 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, let's take this also into consideration. What if she has left with somebody? How are you going to take that?

I just want her to come home and to be a mother. If 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 it'd be harder So maybe she was off with a new love interest or maybe she had been picked up by a stranger and Then David had one more idea Has anyone talked with them? And Paul shooter John hog shooter the Swift's neighbor John Hogshooter, the Swifts' neighbor. Covering all the bases also just ordered, come home.

Not long after that conversation, deputies arrived to the Swift home. They went from room to room to room and looked at every little thing, but... We didn't find any evidence for anything inside the house. They also searched David's car. 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?

And then they got to the backyard. There were bleach bottles in the backyard, empty bleach bottles. That definitely got investigators' attention. The Swift's 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. 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. 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. Stories started coming out, she's married, and she's hanging out with swingers, so that was shocking. 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. The phones were stomped and damaged and so, but they did admit some data that morning. The findings of which would become very important to investigators. But what was extra curious was that odd location. They were near the property but not on Hog Shooter's property itself. That is John Hog Shooter, the Swift's neighbor, the man David had told investigators about. You know, I mean, everybody's scared to death in the neighborhood. Investigators had already heard an alarming story about how Hog Shooter 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? Yes, we did. What'd he tell you? He told us that he didn't have any connection. Well, he said he got tired of 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. My family is standing behind me, and we're just going to trust in God that this is gonna be over with and she's gonna come home safely.

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. We're just very concerned about Karen right now. We want our safe return. 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 a lot. When we lived, the first thing we did over there, and that's when Karen really started changing and doing all kinds of stuff. Stuff, he said, was worrying him. Like how Karen had recently started leaving the house at all hours of the night, said David.

He was about 9.30 one night and Karen was sneaking out of the door. He went outside and said, Karen, where you going? He said most of it happened with Karen's friends, the Bonas. They had a hot tub and liked to host parties. And one night... I could see Karen was in the bed here and I went over there to the caberoo's and I pulled him back.

She did have a towel but she was totally naked. Naked and in a bed with Kathy. I asked her, I want you in bed naked with Kathy. Karen I ask your appointment in bed naked with Cathy? Karen's friend Robin reported the same sort of thing. Different night. What did you see? 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. Still no clothes on? No. Oh, boy. So I needed to walk in and check and just

make sure that she was OK. What happened when you got in there? What did you see? I witnessed Mr. Bono 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. How did David react to all this? 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. 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 was hanging around

with a really wild crowd. 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, so that was shocking. Shocking or 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? What happened was years ago, there was a Pinkoodle Club, allegedly in Dyersburg. Pink Poodle Club really is like just a synonym for swingers now. Jason Creasy, one of the hosts of that Halloween party, has lived in Dyersburg for more than two decades. I think that in almost any town, there's some facet of swingers.

I would not say that Dyersburg is out of the way. 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. 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. But her family was struggling with this new Karen. Was she out at night a lot eventually?

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. And she would go anyway? She would, and that was not like her at all. But to be gone for days without word to anyone? That made no sense to 9-year-old Ashley. I felt very confused.

I thought, you know, my mom will just come home later. But the reality started setting in of, okay, nobody's heard from her. And that's when I began to worry. Somewhere in her child's mind, she knew they all did, the awful truth they would be forced to face. He just looked at me and he said, Jenny, they found her.

With each passing day and no news of Karen, her family and friends were enveloped by the fear of exactly what her absence meant. 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 girls trick or treating. Before they knew it, it was Thanksgiving. I cried for hours thinking, what if Karen is out there? She has no way to communicate to anybody on where she is at. 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. You know, the time she came up missing in October, you know, we probably had waist-high kudzu vines. And when December the 10th, as it got colder, the kudzu had subsided, so it made her body visible.

She's there with just on her underclothes. Here we're 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. Jenny's husband gave her the news. 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. Do you remember hearing when they found your mother's body? I don't remember the exact day of 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.

At that age, how hard does that hit? 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 there for all of that. And the whole family, how was everybody coping?

You know, my dad just tried to always stay strong for us. Investigators processed the scene. Karen's remains were sent for an autopsy. What were their findings? There was blunt force trauma. Any evidence of sexual assault? No. No. So, whoever left her there, left her there in her underwear and that was assault? No. No. So whoever left her there left her there in

her underwear and that was that? Yes. 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? They did come in for an interview and they gave an interview, Bill and Kathy. Investigators learned something interesting. That second phone found near Hog Shooter's place, that was Karen's and it was given to her by the Bonas. 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. 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? Well, that's what he said. I mean, here's the thing.

We weren't here to investigate her private life. We were here to investigate a homicide. For one thing, police didn't think the bonus had anything to do with Karen's disappearance. And police knew all about the rumors in town. I never found it to be true that she participated in a fiend 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. No, their investigation was not focusing in on what Karen was doing outside her marriage, but rather on the man she was married to. Everything that we saw and discovered pointed straight at him. 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. I asked her, I want you in bed to make me a coffee. And he went on and on about how much she had started drinking recently.

There would be times that somebody would have to drive Karen home, or I'd have to go get her and drop her home they called 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. Like that business about Karen's secret phone.

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. So he did know. He did know. Had they caught him in a lie?

Well, maybe. But more importantly, investigators were zeroing in on the 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. It was so frustrating year after year, and there was still not an arrest made.

Ashley went through her adolescence motherless. 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. 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. I came in and I stirred up the hornet's nest. Oh boy. Wine improves with age. Murder investigations generally not. 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. 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 OK with the idea that he would marry another woman? Obviously, she wasn't my mom, but I wanted my dad to be happy. How involved was your dad in your life during those years in Alabama? He was very involved. I mean, he was very, very supportive and very encouraging. 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. It was a cold case. It wasn't going anywhere. 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. We will stand for what is right because we are the justice warriors. 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.

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. Strange bedfellows. You could say that. 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. The people needed somebody to come in from the outside and to be their voice. 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? Initially, we believe that David Swift did it. I mean, that's what makes sense. 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 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. Yeah, well, sometimes love leads to things, as you know. I understand. But I just don't feel that. 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 Cotermas. A close friend of Karen's told me that she knew about the affair between Bentley and Karen. 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. 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. Looking into Bente and Dina would end up being the most consequential decision of her career because it led her to Dina's father, Darrell Sells, a wealthy businessman. Learning all about him became Heather's obsession. I went in the direction that the leads took me, and they just kept pouring in. One of the leads came from witnesses who said they saw Darrell's cells poking around the crime scene with a metal detector before Karen's body was discovered.

Heather recorded interviews with the witnesses. 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 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 is the sheriff's office? It is.

I'm telling enough for Karen Swift. 5.3 miles west, very 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're going to line up. Why is he calling and leading them to the body? Soon, Heather was convinced Darryl Sells

was engaged in a huge cover-up to protect his own family. The theory that I came up with from my investigation is that Darryl was using his money and his power to divert the investigation and keep it off of his daughter and son-in-law. Yes, it was just a theory, but that didn't stop Heather. She continued doing podcasts about the cells. Dina does come from a very prominent family, and her father is,

let's just say, very well politically connected. And pretty soon, people in Dyersburg knew all about Heather's theories. As far as our investigation is concerned, we have very different suspects than law enforcement. I came in and I stirred up a hornet's nest. She stirred up a 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. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Heather Cohen thought she'd found the key to unlock the Karen Swift murder mystery. There was lead after lead after lead that pointed in the direction of the Sells family.

Heather's theory about the murder started with the tip alleging that Karen Swift was having an affair with Darryl 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.

False. But what do you think of that? How did he react to that? Well, it hurts your feelings that, you know, that are just going to talk lies about you and your family. Another of Heather's lies, according to Dina, was that story about a supposed fight between her and Karen at the Halloween party. It just didn't happen. I mean, that's all I can say and do. I can't understand still how we got drug into this.

It's just something of a made-up lifetime movie, what it feels like. Dena told us she and Bentley didn't even know Karen Swift. People say lies and just vicious things about us for no reason. But what about those witnesses who said Dena's father, Darryl Selves, was poking around the crime scene with a metal detector? Ridiculous, said Dina. 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. Heather also fixed on that strange call to the sheriff's office, directing them to Karen's body. Yeah, I've told them enough for Karen Swift. 5.3 miles west, very dishevelled grave. Darrell's son Darren has listened to it more than once. 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. Heather didn't offer proof it was Sel's voice.

It was just her opinion after listening to it. Sheriff Box knows Darryl Selz and came to a different conclusion. We know it's not him. Now she's a legend it is. She has no proof. We don't believe it's him. If you're an out of town P.I. 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 ninth-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 successful far beyond my means 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 part in my branch, but I've never... He's never owned an electrician. I don't even know how to operate one. When Darryl heard about the allegations, he called Heather and gave her a piece of his mind.

You are spreading some sh-t around my family. No, sir. Yes, you are. I'm gonna fix your ass before it's over with. Okay. You lying f-cking people don't need to be there like you're doing. I'm lied about nothing. He belittles me, he demeans me, he puts me down.

It's okay, I don't care much for him either. 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 and I'd still like to do that tell you the truth about it. Did he always handle himself the best way? Why no he did not but that's his inner I'm gonna protect my family coming out. Your dad is a fighter he's kind of an unfiltered guy isn't he? Well just a little. I don't know maybe it's me maybe it's my makeup but I

can't get this off my mind. You know, these people have got to pay for the lies they've told about my family. Darryl 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 Darryl 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. What?

Darryl was charged with cyberstalking. So I had to go down there 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 cyber-stalking charge against Darrell Sell's was dismissed, which in Heather's book was just another example of the Sell's family getting favorable treatment in Dyersburg. 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.

In fact, didn't you call this the Sells family sheriff's office? Yes. I said, you need to change the name of the Dyer County Sheriff's Office to the Sells Family Sheriff's Office. Yep. Sheriff Box is not contemplating a name change. Heather Cohen has said all kinds of things about the department, essentially saying that Darryl Sells controls you.

Yes, she's made many, many false statements. Nobody runs us, and when you see her come, she's always troubled. I'll keep going as long as I have to. They messed with the wrong PI. 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? I have no reason to lie. I mean, what am I getting out of this? I don't have a dog in this fight. Heather kicked up a storm all right, got everyone talking. What new secrets about Karen's life would come to light? She would vent to me a lot.

She felt as if she was controlled. 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 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. All the talk even reached Ashley, 300 miles away in Alabama. I do think she has a lot of information. 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. 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. And while Heather said she wasn't hired by Ashley's dad, some of her information did come from David's family. I seen this old man and he had a metal detector. Heather reported talking to three people who said they'd seen Darryl Sells at the crime scene. One of them was Ashley's own brother. That whole business about Darryl Sells, the metal detector, what did you make of all that stuff? 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. 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? Well, she definitely gave me a lot to think about. But whatever people felt about the Heather-Daryl sideshow, Well, she definitely gave me a lot to think about. 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.

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 dunk. But that just didn't exist, apparently. And then, 2020 hit. The thing that actually worked out well for us, 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 dig back into this case. They dusted off 30 large bins, and for a year they poured over it, nine years worth of police reports and transcripts and evidence. Not to mention all the theories and allegations Heather stirred up. Not to mention all the theories and allegations Heather stirred up. There were a lot of rumors and Heather Cohen actually brought a lot of information to me. 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. We investigated everything. We checked out any allegation that was made.

After they spoke to some of Heather's sources, Goodman said, a pattern emerged. Each witness that we would 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. Heather stands by her information. But by the end of it, Goodman said the evidence led him back to the man sheriffs 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 and was going to change things? We did not come across anything that was just the one big thing that's, you know, eye-opening, it was going to change things. We did not come across anything that was just the one big thing, you know, just the aha moment. It was more so of putting a puzzle together. A big piece of which was motive, which David certainly seemed to have in abundance. 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 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. She would vent to me I like she felt as if she was controlled and always expected to let him know where she's at and what she's doing. Maybe David just snapped that night

after the Halloween party. Goodman reviewed David's past interviews against material they had gathered from his computer. David made numerous statements. reviewed David's past interviews against material they had gathered from his computer. David made numerous statements. He went to bed and slept until 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 o'clock in the morning and after.

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 2022, 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 what appears to be a barbell that was in that burn barrel. During an earlier search, they found a single barbell on the Swift's home, but it was missing his 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 recover any kind of usable evidence. Still, to investigate as it begged the question, why is that out there in the burn bell? 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.

She said, well, just tell me again, how come the case hadn't been indicted? And I said, well, you know, Ms. Carroll, the former DA said that we had one shot at 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? What good is that shot if you never take it? What good indeed.

The folks in Dyersburg were more than a little interested in what would happen next. Every morning I get up, I think about this. Who's going to be in Dyer? 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. 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. He tried and she left him anyway, right?

Yes. 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, D.A. Goodman was quietly building his case, though investigators did pay David a visit. They came to see him and asked for his fingerprints.

He was at 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. And that was that? Mm-hmm. That was that. In 2022, District Attorney Danny Goodman

was up for re-election, and 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. 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. But it was apparent that he was trying to say that he would seek justice in the Karen Swift case. Goodman won re-election, and days later he decided it was time to take his shot on the Karen Swift case.

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. You'd wait much longer, you're not gonna have a case at all. Right, that was the concern. On August 8th, 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? I was at work and I remember somebody coming to get me and saying that my stepmom was on the phone. I 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 not 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.

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? I do not. No. You don't have any doubts at all? I don't. For years, Robin hadn't been able to make up her mind

about what happened to her friend. 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. Karen's friend Angie Gallagher always believed David was the one responsible for the murder

and held onto faith he'd be arrested. I knew that Sheriff Box and his team were working on it very diligently. Eventually, the job would get done. 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. Every morning I get up, I think about this. What's gonna happen today to make this thing go away? Who's gonna be indicted? Who's gonna 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. There were a lot of documents, 20,000 documents, 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. They indicated that it was painful and that it would make it difficult for him to move around.

That didn't mean that he was absolutely paralyzed, but it did affect his ability to move and walk. Robin remembers seeing David on Halloween, the day after Karen vanished. He was on crutches at that 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. 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 D.A. Goodman. It became an election year issue, no swift justice, talking about the swift case, and criticizing the D.A.'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?

Heather Cohen had been an advocate for David's innocence, but now some people blamed her for David's arrest. 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. The DA denied that, of course. Instead, he got ready to tell his case to a jury. And, well, maybe he had a good case after all.

I followed the trial. I was like, oh, that's some new evidence. I've never heard that. 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. State of Tennessee versus David Swift indictment for first degree premeditated murder.

Very first thing, prosecutor Goodman warned the jury this would not be some CSI extravaganza. 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. 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. There was one night we were hanging on my porch and he called 25 times.

In what period of time? 30 minutes. She told the jury about another incident after a day she spent shopping with Karen. He yelled at her in the parking lot and like slammed his hand against the car window and was accusing her of things. She was sneaking around, lying. Karen's relationship with Kathy and her husband had been the subject of 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. 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 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? She was not. Totally innocent, she said. But David's reaction was over the top. He accused her of lots of things, sleeping with me, being a whore, being drunk, lots of things, was very angry. Bill Bona also testified. He said Karen was their good friend, nothing more. Did you have a romantic relationship with Ms. Swift?

No. And the night Robin saw him with Karen after she stumbled out of the hot tub, he testified he was just trying to help. 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. Jason Creasy was also Karen's divorce lawyer. They divorced the state content that David didn't want and couldn't afford.

We were asking for her to get half of that 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. Prosecutors played David's interviews with police to show how he talked about his missing wife. She had passed down on the porch in her own involvement. I looked down on those certain panties

were in the floorboard. David, they believed, wanted were in the floorboard. 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. She comes back home, it's 2 o 8. 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. I did argue to the jury that she took something to sleep when she got home and went to bed. Further proof she was sleeping? Prosecutors said both her phones were inactive in the hours after 2 a.m. David said he was sleeping too, but they had that evidence from his computer showing someone used it around 3 a.m. So we know that he was awake at that time, and he was accessing photos of Karen, deleting photos of Karen. So what happened in the Swift home the night Karen was killed? Prosecutors had a theory and it had nothing to do 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. And then... We felt that David Swift somehow got Karen Swift into the 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. And I was like, oh, that's some new evidence. I've never heard that. The state described a premeditated violent murder followed by a careful and thorough cleanup and cover up. Goodman and Box knew that a fence 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 there was 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 hay ride testified that David seemed fine to him that weekend. David helped me unload the hay. Was he using crutches? I've never seen no crutches on third. Fakery said the prosecution that he started planning weeks before the murder. 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. So we see him on crutches in the police station, that's just a ruse, that's just a costume he's wearing. There were times that he was using crutches and then there were times that he was not. 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 9.55 a.m. that Saturday morning.

That's after Karen went missing. We know there was only one adult 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. 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. But of course, that wasn't the whole story. David Swift had important defenders, including those who loved him and Karen the most. I'm having to testify for my dad's innocence about my dead mother.

What a grisly story the state told. The defendant stomped Karen on her head with such violence that it caved her skull in. That theory came from the medical examiner. But at the exact time prosecutor Goodman was describing it to the jury, the ME emailed to say he had changed his mind. We received an email at that time saying that's not what he thought was going to be the cause of death. Wow. I've heard of awkward timing, but that takes the cake.

It was very difficult. And we were concerned. So that brutal theory was just that, a theory. Prosecutor is saying to you that he took her out in the garage and stomped her head. There's no physical evidence in the garage. There's no blood in the garage and stomped her head. There's no physical evidence in the garage. There's no blood in the garage. 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. There was no physical proof in the house, in the garage, in the car, on her, on him. It just didn't add up. Rather than the angry stalker described by the state, the defense said David Swift was just worried about his wife. You're in a relationship and somebody you believe is not being honest with you, you check on them, you ask them questions, there's no violence.

The defense said David was not capable of violence. His bad knee made that impossible. His physical therapist took the stand. Didn't you indicate that he would have extreme difficulty walking and lifting? Oh, yes. He definitely had a limitation. He had pain. Several witnesses testified that he actually had the injury and he was being treated for it even months after this. 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? There was an issue with Mr. Hog Shooter that lived on the same street and, you know, about poisoning the dog. Police had cleared Hog Shooter, 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. From that, they started having contact. Yes. He's a gentleman who has a Corvette and a bar in his house. Yep. Another mysterious suspect emerged during testimony from someone who passed Karen's abandoned car the morning she disappeared. Did you see a person there? Uh, yesterday. We thought maybe he was hunting, uh, so we slowed down and whenever we slowed down he put

a pistol on the hood of the car. How would you describe him? Um, tall and he had dark hair. And of course there was Daryl Sells, the suspect in Heather Cohen's blogs and podcasts. The defense called the three witnesses who told Heather they saw Sells 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 looked down,

he's got a watch on his wrist. And I thought it was very odd. Two neighbors of the Swift's also testified to seeing Darrell Sells at the same location. Just outside the road, I thought I wanted my hand to start. And the person you saw near the cross that day, what was his name? Mr. Darrell Sells.

Ashley Swift also took the stand. I remember feeling very emotional. I'm having to testify for my dad's innocence about my dead mother. I don't think anybody could possibly understand it besides you. I don't think so. Are understand it besides you. 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 alright. We're good. 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? 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 her bedroom. Me and her went to sleep in the bed. Did you aware of being moved or 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. 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 murdering Karen. I would know it was her. Sure.

After all this time of not feeling her, touching her, smelling her, I would know it was her. That was the last time you felt her too. It was. 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. I don't know what happened, but there is no proof to support the state's theory in this case. After the defense rested, the prosecution got one more chance with the jury. 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, and David killed her for it. After five days of testimony, the lawyers were finished. Up to the jury now to decide. You've got to have butterflies in your stomach, that's for sure. The lawyers were finished. Up to the jury now to decide. You've got to have butterflies in your stomach, that's for sure. It was a very long couple days of waiting. She was powerless now, as she waited for 12 strangers to decide the fate of her father, Ashley Swift, in a stew of anxiety. We're all sitting there trying to speculate what they're thinking, but we don't know

what they're thinking in there. You gotta have butterflies in your stomach, that's for sure. It was a very long couple days of waiting. 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. David had gotten into some trouble in Alabama.

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. 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. David was wearing an Eichel monitor, and authorities could see he was near Kelly's house late at night. 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. 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? Yes, Your Honor. The jurors sent a note to the judge. They had made up their minds. Sort of. Does the jury agree on the highest level of offense that the defendant is either guilty or not guilty?

Yes. What is the verdict in that? Not guilty. Not guilty of first-degree murder, and not guilty of second-degree murder. The charges had 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? Has the jury found the defendant not guilty of voluntary manslaughter? There was no agreement. No agreement? A hum 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?

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. David Swift has been acquitted of murder and cannot be tried again.

But D.A. Goodman reindicted him on the manslaughter charge. A new trial date hasn't been set. My dad still wasn't coming home. 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? 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. 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.

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. So no real ending for now, except one big change. Bitter enemies Heather Cohen and Darrell Sells agree about one thing. They're both looking forward to the retrial. I want him to be found not guilty

so that they can go back and get on the right track. If he is convicted, will all this stuff go away? Do you think? Well, I think it will, because they'll shut up. Yeah, if he's found guilty of manslaughter, I think it will quieten everything down, and that'll be some kind of a closure to this case. 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. 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 wanna 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 justice for her. And I don't know that that's ever gonna come. 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.

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. She loved being a mom? Yes, dance competition. She loved being a mom? Yeah, 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. 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.